Challenge What You Think You Know..., 03 Jan 2009
Let's consider some facts before talking about increasing aid: Why should we care about the poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America? If we give them more aid, where would it go? Afterall, conventional wisdom suggests that Africa's leaders are so corrupt that our aid money will end up in the pockets of some bespectacled dictator or in some Swiss bank account. Moreover, everyone knows that Africans lack morals and self-restraint. Evidence: the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and a population explosion on that `dark' continent. Those Africans cannot seem to control themselves or wean themselves from superstitious, pre-modern beliefs!

If you have ever wondered about these aforementioned bites of `conventional wisdom' then Jeffrey Sach's End of Poverty is a must-read. Using empirical data, Sachs debunks conventional wisdom to demonstrate that Africans value hard work as much as Americans and that corruption is not as clear a barrier to development as we might believe.

Professor Sachs, who is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is a world-renowned expert on development. In this marvellously argued book, Professor Sachs points out that the whole world was poor before the year 1800. Due to a combination of geography, socio-political realities and economics, the Industrial Revolution was birthed in Europe. This enabled European societies to become wealthier, as they were able to improve productivity of their economies (i.e. their economies started to grow). Much of the rest of the world (Africa in particular) has not been able to catch up because of a combination of the following factors:
* Poverty itself
* Fiscal trap
* Physical geography
* Governance failures
* Cultural barriers
* Geopolitics

Sachs comprehensively dismisses the notion that there is one magic bullet that can end extreme poverty. Some ideas making the rounds in development circles: lack of markets, lack of property rights, cultural barriers etc. Sachs argues for a clinical approach to development economics. Like a sick patient, a `sick' economy needs to be treated based on a diagnosis of the particular failings in the economy. According to Sachs, too often in the last two decades, the IMF and World Bank have applied a standard remedy to failing economies: liberalisation, privatisation, structural adjustment. The results of this approach have been devastating to say the least.

As a Nigerian, who came of age during the structural adjustment programmes (SAP) of the late 1980's, I can personally attest that the 1990's were periods of unimaginable financial distress in my family. At the time, little did I know that SAP (as we called in when I was a kid), was recommended and driven by misguided ideologues at the World Bank who had no inkling of the particular situation on the ground in Nigeria.

Professor Sachs also strongly advocates increases in rich world aid to 0.7% of rich-world GDP in order to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDG's). He further stresses that in an increasingly globalised society that no one country is an Island; idea that the rich world can remain islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty is unrealistic. It is a message that the rich ignore at their peril.

By detailing his experience in working in Bolivia, China, Poland, Russia and in Africa, Sachs comes across as a very intelligent, urbane, compassionate, thoughtful and optimistic man. He is very well versed in the economics as well as the social implications of neglecting the poor in today's world. He calls the rich world to rise to challenge of realising the Enlightenment ideal of progress and dignity for all mankind. Indeed, his call is not on based on altruism but on the fact that helping the poor and getting them on the `globalisation train' is an act on enlightened self interest.

Yes, rich country electorates can afford and are willing to increase aid to the poor. No, there is no magic bullet and yes, it is in the long-term security interests of the rich to end poverty. Increased aid will need to be long-term (at least a decade). Ending extreme poverty is one of the key challenges of our generation. No country can end poverty alone; it needs broad consensus and the engagement of the multilateral post-World War II institutions such as the UN and the World Bank. Sachs outlines the cost and a workable plan for achieving the Millenium Development Goals.

Sachs does not pull any punches in describing the sheer ignorance and tight-fistedness that has characterised US foreign policy under the Bush administration. Similarly, he challenges the World Bank and IMF for their failings in the last two decades. However, he insists that the United States can rise to the challenge of ending poverty just as it did in reconstructing Europe (The Marshall Plan) after World War II. The End of Poverty is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in moving beyond the sound bites and glib media coverage of the development agenda. Sach's plan/vision for achieving the MDG's is grand and engaging. It deserved 4 stars.


Novel Approach to Development Economics, 29 Apr 2008
This book is breath-taking in scope, pulsating with captivating optimism and inspiring in its bold proposals. For Jeffrey Sachs, no mountain is too steep or too high to climb. Time and again, when this David locks horns with the Goliaths of the World Bank and the White House, he invariably emerges triumphant.

