29 march quicklinks

i'm too distracted for a theme right now, but you'll get a treat if you read all the way through to the end...

my friend suren is the lead singer of a pretty popular nepali rock outfit, karma band. he's in the states right now, and is performing it boston. check it out:

with that said, go because the concert should be fun, NOT to donate to japan. smarter, more experienced people than i have have already talked about why the rush to give to japan is a bad thing. in fact, the japanese government has restricted the donations it will take, so do your research if you want to give. while my parents were here, we were talking about what impact means, and i cited donations to japan as a major example of how donors need to stop getting what they think they want, and be educated about what is really needed.

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seriously, if you like telenovelas, you'll LOVE hindi serials. emily does a break down of her new favorite, where bollywood gets on the sexy vampire bandwagon. and if that's not enough south asian cinematic goodness for you, check out the truly glorious awkward bollywood tumblr [h/t the ajnabee].

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for those of us who can't get the basketball on tv (and have a robust nerdy streak), check out march madness for development economists and democrats vs. dictators.

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a view from the cave has a good critique of the nyt coverage of voluntourism. he's basically said it, but still... it's amazing. it's like completely different people wrote the introduction, which has the most glancing, lip-service note on the critics of voluntourism, and the actual description of the trips. for instance...
intro:

"But the idea of “volunteer vacations” has been met with controversy: many not-for-profits say that the logistics of putting people on the ground disrupt the flow of care, and that fly-by-night foreigners are stealing long-term jobs from locals. These eight organizations are challenging that perception."

and, later:

"Project Brazil places volunteers in the Rocinha favela in Rio de Janeiro for 15 days to assist at a day care center with children 6 years and younger. Community Development in Peru sends volunteers to build efficient traditional cooking stoves and work in a women’s weaving co-op near Cuzco."

[does incredulous double take]

for more voluntourism discussion, check out my friend david's article, published in the latest SINHAS, on "The Anatomy of Ephemeral Healthcare: "Health Camps" and Short Term Medical Voluntourism in Remote Nepal" [update: forgot it's not available online. send me an email and i'll see if i can hook you up]. seriously, homeboy spent eight months in humla. he deserves a medal.

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and in the latest from our corporate overlords...the US gvt bends over for GE, both the company and the crop varieties. i am not hopeful for the results of the wal-mart sex discrimination case, which gives the supreme court the chance to "keep up with the joneses", as it were, in terms of america's hottest two political trends of the year...whereby the only thing you can do more intensely than love corporate influence is hate women.

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on the bright side, there's always delicious, delicious pop music. trust me, watch this video. it's brilliant, and not even in a rebecca black so bad it's good kind of way:

17th march quicklinks

this week: scandal! mystery! but mostly... links that really grind my gears. featuring...

MISOGYNY!
...yet more victim-blaming in texas and elsewhere.
...so you think workplace discrimination is dead, and feminism obsolete?

POLITICAL EXPEDIENCY!
...yes, it's much easier to cut the $600 child tax credit than raise taxes on the top 1% of taxpayers who might make a campaign contribution, isn't it gov. snyder?
...i can't even think of something sassy, i'm so furious.

CORPORATE INTERESTS AND THE DESTRUCTION OF OUR HEALTH AND OUR EARTH!
...wait, you mean that your obvious cost-saving strategies in farmed meat production might have massive externalities that will be passed on to me? NO WAY.
...but, but... agrobiodiversity preservation and integrated smallholder farming systems aren't nearly so profitable!

INTELLECTUAL LAZINESS!
..."the Japanese have resources because they are rich, and it was their social solidarity that helped get them there". wait, say what there, easterly?

fortunately, i also discovered the good man project magazine, "a gathering place for thoughtful men with a conscience," which i suspect will be a soothing addition to my google reader.

