Peace Corps Follows Me Wherever I Go...

I am not sure whether this is some kind of a random coincidence or it should have been expected, but I just found out that two of my teammates of the aforementioned fellowship in Armenia are former Peace Corps volunteers who I have apparently met (but can't recall, or rather can't put faces to the names) during my PC groupie days. My reaction, a mixture of surprise and amusement, is similar to that when upon meeting my current MA classmates during graduate orientation:

Where do Peace Corps Volunteers end up after they’re done with their two year service? Apparently, the SID program at Heller is the place to be – it seems like ninety percent of the Americans who are in the program (and believe it or not, they are a minority in an extremely diverse and colorful incoming MA student crowd) are returning Peacies. To take this further – what are the chances that you’ll meet one, let alone two of these amazing well-wishing, tree-hugging do-gooders that have just come back from your own country? Even more so, what if you even happen to have personally seen them on site? From the day one, when after being freshly inaugurated and sworn in, they crowded my favorite bar, making complete fools of themselves, I’'d stumble upon them throughout the year here and there in ever corner of downtown Yerevan… A former PC groupie that I was back in the day, while conducting series of interviews with them for my still unfinished project, I actually ended up befriend a few (they are, after all, charming, and adorable, and totally harmless). And yet, Brandeis was the last place I’d expect to run into a former Armenia stationed Peace Corps Volunteer – but then, it’s a small world that makes room for even the most improbable encounters to happen.

Apparently, the fat bastard was right: PC volunteers turn up in the darnedest of places when you look for them... even more when you don't... kinda like Armenians.

Question of the day

Should the efforts of the international community towards poverty reduction be codified as “hard law” in international instruments (such as treaties) or should they be more on the side of “soft law” similar to Millennium Declaration and Millennium Development Goals?

Now if you will excuse me, I have a few hundred pages of readings to do on sources of international law in order to build a valid argument in favor of either one of the options. Any suggestions are more then welcome, so comment away…

This Week in Development - The Impact of Economic Growth on Poverty and Inequality

Starring Dave Nicholson, an SID MA Candidate – in other words, a classmate of mine, who I think is absolutely brilliant (pronounced in British accent). The text below is one of the topics of our “discussion boards” based on a couple of recent studies on the above referenced subject:

Bob Sutcliffe. (2004).World inequality and globalization. Oxford Review of Economic Policy, Vol 20, No 1.

Dollar, David and Aart Kraay (2002) Growth is Good for the Poor, Journal of Economic Growth, Vol. 4.

As what seems to be the typical outcome in economics, the answer to the question of the growths impact on inequality seems to be....all together now....it depends. Bob Sutcliffe studied various methods of measuring inequality and found that different indicators could be used to generate different results. Without a reliable measure of inequality, the impact of growth is really tough to judge with any certainty, and therefore the impact of globalization is equally tough to measure. The only thing Sutcliffe can conclude is that inequality is very high right now, using the word “futile” to describe attempts to quantify it properly. If nothing else I admire his honesty.

In another study, Dollar and Kray seem to try really hard to obtain some correlation between current popular pro-poor policies and reduction in inequality (This observation is based on the fact that I understand little to nothing of what they actually did, but it sounds both impressive and time consuming). The conclusion they draw is that pure economic growth is the only thing that can be reliably attributed to increasing the income of the poorest 20% (don't tell Amartya Sen anyone!) They admit that this doesn't imply that nothing else has an impact, but merely that the contributions made by various policy and institutional factors may be too complicated to recognize in their “simple” study.

Trying to read their study led to the feeling that we were going round in circles; such a broad study was unlikely to identify singular important factors. I thought the Washington Consensus experience had taught us that the search for a blue print answer for all countries was “futile”, and that localized factors were always relevant in policy creation. Overall, we can conclude that we don't really know. Dejarvous anyone? Equiproportionately so.

The bottom line is – we don’t know, or at least, the attempts of such broad-based, cross-country studies to measure even a more complex correlation between growth, poverty and inequality leaves us with inconclusive results. Fried-pork, anyone?