He makes it sound so amazingly easy when he recounts the systematic diagnosis, prescription and treatment that lead to the dramatic arrest of hyperinflation in Bolivia and Poland. The extended medical metaphor is neither haphazard nor purely stylistic. It reflects Sachs' recommendation of a novel approach to development economics which he sees as analogous to the challenges of a paediatrician trained to grope for answers through "differential diagnosis". Couldn't this be of interest to a country like Zimbabwe today running a four digit inflation? He then goes on to make a fascinating and onstructive overview of the reversal of economic fortunes in China and India in the 80's and 90's.

As the economic advisor to the Jubilee 2000 Campaign for the cancellation of the poorest countries' foreign debt, he provided the very powerful theoretical underpinning for the initiative. What was particularly remarkable about the movement was the way it succeeded in roping in support from across all imaginable divides: religious, ideological, political, racial, cultural and class, gaining enthusiastic ownership and invaluable sponsorship by conservative and liberal congressmen in the US, by the left and the right in Europe, including the Pope. The World Bank and the IMF were also brought on board, initially kicking and screaming sceptically, but in the end going along with fervent gusto.

Starting from a close observation of the impact of disease burden on economic development in Africa, Sachs led the very successful advocacy for US policy changes on the fight against HIV/ Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis, enlisting in the process the support of other donor countries, foundations and UN institutions and securing the support of African leaders such as President Obasanjo of Nigeria. This culminated in the setting up of the now famous and highly effective Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria in 2001. He can also claim vicarious paternity for President Bush's remarkably successful Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

Sachs deserves the credit for pointing out to the US government that it wasn't enough to open up its market to the products from developing countries. They would be easily kept out by the much more efficient East Asian producers unless an element of preferential access was introduced. This is what led to the drawing up of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), an initiative which underscores the cynicism of EU's Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme purporting to open up duty free access to the European market for the poorest countries knowing all the while that they face such severe supply side constraints that the advantage is doomed to remain largely theoretical. Indeed their lot is likely to be made worse by the fact that in reciprocation for the EBA favour, they are required to grant tariff free access to EU products, thereby providing the last nail for the coffin of their nascent industries which can never hope to compete with EU imports.

Jeffrey Sachs very usefully attempts to connect his suggestions on initiatives for sustainable development to the UN's Millennium Development Goals and compellingly repeats: "This time can be different!" He has the strength of conviction and the courage to propose and launch pilot village-level actions in different parts of the world to show that what he advocates is not mere rhetoric but can actually be put to practice.

A significant weakness in his model is over-reliance on external aid. He expends considerable effort to show that many developed countries, chief among them the US, have only given lip-service to the goal of meeting the UN's Official Development Assistance target set at 0.7% of GDP. Yet he somehow hopes they can soon be made to see the light and agree to shoulder their part of the burden, without showing how to arrive at that.


Bono could save more lives if he gave all his money instead of just his opinion , 16 Nov 2007
To honest, I am being a bit naughty.
I havn't read the book.
I think I will buy one soon.
When I have enough money.
Anyway.
I am sure the guy who wrote this book is really good, and is really sincere.
and I do believe that celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the n.. do loads of good work putting their face about, and giving their words. They probably even make quite good donations, which I am sure would be size-able in comparison to what most of us could give.
However, as most things, how much you give is relative to how much you have.

If all the celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the N.. (or sponge Bob) gave all of what they had, only keeping enough to live on, and used the money to set up self sufficient economies, or a global self sufficient economy, then, most of the problems in the world would be sorted.

I think i am not the only one that gets p*ssed off listening to multi millionairs telling us poor people to give away all we have (which, some of us do.)

I wonder how much of the money made from writing this book, as well as other books on the market written by other authors, is actually used to help set up self sufficient economies, and writing the many wrongs that have been done in the history of our crap greed based world.

It's about time capitalists, used their amazing talents to create revenue (through capitalizing their assets which are skills) to save peoples lives.

