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Autocracy

An autocracy is a form of government in which the political power is held by a single, self-appointed ruler. The term autocrat is derived from the Greek word 'αυτοκράτωρ (lit. "self-ruler", or "he who rules by one's self"). Compare with oligarchy ("rule by the few") and democracy ("rule by the people"). (source: wikipedia)

(Read it all here)

South fiction

Dog eat dog is a gangster fiction film that takes place in Colombia. As any fiction there's always bits of reality to it, but it remains and should be judged as fiction (in general). After the screening at the latin american film festival there was of course a Q&A session. Quite a number of people reacted with a discussion about violence and socio-economic issues in Colombia...etc. It is not a documentary. Fiction from Colombia, or Afghanistan for that matter, is just fiction. Ever wonder how bad the situation is in California after seeing all the bloodbath in Reservoir Dogs? Well, I doubt it.

War, guns and votes

Colombia: "El éxito de tomarse el poder político por las armas es hoy del 25%, y hace 25 años era tan sólo del 1%".

War, guns and votes by Paul Collier
(see review here at the marginal revolution)

Is spreading democracy a good thing? No, if it is incomplete. It is actually adverse when it comes to just an election device says Paul Collier. A whole lot of checks and balances have to be implemented as as well. Any economic growth without that "threshold of governance" is bound to be short-term only.

The tragedy going on now in some parts of South America, including Colombia, is that the election mechanism itself has been deviously turned upside-down to get rid of fragile checks and balances. And so they mess up in the name of democracy....and they keep us bound to be a part of the bottom billion.

Increible

Un tal Edgar Espíndola, Senador de la República de Colombia, está proponiendo un proyecto de ley para castigar penalmente la infidelidad. La elaborada analogía que usa el honorable para explicar el espíritu de la ley en la W, es la de que tal como se castiga a un infractor de las leyes de tránsito se debe castigar a alguien que es infiel.

Vamos depatrás.

Myth-busting bogota edition

"Bogotá witnessed a 71% drop in its murder rate in 10 years to 23 homicides per hundred thousand inhabitants...Bogotá’s homicide rate today ranks below urban centers such as Caracas (133), Washington (62), Rio de Janeiro (50), São Paulo (39), Panama City (27) and Mexico City (27)"

Source.

More: Crime rates in US cities.

Help colombian kids

I hardly watch any dutch tv, but today I did and ran into this tv comercial*. Images and faces looked very familiar :-). Wonder where it is. First guess: Cartagena (not the touristic part of course)?

* click on "bekijk hier de nieuwe tv-comercial".

Myth-busting colombia edition

Annual prevalence of Cocaine abuse
as percentage of the population

U.S.A 2.8
Spain 2.7
England and Wales 2.4
Canada 2.3
Chile 1.8
Italy 1.2
Netherlands 1.1
Venezuela 1.1
Germany 1.0
Belgium 0.9
Colombia 0.8
Peru 0.7
Scandinavian Countries 0.6
France 0.3

Source: United Nations World Drug Report, 2006

More on brain drain

There are two reactions to the article on brain drain I featured here a while ago. One assumes the conventional wisdom position: brain drain is bad for developing countries. One praises brain drain and promotes open borders when it comes to science.

My reaction for the conventional wisdom one:

Setting just opinions aside the main argument is that causation does not equal correlation in the case of medical doctors emigrating from Africa. That is, it may be that the health system of countries that do not force their foreign-trained doctors back is good for a start, and that's the reason health professional are encouraged to stay abroad. This might make sense if you assume that in host countries the guys hiring do care about the guests' basic medical education, and assume that how well the system at home does is a signal for such basic skills. This does not sound too convincing to me, since guest students have the time to prove themselves during grad years, up to the standards of local professionals. The whole argument fails to convince me since academics grading foreign PhD applications often complain about how hard it is to compare basic education programmes from different countries. Maybe I am overlooking something?

My reaction for the praise on brain drain:

I cite:

...we should be encouraging the brain drain in. All PhD research studentships could be open equally to anyone in the world. Even those who then go back to their home country make a contribution in addition to the work they have done here: in a few years' time they start sending us their best output as PhD students or young postdocs, and the cycle repeats itself, with some of the new crop staying on

I agree with this paragraph but it does not fit the core of the discussion in my view. The point is not that the ones that go back harm the developed country at which they educated (surely they do but that is not a big issue of brain drain, compared to how poor countries are harmed). The point is that the ones that stay abroad do indeed help poor countries from the diaspora.

Then the respondent says:

If all the New Zealanders with good scientific jobs around the world tried to return to New Zealand, the country would burst!

I'd say New Zealand is not precisely a developing or underdeveloped country. This brings me to my take-home message. I think the situation is very country and context-dependent. I stick to praise brain drain when the developing nation in question has a very weak research system. Moreover, the main message is far from being "brain drain is always good" (black or white conclussion?). I believe brain drain is mostly good, but above all I'd say : education and migration policies based on conventional wisdom should be revisited on the basis of data, we have the data and the techniques so why bother speculating.

Brain Drain or Do visas kill?

A lot of people here in the Netherlands ask me whether I plan to go back to Colombia when I am done with my PhD. Most people think that you should go back, specially if you come from a troubled country. I have always disagreed with that view.

In the case of people that do research, postdoctoral years usually turn out to be the most productive ones. But back in a country with an immature research system, those years are mostly wasted, teaching and trying to do research without students and funding, if you are lucky, or trying to find a job if you are not. I believe that spending postdoctoral years abroad is a much more efficient choice from the society's viewpoint. Those years are key for publishing and networking, and these in turn benefit not only your personal career, but your country.

Government's help for graduates to go abroad in Colombia is usually tied to the condition that you must return immediately after getting the degree (in most cases you actually have to go back to start paying debt). I think this doesn't make much sense, but that appears to be the dominant policy worldwide. Now some research is countering this consensus, even in the extreme case of medical staff emigrating from Africa. There's an editorial in Nature covering Michael Clemens' work.

From the editorial:

Countries and professions with more openness and greater mobility of personnel are more likely to be in touch with global trends — and more likely to attract able trainees in the first place. The worst public healthcare systems, Clemens says, are in French-speaking West Africa, where staff are least likely to emigrate, as France won't let them.

The tendency of perhaps half of today's emigrants to return home later on in their careers is another factor. So is remuneration and the large amounts of cash that migrants send back home. These changes make the old model of immigrant 'donor' societies obsolescent. Communities can benefit, financially and intellectually, from those who have left. It is the degree to which these benefits counteract the unquestionable initial loss that is open to question.

I could not agree more.