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Archive for July, 2009

Racial Discrimination at the World Bank: New GAP Report

Posted in International Politics, Peace and Conflict on July 16, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

Last week, the Government Accountability Project (GAP) released a report that investigates and finds evidence of racial discrimination against black professional grade employees at the World Bank. The report, which documents the treatment of these employees in recruitment, retention and internal judicial decisions, finds that a race ceiling exists at the institution, and that the [...]

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The Astronomy of Aid: Stars and Starlets in International Development

Posted in Development Theory, International Politics on July 16, 2009 | 1 Comment »

All universes have their stars. It is therefore not surprising that International Development, as its own little universe, has produced both stars and starlets. In the following, I classify and characterize some of the most prominent and luminous celestial bodies. They can be seen almost every day and night in the sky projected onto us [...]

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Development as Fiction: The Failure of the MDGs

Posted in Development Theory, International Politics on July 13, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

David Lewis, Dennis Rodgers and Michael Woolcock have recently proposed that works of fiction may be just as valid and useful sources of knowledge than official reports and academic papers: “Not only are certain works of fiction ‘better’ than academic or policy research in representing central issues relating to development, but they also frequently reach [...]

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Afghanistan: A Victory for Women – A Defeat of Democracy?

Posted in Afghanistan, Health and Development, International Politics, Peace and Conflict on July 9, 2009 | 1 Comment »

The Afghan Ministry of Justice has presented a revised version of a new law regulating marital affairs for the country’s Shi’ite minority. Many of its previous medieval provisions have been scrapped. No longer does it prescribe the frequency of sexual activity that Shi’ite women in Afghanistan would have had to observe, thus practically legalizing domestic [...]

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The Divine End of Demonic Neoliberalism

Posted in Development Theory, International Politics on July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

“Charity in truth is a force that builds community.” The Pope has spoken. His latest Encyclical Letter ‘Caritas in Veritate‘ (“of the Supreme Pontiff Benedict XVI to the Bishops, Priests and Deacons, Men and Women Religious, the Lay Faithful, and All People of Good Will on Integral Human Development in Charity and Truth”) is a [...]

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Course Evaluations Now Online

Posted in Meta-content on July 7, 2009 | Leave a Comment »

I have now posted all available course evaluations on my teaching page. May transparency reign!

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Becoming a Diplomat: A Choice Unbecoming a Critical Mind?

Posted in International Politics, Peace and Conflict on July 7, 2009 | 5 Comments »

I recently gave a keynote speech at a high school in the Bronx, NY for which I had been asked to offer some reflections on the career choice of becoming a diplomat. Note that becoming a diplomat was in fact one of my professional aspirations. Upon joining the UN however, I found the reality of [...]

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‘Let me tell you what to think’: Discourse and the Limits of Democracy

Posted in Development Theory, International Politics, Peace and Conflict on July 1, 2009 | 1 Comment »

The German pollster agency TNS Emnid recently broke the news that the majority (57%) of East German respondents among the total 1,208 Germans in all 16 federal states asked about their views of the bygone German Democratic Republic (GDR) agreed with the statement that the GDR ‘had more positive than negative aspects’ and that although [...]

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