whythawk ratings: measuring effective development

1.
(Comments)

... The truth about wealth-creation is that it takes hard work. No-one hired you, Walton, directly out of school and made you CEO. Why not? Because no matter how much of genius you may be you need...

2.
(Comments)

...u should check out his other OLPC speeches on http://www.olpctalks.com My favorite is his comment that schools need \"magic\" and pilot projects are ridiculous http://www.olpcnews.com/implementati...

3.
(Comments)

In 1978 in the Australian outback - long before the advent of cheap computing - the School of the Air was launched. Teachers communicated with their students over ham-radio and thousands of kids got

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

...tained correctly. Such neglect is visible throughout the South African economy; most obviously in public schools, public health, and public electricity. Mining companies have announced major retrenc...

5. The hazard of market dominance
(Analysis/Analysis)

... option: they can gang up. It is as if all the geeks ganged together to beat up the biggest bully in the school. The geeks response may have been disproportionate and unfair, but they still have a c...

6. Funding departments instead of people cheats everyone
(Analysis/Analysis)

...s is before the contributions required from parents to complement the subsidy. According to PSSA (Private Schools South Africa) the majority of the 2,000 private schools charge less than R 8,000 per y...

7. Black Economic Empowerment, like charity, is not investment
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ore remarkable is the tacit belief, emotionally expressed by members of the audience at a recent Graduate School of Business (GSB) Distinguished Speakers Program, that, “Without legislated BEE S...

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

...wans" to explain precisely why the cost overruns were necessary and why we didn't need the extra schools or hospitals. The latest on this is that government is to reduce tariffs on products ...

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

...anks are filled with tiny stalls paying staff R 200 per month. Despite the ululating of the UCT Unilever School of Marketing that companies that neglect the Black Diamonds will see their products dis...

10. Nigeria, or the idiots guide to stealing an election
(Analysis/Analysis)

...one of the chaps, was about seven foot tall and had a voice that made James Earl Jones sound like a whiny school-girl. General Sani Abacha had recently died of what was being called a heart attack. ...

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

...e has to ask oneself whether this is any less of a vanity project than Oprah Winfrey's US$ 14 million school in South Africa which only serves 152 kids? Take a look at the requirements for the su...

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

... source of international culture.  Any parent has probably already noticed that most of Junior's school work is now sourced almost entirely from information on Wikipedia.  This, of cours...

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

...o change their own circumstances. Women who remain in abusive relationships, children who are bullied at school, students who don't study because they believe they're going to fail anyway &nd...

14. Cricket, corruption and the match-fixing that leads to murder
(Analysis/Analysis)

...; Cricket is still, in style if not reality, an amateur construct where players work their way up through school and regional teams to their national side.  Once there they are at the apex and ca...

15. We're from Mars and we want to help: four lessons in development
(Analysis/Analysis)

...tainable habits with donations and largesse.  Young Martians come to Earth as volunteers and work in schools and factories, not teaching, just doing what we used to do far better than we can ours...

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

...the show.  Rural Poland plays host to thousands of eccentric aliens who enjoy the climate and set up schools where they teach in their own language in a way totally foreign to the locals.  T...

17. Should charitable organisations be allowed to compete with businesses?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ent organisation specialising in sewing training selling its students stock against past graduates of its school.  But at much lower prices, since the fabric, sewing machines and infrastructure a...

18. Government rewards the worst schools for poor performance
(Analysis/Analysis)

... lives. True to form, Gauteng education MEC Angie Motshekga has dropped her threat to close dysfunctional schools.  “We will be able to turn them around,” Motshekga said yesterday of ...

19. Does Africa need the most expensive school in the world?
(Analysis/Analysis)

...d in a previous post, is this really the most effective use of resources? The most expensive independent schools in South Africa offering the best educations, and including room and board, charge abo...

20. X Challenge: Develop the cheapest most effective school
(Analysis/Analysis)

...his is no cheap solution to educational problems.  Overnight Winfrey has created the most expensive school in South Africa.  A significant step in the right direction is the Tersia King Lea...

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

Oprah Winfrey has just opened a school for girls in South Africa. The Oprah Winfrey Leadership Academy is based in Meyerton, Gauteng and offers 150 “academically talented girls an opportunity t

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

...sp; The standard approach, followed by virtually every government in the world, is that they should build schools, staff them, and supply their services at a subsidised price in order to promote educa...

23. "Madiba's children" failed by their government
(Analysis/Analysis)

...education would be at the centre of their agenda. Since a low-point in 1999 when only 46.4% of final-year school leavers (matriculants) passed the department worked hard at improving the numbers.&nbsp...

24. Senescence, the death of development
(Analysis/Analysis)

... over the show. Rural Poland plays host to thousands of eccentric aliens who enjoy the climate and set up schools where they teach in their own language in a way totally foreign to the locals. They wo...

25. Vouchers and Individual Choice
(Analysis/Analysis)

...ple. Then I really don’t care what happens and my spending may take on biblical proportions. Public schools are a public good where politicians spend taxpayers’ money on other people&rsquo...

26. Ratings Subscriptions
(Static Content)

...evelopment consultants and gateways) Health (HIV/AIDS orphanages and antiretroviral treatment) Education (schools and skills training programs) Service offerings: Annual subscription per sector - West...