11th march quicklinks: first, kill all the journalists

...not really. but many of the links i have from this past week have an element of critiquing the media to them, so i thought i'd pluck the low-hanging fruit, theme-wise.

totalitarian kitsch: i'm as guilty as anyone else of this particular offense. in light of the recent oppressive quashing of revolutions, the sometimes outrageously hypocritical responses to them, and the disheartening and infuriating revelations about US intellectuals' roles in the rehabilitation of dictators' images, can we afford not to re-examine the role that we, as media purveyors and consumers, have in downplaying the crimes of dictators by painting them as wacky but harmless, or even sort of adorable? the ajnabee has some thoughts.

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from bitch media, a guide to getting past the terrible, sensationalist coverage that too often characterizes scientific reporting, particularly on gender, race, and culture. [h/t christine]

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speaking of feminist media i enjoy, jezebel reported on the follow up to the DKE fraternity rape chant at yale, where they've done an admirable of committing to seriously looking at the university's culture and policies on sexual misconduct and misogyny. most of the post is the email sent from yale college dean mary miller, who deserves a LOT of credit for getting things rolling in a legitimate way. the fact that she was the master of my residential college (SAY WHAT? SAYBROOK!) and, briefly, my advisor, shouldn't invalidate it when i say that she is a feminist and general baller of the first order. i DO wish that the article had given more of a shout out to the yale women faculty forum, which submitted the original report with recommendations for reforming sexual misconduct policy at yale even before the DKE incident (full disclosure: i drafted it). but still. heady times.

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neelika jayawardane offers a very cogent, and rightfully indignant criticism of a newsweek "guide for seize-the-day types" on where to travel before the next revolution hits. as if the general premise weren't in pretty poor taste, and the descriptions weren't rife with essentializing Orientalist crap, jayawardane points out that the authors don't even seem to have a very good sense of the political situations they're commenting on. the description of nepal's current status is sparse and sort of unobjectionable, except for the sort of weird, historical non-sequitor about china, which didn't actually border nepal until the annexation of tibet (with whom nepal HAD fought several previous wars), at which point CHINA chose to close the border. [h/t blattman]

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and (one of) my internet crush(es), scott gilmore at PDT, has a serious gripe with selective coverage of kidnappings, and how that affects the safety of aid workers.

happy weekend!

awesome video day.

as if making up for the fact that i'm still writing a soul-burying USAID grant, teh internets (specifically jezebel) served me up two awesome videos to watch while i ate my lunch momo at my desk and tried to make sure our capacity building plan for local partners was adequately expressed in our impact logframe.

the first is actually pertinent to my last post on consciousness and reggae and hip-hop. two ten year old girls calling themselves watoto from the nile lay down the track "Letter to Lil Wayne".

"...a direct statement of justice from Watoto From The Nile. Growing tired and fed up with the constant degredation of Black women inside of Hip Hop music, they voice their views and opinions on this melodic track"

i already knew that old spice's BRILLIANT "the man your man could smell like" ad campaign was done without any CGI (except for the diamonds part in the first one, i think), but it was still really fun to watch this behind the scenes segment (additional brilliant marketing strategy) on the making of the new commercial.

 

the almost impossibly dreamy isaiah mustafa isn't the ONLY reason these are my favorite commercials of all time (except for maybe this), but let's just say i've never been so glad i learned how to do screen grabs.

desktop background, anyone?

#cantmakethisshitup friday

do you want to see the world? well, if you're an "ice cream processing specialist", acdi/voca wants to send you to lebanon for three weeks. please note, successful candidates will have "knowledge on making sorbet". new favorite RSS feed, or new favorite RSS feed?

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if you didn't think you could hate the Bieb any more, check this shit out:

In an interview with Rolling Stone, Justin Bieber said, "I really don't believe in abortion. It's like killing a baby?" Asked about cases of rape, he added, "Well, I think that's really sad, but everything happens for a reason."

"i really don't believe you know what you're talking about, justin. it's like, let's talk when you hit puberty?"

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on the formation of the new nepali cabinet:

Sources close to Khanal and Dahal said that though differences between the two coalition partners on some lucrative ministries remain unresolved, there has been an agreement to allot the Ministry of Home Affairs, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Peace and Reconstruction, Ministry of Law and Ministry of Forest and Soil Conservation to the Maoist party.

