I was so happy to see the familiar face of the Action 5-friend Justus in the crowd in Bukoba and put an end to the aggressive offers from several taxi drivers. From then on I was in a constant flow of events attending a bunch of official occasions with him, who has recently taken a political office next to his work and his activities for Action 5, and reminds me of my good friend Johannes not only in that he seems to be able to do with very little sleep.

The first was the anniversary of a Catholic hospital in Kagondo, appropriately with a lot of church Honorables who held long speeches, and good choir music (with percussion).

[…]

After recently meeting a bunch of people who have to go without meals frequently, I was naturally very interested to read an article on reasons and solutions for world hunger, by two researchers from the „Abdul Latif Jameel Poverty Action Lab, or J-PAL“ at the MIT, which is an excerpt from a recent book they wrote.

After some more illustrative than enlightening back an forth on the „hunger-based poverty trap“ (poor people cannot eat enough to be strong enough to earn enough to eat enough) and examples of how poor people make choices that cause malnutrition themselves (spending money on tasty but little nutritious food or on non-food luxuries, mostly entertainment and drugs) they get to the point, and a quite interesting one. Here are some of the central ideas.

[…]

In catching up with blogging (I was both very busy and very offline for the last weeks) I continue in English with mostly some commented pictures. Please bear with me, the next more content-intensive post is coming up (even though it will be again in German I’m afraid). My 10 days or so in Kenya were very good, even though I arrived with a cold that kept me in the house for some days, and caught my second diarrhea in this year just a few days after recovering from the cold.

[…]

This (for now) last India blog will also be an English-and-mostly-pictures one. Even though I feel in many ways I sped through the country and spent most of my time in different means of transportation, I’m happy I divided my time between „India“ and Auroville as I did, mostly staying and working in the latter. I also feel that it was good to take the traveling „slow“ (that is, slow means of transportation) even though I traveled fast in terms of moving on frequently. Sharing the time in transit with the Indians is I think an experience that tells a lot about the country and the culture. And I get the impression that Indians themselves do that a lot — they spend a lot of time in cheap public transport.

[…]

This will be a post of mostly pictures, and as you see another one in English to not discourage anybody. Again, no promises for the future There would be much more to say about Auroville, but I don’t have much time right now, and am in many ways already so far away that I think my next writing on Auroville and India will be concerned with differences between my Indian and East African experiences. So for now just have a look…

[…]

Greg Mankiw points to an interesting disagreement among high-profile blogging economists about whether it is possible to tax rich people who don’t consume very much (or who consume the same before and after the tax), or more precisely who actually pays if you do.

As I had previously tweeted, I was quite surprised by Joseph Stiglitz‘ remark that in his opinion there are some convictions that all serious economists should share: „resources are limited, incentives matter“. The context was that he didn’t agree with what many other distinguished economists held should be supported by everybody in the profession. Now, the problem with this greatest common denominator of his is that it is barely more than what I remember from a textbook as the definition of the discipline as being concerned with scarcity.

Is the situation of economics really so dire that after decades of science dealing with numbers from complete (non-inferential, every psychologist’s dream) real-world datasets, basic public policy issues are still in the realm of ideology? It seems so. Now, before (as usual …) arguing for a constructivist turn, let me put some of the central irreconcilable statements side by side:

[…]

• Barbara Ehrenreich: the psychological cruelty of Positive Thinking & links to the financial meltdown and Iraq http://j.mp/hJCQ7L #RSAnimate #
• Slavoj Zizek makes a powerful case against charity and its integration into contemporary „Cultural Capitalism“ http://j.mp/g4YN6X #RSAnimate #
• #RSAnimate of David Harvey’s marxist take on the financial crisis. http://j.mp/hLlvMT At least as thought-provoking as solution-lacking… #
• Kenyan authorities monitor social media for „hate speech“ while praising the revolutions in Arab countries. Good or bad? #
• #travelinsight 37: East African landscapes give me a strange feeling of — home. Is that still in our genes? #
• #travelinsight 36: Ya mama yabamba! #
• #travelinsight 35: Who builds the buses for Kenya? Amazing technology, it’s a miracle they don’t fall apart on the first day on these roads. #