For clarifications – Amartya Sen, a philosopher and economist who teaches, as said in Heller parlance, right down the road at Harvard. A Nobel Prize winner for economics in 1998, he’s famous, among many other works, for his book Development As Freedom – a self-explaining title that sees the true means towards development in enhancing freedoms and capabilities of people, whereas growth in itself does not necessarily contribute towards the end goal.

Washington Consensus – a set of ten market-oriented, neo-liberal policies that came out from Washington based institutions (World Bank and IMF) in 1989-1990, that were aimed at reducing the role of government and placed the emphasis on the markets to promote development. It was broadly implemented in a number of developing countries and yielded pretty miserable results. One of the lessons among the many from this particular experience was that there are, after all, no blueprint solutions to development that can be transferred from one country to another.

To Whom It May Concern: It’s a Thursday of no particular importance

And this blog is screaming for an update. But since there has been a lot on my mind lately, I am not quite sure where and how to begin. Except that maybe I should first spill out the unexciting news before I could move on to somewhat exciting ones?

So the non-so exciting part – it’s been veeery quiet on the job-hunt front, despite the fact that I keep applying away to anything that comes on my radar. Besides my recent rant and apprehensions on the said topic, the process leaves me with a feeling that I am compromising my own integrity. Not fun at all.

I had a mild freak out earlier this week due to what turned out (hopefully that’s the case) a minor gum infection that I thought was spreading at alarming rate to bring many serious consequences that would require surgical intervention. And since I am not covered by dental insurance, I was even more scared as to what to do about the situation. A trip to a physician calmed me down a bit, as I found out that surgery may not be necessary at this point and a good dose of antibiotics might do the trick. Also I cleared it with the said physician and my health insurance company that in case I do need a surgery, it would be billed as “medical” and not “dental,” which, in its turn was a pretty big relief. For once I should not bitch about the American health care system (yet).

On slightly more exciting news – I have been offered a ten week fellowship with a microfinance organization (that I have worked with for a couple of years in the past) to conduct a client assessment research in Georgia (country) and Armenia. Besides having a darn good reason to go back home this summer (and a trip is long overdue), I would gain a much needed research experience, get to compare data on two neighboring countries that share many political, social, cultural and geographic similarities and get to hang out in Tbilisi. Also, one of my classmates from Ukraine who I really like will be accompanying me in my Georgia trip. The downside of it is that the fellowship does not pay shit. Even more so, despite the fact that the said organization covers the living expenses in both countries, the cost of the trip is completely my responsibility. With continuously depreciating dollar airline tickets have gotten very, extremely expensive, so my ability to actually do the research will be contingent upon my being able to find funding for the said trip, along with several other factors that I won’t go into now.

Needless to say, I am excited about this fellowship. However, there are a couple of concerns that rise off the top of my head in case I do end up accepting the fellowship. For one, there’s the whole situation of depreciating dollar and appreciating Georgian/Armenian currencies that makes my already limited resources stretch rather thinly. Then, in case I do end up going to Georgia, I do not have the vaguest idea as to how in the world I will be able to communicate. I do not speak Georgian. Neither does my Ukrainian friend. We both speak Russian. You’d think that Georgians would too, given our shared seventy years of Soviet history, but due to current and not-so current political relations between the said two countries, Georgians are not very friendly towards the Russian speaking folk. And they refuse pointblank to speak Russian (or so I hear). There are quite a few people who speak English in Tbilisi but I doubt that a middle-age rural microfinance client would be fluent enough for us to be able to communicate. Although the flip side of it is that this might create some pretty hilariously nonsensical situations worth getting into. Or maybe not. All I know is that at this point I should hold off the excitement, since there is a whole lot more stuff that needs to be worked and figured out before I can wholeheartedly accept this offer. For now all I can say is that I really really want to go home…

On a brighter note: things that have been my source of amusement lately

• Watching grown men “unleash" their inner teenage rock star as they play Rock Band (an equivalent of Guitar Hero) for hours at a time. Makes me remember the days of my “youth” when [insert the rock band of your choice – in my case – Nirvana, post mortem] held the status of a deity, wearing torn blue jeans and multiple piercings was a statement equal to blasphemy (we’re talking Yerevan in early 90s) and obtaining the said pair of blue jeans that cost twice as much as my mother’s monthly salary was the biggest source of obsession.

