What Can I Do?: Making a Global Difference Right Where You Are Review

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What Can I Do: Making a Global Difference Right Where You Are Review
When hearing about crises in our world, many people ask "what can I do?"David Livermore answers this question in great detail in "What Can I Do."
Livermore explains that we are all in this world that God created and that we can share in resolving its problems. Poverty and inadequate health care, for example, exist throughout this world and our small individual effort can improve matters. Livermore believes that God intends for all of us to prosper and He invites each of us to help remove the barriers that prevent others from benefitting from creation's bounty.
First, Livermore details the problems. There are huge dilemma in this world that he discusses, many worsened by economic imbalance or prominent people who lust for power. He mentions crime, poverty, illiteracy, lack of access to healthy water and food, chronic diseases, and inadequate medical care. Usually when we hear about these difficulties, it is in news releases about people in foreign countries that lack our privileges and wealth. Often the only action mentioned is to send money. Livermore believes that there are significant actions we can each perform.
The author tells us that we each can make a difference. All too often we focus upon the entire puzzle, the world view, or distant cultures. He suggests that if we concentrate on small actions we can make a difference. Can I help with this one person? What slice of time can I devote to a solution? What little thing can I do?
Livermore provides his specific advice to business leaders, scientists, technologists, health care professionals, artists, and teachers. He also mentions how each of us can influence children - be role models, spread loving attitudes and bolster youthful confidence. Such influencing of children is essential for increasing involved people in the future.

He offers a detailed inventory to help individuals discover their talents and skills and access how they can get involved by using those skills in the community. People who work the inventory honestly (and maybe with help of people who know us), may discover gifts that we have yet to develop and use.
"What Can I Do" is much like a well written essay and is easy to read. The advice given is useful to anyone who wishes to become more involved in living their faith. I recommend this book.What Can I Do: Making a Global Difference Right Where You Are Overview

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Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works Review

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Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works ReviewMy sister had left this book on top of the living room table, and curious to the solutions presented, I decided to take a look.
The author is an economist, but he has gained a lot of knowledge from working on this issue. As such, you can't really compare this to a social science textbook for college, but it made for a stimulating read at the start, finding out the problems that the world's poor face.
The structure of the book is straightforward:
1. The nature of the problem.
2. Specific elements that cause poverty.
3. Case studies of successful organizations that addressed parts of #2.
4. What you can do to get involved.
#3 was thin and muddling at some parts, because the author's professional background seemed to incline him to get technical, as opposed to narrative, and there wasn't a big of a contrast to the success stories that organizations had for other poverty issues.
But on the whole, the book was a fine read for someone who has never been exposed to these type of issues. If there is a better book, I'm sure it will rise to the top. The price could be a few dollars cheaper and I would be completely satisfied to buy my own. Also, it seems to have a picture of the Great Depression for the cover, which the book doesn't get into at all.
Lots of links and resources at the end to get involved. A book that's worth the time and effort.Ending Global Poverty: A Guide to What Works Overview

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Does Foreign Aid Really Work? Review

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Does Foreign Aid Really Work ReviewRiddell has done an excellent job to update his earlier work - Foreign Aid Reconsidered (a seminal work) to include the massive changes in aid that have occurred in the past 20 years, especially the shift to NGOs.
His depth of knowledge, both firsthand and theoretical, of development is clear from the very start. It is clearly a very, very well researched book.
The question he aims to answer is obviously huge, and he makes it quite clear that there are no yes/no answers. He deftly avoids over-generalizing, but does an incredible job to work with the limited and biased data that exists on development.
The greatest strength of the book is really as a massive, 500 page literature review. He is able to sum up, in a very readable way, the major debates on development's efficacy. In the end, he presents a very well thought out normative set of suggestions on how to fix many of the problems he highlights about aid - a refreshing piece of concrete steps (which he admits readily are only the framework, and subject to much debate). Yet I think it's very important to point out that, despite his catchy title, this is not your run of the mill, "How to End Poverty in 10 Years With MicroHydro" book. This is a scholarly work that looks at all aspects of aid, even though it seems aimed at a wider audience. There are no easy answers, but Riddell's analysis is penetrating.
Overall, its an excellent piece of critical development scholarship, and comes highly recommended for anyone interested or involved in development, from NGOs to academia. He plows through the numerous, unfounded myths that go both for and against aid through detailed reasoning and evidence. He avoids the trivial, surface level problems and goes straight to the systemic contradictions of aid.
If I was to sum up the message of the book in a few words - and answer the question of the title - it would be that, to Riddell, aid is working, but not nearly as well as it could.
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7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores the Changing Face of War in the 21st Century Review

