What do I work on?
- Fair trade: If you've been in Whole Foods or Starbucks lately, you may have noticed products bearing labels like "fair trade", "fair-trade certified", "earth-friendly" or "fair-trade-earth-friendly". Which labels are legit? What do they actually mean? Fair trade is a complex process--I myself am not entirely sold on it--but it has important implications for local political outcomes and participation. Which leads me to ...
- Political participation: How do the poor in Africa make their voice heard? Do people organize themselves along ethnic, labor, linguistic or other lines? Too often the Bretton Woods folks have advocated, "Africa needs to democratize. Create civil society." How? What does that mean? Participation is multi-faceted, encompassing the following topics (each of which is incredibly important on its own): gender rights and participation; access to education; access to sanitation and health facilities; the lists goes on. But how people participate has changed so much, especially with the rise of
- New technologies: During my first summer in Ghana, I was amazed with how many had cell phones--sometimes two or three. These devices have changed the flow of information--ever seen those GE commercials about the farmers in India being able to sell their goods for optimal prices rather than being cheated at local markets because of texts they send to each other? It's a reality. In Ghana, you can "dash" cellular minutes to your family, making these minutes like a new form of currency. Could this be a new form of credit by which individuals can purchase goods or a new way to guarantee future borrowing? From a social-science perspective , these minutes could come in quite handy for randomized trials and experimental studies.
- China in Africa: Constantly last summer, I was asked by Ghanaians if I was Chinese (I'm not). At the time there were huge road and aluminum projects going on with Chinese engineers and laborers, so it was easy to see why people would assume I was with them. China obviously needs its resources, and Africa--notably oil in Sudan and Angola, cobalt in the DRC, timber in West Africa--is one largely untapped place where they can acquire all that. My next post will have a few links on this issue.
I'll be based in Kumasi, which is located in Greater Ashanti, in a more west-central portion of Ghana.
Map of Ghana. Image sourced from here.
I'll be based in Kumasi, but the research team will also be travelling around to villages throughout the southwestern part of Ghana, so hopefully there will be lots of great stories and pictures. One of my favorite parts about working in Ghana was meeting so many people, both expats and locals, doing so many different things. From the local kente weavers to the Peace Corps volunteers to the Buruli-ulcer doctors, it is so fascinating just sitting down and chatting with people. I even got some free drum lessons here and there.
Before I end this post, I wanted to point out a couple of my favorite Africa blogs from fellow students, both of which are located on the sidebar.
Jim, blogging from The Green Hills of Africa, will be serving as a field journalist for Equatorial Guinea Justice, an NGO in Equatorial Guinea, dividing his time between Malabo and the mainland. He also plans on compiling a photographic record for the NGO, and hopefully he can post those to his blog. Jim is a Harvard-Weissman fellow, and happened to be my roommate last year. He likes Bud Light Lime and doing his laundry every two months.
Shelby is the author behind a very popular Liberia blog, currently covering the Charles Taylor trial and events related to that as well as posting on the lives of everyday Liberians. Also a great review in there on Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's new memoir. She recently received a shout-out from Chris Blattman, so it looks like I have some work to do. Shelby will be starting a PhD program at some liberal-arts school in Cambridge, MA, and she enjoys spending time on Google Reader. Almost as much as I do.
Speaking of Google Reader, please subscribe to my blog feed! You can also follow me on facebook.
Meda ase! (<- Twi for "thank you.")
Before I end this post, I wanted to point out a couple of my favorite Africa blogs from fellow students, both of which are located on the sidebar.
Jim, blogging from The Green Hills of Africa, will be serving as a field journalist for Equatorial Guinea Justice, an NGO in Equatorial Guinea, dividing his time between Malabo and the mainland. He also plans on compiling a photographic record for the NGO, and hopefully he can post those to his blog. Jim is a Harvard-Weissman fellow, and happened to be my roommate last year. He likes Bud Light Lime and doing his laundry every two months.
Shelby is the author behind a very popular Liberia blog, currently covering the Charles Taylor trial and events related to that as well as posting on the lives of everyday Liberians. Also a great review in there on Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf's new memoir. She recently received a shout-out from Chris Blattman, so it looks like I have some work to do. Shelby will be starting a PhD program at some liberal-arts school in Cambridge, MA, and she enjoys spending time on Google Reader. Almost as much as I do.
Speaking of Google Reader, please subscribe to my blog feed! You can also follow me on facebook.
Meda ase! (<- Twi for "thank you.")
2 comments:
Ghana is a quite a hot spot for appropriate technology deployment (like work that NYU's CATERS has done) and randomized experiments in development economics (read work from Poverty Action Lab @ MIT). Would love to hear your on the ground impressions of these novel initiatives!
Excited to read future posts,
Jian
Thanks for the shout out! I'm really looking forward to reading. And if I play my cards right I won't have to do laundry AT ALL when I'm in Equatorial Guinea.
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