Reflections on Teaching Methods in Yemen

In an article on the Middle East Youth Initiative web site, MEYI Youth Ambassador Abdullah Al Thawr recounts his experiences learning social studies in Yemen, complete with stage directions:

I remember when I was in middle school and high school, how we used to dislike Social Studies and History classes. We even used to search for any silly excuse to skip out. Our Social Study or History class was simply as follows:

• Teacher enters class and shouts: "open your books to page XXX"
  [Pages flipping, small side talks and chattering fading away]
  
• Teacher takes pen and writes on board 4-5 short sentences which are the sub-topics of today's lesson.
  
• Teacher asks students to read aloud out of the book today's lesson in turns.
  [One student is reading aloud, the students are yawning, teacher is busy with his mobile]
  
• Teacher shouts "Take your pens and let's mark the answers of the textbook questions in today's lesson. These questions will be in the exam"
  
• Teacher shouts "I want to see these questions and answers written in your copybook by next class, or you will lose marks"
  [Students object to writing all the questions and answer and argue that it is the same as in the book. Teacher refuses to listen.]
  
• Bell rings.
  
• [Teacher leaves, students come back to life.]

Unstimulating, memorization-only teaching methods may be among the factors in Yemen's 32% Gross Secondary Enrollment Ratio and 8.7 year School Life Expectancy. And with Yemen's current push to meet the 2015 Education For All and Millennium Development Goal targets for primary education, it appears that secondary education may get the short end of the stick.

Protip: Don't Sue People in Bogotá

A new World Bank report details the ease of doing business in the differing regions of Colombia, and finds some wide variations in regulations and bureaucracy across the country. The report explored the processes and procedures for starting a business, registering property, paying taxes, trading across borders, and enforcing contracts in thirteen Colombian cities and provinces. The widest inconsistency can be found in the enforcement of contracts, which takes just over a year in Villavicencio and four years in Bogotá. Colombia itself ranks 66th on the Ease of Doing Business ranking do 2008, just below Panama and just above Trinidad and Tobago.

Subtropical Gyres Gimbling in the Wabe (of Global Warming)

Climate scientists have long understood the relationship between global climate change and desertification on land, but new research suggests that warming temperatures are driving desertificationin the oceans as well. According to analysis of satellite imagery from the Sea-viewing Wide Field-of-view Sensor (SeaWiFS), the high-pressure, nutrient-starved, biologically-unproductive regions of the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans called subtropical gyres have grown in area over the past decade at the same time that ocean temperatures have risen.

All of the biological deserts had grown, except the South Indian Ocean's. The total expansion was 6.6 million square kilometers or 15%, and it happened as the shallow waters of the gyres were warming. "We're seeing this pattern in each of the four ocean basins," says [biological oceanographer Jeffrey] Polovina [of the U.S. National Marine Fisheries Service]. That suggests to him that global warming could be the ultimate cause of the observed desert expansion.

Gyre waters are already strongly layered, so stirring by the wind brings little of the nutrients stored in deep waters to the surface to fuel plant and ultimately animal growth. Warming further strengthens this stratification, making such nourishing mixing all the more difficult. Climate-ecosystem models predict that global warming will exacerbate ocean desert expansion, but not this quickly, Polovina notes. During the past 9 years, gyre deserts expanded 10 to 25 times faster than modeled.

Power To The People? Ih, Not So Much

A new independent evaluation by the aptly-named Independent Evaluation Group (IEG) of the World Bank has confirmed what us development nerds have been saying for years. World Bank rural electrification programs designed to bring electrical power to the poor often don't. Among the obstacles to electrifying the poor are high connection costs, absence of credit markets, insufficient communication about subsidized tariff rates, and, frequently, the Bank's "least cost" project design:

In many countries communities to be connected to the grid are identified on a “least cost” basis, which favors which larger communities nearer to the existing grid, roads, and towns. The Bank has promoted this approach, which is often necessary
to secure the financial viability of the RE program, in a number of countries. For example, the recent Peru Rural Electrification Project changed community prioritization from the government’s “social criteria” to a least cost approach.

Although this is necessary for the financial health of the service provider, there is a clear trade-off with reaching the more disadvantaged.

Mali Redux

This Week!
This week on Dance, You Fools! For This Is Club Toasterhead! we return to Mali for a second helping of the amazing music from this amazing place. Enjoy!

