The Endurance of Indians

Reports of gross misdeeds by people in power leave as much of an impression on the Indian mind as does yesterday’s weather forecast. And they appear to be as helpless in the face of institutionalized corruption and criminal behavior as in altering the weather. They take both as a given, a fact of nature that is outside their control.
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Paul Romer: Charter Cities

Cities are the engines of growth. Therefore, a policy that promotes urbanization of the population is an indispensible instrument for economic growth and development. In the following TED Talk, Paul Romer, a world-class growth economist at Stanford, makes the case.
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Wasting time on Wikipedia

I have many avenues for wasting time but most of them involve the internets. Here’s a trick for you: go to wikipedia and click on “Random Article” in the navigation panel. Here are the lessons.
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A bit from Garrison Keillor

For decades I have been a fan or Garrison Keillor and his radio show “A Prairie Home Companion” on public radio.
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First Debug the Child . . .

The topic of education is an obsession with me for the simple reason that one cannot address any development related issues without reference to education, however broadly or narrowly one defines education or development. My interest in the use — and misuse — of technology in education is a natural extension of that basic interest in development and growth. The One Laptop Per Child comes in for special scrutiny because the implications of such a program are phenomenal for a poor country like India. I have long argued that there are simpler, more affordable and more urgently needed interventions that is needed than is provided by the OLPC program. Here’s one that I recently became aware of.
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A Posthumous Apology to Alan Turing

On Sept 10th, Alan Turing received an apology from the British government 55 years after his death. Following a petition to 10 Downing St signed by 30,000 people, Gordon Brown formally apologized to the man who was so persecuted for being a homosexual that he committed suicide.
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Sept 11th: Turning Six today

Sept 11th is this blog’s birthday. The blog was born this day six years ago. What I wrote last year, Five years of Opinions and Perspectives, still holds true. Continue reading “Sept 11th: Turning Six today”

Eisenhower on the Military Industrial Complex

In connection with the previous post on the US leading in weapons sales, I thought it would be nice to see a short excerpt from President Eisenhower’s farewell speech of 1961 warning Americans of the dangers of the military-industrial complex.
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