Friends of African Village Libraries (I post regularly here)- Kitengesa library in Uganda newsletter for 2025
- Burkina Faso libraries December 2025 newsletter
- COLAU’s latest newsletter with updates from August to December
- Some photos from Nyariga Community Library in Ghana
- Rapport de mission d’une équipe de ABVBF à Waly
- Visite du centre de lecture et d’étude de Béréba (CLEB)
- Don de livres par ABVBF à l’école primaire publique de Waly
- Sortie de la BMP: Ste Thérèse de Houndé, Burkina Faso
- Distribution des livres CMH aux élèves de l’école B de Koumbia, Burkina Faso
- Night activities at Sumbrungu Community Library, Ghana
Nice short film on GMO cotton in Burkina Faso
Posted in Politics
Comments Off on Nice short film on GMO cotton in Burkina Faso
Sad news from Sierra Leone
In the past several months, Dr. Sheik Umar Khan has been a leader in the fight against the deadliest and largest Ebola outbreak in history.Khan, 39, has treated over 100 Ebola patients in Sierra Leone. He’s a “national hero,” the country’s health minister said Tuesday.Wellington boots, part of health workers’ protective gear, hang out to dry at the Doctors Without Borders’ treatment center in Kailahun, Sierra Leone. Dr. Khan is now an Ebola patient in the center’s isolation ward. Khan is being treated at an isolation ward in , run by Doctors Without Borders, the Sierra Leone government said in a statement. Since the outbreak started in March, more than 1,000 people have been infected in three countries; 604 people have died, the World Health Organization Saturday. Sierra Leone has reported 442 cases and 206 deaths. Khan had worked for years treating people for another viral disease, called Lassa fever, which causes symptoms similar to Ebola. When cases of Ebola started to emerge in Sierra Leone, Khan immediately turned his attention to the outbreak and started treating patients at a hospital in Kenema.
via A Doctor Leading The Fight Against Ebola Has Caught The Virus : Goats and Soda : NPR.
Posted in Politics
Comments Off on Sad news from Sierra Leone
Teaching macroeconomics: IMF macroeconomic forecasts, how credible?
The International Monetary Fund’s projections for Gross Domestic Product GDP growth in Argentina since 1999, and in Venezuela since 2003, contain a pattern of large errors that raises serious questions about the objectivity of these estimates. In Argentina, the IMF overestimated GDP growth for 2000, 2001, and 2002 by 2.3, 8.1, and 13.5 percentage points respectively. … The direction of International Monetary Fund IMF forecasting errors was reversed after Argentina’s default on its public debt at the end of2001, and the subsequent collapse of its currency. Then the IMF began underestimating the strength of Argentina’s economic recovery. … the WEO estimates for the four years 2003 through 2006 came in low by 7.8, 5.0, 5.2, and4.3 percentage points respectively. … Argentina has now [2007] completed a five year economic expansion with the fastest growth in the Western Hemisphere, with real GDP adjusted for inflation growth of 47 percent.The IMF has also produced large and persistent underestimates of Venezuela’s economic growth for the last three years, and very possibly the current year. … the IMF projections for the years 2004, 2005, and 2006 underestimated GDP growth by 10.6, 6.8, and 5.8 percentage points respectively.
HT: Kevin Rodriguez. via Political Forecasting? The IMF’s Flawed Growth Projections for Argentina and Venezuela – imf_forecasting_2007_04.pdf.
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
Comments Off on Teaching macroeconomics: IMF macroeconomic forecasts, how credible?
Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
My friend Bill Sundstrom recommended it. Quite interesting to read. The style is different from the usual science fiction. Deeply moody and elliptical. The strange Area X the narrator finds herself in is like her “pool gone wild” that she “studied” as a child. As her grownups inadvertently created the ecosystem of the wild pool through their neglect, so “something” has created the ecosystem of Area X. Like a child who might suddenly find one morning that her parents have decided to move, so too does the now-grown biologist find a capricious and inexplicable force, seemingly moving her from camp to tower to lighthouse. There are borders that must be crossed, and when people cross borders, they are different. Is the whole thing a lyrical exploration of how we pass from childhood to the catatonic “grave” of adulthood? Don’t we all want to be back in that meadow where we spent what seems like ages observing a line of ants? Didn’t it seem like one moment it was the ants, then suddenly we were eating some carrots, and then it was dark and the covers were a fortress? The narrator reminded me of Encyclopedia Brown… searching for clues, but easily distracted.