• Mother Sugar watching democratic debates or the results of the primaries and changing her mind by the minute as to who to vote for. The current verdict – Hilary is a bitch, Obama is the man, look out for McCain and the world is coming to an end, fast, so it doesn’t matter anyway. As surprising as this may sound, I have been relatively cool about this whole election circus (I shouldn’t be, even if I don’t get to vote), especially since my beloved cute Southern boy (Edwards) dropped out of the race early on.

• Statements made by certain crazy professor(s) saying that “some of us haven’t read a book in twenty years,“ and that “if you are reading, you’re not thinking; if you’re thinking, you’re not reading.” Thus, if you want to keep thinking, put down the damn book.

• Remarks made by my classmate on my pessimistic attitude that go like:

Him: “Why are you so pissed all the time?”

Me: “I’m practicing on being a bitch.”

Him: “Trust me, sweetheart, you don’t need to practice.” Ouch.

• My African fan club at Heller and a certain skinny dude who keeps proposing to me to be his African queen, go with him to Nigeria and be his number one wife… When I tell him that he looks too much like my brother (both are skinny, tall, with big round heads and even bigger smiles), the guy standing next to him says:

“My condolences, brother. I am so happy that she doesn’t think that I look like her bother.”

Good to know that in case I don’t find anything useful to do with myself, I always have an option of being an African queen. I guess I should find out who the rest of the wives are going to be?

An ongoing rant on my utter ineptitude... or I went to Brandies and all I learned was that I don't know a thing when it comes to development

Despite a very strenuous week, the last few days of the week I was actually in a pretty good mood. Maybe it was because the weather finally warmed up a bit, maybe because I was done with my third module of the academic program, having only one more module to go. I finally figured out how to resolve the tangled issue of previously mentioned universality and cultural relativity when it came to human rights, wrote a pretty darn good legal argument about international law and humanitarian intervention, did a kick ass job on a presentation… Walking out of Heller early Friday morning, after having handed in yet another assignment I felt relieved, happy. The sky was blue, the sun was shining, the air smelled of spring… “Maybe I should give myself a reward, buy a sweater, maybe a new pair of shoes,” I thought to myself, as I walked home, looking forward to indulging myself in doing absolutely nothing for the rest of the day, possibly taking a trip to Boston on Sunday, to buy the said reward…

However, despite the good mood that finished off my week, I’ve been having a pretty lousy weekend, and that’s not simply due to uncooperative weather that made me cancel my tentative trip to the city and has kept me locked up indoors for the last forty eight hours. When one doesn’t have a whole lot on her daily agenda, one inevitably keeps going back to the reoccurring thoughts that might have been circling around one’s mind. And since close friends and family have gotten sick of hearing about my woes of late, I thought I would turn to my last resort and vent on this blog.

So, yeah, things that bother me right now – the same things that have been bothering two months ago, three months ago, maybe even longer… I am clueless as to what I want to do with myself after this May, when I am done with this semester. I am not sure what I actually can do come this May. All I know is that I am supposed to be at a practicum of some sorts. That can be an internship or an actual job, as long as it’s related to the field of interest, does not involve doing my own research and can serve as basis for writing my Master’s paper.

Here’s the thing though – on one hand I don’t have a quite clear picture of what I want to do. Or to correct myself – things that I want to do I am not quite qualified for (blame my weak background in econ and statistics). On the other hand, pretty much all more or less decent internships are unpaid. And the truth is, I cannot afford an unpaid internship. So I am looking for jobs. Entry level jobs in the field of sustainable international development that do not involve the aforementioned advanced stats and econ skills. And boy, is the process frustrating. I don’t think I ever mastered the whole art of self-promotion and selling myself thing. What am I supposed to say here? I’m smart, I’m smart, I go to a tough preppy school and get good grades, I’m smart, I speak three languages, I really care for the poor, I’m smart, I’M SMART, god damnit, now WILL YOU HIRE ME ALREADY?

So I am coming to realize that as respectable as Brandeis degree is, it is a pretty generic one to make you a specialist of anything in particular. International development is a pretty broad field that encompasses a wide range of disciplines from environmental conservation and sustainability to poverty alleviation, economic development, human rights, gender issues and everything else in between. But really, you’re not graduating as an ecologist or an environmental engineer to be able to really tackle the issues of the environment. Nor are you coming out being a human rights specialist – for that there are programs in law schools. If you want to work on economic development, then you’re gotta be – come on, take a wild guess – an economist maybe? Did I really need another reason to tell me that I didn’t make the smartest choice when I came to Brandeis?

