I was out at dinner in Tamale the other night, and I was surprised to see our server wearing a shirt printed with the slogan "Love = Love". I wondered if he knew what it meant. Most t-shirts purchased in Ghana (and much of Africa) are second-hand, and originate in the U.S. or Europe. The fact that many people are illiterate-- or unfamiliar with American catch-phrases-- can make for some interesting matches between t-shirts and wearers. A friend of mine once saw a very elderly, very traditional man in Kenya sporting a t-shirt with the phrase, "Fuck me, I'm in a Rock Band". I decided to ask the server about it. He admitted that he hadn't understood it when he bought it, but he continued to wear it because it was a good quality shirt, even though he was embarrassed about the slogan. We assured him it was a good shirt and we supported the slogan. In Ghana, homosexual acts are a crime, at least between males. (The law is vague about whether this applies to females as well.) There is no legal protection against discrimination based on sexual orientation, and some politicians have urged people to inform on their neighbors if they suspect they are gay. Those arrested for homosexual acts are often subject to police brutality. (Ghana's laws have not succeeding in completely stamping out the gay community, at least in the most urban areas. I recently tried to attend Gay Night at a bar in Accra with some friends, but we were turned away at the door for not dressing well enough.) Today, four American states (Washington, Minnesota, Maine and Maryland) voted to legalize gay marriage. Wisconsin elected America's first openly gay Senator, Tammy Baldwin. I hope that these outcomes will encourage young people in Ghana to think critically about cultural norms, and to be tolerant of people who fall outside of them. Maybe if America can have a gay Senator, a Ghanaian can consider having a gay neighbor, or even a gay friend. I look forward to talking with my Ghanaian friends and colleagues about these election outcomes, and why they matter to me. (On the downside, although I support decriminalization of marijuana, I'm not looking forward to discussing legalized pot with every wanna-be rasta on Oxford Street...)
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Among non-American ex-pats, it appears to be a mixed bag. People seem to fall into three camps:
1. Those who care a lot. In the past 12 hours, people in this group have been posting on facebook about how late they stayed up tracking the elections, and congratulating America for a job well done. This group sees who the U.S. President is as important to global policy, including the tone of international discourse. 2. Those who care, but only for America's sake. This group tends to think the entire Republican party is bat-shit crazy. When the elections come up in conversation, they give the Americans sympathetic looks and offer up their home countries as residence options should Romney win. 3. Those who don't really care. This group doesn't really think who the U.S. President is matters much to the world, and doesn't have much interest in talking about the elections. One friend of mine has a blanket policy o Not Ghanaians. Despite the fact that Obama is pretty much universally liked, Ghanaians don't really see themselves as having any real stake in the election. I asked five of my colleagues, all highly educated Ghanaians who could name both presidential contenders, if they cared who won. All five answered, a little hesitantly, "umm...not really." They didn't see any difference in the attention or assistance Africa received with Obama at the helm compared with Bush. What do the numbers say? Here is U.S. foreign assistance appropriations for Ghana from 2006 to 2012: (foreignassistance.gov only gives data back to 2006, and I couldn't get the numbers to match up with Census Bureau data, which go back farther but are less current. If anyone knows how to reconcile the series, I'd love to show data for the whole Bush administration.)
Aid appears to be higher during the Obama administration. (The Census data suggest annual foreign aid of under $100 million a year for the earlier years of the Bush administration.) But wait-- how much of the Obama spending is actually the result of the MCC compact signed under Bush? Although MCC spending isn't trivial-- $457 million for the period-- USAID spending is still much higher, and over half of the MCC appropriations were in 2006. By my reading, Ghana was better off, in terms of simple U.S. dollar aid receipts, under Obama. These researchers mailed letters to wrong addresses in 159 countries (including the U.S. and Ghana), collected data on whether the letters were returned to the sender, and then looked at the factors associated with the letter return rate. Some fun findings:
"A developed country is not a place where the poor have cars. It's where the rich use public transportation." If the truth of this statement is not immediately apparent, you probably have never commuted in a West African city. Accra needs a lot of infrastructure improvements, but one thing it does not need are more cars. After work, I can run the two miles to my gym faster than I could take a taxi there. Traffic is similarly bad in Kumasi and Dakar, and is rapidly worsening in Tamale. Driving is no picnic in American cities, either. The difference? In American cities, rich people often choose to live in places accessible to public transportation, and their taxes and patronage support transit systems that benefit the rich and poor alike (even LA is getting on the bandwagon). In developing country cities, the poor take low quality public transit, such as trotros and shared taxis, while the rich clog the roads with their private cars and taxis. While roads in developing country cities could certainly be improved (I would love to see someone apply traffic light efficiency models to Accra traffic), the reality is there is limited capacity to expand current roads or build new ones in the middle of the city. Poor people are already taking public transport. That leaves one viable solution to traffic in developing country cities: getting rich people to convert to public transport. For practical and cultural reasons, this is an uphill battle. First, the main reason rich people use public transport in developed cities is not because they are altruistic, it is because it is faster and easier than driving. Accra currently has no public transit system that can rival the speed and efficiency of a private car. Considerable investment would have to be made in a rail or bus system with widespread coverage and efficiency in order to convince people to convert. Second, there is a cultural attachment to driving. Owning a car is a definitive status symbol in West Africa; taxi drivers are often confused when I, a person who apparently has the money to take a taxi, choose to walk. Improving traffic in Accra will require a commitment from the wealthy and elite-- both foreigners and Ghanaians-- to get out of their air conditioned Toyota Landcruisers and both fund and use public tran It's every bit as ridiculous as you might imagine, with a high fence (NO Photography) and expansive, manicured gardens.. When I arrive, the lawns have sprinklers going. (Meanwhile, the water hasn't been flowing in a lot of Osu, and people line up with buckets when their neighbours buy a tank of water, to collect a bit for bathing and washing clothes and dishes.)