But in the end as a reader I got… well… bored. Sorry Bill. I think it is hard (for me at least) to get fully vested in a novel when characters don’t have names or motives (except for the heroine). Definitely biological material for thought. Bill likes lichens etc. so for him to have a slime mold be the alien I am sure was a wow moment.
Posted in Book and film reviews
Comments Off on Annihilation by Jeff VanderMeer
Teaching macroeconomics: Upwards sloping AS curve
Sal Khan does a nice job explaining the graph itself and starting at 6:00 explaining the intuition/justification.
Short run aggregate supply: Justifications for the aggregate supply curve to be upward sloping in the short-run
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
Comments Off on Teaching macroeconomics: Upwards sloping AS curve
Over and over: Miranda July reading the part of the piano teacher
“I saw you.” “I saw you,” she says.
You have to listen to The New Yorker podcast of her reading the story “Prizes” by Janet Frame.
Posted in Politics
Comments Off on Over and over: Miranda July reading the part of the piano teacher
Teaching Macroeconomics: Taylor Rule monetary policy really is good
Our evidence that, regardless of the policy rule or the loss function, economic performance in rules-based eras is always better than economic performance in discretionary eras supports the concept of a Directive Policy Rule chosen by the Fed. But our results go further. The original Taylor rule provides the strongest delineation between rules-based and discretionary eras, making it, at least according to our metric and class of policy rules, the best choice for the Reference Policy Rule.In the current political climate, the proposed legislation will inevitably be interpreted in partisan terms because it was introduced in the House Financial Services Committee by two Republican Congressman. Not surprisingly, the first reporting on the legislation by Reuters was entirely political. This is both unfortunate and misleading. We divided our rules-based and discretionary eras with the original Taylor rule between Republican and Democratic Presidents. If we delete the Volcker disinflationary period, out of the 94 quarters with Republican Presidents, 54 were rules-based and 40 were discretionary while, among the 81 quarters with Democratic Presidents, 46 were rules-based and 35 were discretionary. Remarkably, monetary policy over the past 50 years has been rules-based 57 percent of the time and discretionary 43 percent of the time under both Democratic and Republican Presidents. Choosing the original Taylor rule as the Reference Policy Rule is neither a Democratic nor a Republican proposal. It is simply good policy.
via Guest Contribution: Taylor Rule Legislation | Econbrowser.
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
Comments Off on Teaching Macroeconomics: Taylor Rule monetary policy really is good
Wussy Duo
Bandcamp alerted me that Wussy Duo has an EP available online. It’s pretty nice.
This was a limited hand-made release for Record Store Day 2013. The physical version is now out of print, so we’ve made it available digitally. Words on 1, 3, 5, 6 by Chuck Cleaver and 2, 4, 7 by Lisa Walker. Music by Wussy Duo, arrangements by the duo and John Curley. Recorded February 2013 by John Curley at Ultrasuede Studio, Cincinnati. Chuck played electric, acoustic and resonator guitars, hammond b3, piano. Lisa played electric and acoustic guitars, mandolin, hammond b3, vibraphone.
via Wussy Duo | Wussy.
