Digital Archive....

Hidden history of Nigeria's brain drain: a Physician's story Africa Works Kehinde Ayeni is a Nigerian physician working in the U.S. A published novelist, Dr. Ayeni is also a keen observer of African affairs, and especially those involving Nigeria and Nigerians. We got to talking recently about the problem of talented people leaving Africa, and not returning to work. This exodus, the subject of so much anxiety from so many perspectives, has complex roots in recent history. Here are Dr. Ayeni's fascinating, and surprising, observations: "For political reasons and as it crazy as it sounds, I know for a fact that Nigeria doesn't like to retain doctors trained in Nigeria and they prefer to export them.  And I think that it is a throw back to some un-mourned aspect of slavery, I will not say this to anyone else, if I did, they will think I have lost it but I strongly believe it. Most of the people I grew up with and went to school with are in th...

Six Ways Fukushima is Not Chernobyl ProPublica: Articles and Investigations by Lois Beckett, Special to ProPublica The crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi has already been dubbed the worst nuclear accident since Chernobyl, and the situation there continues to worsen. But along with references to the "ch-word," as one nonproliferation expert put it , experts have been quick to provide reasons why the Daiichi crisis will not be "the next Chernobyl." Experts have noted several key differences in the design of the reactors in question, as well as in the government's reaction to the crisis: 1. Chernobyl's reactor had no containment structure. The RBMK reactor at Chernobyl "was regarded as the workhorse of Soviet atomic energy, thrifty and reliable -- and safe enough to be built without an expensive containment building that would prevent the release of radiation in the event of a serious accident," The Guardian's...

Even In Worst Case, Japan's Nuclear Disaster Will Have Limited Reach ProPublica: Articles and Investigations by Abrahm Lustgarten For more than a week the world has watched the escalating crisis at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant slide from one catastrophic episode to a seemingly graver one, often upending assurances from the Japanese and adding to the fear and confusion about how it all might end. Are we on a slow-motion path to a six-reactor meltdown? Or will Fukushima stop short of being the worst nuclear power disaster ever, and squeeze somewhere behind Chernobyl and alongside Three Mile Island in infamy? While there can be no definitive answers amid a still-unfolding disaster, ProPublica spoke with seven top nuclear engineers and scientists to at least establish some boundaries for the disaster's potential health and environmental impacts. The rough...

Don't give money to Japan Chris Blattman So pleads Felix Salmon : We  went through this after the Haiti earthquake, and all of the arguments which applied there apply to Japan as well. Earmarking funds is a really good way of hobbling relief organizations and ensuring that they have to leave large piles of money unspent in one place while facing urgent needs in other places. And as Matthew Bishop and Michael Green  said last year, we are all better at responding to human suffering caused by dramatic, telegenic emergencies than to the much greater loss of life from ongoing hunger, disease and conflict. That often results in a mess of uncoordinated NGOs parachuting in to emergency areas with lots of good intentions, where a strategic official sector response would be much more effective. Meanwhile, the smaller and less visible emergencies where NGOs can do the most good are left unfunded. In the specific case of Japan, there's all the more reason not to...

SCIENCE: The Dirt on Nuclear Power Project Syndicate - A World of Ideas - the highest quality opinion ... SCIENCE: The Dirt on Nuclear Power Japan's nuclear crisis is a nightmare, but it is not an anomaly. In fact, it is only the latest in a long line of nuclear accidents involving meltdowns, explosions, fires, and loss of coolant – accidents that have occurred during both normal operation and emergency conditions, such as droughts and earthquakes. Sent with Reeder  

Our Reading List for Following Nuclear News From Japan ProPublica: Articles and Investigations by Marian Wang If you're trying to follow the news from Japan, you may be finding that the news is coming out faster than you can actually read it. We've compiled a few resources that we've found helpful as we track this developing story. With the news itself overwhelming enough as it is, we're trying to keep it short so as not to overwhelm with quantity, but feel free to put your suggestions in the comments below. Resources for news in real time: The Guardian has kept a helpful live blog going, keeping it up to date but not too cluttered. The New York Times and NPR have also been updating. As for Twitter, The Globe and Mail's East Asia correspondent @markmackinnon has a good Japan twitter list to follow. The UK's Daily Telegraph ( @TelegraphWorld) has anot...