Also, even the lowly bottom of the barrel entry level position of a program associate in any lousy DC NGO requires (and I’m not kidding here) FIVE years of relevant experience, on top of an advanced degree. No more or no less. Now, do you think that if I had five year’s of relevant experience with an advanced degree I would be applying for a job of a program associate? Give me a break already. I don’t think I have ever, EVER in my life felt more unqualified and … I guess, worthless and limited in what I can do. I do keep applying to anything from human rights advocacy to gender issues to small project management to micro-finance … everything that comes on my radar that I can be even remotely considered suitable. Perhaps part of the reason I feel so limited is because I do limit my search to one and only location of Washington DC (or Richmond, but no big market there), since I decided that I really do not feel like working overseas or any other spot in the States in the near future. Even if devil tells me to try to find a job back at home, the only thing that I’ve been able to find is a ten week microfinance fellowship (not long enough) and internships (paid) with USAID (require US citizenship that I do not have).

So back to the job hunt. A part of me has been entertaining the thought that in case I don’t manage to find something that is at least remotely suitable for my field and doesn’t require me taking out another huge student loan to cover my living expenses, my only other choice is to defer my second year – something that neither the boy nor my mother will hear about. And that, frankly, pisses me off. It’s one thing to be able to do what you want to do, it’s another thing to be able to afford what you want to do. Nor could I really afford this fancy education in the first place, especially since the more I think about, the more worthless it appears to be. And the whole chain of thoughts repeats again. Also, makes my kick-ass legal arguments and carefully composed papers seem completely pointless. Or maybe I’m worthless. And I have this lousy feeling as a proof for the latter. So much for buying a new sweater as a reward.

To Whom It May Consern: It's Twenty Degrees and Sunny. Sunday Afternoon

And I'm suffering through a paper.

Although most of the times my writing assignments are nothing more but a means of perfecting the art of pulling a paper out of thin air, there are those few occasions that seem to open a can of warms that I really don't feel like dealing with. Like universality of human rights and cultural relativism... Especially cultural relativism. Perhaps a good indicator I should not pursue a career in anthropology.

Don't you think it should work like this?

You have a desire, you dwell upon it, move with it, and presto, it manifests?

Or you have a huge question, you turn it over to me, forget about it, and ta-da, you just know. Me too. Which, actually, is exactly how it does work, Nika…

Cool, huh?

The Universe

You know who I really, wholeheartedly envy, Universe? People who know exactly what it is that they want and then go for it, without looking left and right, following it through and not changing their mind in the process. I remember a long while ago, one of my former bosses (now a friend) told me how you’ve got to figure out that it is that you want, figure out where you want to see yourself in the future, make a detailed plan for five, ten, fifteen years, then follow your plan one step at a time until you finally get there. Sounds easy, doesn’t it? Well, it really isn’t for someone as ambivalent and inconsistent as I am. Cause shit, if I had a nickel every time I changed my mind in the last ten and even five years, I would probably have a secured retirement plan under my mattress now and wouldn’t have to worry about anything else.

I was too young to have any kind of ambitions fifteen years ago beyond studying advanced math and physics in a cold room in candlelight, playing the piano five hours a day and nurturing whatever crush it was that I had for whoever it was that sat next to me in the class. Ten years, on the other hand, was long enough for me to come to the States for the first time, go back home, get accepted to a school I cared little about, take up swimming and deciding to quit school to become a swimming coach, quit swimming instead, then decide to quit school again so that I could stay at home and write, but getting a full time job instead while still in school, then decide to transfer from a language school to Florida Institute of Technology to study genetic engineering, getting the application all ready to go, then changing my mind, thanks to my biologist mom (who kindly brought up the issue of ethics – damned, it’s always the ethics that seems to get in my way). Then decide to get married instead. Get married actually. Think that it will be a good idea to become a yoga instructor. Never follow through with it. End my marriage. Go back home to Armenia. Decide to join the army of do-gooders. Apply to do-gooder graduate school. Get accepted. Move back to the States. Actually go to graduate school thinking that I know exactly what it is that I want to learn from there… Now a semester and half through graduate school it turns out that I know nothing about what it is that I want to learn from there… Ambivalence is truly a bitch, aint it? Does anyone happen to know if there is a twelve-step program for those wanting to recover from being inconsistent? Cause I will sign up right away, unless I change my mind again, of course.