Posted in United States
Comments Off on Wussy Duo
Teaching macroeconomics: Monetary policy and asset bubbles
Economist’s View has a quick summary of a relevant paper by Jordi Galí on monetary policy and rational asset price bubbles:
What’s the key mechanism working against the traditional “lean against the wind” policy? That rational bubbles grow at the rate of interest, hence raising real interest rates makes the bubble grow faster. From the introduction [of the paper by Galí]:
…The role that monetary policy should play in containing … bubbles has been the subject of a heated debate, well before the start of the recent crisis. The consensus view among most policy makers in the pre-crisis years was that central banks should focus on controlling inflation and stabilizing the output gap, and thus ignore asset price developments, unless the latter are seen as a threat to price or output stability. Asset price bubbles, it was argued, are difficult if not outright impossible to identify or measure; and even if they could be observed, the interest rate would be too blunt an instrument to deal with them, for any significant adjustment in the latter aimed at containing the bubble may cause serious “collateral damage” in the form of lower prices for assets not affected by the bubble, and a greater risk of an economic downturn.
via Economist’s View: Jordi Galí: Monetary Policy and Rational Asset Price Bubbles.
Posted in Politics, Teaching macroeconomics
Comments Off on Teaching macroeconomics: Monetary policy and asset bubbles
Le Balai citoyen meets with U.S. ambassador to Burkina… and some citizens comment
I really like that the ambassador is taking his role incredibly seriously… getting to know people civil society organizations is really important. This is great!
Plus d’une heure 30 minutes, c’est le temps qu’a duré la rencontre entre l’ambassadeur, et la délégation qui avait à sa tête Samsk’Le Jah, Me Guy Hervé Kam, le porte-parole du mouvement et Basic Soul, chargé de la communication.Cette visite de courtoisie, comme l’a nommé le mouvement, était aussi une visite pour présenter Le Balai citoyen. Egalement une occasion, affirment-ils, de faire part de leurs préoccupations par rapport à la situation socio-politique du pays.
I like this comment, good analysis by an ordinary “citizen”…
par yves le diaspo, 17 juillet 11:37
merci c’est un bon coup de pub mais je reviens sur quelque chose que remy djandjinou a dit sur sa page facebook a la suite de la manif de bobo il faut plus organiser le balai citoyen.Les antangonismes ideologiques n ;ont pas eu raison de vous il vous faut au moins aller sur de bonnes bases.Si dans le monde arabe et en espagne les mouvement comme le votre on reussi c est parceque leurs membres comme toute bonne revolution ce sont prepares depuis des annees ( depuis 2003 pqr exemple pour l Egypte) ;au senegal l exemple qui peut vous ressembler le mouvement a ete sponatanee parce que l enjeu l ;etait egalement.or au Burkina on se bat pour prevenir et l ;organisation n existait pas avant ,donc la confiance et homogeneite de point de vue est a voir.si sam’s k,smok et zinaba lutte ensemble depui et peuvent se faire confiance c’est parfait mais il faut structurer le mouvement qui est amaner a la difference de l exemple sengalais etre en veille meme apres la victoie…..La cours des homme politiques,que le BALAI CITOYEN ne soit sur la meme longueur d’onde que le MOUVEMENT ETUDIANT,que Me KAM soit considere comme le plus bourgeois de la gauche burkinabe ( il possederait tout type de cylindre americain),que SMOKEY consultant en prod audio visuel via son epouse doit s’accomoder avec certaines personne pour avoir des marches donc vivre…constituent des details sur lesquels ils faut etre prudent il faut comme on le dit faire une auto critique rigoureuse et arreter les amitiees politik qui peuvent denaturer le mouvement. Quand le cfop sort et qu’il y a des militant avec des balais y a rien a dire quand le mpp sort avec des militant tenant des balais .Le Balaie citoyen fait des mise au point.La lutte va etre longue vaut mieux ,mieux l’amener
Posted in Politics
Comments Off on Le Balai citoyen meets with U.S. ambassador to Burkina… and some citizens comment
Why a corporation isn’t like a person
Imagine if you went to a neighbor and asked to borrow a rake, and the neighbor said “Sure thing, but hey the rake is valuable, so how about paying me $5 a month for it?” and you said “OK that sounds reasonable.” You use the rake and leave it in your shed. You figure the neighbor could come over anytime and grab the rake if he needed it. You paid the one month, and nothing after. Six years later, the neighbor mentions the rake. “Sure, right here in my shed,” you say. The neighbor does not collect the $360…
But if your neighbor was a corporation, it would issue instructions to its employees: “Don’t tell our neighbor he has forgotten to return the rake… let’s just keep charging him month after month after month… crikey, this is a great money machine!”
