June 2009

Aid is dead:  it is worse than merely useless, since it abets and perpetuates mis-governance and dependency by Africa.  No, to the contrary, massive additional infusions of aid are crucial for all of Africa.  This massive transfer of aid to governments in Africa is particularly urgent right now, in the midst of the financial crisis, which is bound to inflict permanent damage everywhere in the continent.

These blanket statements are nonsense, on both sides.  While they may contain a 'straw man' element, unfortunately in slight variants one often sees such pronouncements in current writings and public debates.  In spite of the practical irrelevance of holding on to such extreme positions, such artificial debates go on and on, pitting the extremes against each other.  The media loves it.  Each side of the argument tends to fit selective 'facts' (and hyperbola) to their extreme cause.  Even reasonable analysts tend to write about one single determinant for the ills of Africa, or just opt to focus on one extreme side of the argument or the other.

San Francisco is setting the US standard for using technology to improve accountability.  The Mayor recently announced the launch of a 311 Call Center through Twitter. Check out the site here.  San Francisco is the first US city to roll out a major service such as this on Twitter.