The other side of Fair Trade

Hello all,

Over the weekend I listened to the podcast of a lecture* given at the LSE in the beginning of 2009, regarding the strength and importance of the Fair Trade logo. While the lecture itself was quite interesting and informing, what struck me most was Dr Teddy Brett’s – professor in two of my courses at the LSE last year – ‘critique’ on Fair Trade actions and products.

Citing Krugman’s “In Defense of Cheap Labour” – a highly contested publication in 1997 – in the process, Dr Brett argues that, while it might be pleasant to learn that big supermarkets are more and more switching large sections of their products towards fair trade-labelled products, this actually means that a high number of the producers formerly in business with these supermarkets are now either in financial difficulties or altogether out of business.
As argued by Krugman before him, Brett questions what the impact would be of a global public boycott on a specific brand of sports shoes, because the workers in these factories do not receive high wages and/or are children, i.e. that it is not an ethically run business. Boycotting this brand might stop the guilt at the (Western) customer’s side of the process, unfortunately at the production side of the process this will mean that the workers and child labourers will basically end up without a job. They will have to resort to their next best opportunity, which will probably mean prostitution, trafficking, and if they are lucky a similar job in a non-boycotted factory. Or how good intentions can lead to unwanted results...

Now, don’t get me wrong: I’m not quoting Brett, Krugman and the example above because I think low wages and exploitation are a good thing. In a perfect world, people would not be ‘exploited’ – probably not the right word in this context, because these workers often prefer this job to their next best opportunity – and would earn decent wages that are comparable to those in developed countries. However, we do not live in a perfect world (yet); we live in a very unequal world, dominated and bounded by political and market forces. These market forces minimise costs, and they form the constraints within which people operate. Brett then argues that “Fair Trade is only going to produce ethical results if it doesn’t impose conditions on people out there that make it impossible for them to actually deliver and supply goods and services effectively”.

That being said, if the “global market” was in fact a global market, freed from the political minefield of subsidies and tariffs, these 3rd world products and producers would probably not even need a ‘fair trade-intervention’. In this light, Brett states that the businesses in the UK that have been around for more than a century – Lloyd’s Bank, Cadbury – were more often than not operating on ethical principles (e.g. those founded by the Quakers).Brett’s conclusion sums up nicely what I personally took away from this podcast: while markets are not designed to result in ethically optimal solutions, in the long run “ethical business works better than non-ethical business provided that it operates within the constraints set by the market”.

Thank you.


* The lecture is called “Fighting the Banana Wars”, and the podcast is available for download on the LSE pages.

This post is: 50% EC conference, 50% personal chit chat

Yes, I know, it’s been a while. But I have been extremely busy these past two weeks. Everything is progressing nicely here in Chimoio, and I have only just returned from a very short trip to Maputo to attend a two-day conference organized by the European Commission delegation of Mozambique. A 20h bus ride, two full conference/discussion days with workshops, seminars, and networking sessions, followed by another 20h bus ride. Needless to say I’m a bit tired.

The conference itself was quite interesting, being a call for proposals for the European Commission’s second Energy Facility for (energy-related) projects in the ACP countries, which will officially be launched in the upcoming months. A number of EC delegates, local NGOs, and government officials were present – as was yours truly – and some interesting discussions were held. In sum, happy to have been able to attend.

On a completely different note: I really love my iPod, and I would have no idea how I would have been able to cope with these 20h stints without it. So thank you iPod, and thank you Arctic Monkeys for making music that I will never grow tired of hearing.
Anyways, in between Monkeys’ cds, I let my mind wander from time to time during these bus rides, because I usually get my blog-ideas during these ‘nothing to do but look at the landscape’ moments. So, a new blog post will be coming soon (after the weekend probably), with my view on certain aspects of globalization and the whole ‘The world is Flat’ metaphor/hype, and its inevitable link with development – as you might have been able to tell, I’m currently reading Thomas Friedman’s ‘The World is Flat’.

Have a great weekend.

Until we meet again.

Luc

p.s. Another thing I do during these bus rides, is try to make 30sec videos with my camera and capture life on the roadside in Mozambique. I’ll try to upload some of them soon, but am still looking into the easiest way to upload and spread them (youtube, rapidshare, googledocs, …). Suggestions?

p.p.s. I just add one pic, because I couldn’t withhold it from you all.