I've made the mistake of bringing my backpack, which hasn't been cleaned in a while. All electronics have to be left at the security check. It takes me three runs through the x-ray machine to find my Kindle, two cell phones, headphones, scanner wand, and two mp3 players, all buried in the depths of my bag. After some discussion about the pros and cons of the scanner wand, I can go in. There are a dozen service windows inside a long, well air-conditioned room. Two windows are reserved for American citizens; they have an icon of a flag. The others are marked for visas (a picture of the capitol building) and immigration (Lady Liberty, of course.) I sign in at the window with the flag; I have some misgivings about whether scrawling my name on the piece of paper will actually result in anyone helping me, but I sit down and wait to see what happens. There is a flat screen television on the wall. While I wait, we see episodes of South Park and 16 and Pregnant. I’m not sure if the selection is intended to actually deter aspiring immigrants, or just give them fair warning. While I wait, the well-heeled (literally) woman next to me complains. She has been waiting an hour and a half to pick up her passport. It’s unacceptable. There is no water, even for the children, and they don’t let you bring in liquids. I wonder if she’s ever been to a bank outside of Accra, but I don’t ask. It turns out the sign–in system is functional. A young-sounding American woman periodically calls out names, pronouncing common Ghanaian names awkwardly. Kelly is 38 weeks pregnant and eating cake when my name is called; my German surname, with its proliferation of consonants that usually challenges Ghanaians, is pronounced perfectly. I'm here to add pages to my passport. I have no room for more visas, and I will likely travel outside of Ghana before returning to the States. The process is a big pain in the U.S.: you either have to make an appointment at one of only a dozen central passport offices in the country, or you can go to your local passport office, and wait a month while they send it to one of the main offices. Even with expedited shipping, the fastest it can be done is a week. I’ll have the pages added by tomorrow, and the fee is just the same. The whole experience--the efficiency, the relative extravagance, the culture on display (or lack of culture, depending on your views on MTV)-- really brought home the idea of the American Embassy as American soil. It’s almost literal, as if someone dug up a DC agency and plopped it down in Accra, and everyone who works there hasn't really noticed their lives just landed in West Africa. I like to imagine this is all an illusion, and when 5pm comes around, the entire staff passes around bottles of Mandingo and dances Azonto. Maybe they do. Ryanair's CEO was recently quoted as saying that customers should have to pay exorbitant fees for being stupid, after a woman complained about paying roughly $380 to have boarding passes printed for her family. The discount airline charges 60 euros to print a boarding pass at the airport.