• Vieux Farka Touré – Dounia
• Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder – Soukora
• Ali Farka Touré and Ry Cooder – Bonde
• Salif Keita – Ana Na Ming
• Tinariwen – Amassakoul 'n' Tenere
• Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra – Africa Challenge
• Salif Keita – Bobo
• Toumani Diabate's Symmetric Orchestra – Mali Sadio
• Toumani Diabate – Alla L'Aa Keb
• Ali Farka Touré – Erdi
• Rokia Traoré – Kanou
• Oumou Sangare – Djama Kaissoumou
• Lobi Traoré – Grayere nafun
• Boubacar Traoré – Diarabi
• Habib Koité & Bamada – Kanawa
• Habib Koité & Bamada – Tere
• Issa Bagayogo – Dama
• Kasse Mady Diabate – Nyamalo
• Super Rail Band De Bamako – Balle Moussa Keita
• Amadou & Mariam – Taxi bamako

State of the World's Children 2008

UNICEF has released its annual State of the World's Children report for 2008. Although infant mortality and under-five deaths have fallen steadily since 1990, progress towards Millennium Development Goal #4 is insufficient or nonexistent across much of Sub-Saharan Africa, South Asia, and the Greater Middle East. The leading killers of the 26,000 children under five who die every day are highly-preventable causes such as peneumonia, diarrhea, and malnutrition. One-fourth of all women receive no antenatal care, and 40% give birth without a skilled attendant. And while there have been encouraging advancements in the delivery of vaccinations, vitamin supplements, and mosquito nets to children in the developing world, substantial investment is needed to scale up these efforts to reach those still unreached.

Peace Agreement Signed in DRC: Will The Corporatocracy Let It Succeed?

After two weeks of talks between rebel groups and the government in the Democratic Republic of Congo, the parties have reached a cease-fire agreement that includes deployment of UN peacekeepers and amnesty for the rebel forces led by General Laurent Nkunda. Many observers are skeptical, however, that the deal will truly end the war between Hutus and Tutsis, which has killed an average of 45,000 people a month since it was exported across the border from Rwanda in 1994.

At the core of the conflict is Congo's vast mineral wealth, which has involved multinational corporations and development aid agencies in the U.S., Canada, Belgium who are salivating over the country's massive reserves of cobalt, copper, and coltan. As Maurice Carney, executive director of Friends of the Congo reported on Democracy Now yesterday:

...[the corporations are] making these deals with the Kabila government. In fact, Kabila was put in place by the Western powers because he was pliant leader. He was going to facilitate access to Congo’s vast geostrategic resources. So that’s the reason why Kabila—the main reason why Kabila was put in power. The International Crisis Group had done a study in 2007 which stated as much, where it documented that Western ambassadors were celebrating that Kabila won the elections, because they now knew that they would have the legitimate access to the natural resources of the Congo.

ADB Panel Report: Cooperation Key to Africa's Success

An independent advisory group to the African Development Bank, has issued a major report on the future of African development and the role the bank can play in it. Investing in Africa’s Future: The ADB in the 21st century was authored by the ADB's High Level Panel, chaired by former President of Mozambique Joachim Chissano and former Canadian Prime Minister Paul Martin and including economist Joseph Stiglitz. The report is cautiously optimistic about Africa's future, and the ability of the ADB to take the lead in driving development in Africa:

The High Level Panel’s position can be summarized as follows. To reduce poverty Africa needs sustained and shared growth, driven by the private sector, with a more equal distribution of opportunities. Operating as 53 fragmented economies, Africa will never be able to trade competitively—it needs to be more integrated, with larger economic spaces. Goods and services must move more easily; infrastructure must facilitate not frustrate trade; institutions must be supportive and effective. Without integration, the continent will remain disjointed, with many small, shallow markets that are uncompetitive on their own and unattractive to investors. Underpinning this integration are capable states, offering good and accountable governance. Progress, or the lack of it, will be closely related to success in rebuilding post-conflict states and managing fragile situations.

Speaking Out on Collective Punishment in Ghaza

Democracy Now has a good interview today with Israeli and Palestinian peace activists who are working to find a better solution to the war crimes, occupation, and collective punishment in the Palestinian Territories. There was an interesting revelation from Yonatan Shapira of Combatants for Peace and author of the Pilots' Letter:

AMY GOODMAN: Yonatan Shapira, with the latest news—and every day something else is breaking—as we record this interview, Israel continuing the latest assault on the Gaza Strip, while Palestinian militants intensify rocket fire, three Palestinian civilians, including a thirteen-year-old, were killed Wednesday when an Israeli missile hit their car. Israel called the attack an “error.” The killings came one day after nineteen Palestinians lost their lives, the highest single-day Palestinian death toll in more than a year.