 "LUCRATIVE"?? man, if there's one thing i like about the nepali government, at least they're open about their rent-seeking. real talk, right there. (update: oh, the maoist's are backing out, anyway. SHOCKING.)

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i was wondering what had happened with this story. looks like pakistan's getting a little frisky with the definition of the term "diplomatic immunity".

links and apologies

massive grant writing shenanigans, planning my parents' mid-march visit, and the fact that the brief but heavy late winter/early spring rains are making their presence felt though my bedroom ceiling means that i've been a little busy, but here are some quick/fun links. awoohoo!

today, in "your new imaginary internet boyfriends", ta-nehisi coates is dreamy:

Every day women choose to do the hard labor of a difficult pregnancy. Its courageous work, which inspires in me a degree of admiration exceeded only by my horror at the notion of the state turning that courage, that hard labor, into a mandate. Women die performing that labor in smaller numbers as we advance, but they die all the same. Men do not. That is a privilege.

working at peace dividend trust would be so so cool, mostly because i would want scott gilmore as my boss. read these two rants about the down sides of volunteering overseas (notwithstanding his snarky crack about teachers in the second post). then read this post about hug-an-orphan tourism at good intentions are not enough.

the excitement over the upcoming bryan adams concert in ktm mounts. crowd control makes me a little nervous, despite reassurances from the authorities (or maybe, given that it's nepal, given the reassurances). also a friend and local musician, smriti bajacharya, is quoted here. yes, she is just as adorable as she sounds.

also in local news...wtf? either this guy is the nepali chuck norris (without, presumably, the unfortunate politics), or someone accidentally re-printed the synopsis of a bollywood movie.

and now a video that involves two of the things that give me the greatest joy: jay-z and cats doing weird shit. (and speaking of videos, if you voted for me for world traveler intern, thanks so much! if you haven't had the chance, i hope you can take a sec and "become a fan" of my video application)

feb 9th quicklinks

another linkdump! because they're fun... and i sense a theme coming on...
from oktrends, the okcupid stats analysis blog, and just in time for valentine's day, the best questions for a first date. using the user-generated match questions, they tell you how to find out things like your date's religious, political, and sexual attitudes by asking seemingly innocuous questions that correlate strongly to certain answers on the big, but potentially inappropriate questions. for instance, if you want to know if you're getting laid that night, ask your date if they like the taste of beer. if the answer is yes, you have a 60% better shot. also, points awarded for being probably the only stats website that gets away with this line: "in the post-apocalypse, THERE ARE NO SECOND DATES."

however, not all of us are so bound by social constraint (or, y'know, um, sensitive to social convention). things that i, for one, would be THRILLED to discuss on a first date (hey, hey, see what i did there?), include...

our all-time favorite criminally insane heads of state
dear charles taylor's lawyer: if i had made a habit of handing in term papers 20 days late, i would have failed out of college. if i submitted grants 20 days late, my NGO wouldn't be funded. i'd have to check, but i'm almost positive law schools aren't so hot on that shit either. so, what, exactly, did you think was going to happen here? love, molly

granted, when it comes to sheer bat-shittery, he's no muammar gaddafi or kim jong-il, but i think turkmenistan's kurbanguly berdymukhamedov is starting to show some real promise.

talk nerdy to me
seriously, let's order another round and bag on the quant hegemony in americanist political science. if you manage to pull out your own zombie-based parodies of major academic disciplines, you're probably getting lucky, but i'll settle for world-weary discussions of failures of knowledge in the afganistan war, or the perverse incentive system that structures the development industry.

why we love the obamas
 reason #48547259

terrible tv
don't get me wrong, i am a BIG fan of mediocre television programming, but i actually meant the absurdly offensive advertising campaigns that have cropped up recently, from the girl store to groupon to pepsi. because, i, for one, spent $160k on an education, the most striking effect of which is that i can't watch things like the superbowl or disney movies without getting frothy with indignation.


...but then again, there are reasons i'm still single.

