Mind/Memory control a reality

"Flip the switch on, and the rats remember. Flip it off, and the rats forget," said Theodore Berger of the USC Viterbi School of Engineering's Department of Biomedical Engineering.

Of course, this comes out under the guise of repairing memory loss.

Is it just me or does it smack of mind control...

Check out the whole article on PRNewswire.


ht: Mike Thicke

Blattman, Banerjee and Duflo Debate

On Chris Blattman's excellent blog a debate about development sprung up last week.

The question was basically this: What is the best first step for South Sudan as an emergent country?

The two sides are as follows: social spending (Duflo and Banerjee) versus security and private sector (Blattman).

Banerjee and Duflo champion social services for the poor (on the economix blog initially), including: schools, health care, health insurance and even a direct cash transfer system.

Blattman argues, given that South Sudan has little to no operational capacity for such bureaucracies, creating a welfare state would be too much of a burden. He advocates making peace with warlords, and creating invectives for them, and the rich in general, to invest in productive fixed assets such as factories or plantations. He also pushes for an operational police force. His point is that politics is primary and security is at the heart of it: maintain peace and support private sector development. Oh, and build roads.

Banerjee and Duflo respond, that pursuing redistributive policies that target the poor is essentially building the identity of the state. Hopefully, as they suggest, a virtuous cycle would start whereby the poor support the state for putting them first and therefor hold off special interest groups (eg. warlords, elites) from capturing the product of nation (oil mostly for now).

Finally, Blattman remains skeptical. With evidence from Sierra Leone he chops down the benefits of cash transfers. From his own experience in Uganda and Liberia, his opinion of the effectiveness of redistribution programs, as far as they spur development, is jaded.

Of course, we are tempted to think that this is an atrificial trade-off, and that the state of South Sudan can pursue both courses at once. While to some extent that may be true (eg. placating warlords could fit on both agendas) I think the notion that these respective policies build the identity of the state is accurate and useful.

Will the state grow akin to an enlightened version of African socialism of 1960's? Or more like the capitalist enterprise of the 90's plus security and sensibility? Perhaps it is unfair to cast upon them such shadows. In any case, let us all hope for Lant Pritchett's work to have some impact.

In the end, I must admit, I am convinced by Banerjee and Duflo. Perhaps because because of quixotry, perhaps because of this:

Trouble with Arab Autocrats pt.1

...exciting times in the Middle East right now. With tyrants ousted in Tunisia and Egypt, several body politics have risen up in contempt of their authoritarian rulers.

People wrongly perceive each country as largely the same, with the same problems running through the entirety of the Middle East. While these countries share certain attributes (they are all post colonial, for example) the conflicts in each are quite distinct. I'm going to try to make it all easy to understand.

But first, a map:

Oops, not that one... (Thats the one where Fox News MISPLACED EGYPT!)

This one:



Of course this is oversimplified, it's 90 seconds long!


Here's another gross simplification for you from 2006 (remember, I'm still getting started...):

And still another, less political:

Can you name the states?

So now we know the where...

Anything wrong with this picture?

From ArtDaily.org:

"On 17th February 2011, Sotheby’s will sell a rare, newly re-discovered, 16th century ivory pendant mask depicting the head of the Queen mother from the Edo peoples, Kingdom of Benin in Nigeria along with five other rare works from Benin collected at the same time."

Notice the word "collected" in there? Replace that with "looted" and were still not even close to the real picture.

Supposedly, the mask was not known of until the descendants of Lieutenant Colonel Sir Henry Lionel Gallwey contacted the auction house a short while ago. Gallwey wrote the master plan to burn and loot Benin in 1897, and helped provide the 'legal basis' to destroy the entire civilization. He wrote the master plan! And, of course, he was given a title and a promotion for his efforts.

Now, it is only right that the family make money (estimate: £3,500,000 - 4,500,000) off the art he so succesfully stole a century ago, right?

Is this really happening?

I love this quote from FT.com:

"Jean Fritts, director of African and Oceanic art at Sotheby’s, said: “It has an amazing, untouched surface which collectors love. Its honey colour attests to years of rubbing with palm oil.”

I suppose we ought to applaud them for taking care of such a treasure that surely no Beniner could ever appreciate. Hah!

Here's a thought, why not use the proceeds of the sale to help rebuild the civilization that England destroyed (and continues to destroy in this manner)?

Not bloody likely is it?

Well, there is an international convention, signed in the 1970's, that prevents this very thing from happening. It makes me wonder if this will actually go down. You better believe there would be a reaction against an auction if it were, say, a Polish artifact stolen by a Nazi and put up for auction in Germany...

Henry Galway: a capable murderer and thief

Ugh.

HT: Bombastic Elements

A look into the lives of Senegalese Chinese

Clicky!

Aside from the added aura of doom courtesy of the Al Jazeera presenter (who's name seems unnaturally guttural), I think it's quite an honest presentation of the troubles of Chinese entrepreneurs in Senegal.

There are many countries in the world that have an imported entrepreneurial/capitalist class. In Kenya, for example, Indians have made up a very large portion of business owners since the 80's. Invariably, socio-political economic tensions ensue.

Whoring, and Shakira sings the World Cup song

This is a disgrace to all the fantastic South African musicians. There are at least five groups that could easily come up with a better and more popular song than that one.

If that song and video did not do enough to perpetuate African stereotypes we have this, the Roberto Cavalli designed outfit for the opening show:

 Could we conceive of an African skirt that is not made of grass!? Could we? All she needs is a bone through her nose.

It is as annoying to see so many Africans lending a hand to the media creating this pantomime. A perfect example is all the West African football stars in commercials acting like they are going home to Africa to play football. It could not be further from the truth. First of all South Africa is nothing like West Africa. Not in language, nor style, nor climate, nor ethnicity nor... ok wait, their skin color may be the same at times. Also, quite unfortunately, an overwhelming number of South Africans hate other Africans. Its like a Chinese person saying they are going home, home to Indonesia!

It reminds me of when I was a young lad staying at a cheap all-inclusive resort at the coast of Kenya. I was fortunate enough to witness the hotel entertainment for one evening. It consisted of several Kenyan men and women dancing on stage with green plastic grass skirts and fake animal skin to some kind of obnoxious, over-produced Kenyan music. Even at that tender young age, and after a few too many rums, I knew there was a reason why I especially did not enjoy that particularly uninspired piece: for the entire audience, it justified their ignorance and ill-founded prejudice.  


It is increasingly clear that this World Cup, contrary to the lyrics of that song, is not for Africa the burlesque, nor South Africa, nor the majority of South Africans.



(That being said, I am still excited for the World Cup!)