- The newest hits from my boy Akon, in the bus on the DVD player. Speechless, really.

Service delivery to the poor: solar energy in rural areas.

During my stay in Mozambique, I have been confronted on a daily basis with real poverty: children living on the streets or in shanty towns, selling candies or peanuts, and living on less than a dollar a day. Many NGOs projects and government funded programs aim to bring development to these people, in an attempt to improve life at the so-called bottom of the pyramid. Unfortunately, many of these projects never reach their full potential. Even worse: a number of projects actually do more harm than good, because of bad planning or a wrong strategic approach. Let me give you one example of a good project gone semi-wrong, which I personally encountered last week:

The framework in Mozambique to deliver solar energy to the rural areas is quite poorly constructed compared to other African countries: solar products (panels, lanterns, …) come with a high added import tax (compared to tax-free in e.g. Uganda), most of the projects in solar energy have to go through a strictly organized government-funded agency, and there have hardly been any awareness campaigns towards these rural areas. The poor have been left both literally and metaphorically speaking in the dark.
One response from a local NGO has thus been to train and support community leaders to distribute solar systems, to overcome the knowledge barrier. To take the price hurdle, this NGO has provided support to these community shops by sourcing the materials themselves and selling them to the shop at a lower price (i.e. co-financing). At first sight, this seems like a straightforward and reasonable strategy to follow: people can now enjoy the benefits of a solar home system at a price that is comparable to what it would be without these added taxes. This NGO started with this program and strategy about a year ago, and has already helped put away a high number of solar home systems in the rural communities. Today, however, the program has temporarily stopped, the shopkeeper has stopped selling solar panels, and demand is steadily decreasing. Why?
The local NGO obviously depends on other (often International) NGOs, government agencies, or development agencies to deliver the funds for these programs. In this particular case, the local NGO has received no further funds, as the program was for one year only and the donors were still reassessing their strategy. Therefore, the NGO no longer had the capacity to buy materials, so that the supply to the communities was halted all of a sudden, while the successful shopkeeper was running out of supplies. The community shopkeeper could obviously bypass the NGO and try to directly secure the materials from the main suppliers, though this would mean that the shopkeeper would have to bear both the real costs of the products plus the costs of transportation, so that he would only be able to offer solar systems and components at prices much higher than what people were paying just one month before. Ergo, demand drops, and the shopkeeper does not want to take the risk to invest in expensive systems.

It becomes clear that it will be very difficult to either convince one retailer to invest heavily in these systems, or to convince the customers that this investment is worth making (despite their neighbour having paid about 30% less for the exact same system just weeks before).

There’s obviously a mixed feeling: one the one hand, thanks to the strategy followed by this local NGO, people who formerly could not afford a system have now been handed the chance to purchase one; on the other hand, in the long run it will prove to be difficult to pick up the pace without once more subsidising these systems and offering them at a price that is lower than the market can offer them. Now, I don’t want to criticize this system of subsidies to heavily, as the outcome in this case is still positive (without this NGO, hardly any systems would have been sold at market prices). But, it is clear that this strategy will only be sustainable, if it can include some aspect of market development. Through market development tools – organising suppliers so that they can buy in bulk, increased competition, setting up associations to lobby the government for a more beneficial legal framework – prices will inevitably drop and quality will improve. When market prices drop, so will the value of the subsidy, while the total price of the systems offered through the local NGO to the community shops remains the same. In the long run, the market price has become exactly this offering price, so that the local NGO is no longer required to provide financial support. Subsequent market price drops will then also result in real price drops, and inevitably an increased demand.

For this to happen, however, it is crucial that firstly, the local NGO has sufficient funds to go the distance, and that secondly, some form of market development is happening (be it by the local NGO or any other organisation).

Thanks for listening.

Your blogger, at your service.

Community Development

Hellow all,

I just returned from a 3-day trip to several communities in the proximity of Chimoio and Beira, to assess how people in the communities use solar energy, and what they use it for. A pictures says a thousand words, so in what follows please enjoy my 3000 word report.

Ciao

- A small business application: panel, battery, phone charger

- Charging a battery for illumination.

- Reparing/testing solar modules.

Take 2 spoons of Pride. Add milk. Stir. Enjoy.

