DeaneBarker.net

This is a fascinating article about the state of aid to Africa.  The author argues that it’s destroying the continent.

[...] evidence overwhelmingly demonstrates that aid to Africa has made the poor poorer, and the growth slower. The insidious aid culture has left African countries more debt-laden, more inflation-prone, more vulnerable to the vagaries of the currency markets and more unattractive to higher-quality investment. It’s increased the risk of civil conflict and unrest (the fact that over 60% of sub-Saharan Africa’s population is under the age of 24 with few economic prospects is a cause for worry). Aid is an unmitigated political, economic and humanitarian disaster.

How much of the aid to Africa actually gets to the needy?  Not much, I don’t think.

As recently as 2002, the African Union, an organization of African nations, estimated that corruption was costing the continent $150 billion a year, as international donors were apparently turning a blind eye to the simple fact that aid money was inadvertently fueling graft. With few or no strings attached, it has been all too easy for the funds to be used for anything, save the developmental purpose for which they were intended.

Recently, I’ve become interested in microfinance in Africa, via a site called Kiva.  Kiva pools investor funds, and then makes loans to businesspeople to help them develop their businesses and try to build a real economy.  I’ve been talking with some employees of Blend about sponsoring Kiva as a company — making systematic loans to business people to try and help them build a sustainable economy and effect real change.

100 Abandoned Houses is exactly what the title implies — a photo essay of 100 abandoned houses around Detroit.  Some are amazing.  They look like something out of a horror movie or something out of Myst.

Different sources put the average home sale price in Detroit anywhere from $7,500 to $20,500.

This is a fascinating article about a female Espicopal minister that adopted Muslim beliefs and was finally defrocked.  I found these comments particularly interesting:

But Redding said she felt her new Muslim faith did not pose a contradiction to her staying a Christian and minister.

“Both religions say there’s only one God,” Redding said, “and that God is the same God. It’s very clear we are talking about the same God! So I haven’t shifted my allegiance.”

There’s a much longer post lurking about the concept of monotheism and whether we’re all just worshipping the same God, but I’ll restrain myself to a couple points:

• The pastor’s claims are basically what the B’Hai believe — that Muslims, Jews, and Christian are all worshiping the same God, just in different ways with some differing details.  They worship a single, mono-theistic entity — the “God of all religions.”
• “Allah” is Arabic for “God.”  What would happen if you stood up in (Christian) church on Sunday and yelled “Allah be praised!”?
• When CNN puts subtitles on the words of a Muslim, why do they choose not to translate the word “Allah”?  Would they translate “Dios” from Spanish?
• When a Muslin prays to “Allah,” who is he praying to?  Is there some kind of traffic cop that directs his prayer to his God, and my prayer to my God?
• I am a Christian.  When I walk through the Pearly Gates decades from now, will I find a bunch of Muslims sitting around?

I don’t have answers to any of these questions, really, but they’re interesting to consider.