Posted in United States
Comments Off on Why a corporation isn’t like a person
Teaching macroeconomics: Dilemma of monetary policy
Here’s the predicament that Ms. Yellen and other top policy makers face. The last two U.S. recessions have been caused by the popping of asset bubbles first the stock market in 2000, then housing in 2007.Meanwhile, the mission they are assigned by Congress is to look after the real economy — maximum employment and stable prices, to be precise. But all of their policy tools work through the financial system. They are trying to maintain low unemployment and low inflation, but they do that almost exclusively by buying and selling bonds. That means that their policies often have a more significant impact and certainly a more immediate and measurable one on the price of, say, junk bonds than they do on job creation and wages.That basic issue is always true, but it has never been more true than lately, with the Fed deeply entwined with unconventional steps to try to boost economic growth, leading to nearly $4.5 trillion in assets ending up on the central bank’s balance sheet. To some degree, the whole point of that exercise was to drive up the prices of stocks and other assets in order to encourage economic growth. But a key risk all along has been that the efforts would create a rise in asset values to bubble territory without accompanying economic growth.
via Should Janet Yellen Be Giving Us Stock Picks? – NYTimes.com.
Posted in Teaching macroeconomics
Comments Off on Teaching macroeconomics: Dilemma of monetary policy
Allegra Goodman’s story “Apple Cake” in The New Yorker
I really liked this story, and enjoyed reading some comments over at Mookse, so I even posted, fearfully, my own comment, reproduced below. Enjoy the story (which you can read online at Mookse).
I’ve been a long time quiet Mookse reader… the insights here are wonderful for an “amateur” short story reader like me. I think there was more to the story than a portrayal of dying and sisters… and I was hoping Betsy would uncover the signs and symbols… in particular, when Goodman suddenly shifts to a confusion of fairy tale and actual story as Phoebe (gold hair trailing) and Christian (deerslayer) enter the scene, and Jeanne breaks out laughing…. are we supposed to start interpreting the whole story as the endless rehashing of meta-stories… ? the great circle of life as the three little pigs have their houses blown down… the apple cake itself, magically transforming those gathered at the deathbed… the last paragraph, with its wonderful mixture of the prosaic (a shelter dog?) and deep story (the evil “stepsisters” keep fighting, even as they gather at “Singing Beach”)! I wonder if the whole story isn’t a deliberate mashup of fairytales, or Shakespeare, as you suggest, or the Muses, somehow?
Posted in Book and film reviews
Comments Off on Allegra Goodman’s story “Apple Cake” in The New Yorker
Only one possible gut reaction to this: Expletive
At a White House meeting on working families last month, Mr. Obama included Ms. Wojcicki — who has two young children with her husband, the Google co-founder Sergey Brin, from whom she is separated — in a discussion of workplace policies with other chief executives.
via At Dinner Tables, Restless President Finds Intellectual Escape – NYTimes.com.
Posted in United States
Comments Off on Only one possible gut reaction to this: Expletive
In which I prove myself a critic
Placid, indeed, was the right word.
The old man considered, placidly.
via Chapter I. James, Henry. 1917. The Portrait of a Lady. Vol. XI. Harvard Classics Shelf of Fiction.
Posted in Book and film reviews
Comments Off on In which I prove myself a critic
New bednets on trial in Burkina Faso
In June 2014, the first clinical trial of a new type of bednet, Olyset® Duo produced by Sumitomo Chemical Company began in the Banfora region of Burkina Faso. This bednet contains two chemicals: a conventional pyrethroid insecticide to rapidly kill mosquitoes, and an insect sterilizing agent, to prevent any resistant mosquitoes that do survive the insecticide from laying eggs. The trial will involve nets being distributed throughout the population of over 60,000 people and the impact on malaria will be evaluated over a two year period.The clinical evaluation of Olyset Duo® is being led by members of the AvecNet Consortium Centre National de Recherche et de Formation sur le Paludisme CNRFP and the University of Durham, with researchers from LSTM evaluating the impact on resistance. Professor Hilary Ranson, AvecNet Consortium Leader and Head of LSTM’s Department of Vector Biology, said: “These nets have the potential to provide a solution to the problem of insecticide, but evaluation of their effectiveness under field settings is key. By evaluating new tools, such as Olyset Duo® and strengthening capacity for field trials AvecNet is aiding the translation of research and product development into new solutions for malaria control in Africa.”
