An informed and excoriating attack on the tragic waste, futility, and hubris of the West's efforts to date to improve the lot of the so-called developing world, with constructive suggestions on how to move forward.
William Easterly's The White Man's Burden is about what its author calls the twin tragedies of global poverty. The first, of course, is that so many are seemingly fated to live horribly stunted, miserable lives and die such early deaths. The second is that after fifty years and more than $2.3 trillion in aid from the West to address the first tragedy, it has shockingly little to show for it. We'll never solve the first tragedy, Easterly argues, unless we figure out the second.
The ironies are many: We preach a gospel of freedom and individual accountability, yet we intrude in the inner workings of other countries through bloated aid bureaucracies like the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank that are accountable to no one for the effects of their prescriptions. We take credit for the economic success stories of the last fifty years, like South Korea and Taiwan, when in fact we deserve very little. However, we reject all accountability for pouring more than half a trillion dollars into Africa and other regions and trying one "big new idea" after another, to no avail. Most of the places in which we've meddled are in fact no better off or are even worse off than they were before. Could it be that we don't know as much as we think we do about the magic spells that will open the door to the road to wealth?
Absolutely, William Easterly thunders in this angry, irreverent, and important book. He contrasts two approaches: (1) the ineffective planners' approach to development-never able to marshal enough knowledge or motivation to get the overambitious plans implemented to attain the plan's arbitrary targets and (2) a more constructive searchers' approach-always on the lookout for piecemeal improvements to poor peoples' well-being, with a system to get more aid resources to those who find things that work. Once we shift power and money from planners to searchers, there's much we can do that's focused and pragmatic to improve the lot of millions, such as public health, sanitation, education, roads, and nutrition initiatives. We need to face our own history of ineptitude and learn our lessons, especially at a time when the question of our ability to "build democracy," to transplant the institutions of our civil society into foreign soil so that they take root, has become one of the most pressing we face.
这本书的翻译是场灾难,以至于我脑子里竟然蹦出来“诘屈聱牙”这个我十年没用过的成语。 “亚的斯亚贝巴的城市市场上非洲最大的露天市场。这里不缺市场。我到该市场去给孩子们买手工艺品。” 这种翻译灾难现场处处可见,我几乎看到一个高中生英语水平的译者拿着一手稿子一手词...
評分现在在英国上学。看到了稻草人在这本书下的评论,有感而发。 稻草人的“阴谋论”虽然有点浓,但确实是关于援助一种批判思想。我说的不是中国学界,而是西方学界自己认为的。类似观点还有《援助的死亡》,最近比较火的。认为由于机构本身存在维持自己生存的动因,援助国援助也是...
評分我是先看同事的英文版,然后得知出了中文版,欣然购之。 这本书的小标题是《为什么西方的援助总是收效甚微》,作为一个发展工作者来说,很希望知道作者是如何谈的,看有没有什么我,或者中国可以借鉴的。 读完后,我觉得这本书写得太学术了。因为作者只看到了问题的表面,或...
評分这本书的翻译是场灾难,以至于我脑子里竟然蹦出来“诘屈聱牙”这个我十年没用过的成语。 “亚的斯亚贝巴的城市市场上非洲最大的露天市场。这里不缺市场。我到该市场去给孩子们买手工艺品。” 这种翻译灾难现场处处可见,我几乎看到一个高中生英语水平的译者拿着一手稿子一手词...
評分我是先看同事的英文版,然后得知出了中文版,欣然购之。 这本书的小标题是《为什么西方的援助总是收效甚微》,作为一个发展工作者来说,很希望知道作者是如何谈的,看有没有什么我,或者中国可以借鉴的。 读完后,我觉得这本书写得太学术了。因为作者只看到了问题的表面,或...
William Easterly
评分之前看瞭幾部影片(《血鑽》《戰爭之王》《盧旺達飯店》)順藤摸瓜找到這本書,和預想的差不多,不過不能隻談市場低估甚至忽略政治,否則你無法解釋波士頓人為什麼非常樂意去非洲死媽
评分當年的Lecturer是Racist或Bigot
评分還是這種暢銷書口吻的教材比較容易閱讀進去。主要內容還是比較top-down 的計劃和企業精神。
评分之前看瞭幾部影片(《血鑽》《戰爭之王》《盧旺達飯店》)順藤摸瓜找到這本書,和預想的差不多,不過不能隻談市場低估甚至忽略政治,否則你無法解釋波士頓人為什麼非常樂意去非洲死媽
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