You know who else I happen to envy more than anything else? Those who seem to be in what I call a perpetual Peace Corps age and mindset and will get a bag packed within a day’s notice to move wherever it is they think their next calling is. I thought that was exactly what I wanted – running around from one corner of the world to another, without having to settle down anywhere in particular. It would fit quite nicely with my inconsistent personality, wouldn’t it? Well, turns out that somewhere during my stay in Richmond while waiting to go to school I lost that mindset. Turns out, that one thing that has been consistent in the last couple of years is a sudden realization that what I need more than anything else is what I once called normality (see the previous post)– but is more along the lines of stability and security of having a place that you can call home, settling down, living a most ordinary and routine life one day after another… and actually being happy living such unambitious life.

So here’s a dilemma – on one hand I am more inconsistent than anyone I happen to know. On the other hand, all I seem to want is… consistency and stability in its most lackadaisical form. I could speculate at lengths that it is only logical to want something that you most lack… but given the circumstances, I am not sure if I can trust even that. So what was it that you were saying to me, Universe?

Around this time last year I wrote...

I keep telling myself that all I want is some sense of normality and a little peace of mind. But I stop right there without further questioning of what this normality entails. What exactly does it mean, normality, to me- this one, seemingly simple, and yet the most relative, subjective and changeable concept of all? Where do I draw the line, my own personal line, between what’s normal and acceptable and what’s not? How do I make my own definitions of uniform ordinariness? And why, why is it that this sense of normality is so important to me now?

Once I used to find comfort in a newfound realization of how similar we, as humans, are. And how much there is that we share in common. Made it easier for me to accept and understand myself and relate to someone outside of my skin; gave me compassion and tolerance towards others for merely being human... And being connected to every other human and not alone in our behavior patters, thoughts and emotions. It made me happy – just thinking about it. Somewhat relieved of unnecessary pressure of trying to be different, special in some way. Even remotely distinguished by something other than being just another human being...

But then, i can't help but question whether this is a cryptic way of justifying my complete lack of ambition or any kind of aspiration for not wanting something that would make me more distinguished than the person next to me. And whether this lack of desire is as humble as it may appear at first glance or simply a sign of laziness, as if by accepting my averagness I’m giving up the effort to be something more, something better – at least a better version of myself, if not distinguished.... but then, again, i ask whether there is even half as much comfort in this sense of distinguishness as there is in the ordinariness of someone who's humble in his own humanity…

What I want is simple. Ordinary. Uncomplicated. Real. Tangible. And not abstract. I need a sense of security, stability, a sense of being protected… some kind of confidence of being able to deal with whatever future may hold for me. Wanting a place that you can call your own, a place that will give you the protection you need and partially the sense of security. A need for a home… your own home- these are all simple and ordinary things, yet very concrete things to want and need… it’s natural for someone to want to have it, is it not? It’s normal, human… basic - is it not?

If it is so, then why is it that a certain part of me feels guilty, somewhat guilty, that by wanting and choosing those things I’m forgetting and leaving out something that might be just as important? Perhaps not as common and ordinary, but as equally important?

This Week In Development – Did Someone Mention Growth?

The Caucasian Tiger or what’s behind the pretty picture of Armenia’s economic growth.

During the last decade, the economy of Armenia has been showing steady growth reaching over 13 percent in the last year (see the graph below). The impressive growth of the country has been compared to that of East Asian Tigers in earlier decades, giving Armenia the name of Caucasian Tiger by the Word Bank experts.

For those interested in reading more about country’s “stellar” performance, current situation and further policy advice, check out The Caucasian Tiger: Sustaining Economic Growth in Armenia recently published by the World Bank (also available at Google Books).

Using some of the information from the book, as well as PRSP of the country, below find a very brief brief on the history of growth.

