Me: sifting through the proliferation of information, dissecting divergent views in rooms packed with experts, everyone trying to gain an edge, to scream out, to be followed, not to be led. Watching for a glimpse of inspiration, ready to follow, idealism not dead in this land of plenty. My internal clock rings, more impulsive living to come soon...
Clips from William Easterly's Review of Jeffrey Sachs, The End of Poverty...
As he (Sachs) puts it, newspapers should (but don't) report every morning, "More than 20,000 people perished yesterday of extreme poverty."
Spending $2.3 trillion (measured in today's dollars) in aid over the past five decades has left the most aid-intensive regions, like Africa, wallowing in continued stagnation; it's fair to say this approach has not been a great success.
In those five decades, poverty researchers have learned a great deal about the complexity of toxic politics, bad history (including exploitative or inept colonialism), ethnic and regional conflicts, elites' manipulation of politics and institutions, official corruption, dysfunctional public services, malevolent police forces and armies, the difficulty of honoring contracts and property rights, unaccountable and excessively bureaucratic donors and many other issues.
The danger is that when the utopian dreams fail (as they will again), the rich-country public will get even more disillusioned about foreign aid. Sachs rightly notes that we need not worry whether the pathetic amount of current U.S. foreign aid -- little more than a 10th of a penny for every dollar of U.S. income -- is wasted. Foreign aid's prospects will brighten only if aid agencies become more accountable for results, and demonstrate to the public that some piecemeal interventions improve the lives of desperate people.
"I envy his strength and wonder if I could find it within myself, faced with the same circumstances."
Journalist Kevin Sites, In The Hot Zone, after gazing at a roadside artist in Haiti, pounding iron art from a 55 gallon drum.
(I wonder if I have the same strength for survival that props up so many struggling souls in this world. I need to see if this strength exists, experience its grasp, understand its embrace. Me)
The secret of life according to Professor Daniel Dennett: "Find something more important than yourself and dedicate your life to it."
"To practice Zen means to realize one's existence moment after moment, rather than letting life unravel in regret of the past and daydreaming of the future...as the clutter of ideas and emotion fall away and body and mind return to normal harmony with all creation. Out of this emptiness can come a true insight into the nature of existence, which is no different than one's Buddha Nature."
Peter Mattheisson, Nine Headed Dragon River
"I'd like to live like a poor man, but with a lot of money."
Pablo Picasso
"Do something you believe in and want to do, rather than something that makes you money."
Me