Anyway, good luck to all.
I hope you all enjoy reading, and giving what you can to change the world in a positive way.

A great book, 17 Sep 2007
This book is spiritually satisfactory indeed but it over-hypes the need for "infinite aid". The ideology of "bigger is better" hardly functions in the African geographical and cultural context.
The millenium development goals (currently being implemented by the UN) backed by the author are superb. I hope that the millenium development villages (the real beneficiaries) being pioneered by the author will be the springboard for the rest of the continent because it tackles the local needs rather than the donors'.


If wishes were horses, 19 Nov 2006
There is probably one indisputable truth from the story of Western aid to Africa over the last fifty years: it has had little positive effect, but it has resulted in corruption and expenditure on numberless failed projects of greater or lesser magnitude.
Given this lesson, what should our response be in the future? A prudent person might feel that a major increase in aid was a very risky strategy. It would at least require an enormous effort to persuade us that the results would not be as paltry as has resulted from the many billions of dollars already spent.
Or instead, you can take in on trust from Jeffrey Sachs that it's all gonna be just fine.
This is a near-worthless book. If you want to understand something about how really to help Africa without boosting the egos of grandstanders like Sachs, read anything by William Easterly.

Challenge What You Think You Know..., 03 Jan 2009
Let's consider some facts before talking about increasing aid: Why should we care about the poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America? If we give them more aid, where would it go? Afterall, conventional wisdom suggests that Africa's leaders are so corrupt that our aid money will end up in the pockets of some bespectacled dictator or in some Swiss bank account. Moreover, everyone knows that Africans lack morals and self-restraint. Evidence: the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and a population explosion on that `dark' continent. Those Africans cannot seem to control themselves or wean themselves from superstitious, pre-modern beliefs!

If you have ever wondered about these aforementioned bites of `conventional wisdom' then Jeffrey Sach's End of Poverty is a must-read. Using empirical data, Sachs debunks conventional wisdom to demonstrate that Africans value hard work as much as Americans and that corruption is not as clear a barrier to development as we might believe.

Professor Sachs, who is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is a world-renowned expert on development. In this marvellously argued book, Professor Sachs points out that the whole world was poor before the year 1800. Due to a combination of geography, socio-political realities and economics, the Industrial Revolution was birthed in Europe. This enabled European societies to become wealthier, as they were able to improve productivity of their economies (i.e. their economies started to grow). Much of the rest of the world (Africa in particular) has not been able to catch up because of a combination of the following factors:
* Poverty itself
* Fiscal trap
* Physical geography
* Governance failures
* Cultural barriers
* Geopolitics

Sachs comprehensively dismisses the notion that there is one magic bullet that can end extreme poverty. Some ideas making the rounds in development circles: lack of markets, lack of property rights, cultural barriers etc. Sachs argues for a clinical approach to development economics. Like a sick patient, a `sick' economy needs to be treated based on a diagnosis of the particular failings in the economy. According to Sachs, too often in the last two decades, the IMF and World Bank have applied a standard remedy to failing economies: liberalisation, privatisation, structural adjustment. The results of this approach have been devastating to say the least.

As a Nigerian, who came of age during the structural adjustment programmes (SAP) of the late 1980's, I can personally attest that the 1990's were periods of unimaginable financial distress in my family. At the time, little did I know that SAP (as we called in when I was a kid), was recommended and driven by misguided ideologues at the World Bank who had no inkling of the particular situation on the ground in Nigeria.

Professor Sachs also strongly advocates increases in rich world aid to 0.7% of rich-world GDP in order to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDG's). He further stresses that in an increasingly globalised society that no one country is an Island; idea that the rich world can remain islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty is unrealistic. It is a message that the rich ignore at their peril.

By detailing his experience in working in Bolivia, China, Poland, Russia and in Africa, Sachs comes across as a very intelligent, urbane, compassionate, thoughtful and optimistic man. He is very well versed in the economics as well as the social implications of neglecting the poor in today's world. He calls the rich world to rise to challenge of realising the Enlightenment ideal of progress and dignity for all mankind. Indeed, his call is not on based on altruism but on the fact that helping the poor and getting them on the `globalisation train' is an act on enlightened self interest.