Armenia gained independence after the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991. The rapid transition from one economic system to another resulted in economic crisis due to the country’s lack of institutional infrastructure to function in market economy. At the same time, the country was still dealing with the still tangible aftermath of a devastating earthquake of 1988, as well as experiencing a large influx of refugees into the country from Azerbaijan due to the ongoing Nagorno-Kharabakh conflict. The country was in blockade, had shut down its main source of energy – the nuclear power plant and was undergoing a period that in economic terms was characterized by hyper-inflation, drastic increase in unemployment, liquidation of previously owned state enterprises, migration and emergence of widespread poverty among the population (55% according to 1992 estimates).

The country’s economy started showing growth in1994, when series of reforms re-established macroeconomic stability in the country and created favorable environment for economic growth. The average GDP growth from 1994 to 2002 was 6.68 percent, with a gradual increase to 13.4 percent in 2006 (see the graph).

Source: World Development Indicators 1990-2006

World Bank experts attribute this growth to successful implementation of “first generation” policy reforms that lowered the inflation and created macroeconomic stability which led to expansions of markets and growth of the private sector. Poverty dropped from 55 percent to 26.5 percent (2004 estimates). Large amounts of capital inflows into the country in form of official development assistance, contributions and private transfers by the Armenian Diaspora and remittances also played their part in the growth of the nation’s economy.

This doesn’t mean that the country isn’t still poor. The aforementioned book gives a detailed outline of what’s still wrong together with policy advice, similar to those outlined in country’s PRSP on how to deal with the existing constraints to the sustainability of growth, such as unemployment, unhealthy taxation system, still unstable business environment, poverty in rural regions, so on and so forth.

Now, those who are REALLY concerned about the state of the Armenian economy and the quality of recent growth, check out what independent experts have to say. Concerns raised in these posts appear to be quite legitimate - economic growth weakens, instead of increasing the competitiveness of the country's markets. It is unevenly allocated among the population - inequality between rural areas and the capital, where most of the growth is concentrated, is quite tangible. Most profitable imports are monopolized, after having been appropriated by state officials under names of “foreign entities” and there is virtually no foreign direct investment coming into the economy, contrary to belief.

It can be stated that everybody is content and no one realizes that were this dynamics to continue, in ten years this ‘miracle’ can turn into a real crisis, a true hell…

Make your conclusions at your own risk.

Speaking of consumerism - The Story of Stuff

Here's the first chapter of the story of unlimited consumption and what it can and is actually leading us towards to. The whole thing is available here.

Although none of the facts that Ms. Lennox brings here is news to me, it becomes pretty mind-boggling when all of it presented all at once. I glimpsed over the comments that were posted to this video on You Tube, and got even more astounded... Propaganda you might say this little number is, but I don't think you really need to have a college degree to grasp a simple concept that you cannot indefinitely run a linear system on a finite planet. It's as simple as that. Enjoy and feel free to send me hate mail.

From Trash TV to Trash Consumerism

In the light of the favorite collective pink and red holiday of ours, New York Time’s Critical Shopper Visits Victoria’s Secret.

Good ol' pimpin' gone corporate. Hilarity ensues.

Subtleties of eroticism can turn the banal into the fantastic, but Victoria’s Secret has not made its money by being subtle. Its apparent formula for mass-marketing fantasies is to turn the erotic into the banal.

Like a porn star with too many memoirs, Victoria’s secrets are pretty much overexposed at this point. “Ahh, whatever,” Victoria says. “Let me let you in on a little something, girls. You want sex? Hit the guy real hard with blunt sex objects.”

…

Mamas, don’t let your babies go to the Royal Academy of Pink. After all, one of the primary goals of parenthood, to paraphrase Chris Rock, is to keep your daughter “off the pole.”

There is a certain charm in directness, if it’s done right. I am concerned, however, that Victoria seems to be acting out feelings of low self-esteem through indiscriminate promiscuity.

Well, these are times when everything is turned into commodities. Sex sells. It sells quite well. But I guess there’s got to be a line somewhere before it does become a blatant promotion of … promiscuity. Nothing wrong with that, I’ll have to admit, but please don’t let the big guys make uniform choices for you and collect the proceeds in advance.

Source: Cintra Wilson (2008, Feb. 14). Chug-a-Lugging Aphrodisiacs. New York Times.