See what I did there? I took the recipe of the chocolate Nesquik milk I drink so often these days (addictive stuff, I tell you), and replaced ‘delicious Nesquik powder’ with the word ‘pride’. Why? Well…

Firstly, because I finally managed to get myself behind my laptop, and write something decent for a change (referring to my post on the Mozambiquan informal economy below). I’m happy to share with you that I’m currently contemplating writing a short piece on servicing the needs at the Bottom of the Pyramid, but probably not before the end of the week as I’ll be on a field visit for two-three days as of tomorrow.

Secondly, I have finally taken some pictures of Chimoio, so you can all now see where it is that I live (mainly pictures of streets, but still).

Enjoy!

Ate a proxima (still learning more and more Portuguese every day J)

luc

It's the informal economy, stupid!

Last year, I read some books and articles on the mystery of the informal economy, where products are being sold and/or traded outside of the (formal) economy. During my stay here in Mozambique, this whole concept has become clearer to me, being confronted with it and dealing with it on a daily basis. The informal economy in Mozambique is responsible for a large share of the total value of transactions of goods and products; in fact, it is safe to say that a large chunk of the population depends on this informal economy.

But what is it exactly? The most obvious aspect is that it is ‘not formal’. Contrary to the formal economy, the informal economy consists of transactions performed and products sold by non-registered and non-licensed actors. These actors are running non-registered shops, and are therefore not paying the taxes that their registered counterparts are. Prices in the informal economy are therefore often lower (compare the registered supermarket, with prices on the market or in the stalls) if competition allows for it. On the other hand, when competition is lacking, margins are often several times higher than on the formal economy where some form of social and governmental monitoring exists – e.g. you will not find high margins on the sale of tomatoes, as competition is high for this product, whereas lending capital is a transaction where competition is often absent, so that margins can skyrocket.

Informal vs formal?Because prices are lower in the informal market, demand for these products is relatively high, resulting in an increased motivation for actors to either stay informal, or become informal. At first glance, there doesn’t seem to be much that would advocate a switch towards becoming formal. Still, being/becoming formal has its advantages: you can set up a registered business, and consequently own the land on which your shop is situated, which is then protected under the rules and laws of the nation; as you own property, you can bring it in as collateral when applying for a loan (this applies to regular bank loans; microfinance institutions work differently); as you pay taxes, you can subsequently benefit from tax benefits, social infrastructure (registered shops are on the main street, informal shops are more often located on markets or street corners), and some form of protection – at least everybody plays by the same rules.

It looks simple: a general switch form informal to formal economy would boost government revenue from taxes, which could then result in higher public spending and more investments in science and technology. In the end, the actor benefits from better infrastructure and better long term prospects.Clearly, this reasoning is flawed, or at least missing some aspects. For starters, in the short run there are definitely significant margins to be made and profits to be reaped in the informal market. Moreover, a lack of confidence in a governments ability (capacity) or willingness (corruption) to increase public spending when tax income increases, provides a further stumbling block on the path to formality. Thirdly, overly bureaucratic systems tend to make it very difficult for actors to become and then stay formal, as Hernando de Soto clearly points out in his book ‘The mystery of Capital’ by labeling the assets the poor possess “dead capital”. (Dead, because their assets are worthless, as they are not valued on the market (e.g. a shop built on land that is not owned, so that they cannot bring it in as collateral for a loan, and moreover that they could get kicked of that piece of land basically overnight) Finally, and crucially, the actors in the informal economy often do not have the same capacity as the formal actors in similar transactions. Forcing them into formality would therefore result in them being completely outcompeted by the more experienced and better trained formal competitors.

The informal economy has often been linked with (relatively) poor quality, and because customers knew this, they bought goods on the informal market while accepting a poorer quality for a cheaper price. Bigger investments such as TVs and solar panels were then bought in licensed and trusted shops, where warranty and after-sales service influence the decision making process. Over the last few years, however, the informal market has gradually expanded its reach into these somewhat bigger types of investments. It is therefore not surprising nowadays on the markets and in the bancas/barracas/stalls to find TVs, solar panels, and car parts on sale.

All in all, you would want a country’s informal market to decrease relatively compared to its formal counterpart, combined with a government that is both capable and willing to maximize the potential of the added (tax) revenue. However, the divide between informal and formal is becoming more and more unclear.

To be continued.

p.s. While I do not fully agree with the views of de Soto, his book ‘The Mystery of Capital’ does provide for a very interesting read.