Yes, rich country electorates can afford and are willing to increase aid to the poor. No, there is no magic bullet and yes, it is in the long-term security interests of the rich to end poverty. Increased aid will need to be long-term (at least a decade). Ending extreme poverty is one of the key challenges of our generation. No country can end poverty alone; it needs broad consensus and the engagement of the multilateral post-World War II institutions such as the UN and the World Bank. Sachs outlines the cost and a workable plan for achieving the Millenium Development Goals.

Sachs does not pull any punches in describing the sheer ignorance and tight-fistedness that has characterised US foreign policy under the Bush administration. Similarly, he challenges the World Bank and IMF for their failings in the last two decades. However, he insists that the United States can rise to the challenge of ending poverty just as it did in reconstructing Europe (The Marshall Plan) after World War II. The End of Poverty is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in moving beyond the sound bites and glib media coverage of the development agenda. Sach's plan/vision for achieving the MDG's is grand and engaging. It deserved 4 stars.


Novel Approach to Development Economics, 29 Apr 2008
This book is breath-taking in scope, pulsating with captivating optimism and inspiring in its bold proposals. For Jeffrey Sachs, no mountain is too steep or too high to climb. Time and again, when this David locks horns with the Goliaths of the World Bank and the White House, he invariably emerges triumphant.

He makes it sound so amazingly easy when he recounts the systematic diagnosis, prescription and treatment that lead to the dramatic arrest of hyperinflation in Bolivia and Poland. The extended medical metaphor is neither haphazard nor purely stylistic. It reflects Sachs' recommendation of a novel approach to development economics which he sees as analogous to the challenges of a paediatrician trained to grope for answers through "differential diagnosis". Couldn't this be of interest to a country like Zimbabwe today running a four digit inflation? He then goes on to make a fascinating and onstructive overview of the reversal of economic fortunes in China and India in the 80's and 90's.

As the economic advisor to the Jubilee 2000 Campaign for the cancellation of the poorest countries' foreign debt, he provided the very powerful theoretical underpinning for the initiative. What was particularly remarkable about the movement was the way it succeeded in roping in support from across all imaginable divides: religious, ideological, political, racial, cultural and class, gaining enthusiastic ownership and invaluable sponsorship by conservative and liberal congressmen in the US, by the left and the right in Europe, including the Pope. The World Bank and the IMF were also brought on board, initially kicking and screaming sceptically, but in the end going along with fervent gusto.

Starting from a close observation of the impact of disease burden on economic development in Africa, Sachs led the very successful advocacy for US policy changes on the fight against HIV/ Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis, enlisting in the process the support of other donor countries, foundations and UN institutions and securing the support of African leaders such as President Obasanjo of Nigeria. This culminated in the setting up of the now famous and highly effective Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria in 2001. He can also claim vicarious paternity for President Bush's remarkably successful Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

Sachs deserves the credit for pointing out to the US government that it wasn't enough to open up its market to the products from developing countries. They would be easily kept out by the much more efficient East Asian producers unless an element of preferential access was introduced. This is what led to the drawing up of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), an initiative which underscores the cynicism of EU's Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme purporting to open up duty free access to the European market for the poorest countries knowing all the while that they face such severe supply side constraints that the advantage is doomed to remain largely theoretical. Indeed their lot is likely to be made worse by the fact that in reciprocation for the EBA favour, they are required to grant tariff free access to EU products, thereby providing the last nail for the coffin of their nascent industries which can never hope to compete with EU imports.

Jeffrey Sachs very usefully attempts to connect his suggestions on initiatives for sustainable development to the UN's Millennium Development Goals and compellingly repeats: "This time can be different!" He has the strength of conviction and the courage to propose and launch pilot village-level actions in different parts of the world to show that what he advocates is not mere rhetoric but can actually be put to practice.

A significant weakness in his model is over-reliance on external aid. He expends considerable effort to show that many developed countries, chief among them the US, have only given lip-service to the goal of meeting the UN's Official Development Assistance target set at 0.7% of GDP. Yet he somehow hopes they can soon be made to see the light and agree to shoulder their part of the burden, without showing how to arrive at that.