YONATAN SHAPIRA: You know, now they use more drones and unmanned planes to do these crimes. They don’t need anymore to convince the pilots to shoot in Gaza, although there are many attacks by attack helicopters like Apache and stuff like that. But I think that many of the missions are done by the commander, that he can sit far away in a closed room in a commander ship in Tel Aviv or something like that and just press a button, and people are getting killed. And this distance between the decision to the result is what I think in the history calls the most horrible crimes ever.

Desertification Turning Inner Mongolia's Grasslands to Dust

A new multimedia feature on the Circle of Blue web site details the social, economic, and environmental consequences of desertification in the once-vast grasslands of China's Inner Mongolia province. Desertification and pollution are well-documented problems in China, and the scale of the problem is frightening indeed:

The grasslands of Inner Mongolia and other northern Chinese provinces are dying, turning into mini-deserts that grow and connect, forming oceans of sand. In some regions of the province, 70 percent of the grasslands have turned to desert. Inner Mongolia, according to conservative estimates is losing 1,500 to 2,000 square miles annually to the desert, or an area every five years about the size of New Hampshire.

The consequences extend far beyond China's borders as monstrous sandstorms spread fine particulate dust into Korea and Japan, affecting sensitive electronics factories and causing untold health effects from asthma to lung cancer. Korean experts have estimated economic losses from dust in 2002 at $4.6 billion.

Adding to the environmental calamity, the government's attempts over the past decade to combat the problem have caused more harm than good. Counterproductive measures such as introducing nonnative trees into grasslands, or forcibly removing Mongol, Kazakh, and Tibetan herders from the grasslands, have failed to stabilize the environment and heightened ethnic tensions in already tense provinces.

Plan B 3.0: A Comprehensive Plan to Save The World

Lester W. Brown's Plan B 3.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization is a comprehensive look at the environmental, political, and social problems facing our world, and offers a wide-reaching set of solutions available to governments, companies, and individuals right now. Brown covers everything from population growth to failed states to power generation and agriculture.

“Saving civilization is not a spectator sport,” says Brown. “We have reached a point in the deteriorating relationship between us and the earth’s natural systems where we all have to become political activists. Every day counts. We all have a stake in civilization’s survival.”

Voices of Uyghur Refugees in Kyrgyzstan

Refugees International has a heartbreaking story on a Uyghur refugee fleeing persecution in Xinjiang Province, China, and left stateless by the Kyrgyz bureaucracy. Rebiya (name changed) faces a difficult dilemma:

She felt safe until she saw a picture of herself on a wanted sign posted by the Chinese government. The bounty on her head: $10,000. “Anyone who worked for the government or against it cannot leave, nor can their relatives. And once you leave, you can never return. In China people are tortured if deported back. Or killed."

Statelessness is a common problem in Kyrgyzstan, and RI reports that as many as 10 to 30% of people in the border regions have no papers declaring their propiska, or declaration of residence.

It is indeed difficult to type on an AZERTY keyboard

That having been said, North Africa is indeed an interesting and beautiful and quite wild place.

Regular blogosphereing will return sometime after I do.

Ma3a Salama!

بعض الموسيقى من المغرب

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في هذا الأسبوع على «إرقص، يا حمقي! لانّ هذا نادي طوسترهد!» نحن نحتفل الموسيقى من المغرب ويتألف من التقليدي والحديث.

إستمتع!

• Hoba Hoba Spirit – Trabando
• Jil Jilala – Nour el anouar
• Bigg – Ghir bnadem khasser
• Hasna – Hakemet L'akdar
• Cherifa – Atsende Madh
• Douzi – Hasdouna
• Nass Marrakech – Salaam Aleikum
• Amine – My girl
• Nabyla Maan – Morok'Oh
• Samira Said – Youm Wara Youm
• Abdy – Galbi
• Ahmed Soultan – Kayne
• Hoba Hoba Spirit – Kalakh
• Bahia El Idrissi – Arhil
• Hamza El Din – Er'Rasoul/The Messenger
• Sawt El Atlas – Datna
• Hasna – Wach Djabek Lia
• Nass Marrakech – Torkalila
• Hassan Hakmoun – Balili
• Majid Bekkas – Barma Soussandi
• Azzddine With Bill Laswell – Ah Ya Zamane

Wintertime in the Arab Blogosphere

Abu Aardvark reports on more oppression in the Arab blogosphere, and the campaigns that have been mobilized in response. The arrests of bloggers Ahmed Mohassan, Alaa Abd al-Fattah, and Kareem Amer in Egypt and Fouad Farhan in Saudi Arabia have attracted local and international attention, but it remains to be seen if the campaigns to free these bloggers result in more or fewer efforts by these governments to stifle dissent.