[Reader-list] Follow-up on the Blackberry story

[Patrice Riemens]

from the BytesforAll list
(start from bottom up)

---------------------------- Original Message ----------------------------
Subject: Re: [bytesforall_readers] Shekhar Kapur: A Blackberry addict
discovers grassroots enterprise in India
From:    "Vickram Crishna" <v1clist at yahoo.co.uk>
Date:    Tue, September 14, 2010 14:57
To:      bytesforall_readers at yahoogroups.com
--------------------------------------------------------------------------

John, Fred, Lee, and of course everyone else who finds this story such
good fun:

There is some sort of essential disconnect in the way money works (today, and
for an exceptionally long time, perhaps rivalling the age of civilisation
itself). Mr Kapur may have paid the two boys, say, by sending them to
school, or
some other form of goods or service meeting some need of theirs he could have
elicited by more discussion between the three of them, instead of giving them
money. We would then have found ourselves in even more of a dilemma. For if
money does not flow, then our economic measuring systems refuse to accept
that
value has been created or exchanged.


In years gone by, this hardly mattered, since there were no 'transparent'
economic measurements. Indeed, rulers prided themselves on being above such
things - that was part of the privilege of being born noble, or grabbing it
through the exercise of violence, instead of being a ~moneygrubbing~
peasant or
trader. Now that most of the world is democratic, we are all above such
things,
and take pride in both ruling and knowing something about money.

Today, in fact, the world's economic wheels are greased by sophisticated
measuring systems. Tiny eddies in money flows create global panics, and
worthy
seminars are organised in response where many wise things are said. What
we fail
to measure is that value is being created and exchanged in many places,
but not
being measured at all. Knowledge is being created and shared between many
small
groups of people, but we have no way of finding out about it, except when
someone chooses to blog his 'eureka' experience (which wasn't even possible
until this decade). Therefore, we fail to assign a monetary value to it,
thereby
condemning vast swathes of the world to grinding hopeless poverty. This is
nowhere more evident than in India, not even in parts of Africa, from where
heartrending photographs of kwashiokor-ridden children keep getting
circulated.


In India, we have the dilemma of a thriving economy, vibrating and
growing, full
of enterprise and globally important companies, even several among the
world's
richest individuals, some of whom are first-generation wealthy, while all
around
us the overwhelming majority of the people are caught in the jaws of 'chronic
poverty', with very little to genuinely call hope that this will change in
any
foreseeable near term.



I may not have 'qualified' as an economist, but I do enjoy the writings of
Paul
Krugman, Amartya Sen and Joseph Stiglitz, all three of whom have (in receding
order) been awarded the Nobel Prize in Economics, which must count for
something. All variously complain about the disconnect between 'real'
value and
our perceptions of it, and what is more, our manner of dealing with it.


I have no idea when someone will start listening, and start fixing the
structural problems.


Vickram
http://communicall.wordpress.com
http://vvcrishna.wordpress.com


>
>From: john.lawrence <john.lawrence at undp.org>
>To: bytesforall_readers at yahoogroups.com
>Cc: fredericknoronha at gmail.com; jhai-development at googlegroups.com
>Sent: Mon, 13 September, 2010 15:15:41
>Subject: Re: [bytesforall_readers] Shekhar Kapur: A Blackberry addict
discovers
>grassroots enterprise in India
>
>
>Fred, thanks for a classic vignette which captures elegantly what so much of
>standard `development' misses... we all have these stories (mine concerns a
>broken lens in my prescription glasses, fixed so quickly and perfectly in a
>grubby bazaar backroom and at such an amazingly  low price that I took it to
>several New York opticians to see if they could find anything wrong with
it, and
>none could)...but along with those like myself who suffer from a chronic
western
>development ailment, I wonder about the policy implications;     informal
>sectors are alive and kicking worldwide,  but how should employment 
policies
>deal with this vibrant and spontaneous brilliance among so many young
>entrepreneurs, especially given the numbers (and needs) of those that
dont' have
>these competencies? the skills are amazing, and seldom formally taught... to
>meddle in that tenuous chain of informal learning is often to destroy it,
and
>trying to `clone' the example is also fraught with issues, not the least of
>which may be to threaten the proprietary comparative advantage of  the
>relatively rare resource... ! So what should governments do... just keep
hands
>off?  try to facitlitate platforms where such skills can be picked up ? 
offer
>awards for `best neighborhood services?'...
>kind regards, John
>
>John E S Lawrence  (UNDP consultant)
>Adjunct Professor, School of International & Public Affairs
>Columbia University, New York, and
>former Deputy Director, and Principal Technical Adviser
>Social Development Division, Policy Bureau,
>UN Development Program, New York.
>
>
>
>Lee Thorn wrote:
>
>
>>"From Blackberry repair to social change that works"
>>
>>Fred N., your story of the two young men repairing your Blackberry is
absolutely
>>wonderful!  Now, if all the folks like these two village young people
who have
>>great entrepreneurial ability, self-taught technical skills and
perseverance
>>networked together ... then the world changes for good!  And not a
moment too
>>soon.
>>
>>
>>We at Jhai Foundation just had a similar experience in Laos.  We were
working
>>with villagers to put in an integrated telemedicine/education/livelihood
>>ICT-enabled project in Phon Kham village, the village in which we put
the first
>>pedal-powered computer back in 2002.  We were stuck.  Nothing was
happening.  We
>>Jhai 'experts' could come up with nothing that helped.
>>
>>
>>The villagers decided to take matters in their own hands.  Leaders from
Phon
>>Kham Women's Association and the eight village Parents' Association had a
>>meeting with the district governor on their own.  They together
redefined the
>>project so that consensus could be reached. It is now a Parents'
Association
>>project with leadership from Phon Kham villagers, especially the women.
>>
>>
>>Villagers are doing their own room renovation.  They are doing their own
>>fundraising.  And they are doing their own sustainability training with
>>accomplished people we introduced them to, from the capital, Vientiane,
and from
>>a progressive village in Thailand just across the Mekong River.
>>
>>And what is Jhai doing?  We're sharing some equipment designed in India
and the
>>US and assembled in Laos.  We are representing our donors so that they
have full
>>accountability on their money.  And we are watching in awe.
>>
>>
>>Once the villagers succeed, they say they will tell all of Laos about their
>>model.
>>
>>The key in both cases, I think, is exactly what you said, Fred.  There
is a lot
>>of very valuable knowledge and entrepreneurial ability in very poor
places.  We
>>need to trust that and find that and help get these stories around.
>>
>>
>>And I believe the next step will be for folks like your new friends to
work with
>>and to cross-train with other folks in unlikely places.  This will allow
the
>>best synergy to occurs. There are plenty examples of this synergy in
India and
>>in places like Brazil and in movements like those for telecentres in South
>>America.  I believe once this synergy includes the poorest, brilliant
>>entrepreneurs,, it is unstoppable.  .  .
>>
>>And I am sure it will be great fun!
>>
>>yours, in Peace,
>>
>>Lee Thorn
>>Chair, Jhai Foundation
>>http://www.jhai.org
>>
>>
>>Lee Thorn
>>Chair, Jhai Foundation
>>www.jhai.org    .
>>
>>yours, in Peace,
>>
>>Lee
>>