Picture time (2)

Hellow all,

I’m back. Back in Chimoio after a successful trip to Maputo, back online, back in the rhythm. Back in general. Unfortunately, Chimoio shops have the quite annoying habit of closing either entirely in the weekend, or just opening up for the Saturday morning rush. Same for the internet café I’m currently at, catching up on emails, work, and news. Therefore, just a short message today, although I have once more included some pictures taking during my trip to Maputo and its surroundings.

Wishing you all the best, all the way from central Mozambique.

Ate a proxima,

Luc

- Studying Portuguese, and enjoying a well-deserved Prince-biscuit!

- Concert/award show for African artists. Location: Maputo.



- World Cup frenzy, featuring Mozambiquan roadside view.

Must read - 10 min of your time required (how can you say no to that?)

Happy Friday, everyone.

I recently came upon this short piece from Dani Rodrik, in his monthly column on the Project Syndicate website. It will take up 10 minutes of your time, but I strongly recommend you to read his latest entry on protectionism in the Western world, and the importance of social welfare systems. For me personally, Rodrik remains one of the best authors in the field of political economy, and I definitely look forward to his next books and articles.

Enjoy: http://www.project-syndicate.org/commentary/rodrik36

I hereby conclude this week.

Have a great weekend,

Luc

Election day + more pics

Ola!

Election day in Mozambique, and there has reportedly been a big turn out. Results will be made public near the end of the day, when the polls close, though the wait for official results could take up to two weeks.
For more info: http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/8329125.stm

I'll keep you posted on how things proceed here, though for the moment the capital Maputo feels like a Sunday in Europe: everything is closed (except this internet cafe i'm relaxing in).

Some more pics...:

- One of the many, many, MANY campaign cars of the ruling FRELIMO party, strong favorite to remain in power after these elections.

- I have it from a good source that "Hakuna Matata" means: 'we don't sell/have potatos here', in the local language Shona (spoken in parts of Mozambique and Zimbabwe). I'm learning so much here!

Picture time!!

Hey all,

back in Maputo after a 20h bus ride! As requested, I have added some pictures taken in the past week during some field trips. Sorry for the low quality/small size. It was all that this internet-windows pc combo would allow me...

Election day in Mozambique tomorrow, so I'm gearing up for a really quiet and relaxing day, to finally catch up with all the mails and phone calls I still have to return or reply to.

But for now: tchau (Portuguese/Mozambican version of 'ciao'... am i the only one who finds this odd?)

- Old abandoned church in Manica, 45km west of Chimoio (close to border with Zimbabwe)

- Railway in Manica, or what is to become the heart of the Beira-corridor (linking the harbour of Beira with Harare)


- Old rock paintings, several 1000 years old.

More pictures will follow soon, when the universe allows me to upload them.

ciao

soon...

Hang in there people! Only couple more days, and then I'll be back in Maputo, where the good internet lives.

Luc

p.s. Keep sending those mails, though :) miss most of you a lot, and can't wait to see you in London in 2 months time!

The blog is back… with a vengeance!

Hellow all! Guess who’s back? Second attempt to post more regularly on my blog! Why haven’t I posted more often or sooner? Laptop problems, settling in problems, and other problems… BUT there is light at the end of the tunnel, and I’m pretty sure it’s not a train coming in the opposite direction. At the end of this week, I’ll hopefully have secured a place to stay, while my laptop worries have been taken care off for the moment.

So, what have I been up to lately… After a management meeting in The Netherlands at the end of September, I flew back to Mozambique, to kick start activities here. So the past few weeks have been mainly about getting things in order, getting to know the country a bit better, setting up and holding several meetings, and learning more and more Portuguese everyday.

I’m going to leave it at that, but as requested, in my next post I will put up some pictures of the cuteness and smallness that is Chimoio.

Ate a proxima

Luc

A View on Development

As you all know, I recently graduated from an MSc Development Management at the LSE (that is to say, I took all my exams and handed in my dissertation). I am now in Mozambique promoting the use of solar technology and solar systems in the off-grid rural areas, but during one of the painfully long bus journeys from one city to the next, I started to ponder a bit about what I have learnt in these past 12 months, and how it related to what I saw on the road. A summary:

What is development for me?

In the short run, if we can talk about short and long run, the first item that came to mind was infrastructure, in the broadest possible sense. This undoubtedly includes an established transport system, but also the less tangible but equally important technological network access (i.e. precious internet et al).

