Last Night’s YPFP Event with Adm. Mike Mullen

Last night I helped live-tweet YPFP’s event with Adm. Mullen. The turnout for members and media alike was incredible, with CNN covering the event, as well as several other media outlets, and of course, Twitter (for those of you who were at the event, I was the one on the laptop, looking like I was ignoring the event). I had intended to write up a full report on the event to be posted, but as the number of people writing about it grows, I’ve decided to limit myself to my own reactions. (For real-time coverage of Mullen’s talk, search #YPFP on Twitter).

Interesting Links

• Mugabe is not the worst dictator in Africa.
• Stop Mugabe by cutting off his supply of…. paper.
• British mercenaries try to take over Guinea.
• The rise and fall of European and Arab cities.
• Advice for fixing the global food crisis.
• The Big Sort: Why the Clustering of Like-Minded America Is Tearing Us Apart – Bill Bishop
• A debate about evolution and the origin of life from a Muslim perspective.
• Possible good news for veterans with PTSD: give them ’shrooms.

Hot Fun in the Summertime….

I’m disrupting the usual assortment of interesting links to bring you a special holiday weekend edition, of summer time fun. Enjoy!

Miscellaneous Fun

• Annalisa Barbieri on growing up with ice cream.
• The power of “because”.
• Statistics (of baseball) in politics.
• Philanthropy in US cities. Hat tip: NonProfiteer
• The ‘11 best foods you aren’t eating.’ Personally, I can’t stand beets or anchovies (except in Caesar salad dressing), but I highly recommend all the rest.
• Male and female privileges lists. I like commenter katiet’s snark.

Places to Go

• The world’s first ‘building in motion.’
• More bridges to visit.

Movies to See

• Movies about Rwanda, and ‘rebuilding the hearts of people.’
• A buddy cop film about federalism (so says Jacob T. Levy)

Books to Read

• Dan Drezner’s vacation reading.
• 11 Questions Every Donor Asks. Hat tip: NonProfiteer
• Independence Day reading (just in case you don’t have enough already).
• Aristotle and an Aardvark Go to Washington, reviewed by siphoning off a few thoughts.
• A reader asks Tyler Cowen which books he should take to Africa. I’d accept all of his choices, but might I also suggest the List?

Ancient Roman Goddess Inspires US Sec. Def. and Quicklinks

DoD Secretary Gates (a fellow WM alum) has proposed the Minerva initiative: the funding of social scientists and other professional researchers to work on such problems as China and Iraq. It is named for the Roman goddess of wisdom and just war. I think the idea is fantastic, but I’ve also been pushing for the inclusion of anthropology in IR for years.

In that spirit of reading outside one’s knowledge base, here are some (mostly) non-Africa-related articles I enjoyed this past week.

• Virginia Postrel at the Atlantic offers a ‘new theory of the leisure class‘.
• Andrew Sullivan has a peek at the places we’ll live when the polar ice caps melt and Kevin Costner gets the last laugh. I personally think it looks a bit like a roller-coaster ride.
• siphoning off a few thoughts discusses John Worrall (2002) discussing randomized clinical trials. Some of Dani Rodrik’s thoughts on the utility of randomized studies are here.
• Ronald Bailey looks at the overlap between morality and economics at reason. 
• Global Integrity Commons has an interesting piece on how shopping habits can affect credit ratings.
• Some good advice on how to give (and receive) advice.
• Kristof advises ‘books, not bombs‘ for dealing with the growing Iraqi diaspora in a NY Times op-ed.
• Perhaps Iraq could benefit from something similar to Friends of African Village Libraries, a site

devoted to thoughts about books, reading, and libraries relevant to Africa by Michael Kevane, co-Director of Friends of African Village Libraries, a small 501(c)(3) non-profit devoted to helping village and small community libraries in Africa.

He is also apparently an economist at Santa Clara University.  The Meaningfulness of Little Things points out a post on libraries being the key to building a local economic base. 

And George Will gets the last word on Obama’s “libertarian paternalism”.

Working in Development

Some advise for working in development.

First, school. Chris Blattman has an excellent post on How to Get a PhD and Save the World.

Second, The Road to the Horizon (hat tip: Chris Blattman) has advice on actually getting a job in development.

Finally, advice for your first post.

Advice for Traveling to a Developing Country

Tyler Cowen begins, and then everyone else picks up.

The complete list (broken down by author):

1. Learn as quickly as you can what is safe and what is not. In Brazil taxicabs are pretty safe, in Mexico City they are not. This will take some doing and in the meantime be very careful. Have a prearranged safety net if you lose everything to a thief.
2. Do not get drunk take drugs or patronize prostitutes. Really, It is a path to trouble and if you want to do it save it for a more familiar environment.
3. Try out the various transportation networks in the region, the more inconvenient the better.
4. Attend a religious ceremony or fiesta or both.
5. Make sure you visit some small farms.
6. Immerse yourself in the music of the place — I don’t mean the most commercial musics — before you go and then of course after you arrive. This is more valuable and more “real” than reading the literature, which is often intended for outsiders. Of course read some non-fiction on the place as well.
7. See if you can teach or attend a class in a local school.
8. Eat the street food.
9. Do not rule out the idea of romance, keeping #2 in mind and noting that cross-cultural romantic signals are often misunderstood. This is a tricky one but it is the #1 teacher if it works out not to mention the romantic benefits.
10. Count the number of Indians and Chinese and Lebanese (and sometimes Koreans) around and draw inferences from that data.
11. If you can, arrive with a well-defined hypothesis in mind. But don’t think you can collect all the data on one trip, you probably can’t.
12. Realize that you probably won’t understand all the times that people are telling you “no.”