Posted in Economy
Comments Off on New bednets on trial in Burkina Faso
Burkina Faso – most of the country experiencing normal rainy season and cereal prices are lower than last year
In general, there is a near-normal household demand for cereals on local markets, held in check by remaining cereal stocks from previous harvests. Monthly exports to Niger approximately 4,500 metric tons of maize and sorghum and coastal countries approximately 300 MT of millet and 1,500 MT of cowpeas are also about average. However, there is a higher market demand for millet and sorghum by poor households in the Sahel Region and adjacent areas, where existing stocks of crops were depleted earlier than usual.In general, cereal prices are stable compared to last month and six to 10 percent lower than last year, a year when prices were exceptionally high. Maize prices are 10 percent below the five-year average, while millet and sorghum prices are similar to their respective averages. However, price levels in northern agropastoral areas in and around the Sahel Region where poor households are more dependent on market purchase are above the five-year average by seven to 19 percent in the case of millet and by eight to 22 percent in the case of sorghum the two staple cereals for local populations.
The far north is the exception, but then, isn’t it always? via Burkina Faso – Food Security Outlook Update: Fri, 2014-05-30 | Famine Early Warning Systems Network.
Posted in Economy
Comments Off on Burkina Faso – most of the country experiencing normal rainy season and cereal prices are lower than last year
The Master by Colm Tóibín
The Master by Colm Tóibín is a novel, based on the “real life” of the novelist Henry James, covering the years 1895-1899. Tóibín mostly focuses on the inner life of James, as he travels between London and Italy, but mostly as he travels in his mind (to his youth in Boston) and to his past in Italy, and as he mulls over conversations, present and past. Tóibín’s James is a listener, attentive to details and nuance, and always intrigued by possible material for novels and stories. He sees himself as a craftsman, who takes real life problems and explores them, buffing and varnishing. As I read the book the word placid kept coming to mind. James’s writing, Tóibín’s writing about James, James’ life itself… all seems very placid. The other remarkable feature of the novel and presumably of James himself, is the complete absence of any curiosity about the world. He is intensely curious about his society (of wealthy people) but the rest of the world seems not even to exist for him. Still, great reading.
Posted in Book and film reviews
Comments Off on The Master by Colm Tóibín
U.S. ambassador Tulinabo Mushingi’s comments are having an impact
The question of modifying the constitution to permit President Compaoré to “legally” run for another term now has an American dimension. As it should. What is the point of being a partner, and making grants worth $481 million (through the MCC), if you cannot state the obvious?
« Il n’a pas à parler comme ça, s’énerve un Burkinabé favorable à la réforme constitutionnelle. Si l’opposition s’appuie sur les propos d’un Américain pour défendre qu’il ne faut pas modifier l’article 37… Mais ils ont menti. L’Amérique n’a pas à nous dire ça ! » « C’est une vérité, estime au contraire un opposant. L’ambassadeur n’est ni pour l’opposition, ni pour le parti au pouvoir, ca n’a rien de politique. » « Il interpelle le peuple burkinabé, remarque un autre commentateur. On peut passer à une alternance sans qu’il y ait vraiment de risques. »Au niveau des partis politiques, tout le monde attend avec impatience la décision du président Blaise Compaoré concernant l’organisation d’un referendum ou non pour décider du sort de l’article en question, qui doit limiter le nombre de mandats présidentiels. Le débat sur l’alternance suit son cours au sein des populations au Burkina Faso.
via Burkina Faso: l’ambassadeur américain secoue le débat sur l’alternance – France – RFI.
Posted in Politics
Comments Off on U.S. ambassador Tulinabo Mushingi’s comments are having an impact
Michael Kevane 