It looks easy at first glance: how can you ever have transport of products between cities (or as it is called nowadays: ‘trade’) if there is no road or rail to link these cities together? So first order of business should be to make sure the country is ready for an expansion of rail and road traffic. Equally, building harbors and ports to deal with shipping transport can be one of the main points of action on the domestic agenda.

Obviously, and unfortunately, it’s never this simple. Yes, good road condition is important for intra-city trade and consequently economic development (big leap, I know), but how can a government justify spending millions on that one bridge while half of the population are living on less that a dollar a day and are heavily malnourished? It can’t.

Governments therefore have to cover some middle ground, and try to maximize investments in infrastructure and economic development with the allocated funds, and spend the rest on welfare programs, food supply, sometimes housing, and another hugely important factor: education.

This brings us to the long run. In the long run, I see education, education, and education as the key factors. Development has to come from within the country, and educated people will bring in new ideas, new business opportunities, new growth possibilities. Moreover, this will create a positive spillover effect on the non-educated, who will be able to benefit from these new opportunities (to a lesser extent, granted). I see education as a long run factor, because while the investments in it should be made asap, the returns will not become visible within the foreseeable future.

The case of Mozambique has confirmed the importance of these factors for me. Mozambique is apparently the 7th poorest country in the world, and has a life expectancy of about 40y. The country has been developing at a rapid pace, though development has not only been constrained to within the cities, it has remained limited to one city: i.e. the capital Maputo. While this is somewhat of an exaggeration - cities like Beira and Nampula are definitely growing in importance and status, both domestically and internationally - the contrast and gap between Maputo and Beira, numbers one and two in size, is astonishingly huge.

This contrast however does not even compare to what can be found some 10km outside these development-hubs: a whole lot of nothing! Outside the cities, people live in small villages (for lack of a better word) - with patches of tens of kilometers of nothingness separating them - with no access to electricity, never mind running water. The globalization wave has seemingly overlooked these people, with the odd sign of Savethechildren or World Vision and the millions (seriously!) of yellow and blue painted shacks of mCel and Vodacom the only apparent link with the cities. What is present, is a road in good to excellent condition, though how much this actually is worth if you still have to walk a couple of hours to reach the next village... it even adds another dimension of danger to their lives (see my entry from a week ago!).

On the health issue, even more worrying than the high HIV/AIDS numbers, are the complete absence of flyers and general health information available to the public.

At first sight, Mozambique looks like a country on the up, and even a prime example of how one should develop. A second look however, has taught me two things: firstly, development has started in the cities and has as of yet had little to no effect on the rural off-grid villages; secondly, the development that has happened, is for a large share foreign in nature. While Maputo is rapidly becoming a big and healthy city, most of the profitable businesses are owned by the Chinese, Indians, and South Africans. So while the country of Mozambique is enjoying the benefits of the globalization wave in its cities, the question remains of how much of the wealth that is created actually remains within the country, which could then be used to help exactly those people that are currently being bypassed.

Now, I do not pretend to know everything about Mozambique, and I’m basing this entry on what I have seen and heard over the past month, so please do let me know if you disagree.

Regards from Nampula, 3rd biggest city in Mozambique, with an internet connection that works most of the time. The power has just gone down for the umpteenth time, so I’ll guess I’ll call it a night.

luc 

New Lonely Planet Cover (rest of pics coming at the end of the week)

Cross-Mozambique

Friends, family,

After having spent the majority of last week in a Toyota 4x4 – Mozambique is HUGE – I have finally found some time to log on and update.

Currently, I am in Ilha de Moçambique, a small UNESCO world heritage island of a mere 3km long and a max width of 500m. Some amazing pictures (including one that should become the cover of the next Lonely Planet for Mozambique) will follow once I am able to log on with my own laptop, probably at the end of the coming week once I’m back in Maputo. For the first time in basically two weeks, I have some spare time on my hands, and can enjoy my Saturday relaxing and reading a book, updating the blog, making plans for the upcoming week.

Tomorrow, I’ll go back to Nampula, 3rd biggest city in Mozambique, where I’ll start doing some work for a couple of days. I will then make my way back in stages until I reach Maputo, probably by the same time next week.

Internet time is precious, so I’ll keep it short for now.