What is a stupidity fee? Charging 60 euros to print a boarding pass is one example; extremely punitive charges on late credit card payments might be another. I would define "stupidity fees" as having the following characteristics:
So are they efficient? Cross-subsidization is not necessarily inefficient. However, I see three potential problems with stupidity fees: 1. People tend to overestimate their own intelligence and savvy, and therefore probably don't think they will fall prey to a stupidity fee. by underestimating the likelihood that they will pay a fee, buyers underestimate the cost of stupidity fees, leading them to accept deals they might not if they valued the cost more accurately. (This is an asymmetric information market failure.) 2. Because the fee far exceeds the cost to the supplier of the stupidity, the supplier has every incentive to encourage the stupid behavior. As a result the supplier doesn't have a good incentive to give consumers clear information about how to avoid fees, or create systems that help consumers avoid them. 3. The cross-subsidization may or may not be progressive. I see arguments for this to go either way. On one hand, those with more money may be more willing to pay fees in return for convenience, whereas those with less money may be more careful to avoid fees. If this is true, the cross-subsidization would be progressive. However, if the fee truly is a "stupidity fee", people who are less educated, or purchase the service less, end up cross-subsidizing more The London Olympics concluded today. For the first time, women were represented on every competing nation’s team, and the U.S. team had more women than men. Judo gold medalist Kayla Harrison talked openly about being a survivor of sexual abuse, and American soccer player Megan Rappinoe publicly announced she is gay. But these Olympics also demonstrated that we are still struggling with how to react when the people achieving these feats are women:
· Officials considered requiring female boxers to wear skirts. Are you kidding me? I am sure these ladies could kick ass wearing skirts, high heels, or the queen’s hat if they had to, but just because (some) women wear skirts doesn’t mean women need to wear them boxing. You don’t see anyone making male boxers wear cummerbunds. · US weightlifter Sarah Robles struggles to get a sponsor. The US top-ranked Sarah Robles had no sponsors and was living on $400 a month before the games, despite her athletic success and inspiring back story: she has Madelung’s deformity which means her ulna is shorter than normal and crooked, resulting in pain during every lift. She is now sponsored by Solve Media. Her lack of funding highlights the difficulties that athletes in more obscure sports face in finding sponsors, especially if the athlete doesn’t look like our typical ideal of beauty. · Hurdler Lolo Jones gets ripped in NYTimes for having too easy a time getting a sponsor. God forbid a female athlete should actually be good looking, controversial, and use those traits to drum up publicity necessary to get sponsorships and avoid living on $400 a day, though. Lolo Jones was the subject of a highly critical NY Times article alleging that her fame was due to looks and public discussion of her choice to remain a virgin, rather than her athletic abilities. While it would be great to see more coverage of her teammates who medaled in the event, she placed fourth—it looks like she was pretty qualified to be at the Olympics. It’s obvious that getting sponsorships relies not only on athletic performance but also on charisma, but it seems that female athletes get disproportionate criticism when they play the game. Lolo’s idiosyncrasies give her an unfair advantage in the media circus—but Ryan Lochte’s grill gets a pass. · Gymnast Gabby Douglas’s ponytail isn’t good enough. I sometimes don’t comb my hair in the morning. Gymnast Gabby Douglas, gold medalist in the women’s all-around, hits the floor to complete some of the most difficult physical maneuvers on the planet, and it’s a travesty that more thought, time and effort didn’t go into her hair. What, the U.S. gymnastics team didn’t want to hire Ronaldo to consult? · Will beach volleyball keep the bikinis? In a number of sports, athletes compete in minimal attire for the sake of comfort and ease of movement. When beach volleyball, whose traditional attire is obviously beach wear, allowed women to compete in more covering uniforms, an inordinate amount of attention was paid to which women would keep their bikinis. What should have been a simple choice reflecting weather and personal preferences would inevitably be viewed as a statement on gender, voyeurism, and the image of the sport. · IOC institutes policy of gender testing based on testosterone. The test would only be carried out if requested by the chief medical officer of a national Olympic committee or a member of the IOC’s medical commission. They have not published an acceptable level of testosterone, and the methodology has been criticized by some doctors, as some women simply produce high levels of testosterone. Some fear that gender testing will unfairly single out athletes who don't conform to tr Castor Semenya, a South Africa female runner whose gender was questioned three years ago and was subsequently cleared, competed and won the silver medal in the women’s 800 meter run. I returned to Ghana to find a country mourning the passing of its President, John Atta Mills. His unexpected death was unfortunate, and the nation has my sympathies.
The funeral is this week, and sirens have been a frequent sound on the streets of Accra, as government officials arrange funeral events and the Accra glitterati attend them. I heard a few sirens back in the States, where I was on vacation for a couple weeks. I actually found it jarring to see the sound accompany emergency vehicles. In contrast, in Ghana, sirens almost exclusively herald someone's motorcade, while emergency services are sparse and inefficient. With all due respect to the late President, I think that it is tragic that resources can be marshaled to clear the streets for dead important man's funeral, but cannot be scrounged up to clear the streets to get help to a dying ordinary citizen. I hope that when we hear the sirens associated with this week's-- and future-- motorcades, we take a moment to aspire to a Ghana where sirens are used to clear streets for the rescue of all people, not just for the convenience of important ones. Apparently all it takes is a coffee.
The LIBOR rate, or London Interbank Overnight Rate, is an index of the estimated interest rate commercial banks have to pay to borrow money short-term. It is based on estimates submitted by banks, rather than an actual market rate. It was recently revealed, mostly by Barclays, that over the past half decade the index estimates have been manipulated to benefit the banks that submit them. This has implications for consumers broadly, as many interest rates are indexed to the LIBOR, and similar indexes for other regions like the EURIBOR; for example, interest rates on adjustable rate mortgages are often defined as a base rate plus the LIBOR rate. |
About Liz
I have worked in economic policy and research in Washington, D.C. and Ghana. My husband and I recently moved to Guyana, where I am working for the Ministry of Finance. I like riding motorcycle, outdoor sports, foreign currencies, capybaras, and having opinions. Archives
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