whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

... do. The issues are not racial at all, but people like to believe they are. They\'re not even about rich and poor. And it\'s not about equality. It\'s exactly what I said: fairness. The artic...

2.
(Comments)

My point is exactly what you have conceded - its the rich and the poor and not the \"fair skinned\" and \"dark skinned\" as in your original posting.

3.
(Comments)

...st idea what you\'re going on about; so what we have a mature black-led government, so what some of the rich are black. So what? There is a very stark formal sector, and a very stark 40% unemploye...

4.
(Comments)

... disagree is that you seem, somehow, to have arrived at the conclusion that poverty is the fault of the rich and that they got rich through some form of unfairness. Like rich people stole all the poo...

5.
(Comments)

...e suffering the effects of undemocratic decisions taken by a few people protecting the influence of the rich and powerful.\" I would ask: who elected you? If you\'re so convinced of your moral sup...

6.
(Comments)

I agree with your analysis. Laptops are wrong for most people (rich or poor), and yet people keep getting them. See http://keystoneisit.blogspot.com/2006/11/case-for-notebook-computers.html for my ta

7. Overcoming the Conservation of Energy
(Analysis/Analysis)

...sn't mean that the private sector hasn't shouldered some of the load. As a clearly incensed Dr Richard Friedland, CEO of Netcare, declared during the recent witch-hunt – apologies, conf...

8. Of Chiefs and Presidents
(Analysis/Analysis)

...wer? Is it the idea of having the fortune of an entire nation in their hands, or is it about personal enrichment? Independence in Zimbabwe came at a high cost. Many lost their lives and homes. Parent...

9. Jacob Zuma, Inflation Denialist?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ending rates are now 14.5%. This is where Zuma gets it wrong. Inflation is what robs everyone – rich and poor – of the value of their savings. High interest rates are the tool used to c...

10. Simba the Saviour?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... of a PhD in Chemistry from the University of Lords in the UK, Dr Makoni is a highly educated man, with rich experience in the field of economics and business consulting. His work experience has been ...

11. Of Capitalism, Socialist Greed, Poverty and Remaining Silent
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tly they're too busy keeping their heads down to avoid all the shrapnel sent their way. "The rich are getting richer and the poor poorer as the filthy rich continue unabated with their gree...

12. Searching for objective measures of value
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ortance to the world's economy, Japan and Europe found their currencies undervalued.  In 1971 Richard Nixon unilaterally delinked the US dollar from gold and allowed it to float. Gold, fre...

13. Killing the Golden Goose, a lesson in Economic Freedom
(Analysis/Analysis)

... they would otherwise be. One argument against free markets is that it leads to inequality between the rich and poor. Research indicates that the level of inequality is marginally higher in countrie...

14. China, Toys And The Tragedy of Xenophobia
(Analysis/Analysis)

...is as a threat instead of an opportunity for both to profit then pity Africa. China and India will get rich. Trade restrictions won't stop them for long. They're too big, too organised and ...

15. Black Swans, Cost Overruns and Industrial Tariffs
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ndustry. All the noise and stone-throwing about the Doha round of World Trade talks has been about how rich nations should cut their agricultural subsidies to allow poor nations to sell their goods c...

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

... it is a travesty for so many countries to remain poor if a relatively small transfer of resources from rich countries could set them on the path to growth ... But if there is no clear evidence that a...

17. Atlas Shrugged at 50
(Analysis/Analysis)

...u see that money is flowing to those who deal, not in goods, but in favours - when you see that men get richer by graft and by pull than by work, and your laws don't protect you against them, but ...

18. South Africa's two tiers
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ntry with the highest measure of inequality. Since then, as the economy has grown, the gap between the richest 20% and the poorest 20% has gotten much wider. It isn't a case of the rich getting ...

19. Two Frontiers: wars of liberation and of determination
(Analysis/Analysis)

Never has the chasm between the expectations and concerns of the rich and those of the poor been greater. The youngsters lighting fires in Germany at the G8 Summit to protest about globalisation and

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

...l labour and limited education go hand-in-hand with poor performance and lousy product quality. In the rich world the efficiency gains have allowed workers a choice: either they can work less, incre...

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

...oor. The relationship between these two economies is straightforward:  the poor people work in the rich people's factories, wash their cars, build their homes.  They are the determined l...

22. Do you hate the poor enough to be charitable?
(Analysis/Analysis)

... minimum conditions of employment are ones accessible to the poor. Why don't the jobs taken by the rich and educated need this type of protection? Because there is competition for these people an...

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

...ered competition that the poorest amongst us benefit.  When purified water costs a packet only the rich can remain healthy.  When it costs cents then the poor can be healthy too.  When ...

24. Melamine, China, and the peril for emerging markets
(Analysis/Analysis)

...anufacturing. Instead of seeing developing nations as being further back along the development pathway, rich nations like to hold them to the same standards to which they (on paper) hold themselves. ...

25. Have you paid your car guard today?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...the street for a few Rand a day is now going to face a fine which would cripple him.  But, cry the rich, why don’t they get a job? A poll a few years ago by KFM, a Cape Town-based radio sta...

26. One Laptop Per Child, now costing 75% more ...
(Analysis/Analysis)

...der of 3 million is required just to get the ball rolling.  In other words a poor country (since a rich country certainly doesn't need them) has to find US $ 175 million to purchase a batch o...

