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  1. http://www.atu2.com/news/article.src?ID=4687

    Is he out of his mind?? Is he comparing technological developments in 3rd world countries with poverty allocation and government distribution? Does he think because Southern Africa's exports are in the marketplace that the international trade market is fair and level? Less than 1% of the African populace is suffering from poverty?! Where is he getting these numbers from!?

    "Africans are saving a higher percentage of their incomes than Americans are (so much for the "poverty trap" of being "too poor to save" endlessly repeated in aid reports). "

    Is he serious? Where in the world is he getting his numbers from? How come he hasn't listed any sources? Not ONE SINGLE SOURCE through the whole article.

    "Why do aid organizations and their celebrity backers want to make African successes look like failures? One can only speculate, but it certainly helps aid agencies get more publicity and more money if problems seem greater than they are. As for the stars -- well, could Africa be saving celebrity careers more than celebrities are saving Africa?"

    Bono is doing this to SAVE his career? When was his career in jeapordy? If anything, he's RISKING it for this.

    What a complete shit article and unfortunately, it seems to be banked in the LA Times so a lot of people will be exposed to this. I am so disgusted right now, I don't even know what to say. Please don't anyone believe ANY of this. In Africa trade is unfair, debts are not cancelled, governments are still robbing their citizens and treatable diseases are running rampant. If American children were dying of the cold or a sore throat, we would be screaming our heads off at the injustice.

    William Easterly, state your sources and do your homework before making a proclamation like this. You don't deserve your luxuries.
  2. William Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute. He is also a visiting Fellow at the Brookings Institution and a non-resident Fellow of the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. William Easterly received his Ph.D. in Economics at MIT. He spent sixteen years as a Research Economist at the World Bank and was adjunct professor at the Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies. He is the author of The White Man’s Burden: How the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Penguin, 2006), The Elusive Quest for Growth: Economists' Adventures and Misadventures in the Tropics (MIT, 2001), 3 other co-edited books, and 46 articles in refereed economics journals.
    His work has been discussed in media outlets like National Public Radio, the BBC, the New York Times, Wall Street Journal, Washington Post, The Economist, The New Yorker, Forbes, Business Week, the Financial Times, and the Christian Science Monitor. Easterly's areas of expertise are the determinants of long-run economic growth and the effectiveness of foreign aid. He has worked in most areas of the developing world, most heavily in Africa, Latin America, and Russia. Easterly is an associate editor of the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economic Growth, and of the Journal of Development Economics.

    But I'm sure you're better informed than him...
  3. knob
  4. Originally posted by yeahWilliam Easterly is Professor of Economics at New York University, joint with Africa House, and Co-Director of NYU’s Development Research Institute blah blah blah...
    But I'm sure you're better informed than him...


    Well that explains it. All that has made him crazy. The comparisons he's making are irrelvant and he hasn't listed a single source for his numbers which he claims clash with numbers that come from officials sources. He must be using wikipedia
  5. Originally posted by rmann83[..]

    Well that explains it. All that has made him crazy. The comparisons he's making are irrelvant and he hasn't listed a single source for his numbers which he claims clash with numbers that come from officials sources. He must be using wikipedia


    It is a newspaper article. Not a scientific paper, so he doesn't need to name the sources.
    But if you browse through the IMF homepage you'll find out that he's right.
    So far for the lack of sources. What are the sources you're referring to as 'official'?

    As for the celebrity thingy, It's true, celebs won't save Africa. It's hip to play Live 8 and to support RED and for a short period things will get better. But on a long run, what Geldof and Bono do will make things worse. They're supporting the systems that are responsable for the situation we're in.

    But it's always the same here. Someone who criticises Holy Bono must be an idiot, a knob, is just jealous and doesn't do anything to help Africa himself.
  6. Originally posted by yeah[..]

    It is a newspaper article. Not a scientific paper, so he doesn't need to name the sources.
    But if you browse through the IMF homepage you'll find out that he's right.
    So far for the lack of sources. What are the sources you're referring to as 'official'?

    As for the celebrity thingy, It's true, celebs won't save Africa. It's hip to play Live 8 and to support RED and for a short period things will get better. But on a long run, what Geldof and Bono do will make things worse. They're supporting the systems that are responsable for the situation we're in.

    But it's always the same here. Someone who criticises Holy Bono must be an idiot, a knob, is just jealous and doesn't do anything to help Africa himself.


    Bono is a brilliant entertainer, song-writer, singer etc. but his work for 3th world countries and poverty are sometimes too exaggerated. Like Live Earth(luckily he doesn't perform there). They're all singing for a better climat and stuff, but in the meantime all the artists will fly in with luxury plains and cars and so on. As if that helps for a better climat!
  7. Originally posted by MWSAH[..]

    Bono is a brilliant entertainer, song-writer, singer etc. but his work for 3th world countries and poverty are sometimes too exaggerated. Like Live Earth(luckily he doesn't perform there). They're all singing for a better climat and stuff, but in the meantime all the artists will fly in with luxury plains and cars and so on. As if that helps for a better climat!


    what a fucked up world it is too
  8. Originally posted by germcevoy[..]

    what a fucked up world it is too


    Haha...you're right.
  9. Originally posted by yeah[..]

    It is a newspaper article. Not a scientific paper, so he doesn't need to name the sources.


    Really? Wow. Newspaper don't have to cite their sources. That is definitely news to me. Here I assumed they're job was to provide accurate, unbiased information. How wrong I was.

