whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

...a company acts on clear profits everyone can understand than on the shifting sands of the arbitrary moral choices of whoever happens to be in charge....

2. The Remarkable Power of Remarkable People
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ditional sign of piety amongst Muslim women, is illegal. So, some women who are pious and doctors made a choice to remove their scarves in order to continue working, some stopped working altogether, ...

3. Everything gets tested but political ideas, they become policy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ew. Untested business ideas are subjected to the even more brutal peril of perpetual individual consumer choice. Untested political ideas ... become policy. The first time that grateful taxpayers g...

4. The errors of selection and confirmation bias
(Analysis/Analysis)

...dash; including ourselves – grows tired of the repetition? In a competitive market, consumers have choice. There are alternatives to the mainstream press. Sagoodnews.co.za and sarocks.com bot...

5. When no-one is held accountable, everyone suffers
(Analysis/Analysis)

... made the decision to collude, but it is more effective. In making people personally responsible for the choices they make, one has a better chance of reducing the risk of penalising everyone. The c...

6. Higher food prices mean downgrading that Turkey to a Chicken
(Analysis/Analysis)

...large maize industries have promoted the conversion of corn-starch to sugar and, thence, to ethanol. The choice, mostly political, is for an incredibly inefficient way in which to produce biofuel. M...

7. The Speculator: Pricing in the Future
(Analysis/Analysis)

... that govern business by majority, and the tiny minority of entrepreneurs priced in their risk and made a choice. Unsurprisingly the result has been growth, but with fewer jobs. Business owners will...

8. Trevor Manuel and the "Plunder of Skills"
(Analysis/Analysis)

...demand that Jo'burg refuse to take these migrants in and return them at once? And where does the free choice of the individual come in to this? Should we place the "needs" of a nation o...

9. Africa, China and Investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

...y and set up infrastructure before pouncing and holding the investment hostage. Businesses are given the choice: we'll expropriate your whole company, or put you out of business, or you can volun...

10. Ending poverty means abandoning charity and accepting reality
(Analysis/Analysis)

... state should realise that - as with any competitive environment - business owners and investors have the choice not to participate if they so choose. Charity supports the state but does nothing for ...

11. Scrogues Converse: Open-space, Identity and the Missing Web
(Analysis/Analysis)

...lack of open-standards that reduces the long-term power of all the new Web 2.0 companies. They make it a choice. You have to give up your old blog to come and use the new system. You have to give u...

12. Dow Jones, The Wall Street Journal, and Rupert Murdoch
(Analysis/Analysis)

...o that we can make informed decisions. The Wall Street Journal has provided a valuable and important news choice to the American public for years. "With News Corp's purchase of the newspaper...

13. Atlas Shrugged at 50
(Analysis/Analysis)

...evaded the knowledge of what to value, and it will not provide him with a purpose, if he's evaded the choice of what to seek. Money will not buy intelligence for the fool, or admiration for the co...

14. Science gone wrong: when self-delusion leads to death
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ng more harm than good, don't take them. Your life will be shorter and considerably more drab. The choice is yours. No-one is holding a gun to your head. Except the government when they tax t...

15. Getting Home in Zimbabwe: The impossibility of public transport
(Analysis/Analysis)

...illion most Zimbabweans cannot afford the more expensive private transport services. Most people have no choice but to wait in ever lengthening queues. The working day in Zimbabwe officially ends a...

16. Suburbanise! How aid and trade obliterate unique cultures
(Analysis/Analysis)

... You may not like any of these new forms of capitalism but they do offer what capitalism is so good at: choice. Whythawk was started in 1998, not so much to end poverty, but to assist poor communi...

17. The efficiency of markets and how protectionism leaves the poor behind
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nufacturers to stay substantially ahead of their competitors despite lower wages in Asia. The poverty of choice The impact on the poor is barely understood. Many US and EU protectionists look to l...

18. When equality becomes unfair: South Africa's two economies
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t reached that stage.  The rules of equality prevent it. A business setting up in South Africa has a choice: to place it in the wealthy part of the economy, or in the impoverished part.  The...