Ate logo

Luc


p.s. I have recovered from the mental shock of the tragic accident I witnessed last Monday (see previous entry). I still think about it multiple times a day, but have been able to place it in my head. I will carry it with me for the rest of my life, of that I am sure. But I am here now in Mozambique, trying to make a difference for these children that are currently walking the side of the road from one village to the next.

Monday, August 24th

Yesterday I was over the moon: dissertation was finished, and I was looking forward to learning more Portuguese, driving to Beira, travelling around the country.
Now, a mere 24 hours later, I’m sitting in front of my computer, and have no idea what to think or what to do. I have no words for it, cannot talk about it, cannot place it. So I have tried to write down the events of today.

We were just 2 hours out of Maputo, around half past 6 in the morning, and were making good progress by following a big bus on the roads that are still in good condition. It had rained the night before, so the roads were still damp. All of a sudden, the bus, with us driving some 50 metres behind, started swerving while taking a weak high speed corner. Aquaplaning. The bus driver clearly tried to correct the first swerve, but overcompensated and the bus flipped the other way around, going round two times and snapping an electricity cable before coming to a halt on its side in the area next to the road.
We stopped the car immediately, and when we got out people were already climbing out of the vehicle. We briefly talked to one of the passengers who got out safely (wore seatbelt!), and only then did I realise the real horror of the crash: while flipping around, the bus had hit several people that were walking next to the road, including two children. Halfway between us and the wreckage of the bus, lay a small body on the ground. The other child was under the bus, we were told.

The police arrived 10 minutes after, along with all the inhabitants of the village. We drove off shortly after, as there was not much we could do. I was horrified, was feeling sick, and my legs were trembling.

The crash happened 12 hours ago, as I write this, and I have replayed the accident in my head at least a hundred times over. My euphoria for finishing something as trivial as a dissertation has been scattered by the harsh reality of everyday life in Mozambique.

While I write this down, I still see the bus swerving, the wreckage, the dead body, both villagers and passengers next to the road in shock and crying. The child was 6 years old, I think. I’m not sure whether it was a boy or a girl.

My head is spinning, mind in overdrive. I think I’m still somewhat in shock. The 24th of August is a day I will never forget.

I miss you all.

Luc

Just in: Blog and Luc are BFFs again!

Forgiveness!

This has been way too long! But as is to be expected: I have my reasons :) I always do.

But all that matters is that my blog clearly needs me, and I need my blog. End of story, nothing more to it.

All is well here in Maputo, though moving to Beira up North tomorrow morning. My dissertation has now been uploaded, which means that a huge weight has been lifted from my shoulders. Now it's back to regular working, and evenings filled with Portuguese classes! I can't wait! (actually, i do look forward to it)

Short message for now, but updates will come almost daily now! Yes! I take it you are as excited as I am? Good :)

For now:

ciao!

your blogger, back in service

Hi everyone,

Today I visited Maputo in true tourist-style, although I did manage to use some of the Portuguese I've been learning (they understand me, now I just have to learn to understand them!).

I've added some pics just so that U, my trusty reader, can feel almost as if you were actually walking besides me (if u so wished, obviously). The last pic is already one of my favorites: globalisation works, doesn't it?

Enjoy; more updates will hopefully follow in the week, when I actually start working!

Boa noite

Maputo... meet Luc!

Boa tarde!

I have arrived in Maputo, Mozambique, for my next adventure! The real adventure, and the job that goes along with it, will only start on Monday, which means that I will spend the next two days browsing through Maputo markets and just getting the general feel of the city.

More tomorrow (internet permitting)

luc

LDN 08/09

With the next adventure starting in less than three days, I decided to browse through my London-pictures once more, and upload a selection. No explanations, no stories... just pictures.

Next stop, Mozambique. See you there!

luc

Português, dissertating, and preparing: life can be awesome

Hi all,

It’s been a while since I posted something here, as I have been extremely busy these past two weeks. And the upcoming 14 days will not be any lighter…

14 days. T-minus 14 days. And then the Maputo-experience will commence. First up however: learning Portuguese and finishing a dissertation. The dissertation should be fine – I have made a strict schedule, some 750-1000 words a day – so I hope to have it finished by the end of the month. It’ll be dull, it’ll be annoying. But it’ll be done. Learning Portuguese on the other hand is really interesting and fascinating. I have bought an Assimil learn-it-yourself pack, to have some basic conversational skills upon arrival in Mozambique. I have just started learning and reading through the book and listening to the conversations, and actually feel like I’m making progress every minute.