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7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores the Changing Face of War in the 21st Century ReviewPreviously I reviewed the original edition, with only 7 scenarios and concluded that while Krepinevich's scenarios deserved careful thought, the desired reaction (more toys, tools and troops) also unwittingly created additional trip wires that would possibly involve the U.S. in a major confrontation while spending money we don't have. In this new edition the author adds another, eighth scenario involving the loss of Afghanistan after the U.S. removes the bulk of its forces. Unfortunately, by the time I got to #8, I was tired of the other 7 and their predictable pattern. More importantly, the scenario was not convincing, and I not only don't understand why we're in Afghanistan now, I'm even less concerned about what happens after we leave.
Bottom-Line: The U.S. military and Homeland Security spend at least 2X the proportion of GDP of the rest of the world, combined, on defense, and we're still not secure. It's time to figure out what we're doing wrong.7 Deadly Scenarios: A Military Futurist Explores the Changing Face of War in the 21st Century Overview

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Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development Review

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Poverty Capital: Microfinance and the Making of Development ReviewThis monograph by Ananya Roy is a critical look at the range of institutions that have evolved to profit from poverty - each with their own vision and version of it. It has become a big business for wide ranging governmental and non-governmental organization that include imperial and international power brokers, banking and financial institutions, intelligence organization, evangelists, and of course the sharks that smell easy money. The basic formula is simple: In most cases, the initial risk is borne by the good-hearted donors, and then subsidized or passed on to the government agencies in one form or the other. The managers make the profit from the money raised as charity or on 2% interest rate is the loaned out to the poor at 12 to 96% yearly interest rate. Charges of predatory lending practices are not uncommon. In short, what started as microlending has been institutionalized for microcredit, microbanking, village banking, microfinancing, and other forms of profit-making enterprises.
Hardly anybody can remain unmoved by the glossy photos, heart-warming narratives, and sound-bites of efficiency offered by organizations that manage poverty. They do not tell the whole story as I discovered during my visits to some of these organizations that I had supported. After listening to the business models of the poverty experts in the five star hotels, now I am not a supporter of such groups. They speak of poverty but not for the poor. When and what is said depends very much about the motives that are nearly impossible to untangle. Such messages are very competently articulated in this critical monograph.
The basic issues of poverty are lost in the complex portrayals and models. About three decades ago Yunus of Bangladesh articulated that the poor can realize their economic potential with micro-credit. A loan of about one hundred dollars to a poor woman can provide a source of livelihood and the extra income is reinvested by her in the welfare of the family. From such humble but clearly articulated beginnings the poverty alleviation has become a multibillion dollar business - reaching almost a trillion by some counts. Numerous models have emerged in the guise of micro-financing, micro-banking, and self-help by capitalizing on the savings and financial services. The trend is clearly towards recouping the cost of the investor's money at a decent rate of return.
A major shortcoming of such methods is their focus on the market and banking mechanisms to create value. The fiasco of failure of such models as admitted by Allan Greenspan brought down the global economies to its knees. The snake oil of this failed model is now being sold to the poor and innocents.
The history of human prosperity suggests that value is created by technologies coupled with social and economic awareness in the local context of the people they serve. As is clear from this book and other accounts there are very few organizations with such a focus. Meanwhile, a desirable business model for sustainability should use local capital. Locally distributed interest would create local jobs - rather than the managers who live in the big cities. Of course beyond that the value created locally (product or service) may go out.
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