The love of flying

So lately I have been traveling a lot. And since my most reliable forms of transportation are my own feet and airplanes and because Richmond is nowhere close to being within my walking distance, lately I have been flying more often that I ever thought I would. Long live JetBlue, home of the most legroom in the couch. Besides befriending its whole entire crew, I am starting to feel more and more at home in the most unhomy places in the world, more precisely – Logan International Airport. The same would not be true if I was flying out of, say, JFK - a real nightmare with its perpetual mess of delayed flights and long waits on the runway, and having gone through New York on a couple of occasions, I have sworn to try, at any cost, to avoid this route, unless I am actually going there.

Getting to Logan is an adventure in itself that involves coordinating the flight schedule to that of the commuter rail, getting my usually oversized luggage to the train station, getting on the train, getting off at the North Station and catching a cab from the North Station to the airport. Had I been more adventurous and more concerned about saving money, I would have figured out even a more elaborate plan of changing several subway lines that would eventually lead me to my coveted destination. But since we’re talking ten-fifteen bucks, I find it not worth the trouble and end up chatting it up with drivers, who often happen to be from the motherland (read Russia).

So Logan International, terminal C. How would I ever guess that you’d become one of my most beloved places in the whole entire world? That setting foot past your security check-point would be as exciting and exhilarating as Christmas morning for a kid? Even TSA officers can’t help but notice how happy I look and stop me to ask whether I have just won a lottery and am headed for a grand vacation… Who would have thought that I would come to love your overcrowded food joints, overpriced Wonfgang Putz pizzas and mediocre Starbucks coffee that I get before the departure (the only place that I get Starbucks anymore these days)? Would I have ever guessed that you, of all places in the world, would be where I do the bulk of my school work, as I bide the pre-departure hours trying not to pass out from excitement?

I do love flying. There is something (please don’t laugh) overly liberating in the moment the plane accelerates before the take-off. There is something in that feeling of lightness that gives me a high when the plane is up in the air. Having weathered several trans-Atlantic flights, the short trip to Richmond feels like a breeze, as I leaf through my readings, draft outlines for papers or get my dose of trash-TV, while doing "splits and tap dance and even yoga." And when the pilot announces its initial decen, I get that pang in my stomach, as if the entire city of Richmond is there to greet me with balloons and fireworks and lots and lots of candy…

I have to admit that going back is always a little sad and not nearly as fun, but then going back always involves long lists of things that need to be done, school stuff taken care of, papers handed out, which make my days of Waltham imprisonment pass that much faster before my next trip is up. I leave the airport knowing not only that soon enough I'll be flying again, but that in the matter of a couple of more months I will be leaving Boston behind, if not for good, at least for a long long while.

Early Spring Break

After having written a record number of papers in the last few weeks, staying up too late and getting too little sleep, while simultaneously trying to juggle a world of miscellaneous tasks, I find myself all burnt up and in serious need for a break… which couldn’t have come at a more convenient time. All packed up and heading down South for an eternity of ten days that’s way too short to try and get enough of Richmond but long enough for me to wish that I had never moved up North…

Recently one of my fellow students asked me how things were going.

“Well, I’m seriously considering quitting school to go have babies…” I said, jokingly, not knowing what else to say.

“Really? You? Of all people?” she said with a wow on her face. “You’re always so passionate and dedicated and all over the stuff. Where’s the hope for me then?” The girl actually was NOT joking.

Needless to say, her comment made me think. But before I get to explaining where this quitting and babies business is coming from, I have to tell you how lunatic of an idea it is to look at me as a source of hope. Or motivation. Or anything else that has even a slightest breeze of inspiration. Ask the fat bastard, if you can find him - he’ll tell you.

Now whether or not I believe in development through the established institutional framework is something that I myself am trying to figure out. And trust me, there is nothing all that exciting or inspirational in the process. That there is actually a chance that I might, even for a moment, be perceived as anything close to passionate or dedicated when it comes to school is pretty hysterical. A more accurate picture would be: apathetic, pessimistic, I-don’t- really- care-cause- it’s- not- going –to- matter -either -way and can’t -we -go -home -now? Now add to that some chloric acid, soften it with a pinch of hopeless idealism, then spice it up with bitter skepticism and you got me. Now measure how far it is from the aforementioned passionate and dedicated. And then decide, at your own risk, whether or not you want to look at me as a source of … now what was it that you were saying?