27. The Jimmy Wales interview: Wikipedia and Lessons in Globalisation
(Analysis/Analysis)

...and we keep in regular contact." Technology is also changing.  Cell-phone access of a content-rich site like Wikipedia is difficult.  Mobiled, a South African initiative, allows people ...

28. Unlearning helplessness: how donors reinforce poverty and dependency
(Analysis/Analysis)

...nities and growth at a rate almost unprecedented in human history. South Africa has one of the largest rich/poor divides anywhere in the world. Two-thirds of the people in this country have only 20% ...

29. The US$ 5 trillion market at the bottom of the pyramid
(Analysis/Analysis)

...his:  products developed to be used by the poor rapidly become innovations that can be used by the rich.  Cheap ophthalmic surgery, hotels or cell phone charges rapidly get disseminated.&nbs...

30. Climate Change: measurement, responsibility and risk
(Analysis/Analysis)

...e face of the science that supposedly is their basis,” says MIT Professor of Atmospheric Science, Richard Lindzen. Scientists and analysts are at their most useful and powerful when they are i...

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

...release findings that, when subjected to peer review, are pure lies; economists who promise you can get rich from other people’s labour run their countries into the ground. As Sun Tzu said, &ld...

32. Cry, The Beloved Country
(Analysis/Analysis)

...fter great hill; and beyond and behind them, the mountains of Ingeli and East Griqualand. The grass is rich and matted, you cannot see the soil. It holds the rain and the mist, and they seep into the...

33. "On your left is an Orc fighting a Troll" - travels in hyper-reality offer lessons for the poor
(Analysis/Analysis)

... a good place to start. Poor countries, bereft of infrastructure and even the most basic services, are rich in opportunities.  Everything that developed nations take for granted is still require...

34. The 'War Against Corruption' starts with ending the 'Culture of Entitlement'
(Analysis/Analysis)

...any war on poverty would start with a successful war on corruption. The grotesque disparity between the rich and poor is maintained and exacerbated by uncontrolled greed at the very highest levels of ...

35. Coffee, the miracle of poverty, and other wonders
(Analysis/Analysis)

... real question should not be “why are people poor?” but rather:  “why are people rich?”  Wealth is not a miracle; poverty is the real miracle here.  If you con...

36. So how exactly do you invest in the Fortune At The Bottom Of The Pyramid?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...on less than $ 2 a day, were uneducated and needed lots of donations from businesses and individuals in rich countries just to keep them alive.  It took an astonishing leap simply to say, “...

37. The lack of feedback and accountability is fatal to aid effectiveness
(Analysis/Analysis)

... been fatal to aid’s effectiveness in the past, are FEEDBACK and ACCOUNTABILITY. The needs of the rich get met through ((feedback)) and ((accountability)). But the needs of the poor are not.&nb...

38. Does the new Apple iPhone cause poverty?
(Analysis/Analysis)

There is a naïve belief that, as the rich get richer, they consume more of the world’s resources and – in so doing – leave an ever dwindling amount of stuff over for the poor.

39. Frederich von Hayek
(Analysis/Quotes)

... of the state, and on whose discretion it depends whether and how I am allowed to live or to work. Frederich von Hayek ...

40. The quiet nobility of the men by the side of the road
(Analysis/Analysis)

...was safe to travel in once more.  They were having good rains and the soil there is so fertile and rich it would make any farmer weep with joy. Yet, no land was under plough.  Instead the l...

41. The end of wild seafood and the myth of "free"
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ou attempt to love everyone equally.  Even cell-phones are given away on contracts for free.  Richard Branson has had an impossible time trying to convince South Africans that this isn&rsquo...

42. A revitalised UN may improve development in Africa
(Analysis/Analysis)

...undation,2 a development organisation specialising in education in rural Tanzania:  “We have riches but we’re too stupid to use them on our own.  Please come do it for us.”...

43. Is the $ 100 laptop no more than a really expensive light-bulb?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tly marketed the radio as a novelty gift item and emergency radio in case of power failures … in rich countries. Now we have the $ 100 laptop from Nicholas Negroponte and the Massachusetts In...

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

...thout turning it into modern Russia; filled with corruption, oligarchs and dramatic differences between rich and poor.  It requires continual scrutiny and feedback. In this new year of 2007 let u...

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

...sp; Waiting lists at private schools are groaning under the weight of demand.  This entrenches the rich – poor divide and creates a form of educational aristocracy where the children of the...

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

Richard Branson’s image has appeared all over South Africa done up as Che Guevara. Promising a mutiny in the way South Africans can purchase cell-phone airtime, Branson is taking on the monolit

47. Poverty: when second best isn't good enough
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ould be better to offer a scaled-down version of their service. Poor people value their money more than rich people. It stands to reason; they have less of it. Brands are also far more important to th...

48. Lessons in sustainable development
(Analysis/Analysis)

... and anti-capitalists. This remote island is denuded of vegetation and features artefacts pointing to a rich cultural heritage, as well as a collapsed society. The first European visitors discovered a...

49. The Responsibility Gap
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tly blamed for inequality and poverty. "Surely," the argument goes, "you must be getting rich at the expense of all these poor, starving, hungry people?" This is usually followed u...

50. Why Use Whythawk
(Static Content)

...on people live at the bottom of the pyramid, without access to the basic services and products that the rich take for granted.  They are poor in knowledge and in opportunity, but their aspiration...