19. Sarkozy's French Election: when elephants fight only the grass gets trampled
(Analysis/Analysis)

...t to the most conservative elements of his nation to build his support base.  Royal, having no other choice, reached out to the most left-wing and communist elements; promising vast amounts of st...

20. Jacob's ANC Ladder: the power of the state, the power of the party
(Analysis/Analysis)

...he heads of important portfolio committees and departments.  Parliament is placid and toothless. The choice for South Africa is of a powerful president answerable to no-one; or a powerful ANC ans...

21. Development organisations need to engage with ratings agencies
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ecialised, and costly, fundraising services. As with investment, so with charity; donors are spoiled for choice and those who wish to benefit must make it as easy as possible to invest....

22. Racial arguments muddy human rights and the ending of poverty
(Analysis/Analysis)

...vernment to determine what products will sell or what individuals may want.  That is the job of free choice and free will.  Individuals will decide for themselves. It is self-serving to spe...

23. Rating to create a market; questions and answers
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ces between the development and commercial sectors. No matter what you buy for yourself there are always choices and options.  Analysts, journalists, and bloggers vie for your attention to commu...

24. What happens when they hate you? The impact of charity.
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ame and seeks long-term solutions over short-term populist grandstanding, whose only thought is to create choice and opportunities for the beneficiaries of their interventions, is the jewel of the wor...

25. Joost minds the baby: what happens to state control when technology passes them by?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... Started by Niklas Zennstrom and Janus Friis, creators of Kazaa and Skype, Joost promises “infinite choice, and TV that is truly interactive.”  The revenue sharing model is attractive...

26. The Cold War, Global Warming and the War on Ideas
(Analysis/Analysis)

...titutes fairness for everyone.  The more ideas that compete for the attention of a society, the more choices there are, and the better-off everyone is. Now we have global warming. We again have ...

27. "Heads or Tails" ... resolution to a difficult choice
(Analysis/Analysis)

Faced with the requirement for helping millions - who cannot all be helped simultaneously - what do we do? One, two, buckle my shoe Three, four, knock on the door Five, six, pick up sticks Seven, eigh

28. The Martians Really Care: four points to govern development
(Analysis/Ideas and Challenges)

... sentient species that was focused on the outside and interested in exploration and growth would have two choices: to conquer other developed planets; or to develop a trade platform with them. Perhap...

29. May I have the bill, please? A lesson in wilful ignorance ...
(Analysis/Analysis)

...roduct development. Clients do know what they like and don’t like.  When offered a reasonable choice they will switch to the service that offers them the most reward for their investment o...

30. No matter how hard you try bad environments lead to bad results
(Analysis/Analysis)

...its, has been inspired by a blood-thirsty dictatorship. A person growing up in such an environment has a choice.  Be something the system doesn’t want you to be, or fit in with the system....

31. How much does a free education cost?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ich the students got to choose their own direction and their own beliefs.  The ability to make free choices about what to learn and where will teach far more than the imposition of a faux-free e...

32. The poor have never had it so good ... now what?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... state. Social development has been a lot like a centralised Soviet-run economy.  There is only one choice, and you will take what you’re given.  Soviet states ran very well; if you d...

33. School vouchers offer the poorest an opportunity to learn at better schools
(Analysis/Analysis)

...overnment has a bright new idea:  force these schools to take on more non-paying students.  The choice the schools have is to raise fees – in essence punishing those who can afford to ...

34. What do Richard Branson and Che Guevara have in common?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d at the very businesses that revolutionaries hate so much.  Any change in customer preferences (the choices of the proletariat) results in a massive concentration of effort by businesses to keep...

35. The Feedback Loop
(Analysis/Analysis)

... spiral out of control in a developing economy, replacing healthy institutions and undermining individual choice. They just can’t help themselves. There is no-one to say stop.   ...

36. Vouchers and Individual Choice
(Analysis/Analysis)

...achers’ Unions have become quite powerful and are extremely unhappy with these types of metrics and choices. They have convinced governments to prevent publication of individual schools’ r...