Learning the language goes without saying.

Chris Blattman

1. Eating the street food still applies, albeit with caveats. I’m a big fan of the guys with goat kebabs on the highway up from Kampala to Sudan, but my wife thinks this pushes the limits of sanity. (The birthplace of humanity is also the birthplace of human parasites, she reminds me.) Yet the street food is sometimes the cleanest and freshest around. (I only got typhoid once—from a meal at a five-star hotel.) So be cautious, but allow yourself a certain abandon.
2. Get your shots and be careful, but don’t get too worked up over the disease environment. To read a travel guide, you’d think death lurks with every mosquito. To be safe, however, carry a malaria ‘quick test’ kit, a couple doses of a dual malaria-treatment drug like Coartem, and a couple of treatments of Cipro–all together about $3 at an in-country pharmacy (versus $300 here). And bring them home with you, in case it sets in late.
3. Read about the country. The Economist Intelligence Unit is a good place to start, but get a history book and local novels. Look for locally published books when you are there.
4. Recognize that you could be taking more than you’re giving, even if you’re doing policy research or helping out a local charity. I have a handful of posts on the worst forms of development tourism. The key: try to go for longer rather than shorter trips, be modest about what you can accomplish, and try to find a way to give back. Researchers: send your final report to interested agencies, write a policy brief on the side, or provide some technical advice.
5. When you’re working with the poorest and most vulnerable, or in a war zone, there are a few extra considerations.
6. Ask people about the best local restaurants. In many places, the most authentic restaurant meal is lunch, mainly for workers. People will eat at home for dinner, where the best food is always found. If someone invites you home for dinner, go!
7. Look up your intellectual counterparts in country—a government or statistics agency, or academics at the University.
8. Hire a research assistant who knows the local language and people. Value people that will openly disagree with you–a trait that in some cultures may be impolite (and thus uncommon). I also look for problem solvers.
9. Be wary of getting sucked into the expat community. Enjoy it–there are many extraordinary people–but see if you can’t manage a local life alongside.
10. Dress to blend in, even if you still hopelessly stick out. If locals wear long pants/skirts, tuck in their shirts, and spurn sneakers, then think about doing the same (especially if you’re working). The humanitarian aid uniform is unfortunately pajama bottoms, a t-shirt, flip-flops and a four-day old beard. Foreign researchers often resemble flood victims. This is the subject of endless humor and wonderment among my African friends.
11. Even if you’re not working, bring at least one “nice” outfit in case you get invited to a wedding, reception, or meeting.
12. Ask everyone about their job. The middleman in the market? Ask him to explain his business. The guy bringing milk to market? See if you can tag along. One of my best months was spent in rural India, waking up every morning, picking a different industry or activity, from paddy farming to vote registration, and setting out to figure it all out by the end of the day.

Meaningfulness of Small Things

1. Read a local, daily paper if you can manage the language or if there is an English edition.
2. Eat local bread everywhere you go – everyone makes better bread than the average American slice, mostly by virtue of being fresh.
3. Ask lots of questions and listen far more than you talk – shoot for a 4 to 1 ratio.
4. Where it is safe (Tyler’s #1), walk. You can overcome a lot of barriers but speeding by at 40mph in a glass/steel box is a tough one.
5. Read local/national bloggers. Try globalvoicesonline.org or, obviously, the goog.
6. Browse book stores and news stands to see what people are selling/reading.
7. When you visit small farms – ask what they are planting, what they are eating, where do they get their seeds, and who owns the land.
8. Visit a clinic or hospital and talk to a nurse – doctor’s are helpful but they probably fall into Tyler’s #10
9. Notice when and why the inevitably long lines form at the banks.

Dave at siphoning off a few thoughts

1. Attend a religious service if you have the opportunity. In many of the countries I work in, religiosity is much higher than in the USA and so experiencing this can be very revealing.
2. Buy and read a local newspaper.
3. Even short of learning the local language (which is excellent advice but not always realistic for a short visit), make the effort to learn greetings and simple phrases in local language(s) [not just the colonial language]. This garners an immense amount of good will and can open doors.
4. Buy a good map of the country and ask people where they are from.

Oh, and don’t accept soda on a bus, don’t walk around downtown Nairobi early in the morning, don’t walk around the bus station in Aruba at night, don’t leave love letters lying around your hotel room…

I will probably print out this list and use it as a guide next time I travel. I just need to figure out where to go to next.

What Not to Say

From the Monkey Cage:

Words and phrases to avoid, courtesy of Andrew Gelman:

• Note that
• Interestingly
• Obviously
• It is clear that
• It is interesting to note that
• very
• quite
• of course
• Notice that

Let me add “We see that.”