On another note, the artist formerly known  (and still known actually) as Luc made his final farewell tour in London the past weekend. Suffice to say that this past year has been nothing short of brilliant, and all thanks to the wonderful people that have crossed my path. Without them, I would for example never have had the wonderful Ecco experience (great pizza, so cheap, really good pizza, really!), or heard about our very own ‘White Tiger’ (honestly, good book, about India, really interesting, almost as good as cheap pizza).

I’ll miss you guys a lot, though we will meet again. September 2011, write it down. Marriage, Luc style! 

A la prossima 

luc

P.s. Congratulations are in order! Siddy Webb (or Darth Accountancy if you wish) is a graduate now. Sidd, you make us all proud!

Mozambique, here I come!

Rejoice! The blog finally has purpose :)

Rather than giving you all brilliant insights and sharing with you my 'ideas' (despite the mocking), I always intended to start up the blog to keep you all up to date on my whereabouts and activities. I always expected to end up after this LSE degree gaining hands on work experience in a developing country, and as most of you by now will probably have heard/read: the time has almost come for me to do just that!

As of the 1st of August, I will be living and working for at least one year in Maputo, Mozambique. I have started to learn some basic Portuguese sentences and grammar in my spare time to be able to make my way around Maputo, although 'spare time' is not really the appropriate term to use to describe this or the following weeks.

On another note, this means that my London adventure has almost come to an end... but don't despair: the upcoming weekend both Jasmien and me will be in London once more, to party, give hugs, play football, and much much more.

A bientot, mes amis (I would write this in Portuguese, but unfortunately I only know hello and the numbers...)

Boa noite,

luc

Escape from the Dungeons, and Panda vs Bear

Wait wait wait, don’t jump to conclusions! I hear you coming from a mile (or 1.6 kilometres). A Belgian guy writing about dungeons? Nothing good can ever come from this…

Nothing like it! Let me burst that bubble immediately by telling you that the dungeon is only the nickname of the study area in the halls I’ve been living in for 10 months now. Good times, study times. A very loyal dungeon-crowd. A zoo at times. Panda vs Bear.

I’ve recently moved out of Bankside halls, and will strangely enough miss both the dungeon and the 7^th (ghost)floor. And the people too.

A toast:

to Banksiders, but especially to the dungeon. Live long and prosper. See you in a next life!

 

Where to go from the End of the Line?

I went to see ‘End of the Line’ yesterday, and I must admit I was pleasantly surprised with the outcome of the documentary. I was expecting a straight out attack on multinationals and Western consumerism – probably biased by the majority of the documentaries I have seen over the past few years – but was pleased to find that the movie addressed multiple aspects to the problem rather than singling out one.

In short, the documentary addresses a classical “tragedy of the commons” problem, where a free market does not lead to the best possible solution in a common good situation (in this case: the ocean). People would rather ensure they have more now than risk having nothing in the future because everybody else has already taken action. Result = depletion of natural resources!
In fish terms: while it would be better in the long run if fishers would catch less fish, so as to ensure sustainable fish populations and sustainable income generation in the long run, fishers will catch more than they need now, because if they don’t somebody else will.

Back to the documentary. While the extinction of certain types of fish was still front and centre throughout the documentary, it did not fail to at least mention the societal impacts of the fishing industry both in the developed as in the developing world. The riots of the fishers that were soon to be out of business after the Canadian anti-cod charter (1992, I believe) being one example, and mentioning the dependence of Senegalese fishers on fishing activities being another.

The documentary ends with a summation of the results Charles Clover and his team managed to obtain: one restaurant no longer serving an endangered species, another mentioning the fish is endangered in a footnote on the menu, and UK celebrity-chef no longer using or referring to bluefin tuna in his books or shows.

While these results definitely deserve a mention, I found them to be a quite meagre conclusion to an all in all interesting documentary. It does not really provide any tangible solutions – with the exception of the expansion of marine reserves, which currently amount up to 0.6% of the global fishable area – and this is where it’s main weakness can be found.

What it failed to address especially for me (this is my development background speaking) is that unless we can provide fishers and fisheries with a better alternative –so as to incentivize them to (voluntarily) decrease their fishing activities – the current situation cannot be reversed without a huge blow to society and economic growth opportunities, especially in developing countries. In the developed world, these negative externalities could in theory be incorporated in the price through more elaborate regulation and permits, hence increasing production cost and consumer price, ergo lowering consumption and subsequently supply. In the developing world, where the majority of people already live under the $2-a-day barrier, this type of measure can not be efficient (in part also because of the lack of developing country government regulation and enforcement), as long as their livelihoods is as dependent on fishing as it still is nowadays.