...and speaking of self-promotion!
emily put up a nice post responding to my question about generationally different perceptions of agricultural labor in nepal and india.

also, if you voted for me in STA's world traveler internship, thanks so so much. if you haven't, it would be just swell if you took a second to check out my video. become a fan (the button's shoudl be to the right of my photo and bio, but some people have had problems) and/or leave a comment to help impress the fine folks at STA, and, if you like it, feel free to re-post, tweet, email it, or whatever social media the kids are dancing to these days. thanks bunches!

feb 7th quicklinks

i'm not really so much for "coherent thinking" today. it's just not that kind of monday for me. so here's a collection of random links that i've enjoyed in the past couple days.

alien tort statute jurisprudence continues to evolve. particularly liked this: 

"Chief Judge Dennis Jacobs, part of the September panel that ruled for Shell, wrote that the original ruling "has no great practical effect except for the considerable benefit of avoiding abuse of the courts to extort settlements [from corporations]."

 oh, y'know, except for that whole accountability for the gross violation of human rights thing. have no doubt that this will go poorly if it ends up in the supreme court...well, "poorly" assuming you value human life and social and environmental justice, and you sort of resent the way that increasingly powerful international corporations crap all over the same for the sake of grotesque profit and even more so the way the roberts court actively helps them do it.

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emily writes about the health and environmental impacts of quarrying in rural himachal pradesh. she notes that given the opportunity, people still express a preference for the polluting, unhealthy quarry work over traditional agriculture and husbandry, even if they could make the same amount of money. there's a possible additional factor that she didn't bring up in her speculation on the reasons for these preferences. in nepal, anyway, there seems to be a stigma associated with traditional agricultural and husbandry livelihoods among the younger generations. even when other factors might make agriculture a more viable option, it is viewed as undesirable and "backward" to continue the backbreaking labor of your parents' and grand-parents' generations. i wonder if this has an impact on what emily's seeing in india. regardless it's another example of the tension between progress and social and environmental welfare in developing countries, and the question of how much those members of the international community who benefited from the former without concern for the latter have the right to regulate it.

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this is an old one from sociological images that i missed. it basically calls out avatar for being liberal guilt porn that should in no way be taken as a critical post-colonial narrative. i still haven't seen it, but i'm glad i can go into my next movie night with some pre-loaded righteous indignation.

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oh my GOD do i miss good beer....

....almost as much as i miss electricity for 14 hours a day.

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i didn't think it was possible for my crush on ted leo to get any bigger...but there ya go.

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feb 14th: get in on flashmob kathmandu.

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stars on NPR's tiny desk concerts: come for the unplugged version of "fixed" at 3:25; stay for the jokes about tote bags at the end.

today's quicklinks

from find what works, what i think is the first really constructive discussion of celebrity advocacy in development and humanitarian aid. this smart, even-handed post actually breaks down the reasons behind the endless outpouring of snark from the development and aid blogging community over the like of bono and george clooney's satellite sentinel project. i particularly like that he admits that celebs are unlikely to get out of the advocacy game any time soon, and that the challenge is to channel their efforts productively. i agree with his major recommendation:

Maybe one principle would be that celebrities should only advocate for coalitions, rather than for specific projects or organizations. Celebrity endorsement can spark donations and political action from the general public, but I’d like to see that energy directed by a group of issue experts who have to come to some kind of consensus, rather than by whomever George Clooney happens to know. On a similar note, another principle might be to have celebrities advocate together for general issues, rather than carving up issues and competing for the public’s attention. Another principle would be to always encourage further education, in addition to action.

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this story is not good, no matter how you slice it, but i thought it was interesting to see how different news sources from different countries write their headlines about the same incident. i always have (sometimes frothing at the mouth style) fun analyzing western foreign press coverage of stuff in this region.

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and unrelated to development OR south asia, imma let my geek flag fly and also pimp out a friend who's an aspiring writer in LA. on his new blog, he takes a semi-randomly generated collection of eight images off the internet and uses them as the basis for short exercises in gritty, often futuristic genre fiction, reminiscent of neil gaiman and, to a lesser degree, books like david mitchell's cloud atlas (both personal favorites of mine). show him some love and check it out.