The End Of The World - Happy Monday, Everyone

I'm pretty sure you guys have already seen this, but having watched this little number over six hundred times, I felt that I should give it a respectable spot on this blog. Assuming that we don't blow ourselves up, you Californians keep working on breaking off from the States, and I might change my mind to relocate to Mars to come and hang with you. Provided that you will have me, of course...

Currently reading...

As sad as this sounds, I have to admit that given the nature of my country of origin (i.e. darn underdeveloped) and my current field of interest (i.e. sustainable development), I never did, until recently, look into Armenia’s Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). For clarification, PRSP is a document prepared by governments of developing countries that outline macroeconomic and social policies and programs aimed at reducing poverty. After realizing the importance of government ownership for the development process, donor organizations (IMF and the World Bank) started requiring such documents as a condition for countries to be considered for financial assistance. They are, in a way, mega-proposals, although instead of grants countries receive loans. Follow the link to read more on these documents, as well as skim through the documents and respective country reports on your developing country of choice – they’re available to public both on the World Bank and IMF websites.

I won't get into the whole issue of whether or not PRSPs are a good idea and aren't merely a means of promoting certain controversial neoliberal policies (which I might write about next time I can't go to sleep at night) that the mentioned organizations seem to favor. Not to deviate from the subject of this particular post and getting back to PRSP of Armenia –reading this particular document drove me to the brink of tears, so beautiful and clear it was despite its technical nature, care and compassion dripping from each page. For a moment I thought that I had mistakenly clicked on the wrong thing and am reading a proposal to build some wonder land... There is a lot of things that I don't know about the government of my own country, but I can't believe that I missed the fact that it actually started caring about the poor and is concerned with human development, corruption or environment. From what I keep hearing, the poor are still poor, the rich are getting richer and unless I am missing something, the only strategy that is being pursued is that of fattening wallets on every possible level of bureaucracy. The fact that there's a document out there stating the contrary makes things kind of embarrassing. But then, there are quite a few things about the Armenian government that are embarrassing, so what's one more?

Boxed In

This week in development - this is what happens when you fail to acknowledge the importance of fried pork

In the light of a recent literature review that I had to do on the impact of aid on economic growth for an upcoming pointless assignment, I had a chance to review a few of the leading quantitative studies on the said topic. Without naming any of the names or going into great technical detail, here’s what we find:

STUDY A

Shows that foreign aid positively affects economic growth in developing countries. The study is based on modern economic growth theories, takes into consideration domestic savings, human capital and export and looks at 77 countries over three ten year periods.

STUDY B

Looks at 56 countries over six four year periods and finds that aid has a positive effect on economic growth only in countries that have good policies, and little effect in countries that don’t.

STUDY C

Using the original data from study B, adding a few countries and extending the study period for a few more years, this study finds that foreign aid has no effect on economic growth, regardless the policy environment.

STUDY D

Looks at 107 countries over several ten to forty year periods, with a whole lot more variables, including geography, policy environment, size and shape and comes to a conclusion that aid has no effect on economic growth whichever way you want to look at it. However – the study admits that the results of the research are “fragile” that even minor changes in one of the variables will yield different outcomes.

Looking at these conflicting and inconclusive studies done by respectable economists in respectable institutions, all I can say is – SERioUsLY, GUYS, don’t you have anything BETTER to do than come up with stuff I can’t even quote in papers knowing that at least one of you will contradict whichever other one I want to quote? And REaLLy, don’t you know that you’re dealing with COUNTRIES and MONEY and DONORS and MONEY, which translates to GOVERNMENTS, CONSULTANTS, diamond encrusted HUMMERS and FIVE StAR HOTELS, and lots and lots of fried meat… Did any one of you ever stop to consider either one of these variables in your studies? You don’t think they have any correlation with growth? I bet if you ran one of your fancy tests, however FRAGILE your data was, you’d find a correlation. Now if you will only hire me as a research assistant in one of these studies, I will be more than happy to forget how much pain and anguish your unnecessarily convoluted studies caused me, especially in the last twenty four hours.