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• If like me you can’t always follow news, a good summary of „Arab Spring“ near-revolutionary countries‘ situation http://j.mp/fspEvp #
• Optimistic comment about a military solution in Libya http://j.mp/e0432p what are drones http://j.mp/flliYq SZ critical http://j.mp/ia2n4R #
• Protesting as a woman in a Muslim country or: regimes use Islam and Feminism as expedient http://j.mp/gzO5Uf #
• If anybody still had doubts — Informed Comment cites official evidence on the Oil-Iraq War link, with thoughtful comments http://j.mp/hRE9IQ #
• Lese sehr gerne ein SZ-Interview mit unserem zukünftigen Ministerpräseidenten http://j.mp/eoRfd2 Reflektiert, realistisch, hoffnungsvoll #
• NYTimes gives an overview of influential academic bloggers http://j.mp/fun6U3 Seems many big professors found a new hobby Worthwile! #
• Wer ist eine Frau? Problematische Konstruktion von Geschlecht im Profisport http://j.mp/evQcFi SZ #
• Schmidbauer im SZ-Gespräch über sein neues Buch über Geld, Angst und Glück http://j.mp/g9ZcqK und was Altes dazu von mir http://j.mp/hyV2LD #
• #travelinsight 34: Trying to wrap my mind around that love for money concept, in all shapes from buying drinks to paying the rent to cash #
• #travelinsight 33: Addicted to my Feldenkrais exercises since the massage with that amazing french guy Goupi in Auroville http://j.mp/eGBR2S #
• Updated my travel schedule http://goo.gl/maps/ELGh #
• Recognize twitter spam http://j.mp/dPb7U6 and when to block odd followers http://j.mp/fSYFZK #

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I take the opportunity of writing about an English book to do my first English travel-blog entry. I still can’t make up my mind how I will move on language-wise, being torn between connection with my friends all over the world and the feeling of integration I get from reflecting on my experiences in my mother tongue.

Maximum City had been recommended to me by several people who’s judgment I trust, and still my expectations have been surpassed. I can’t remember when a book last spoke to me so strongly on so many different levels of observations, experiences and feelings. I can basically use some quotations from it as a sort of diary of many of my own experiences. A non-fiction book of almost 600 pages, a report of an Indian expat to the US moving back „home“ to Bombay with his family, but to me that is only the starting point, for especially continuing to read it now that I have taken in my first week of Nairobi I can assert that it’s topics reach much farther. The book starts with some very good glimpses of what a newcomer sees in India:

[…]

• #travelinsight 32: So good to see couples holding hands again, and stuff! Even though I miss the sight of guys in intimate embraces… #
• #travelinsight 31: Sweet Baobab Seeds. Nasty and addicting. #
• What’s left of economics without ideology: „resources are limited, incentives matter“ wow! http://j.mp/g5iQIM Stiglitz on deficit reduction #
• Progressivity of tax systems and inequality — how misleading hard facts can be http://j.mp/id0g3F (read link and Whiteford’s comment) #
• Mein alter LMU-Prof Rosenstiel hat pointierte und traurige Gedanken zu Wirtschafts-Studenten und Unternehmensethik http://j.mp/fQVRJc #
• Nachtaktive Liberale sind am intelligentesten http://j.mp/hyPG8B Kuriose Auswüchse der evolutionsbiologischen Intelligenzforschung. Und nu? #
• #travelinsight 30: Starting to appreciate facebook again. Haha. But it does ease the pain of leaving so many people behind all the time #
• #travelinsight 29: Internet seems to suck everywhere I go outside Germany — California, Glasgow, India, Kenya, getting worse and worse… #
• #travelinsight 28: Hmmm, Kenya makes up for the missed mango season in India. I do miss Indian cuisine though, especially Bombay indulgence. #
• #travelinsight 27: Wow, Nairobi feels very Western after India. So much space. So clean. Nobody looks at me?! #
• #travelinsight 26: How long has my stupid computer left to live? More issues every day. Can’t wait for a nice MacBook Air Oh consumerism! #
• Thoughtful criticism of Anna Hazare’s fast to death and the law for an anti-corruption commission in India it is about http://j.mp/ebRcul #

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