It’s Not Too Late: 2011′s Top 5 Posts

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2011 was a year of continued transitions, trials and triumphs. As a consequence of all this, I did not get to blog as much as I wanted to. WordPress’ handy end of year summary reminded me that I only posted 9 updates last year. Moreover, my older material on policy and evaluation seems to be the more popular!

Growing traffic to this space and the enquiries that it has generated demonstrates that there is a definite interest in research and how people and organisations can use evidence to enhance the impact of their work. Additionally, given the changes in technology, rapidly shifting public sentiments and consumer behaviour, I think the business of research is changing in ways that many of our research professionals, and those that consume research, have failed to adequately respond to. I am going to take a bigger chunk out of this trend in 2012.

Without further delay, the best of 2011:

1. #Jptweetup Remixed: The Tweetheart Tweetup – The Jamaica Pegasus’ social media leadership was an important event last year.

2. A Friend’s View of Egypt: From the Inside – A friend’s understanding of what is happening in is homeland.

3. Your Money eZine Business Summit 2011: Key Takeaways – Some great lessons from seasoned business people.

4. My Coffee Obsession, Act 1, #eatjamaican – What the title of the post says.

5. We Cannot Go On Like This – Worrying human capital trends for Jamaica as the youngest and brightest feel their future lies elsewhere.

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Wishing all my readers a productive year full of fun, meaningful work.

We Cannot Go On Like This

What kind of society are we creating when the future of the society, young people, feel that there is no future for them in that society?

That is what I was asking myself when I read the Observer’s article pointing out that most young Jamaicans want to leave to improve their quality of life.  The main take away message is that when asked about their prospects in a number of traditional destinations for Jamaicans, a consistent majority of respondents felt that they would have better life chances if they left our shores.

A number of things stood out about the article. I am surprised that the numbers that think they would be better abroad are not far higher. This could be because although prospects are not great here, an increasing number of Jamaicans know that life overseas is not easy and comes with its own set of distinct challenges. Additionally, Jamaicans are some of the most robustly patriotic people in the world. I would have been far happier with the article if the writer made some attempt to seriously grapple with what such a large number of young people wanting to leave means. Surely it an indicator of deep, societal dysfunction.

Some of the sentiments of one of the officials on hand also intrigued me:

She went on to say that the survey has provided interesting and critical data about Jamaican youths and shows how best the country and government, including her agency can engage its young people and cater to their current needs.

It annoys me no end when news articles or speakers on the nightly news make claims that they do not go on to substantiate with evidence. Sorry, I’m a researcher. I have not seen the survey, so I can’t comment on the contents. But I would be surprised if a survey (especially in isolation) was used to determine how to engage our young people. And if the spates of violence in schools, constant Ananda Alerts and often troubling exam results don’t tell you that our young people need help and spur genuine change, then I am not sure a survey is going to do it. Surveys are very good at tracking long-term socioeconomic trends and less good at developing effective means for addressing pressing social problems. Participatory assessment and planning approaches exist. However, if our government cannot see that it needs to develop genuine partnerships with the successful ‘big people’ of the diaspora, how are they going to do it with disenfranchised, frustrated youth as their partners?

By now you know I like to throw numbers at you.

 

Figure 2 is taken from the World Bank’s Migration and Development Brief 4 and illustrates that quite a high proportion of our tertiary graduates leave. More generally, the Caribbean has the second highest proportion of tertiary graduates which emigrate. Sub-Saharan Africa takes the gold medal in this unhappy contest. What is the impact of such a tremendous loss of human capital on institutional development? Continue reading

A Friend’s View of Egypt: From the Inside

Is this a turning point in Egypt?

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In my sojourns abroad I have become good friends with a few Egyptians. One among them stands out in this instance as he loved to talk politics. A born activist. Let’s call him Amun. I was kinda worried about his safety for precisely this reason. Well I got a couple emails from him. He and his family are fine. I learned so much from the communication which just highlights once again how important local knowledge is. I am sure people have been watching Anderson Cooper get his but kicked, I mean the news and reading the newspapers and blog posts about ‘lessons’ (like what? people are fed up with bad government? *yawn*) from Egypt especially with reference to twitter or inequality and unemployment. See a nice rebuttal of some of the dumbest comments here.

What struck me about Amun’s emails was what he emphasised. His views are very different and detailed compared to what the so-called experts have been saying. A few things stood out in his emails.

Egypt is a society in which honour is very important. Many of the top brass in the military do not want to force Mubarak out and humiliate him. To complicate matters significantly, Mubarak will not step down voluntarily. He said it himself, ‘I have a Ph.D in obstinacy.’ Many Egyptians, even those on the street, do not want to embarrass Mubarak either. Not because they love him, but know that doing so will make it harder to achieve his exit. Moreover, the key issue is not Mubarak. It is about the Mubarak way of government. It is not clear how the political system is going to be reformed. The constitution even bans the formations of political parties! Additionally, the people angling to manage the much vaunted ‘transition’ (except El Baradei who many people see as ‘foreign’ and out of touch) are cut from the Mubarak cloth.

Next, the regime is not simply a military regime. It is an oligarchical economic system in which key families control a disproportionate amount of the wealth of the country. The military protects these people and vice versa. Quelle surprise. These people are in favour of the status quo. Whatever happens, transforming the economic situation will not be easy or quick. Continue reading

Why We Should Care About Wikileaks

Julian Assange as Che Guevara. Photo courtesy of PSFK.

So this is my obligatory wikileaks post. What I find most interesting is not the cables themselves. Much of what has been released so far is not ‘news.’ It is the response to the leaks and the leakers that has been truly revealing. Both the public and government response to Assange, and the forgotten Bradley Manning, constitutes a touchstone for changing, or perhaps weakening, democratic values.

There are a growing number of people inside government and outside of it who feel that the commission of some ‘crimes’ means that you should have no rights whatsoever. Mr. Manning is being held under appalling conditions. And since when do you send Interpol after a someone who has been accused of sexual assault? I also get the impression that there are a growing number of citizens who are not wary of their government. Both these developments scare me greatly. Continue reading