Slacktivism, the Gateway to Change? SSIR Opinion & Analysis I've been thinking about slacktivism a lot lately. I recently did a guest lecture at The New School on the topic, I've had countless conversations with colleagues and friends, and I've been capturing ideas and questions to myself on scraps of paper everywhere. Slacktivism, to me, comes down to two crucial points: 1) organizations play an important role in creating and endorsing the level to which people take action, and 2) "slacker activism" is really a gateway to more lasting change. My guest lecture notes cover the first point, and today I want to share a few ideas about slacktivism as a gateway to change. Call and Response Some consider Facebook likes and retweets as examples of slacktivism, but we can also view those actions as people raising their hands or signing on with the message that they are here, they are listening, and they are ready to respond. Organizations...

The Wealth of African Nations Africa Can... - End Poverty This is a story of three Africas. One is all too familiar – the declining fortunes of fragile states. Another is less well-known: the growing importance of mineral and energy resources in many African economies. The big story is that, from 1995-2005, many countries in Sub-Saharan Africa grew their total wealth faster than the world average– a major African success story. read more Sent with Reeder  

The Myth of "Wild Africa": a critical appreciation Africa Works I'm teaching a class on technology, development and sub-Saharan Africa this term at Arizona State University, and one of my students, Dustin Short, has written a penetrating appreciation of one of the classic texts on conservation and environmental protection in the region, The Myth of Wild Africa . The challenge of balancing "man and nature" in Africa is made considerably harder by a legacy of international interventions that both pathologically romanticize Africa's environment while at the same time relentlessly diminishing the capacity for Africans to strike a satisfactory balance on their own accord. International environmental groups continue to advance arguments that confuse as much as clarify how, when and where to control and coordinate the interplay between humans and animals and the lands they co-inhabit. Short writes eloquently and with necessary detail about ...

An Interview with Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee Financial Access Initiative Blog MIT Economists Esther Duflo and Abhijit Banerjee have a new book called Poor Economics: A Radical Rethinking of the Way to Fight Global Poverty . We'll be reviewing the book here on our blog in the near future. In the meantime we thought a look back at an interview Duflo and Banerjee conducted in 2008 with our friends Tim Ogden and Laura Starita at Philanthropy Action on their ideas of what poverty interventions they view as effective and where donors can make a true impact. And for those eager to dig deeper into the nitty gritty of using rigorous evaluation to assess poverty interventions, here is a link to Duflo and Banerjee's original groundbreaking study, The Miracle of Microfinance? . Written with Rachel Glennerster and Cynthia Kinnan, the paper examines the promise of microfinance to alleviate poverty and continues to be a touchstone for practitioners, donors, a...

Is microfinance a neoliberal fairytale?| Madeleine Bunting Global development news, comment and analysis | guardian.co.uk Critics of microcredit make some convincing arguments that need urgent rebuttal from the organisations that have ploughed huge sums into it The complicated twists and turns in Bangladesh over the position of Muhammed Yunus , the Nobel prize winner, continue. Last week government officials were quoted saying that he had been ousted from his position as managing director of Grameen Bank, and there is clearly a nasty dogfight going on in Bangladesh over the reputation of its most famous citizen. Blame is now flying around in every direction – including the Norwegians for giving him a Nobel prize in the first place. In the meantime, the film that has played a powerful role in challenging Yunus's global reputation as a pioneer of microfinance will finally be shown in London on Friday( I wrote about the film on this blog a month ago). Afte...

Post-earthquake imagery of Japan The Official Google Blog (Cross-posted from the LatLong Blog ) In response to the devastating earthquake and subsequent tsunami that struck Japan, we've worked with our satellite imagery providers to get the latest available data of the areas affected most. To view this high-resolution imagery, courtesy of our partners at GeoEye, download this KML file and explore it in Google Earth . You can also explore the imagery with Google Maps , or have a look at this Picasa album of before-and-after shots. Here's a sample: Before and after the earthquake and tsunami. Above is Yuriage in Natori, below is Yagawahama; both are in Miyagi prefecture. High-resolution version of this photo . We're working to provide this data directly to response organizations on the ground to aid their efforts. We hope this new updated satellite imagery is valuable for them as well as everyone else following this situation to help illustrate the ...