Agricultural and Applied Economics—Without Apology
PBS’ NewsHour posted a link to a photo essay about how rising food prices have hit a small Indonesian town.
Looking at the last picture, I am reminded that it was Indo-Malays who left Indonesia around 1,000 CE, sailed around the Indian Ocean, and decided to colonize Madagascar. The meal that Indonesian family resembles many of the meals I have eaten in and around Ambatondrazaka in 2004, when conducting fieldwork for my dissertation.
(HT: World Food Programme, via Twitter.)
“My experience taught me to approach philanthropy and nonprofits with skepticism, and to believe it what there is evidence for, not only what I see, what I believe, and what I think.
Somehow, despite the significant impact of the education and experience, the philanthropic values given to me by my parents remained the dominant influence.
It’s hard to teach children about philanthropy. It’s even harder to teach children how to ‘do good.’ I know many 50-year olds who are still trying to figure out for themselves how to ‘do good,’ and very few people can even agree on the best ways to ‘do good.’
So let me say this instead: teach your children to BE good. Teach by example. Educate them to think critically. Expose them to the world.”
(2021 Update: Holy buckets, this 10-year-old post is getting a second life thanks to the PBS documentary, but the links were dead. I’ve re-upped them for the curious. — Marc)
If so, the Kansas City Star has put online an old version of its style guide, which Ernest Hemingway said were “the best rules I ever learned for the business of writing.”