In sum. Must see? Not really. I was happy I did, as I don’t really have a background in fishing or extinction of fish. And it was interesting to find out that Mitsubishi owns around 60% of the bluefin tuna business. But aside from some “ha, I never knew that about fish!” moments, it left me hungry for actual feasible solutions.

luc

Explaining globalization through soccer!

Dani Rodrik is a professor of International Political Economy at Harvard University, where he teaches in the prestigious MPA/ID program. As a regular visitor of Rodrik’s blog, and following up on a recent talk Rodrik gave at the LSE, I came across a wonderfully light yet ingenious short piece written about a year ago, in which he describes the current globalization dilemma in terms of football (soccer).

An overview of the key points:

1. European clubs have loosened restrictions, and players from all over the globe are indeed being traded and sold as if they were mere commodities.
2. This increase in mobility has undoubtedly increased the earnings gap between African stars plying their trade on the European fields, and their fellow citizens back home; this type of inequality, however, is not necessarily a bad thing, as it can be a Pareto-optimal outcome (some are better off, nobody is worse off).
3. New regulations are being proposed to limit the number of foreign players in any team, and imposing minimum quota on how many home-grown players should be in the first 11.
4. Domestic leagues, both in Africa as well as in poorer areas in Europe, are suffering and seeing a mass exodus of talent. Ergo, the domestic league does not benefit from its own talents, and has no tools for keeping the talent within national borders.

Rodrik then comes to a highly interesting conclusion, arguing that the most successful clubs and national teams will be those who can combine the opportunities presented by globalization with strong domestic foundations. He gives the example of Egypt, the most successful nation in the history of the African Cup of Nations, winning the latest edition with only 4 of the 23 players playing in Europe (arguably their star players), and a backbone of home-grown players more familiar with Egypt’s style of play. Compare this to Cameroon, who only had 1 domestic player on the teamsheet… but still made it to the final).

Rodrik concludes: “What sets apart the Chinas and Indias of this world is not that they have laid themselves bare to the forces of globalization, but that they have used those forces to enhance their domestic industrial and productive capacities.  The benefits of globalization come to those that do their homework.”

How do you UYDO?

I’m currently involved with a young UK charity, UYDO, which stands for United Youth Development Organization. As Finance Manager, my main responsibility is to safely manage your donations, and ensure that the transfer of the funds to the local organizations and entrepreneurs we want to help happens as efficient and smooth as possible. 

This is however not a shameless call for donations. On the contrary! We don’t want your donations today! (this is obviously a lie: please donate!!) I just wanted to provide you with some information on UYDO.

UYDO gives young people the opportunity to break the poverty cycle by helping them create opportunities for themselves. UYDO does this by raising funds which are then provided as a loan and combined with business training and mentoring programs. In the meanwhile, UYDO works alongside the entrepreneurs to assist them in starting up successful businesses. 

More than anything else, UYDO stands for youth action! Young people from all around the globe can join, participate, and contribute to the UYDO cause, whether it is as a designated fundraiser, a shouter on the website, or as part of the executive committee.

Enough for now. I’ll definitely provide regular updates here, but do check out the website for more info. We intend to launch the pilot project within a matter of weeks!

Join, support, follow. How do you UYDO?

luc

In the beginning, there was... the Blog!

I’ve long been toying with the idea of starting a blog, and now that I have finally finished my last exam ever (though never say never, right?) I have some spare time on my hands. 

Why a blog? As you’ll all probably know, Luc does not equal ‘local’. I take any bets on people who can predict where I’ll be in 5 years time. Or even in 3 months (though have stopped taking bets on ‘cleaning houses in Senegal’). With this blog, I can keep you, my precious reader and probably something similar to a friend*, both informed and entertained on my whereabouts and activities.

The blog will include:

• Updates on my progress in making it in the development sector
• What is Luc doing these days?
• Book/article/conference reviews
• Ideas
• General trivia, links, and nonsense

Happy one day anniversary for my blog!

À la prochaine

luc

* I owe this wonderful phrase to M.Magini (2009)