    Originally posted by yeah[..]
    But on a long run, what Geldof and Bono do will make things worse.


    I see....wait, no I don't see. How so?

    Originally posted by yeah[..]
    But it's always the same here. Someone who criticises Holy Bono must be an idiot, a knob, is just jealous and doesn't do anything to help Africa himself.


    I criticised his unfounded alligation that celebrities are doing this to resurrect their career. Which IS an unfounded assumption. I'm not out to protect Bono. If you want to assume that I'm doing this to protect Bono, then I can make the same assumption that your against it for attention and to look like an independant thinker. If it wasn't Bono but someone else, this article would be just as ridiculous.

    It must be nice to hide your arguments behind extreme generalisms.

    And I'll tell you were MY sources come from. I have family and friends who live in Africa. I know about the problems they face on a daily basis and I know what difference foreign aid makes in their lives and communities. Things are finally moving forward for the first time in years, incremental though it might be, and people like Bono are a part of that movement and that progress.

    Anyone against Bono is not an idiot but people who are against what he stands for have serious moral issues...or in this case individuality problems.
  10. Originally posted by rmann83[..]
    I see....wait, no I don't see. How so?


    1st: They support those who drove Africa into the situation it's in and help to continue the cycle of need and dependency
    2nd: Africa doesn't need financial aid any more. It needs stable gouvernments and investments.

    Originally posted by rmann83
    And I'll tell you were MY sources come from. I have family and friends who live in Africa. I know about the problems they face on a daily basis and I know what difference foreign aid makes in their lives and communities.


    Your family and friends are the Official sources that provide the numbers Easterly's numbers are clashing with?

    But the funny thing is, that I have family down there, too. I've been to South Africa, Lesotho,Namibia, Botswana, Mozambique and Madagascar. I didn't see starving, AIDS infected people everywhere like Bono. There are regions where way too many people are dying from hunger and AIDS and war, true. But that's not the real picture of Africa.

    Of the 47 countries that make up sub-Saharan Africa, only five-Sudan, Chad, Uganda, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Somalia-are home to active conflicts. Last year, Africa saw its highest growth in GDP in two decades. Sixteen African countries have favorable sovereign credit ratings. Botswana's is higher than Japan, yet it still struggles to attract investment.

    You can spend billions importing medication, or you can invest in local farms that grow the Artemisinin, a Chinese herb with potent anti-malarial properties, and the factories that process it.

    Originally posted by rmann83
    Anyone against Bono is not an idiot but people who are against what he stands for have serious moral issues...or in this case individuality problems


    What does he stand for?
  11. i understand where you're all coming from guys.....but let me have my say....

    i think that his involvement in Africa certainly leads to many different opinions......i'm not saying that agreeing or not with his work is right or wrong, but i think that we'll agree in one thing...... he does try his best...... maybe what he's doing will make an improvement...or maybe not! but he is at a position where he can not turn his back to the situation! people really listen to what he says!!!! and he was there so many times, and he felt like he should be doing something to fix it!
    i'm certainly not in a good position to say that what he's doing is right or wrong, because i'm not an expert, but also because i don't have enough knowledge to state my opinion. but i do know that all his work made a lot of people stop and think about it! everyone is aware of it now! and that, i think, is his true "work".... he made the point....we're aware of it....we can make up our minds and have an opinion about it...and maybe we can put it all right....or maybe not! but at least we know... and knowing is power!


    i would also like to add that i don't like either that people keep on saying bad things about bono! he's my idol, and i tend to see him as nice person that doesn't make any mistakes....but, let's face it: he's just a normal guy, trying to do what he thinks is best, but he's not perfect! human kind is certainly not perfect! i'm glad i'm not perfect!!! we all make mistakes....and he certainly does too!!!
    so, by the end of the day, i just love him for the great singer/lyricist/performer/composer he is, and i tend to leave behind all his humanitarian work! he made his point......maybe someday i will!!!


    bye!!!
  12. Originally posted by snitchi understand where you're all coming from guys.....but let me have my say....

    i think that his involvement in Africa certainly leads to many different opinions......i'm not saying that agreeing or not with his work is right or wrong, but i think that we'll agree in one thing...... he does try his best...... maybe what he's doing will make an improvement...or maybe not! but he is at a position where he can not turn his back to the situation! people really listen to what he says!!!! and he was there so many times, and he felt like he should be doing something to fix it!
    i'm certainly not in a good position to say that what he's doing is right or wrong, because i'm not an expert, but also because i don't have enough knowledge to state my opinion. but i do know that all his work made a lot of people stop and think about it! everyone is aware of it now! and that, i think, is his true "work".... he made the point....we're aware of it....we can make up our minds and have an opinion about it...and maybe we can put it all right....or maybe not! but at least we know... and knowing is power!


    i would also like to add that i don't like either that people keep on saying bad things about bono! he's my idol, and i tend to see him as nice person that doesn't make any mistakes....but, let's face it: he's just a normal guy, trying to do what he thinks is best, but he's not perfect! human kind is certainly not perfect! i'm glad i'm not perfect!!! we all make mistakes....and he certainly does too!!!
    so, by the end of the day, i just love him for the great singer/lyricist/performer/composer he is, and i tend to leave behind all his humanitarian work! he made his point......maybe someday i will!!!


    bye!!!


    Wow...I'm humbled. Well said