Bono could save more lives if he gave all his money instead of just his opinion , 16 Nov 2007
To honest, I am being a bit naughty.
I havn't read the book.
I think I will buy one soon.
When I have enough money.
Anyway.
I am sure the guy who wrote this book is really good, and is really sincere.
and I do believe that celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the n.. do loads of good work putting their face about, and giving their words. They probably even make quite good donations, which I am sure would be size-able in comparison to what most of us could give.
However, as most things, how much you give is relative to how much you have.

If all the celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the N.. (or sponge Bob) gave all of what they had, only keeping enough to live on, and used the money to set up self sufficient economies, or a global self sufficient economy, then, most of the problems in the world would be sorted.

I think i am not the only one that gets p*ssed off listening to multi millionairs telling us poor people to give away all we have (which, some of us do.)

I wonder how much of the money made from writing this book, as well as other books on the market written by other authors, is actually used to help set up self sufficient economies, and writing the many wrongs that have been done in the history of our crap greed based world.

It's about time capitalists, used their amazing talents to create revenue (through capitalizing their assets which are skills) to save peoples lives.

Anyway, good luck to all.
I hope you all enjoy reading, and giving what you can to change the world in a positive way.

A great book, 17 Sep 2007
This book is spiritually satisfactory indeed but it over-hypes the need for "infinite aid". The ideology of "bigger is better" hardly functions in the African geographical and cultural context.
The millenium development goals (currently being implemented by the UN) backed by the author are superb. I hope that the millenium development villages (the real beneficiaries) being pioneered by the author will be the springboard for the rest of the continent because it tackles the local needs rather than the donors'.


If wishes were horses, 19 Nov 2006
There is probably one indisputable truth from the story of Western aid to Africa over the last fifty years: it has had little positive effect, but it has resulted in corruption and expenditure on numberless failed projects of greater or lesser magnitude.
Given this lesson, what should our response be in the future? A prudent person might feel that a major increase in aid was a very risky strategy. It would at least require an enormous effort to persuade us that the results would not be as paltry as has resulted from the many billions of dollars already spent.
Or instead, you can take in on trust from Jeffrey Sachs that it's all gonna be just fine.
This is a near-worthless book. If you want to understand something about how really to help Africa without boosting the egos of grandstanders like Sachs, read anything by William Easterly.

A woman with a mission, 19 Sep 2008
For anybody who thinks that poverty is only relative and the true hardship of poverty only lives in the past or anyone who thinks that Britain is heading steadily in the direction of a classless society---This is a book you MUST read to bring you out of your complacent dreamworld and closer to a understanding of the awful conditions ,wages and yes poverty that many of your fellow citizens live in.Polly Toynbee takes the ultimate and valuable step of stepping into the low paids shoes with an assumed identity in order to truly understand and feel the nature of their circumstances.
Even somebody who has always been far from naive about the persistence of poverty in parts of Britain like Polly was shocked at what she discovered and almost depressed at the thought that so many are trapped in this rut for life.Unethical and greedy employers who exploit your desperation via a cavalier disregard for fair and reasonable working conditions.Knowing that many cant afford to complain.We are spared no details ,and rightly so as those who live the details are the ones who Polly is taking us on a journey to understand.
This excellently written book left me with a very clear understanding of how a multitude of disadvantages collectively combine together to place the low paid in an almost impossible position, over a barrel as they say,each disadvantage exacerbating the other.Educate yourself and read this book--the authors direct and detailed approach will help you feel what its like to walk in others shoes.
All credit to the author for her no apologies in keeping it real attitude and doing what many wouldnt dare attempt--stepping into the world of the most disadvantaged instead of playing it safe and just talking about it.I believe this book is essential reading for anyone serious about social justice and even more essential for those who currently arent serious about it.This book cannot fail in constructively enaging the reader with the issue.A must for any sociology student.Very informative.




















An opportunity wasted, 15 May 2008
The book begins promisingly enough, with the author learning how to "work the system" to obtain grants and loans for furniture and basic necessities to get started.

The squalor of the council flat allocated to her adds to the realism, but it is clear from reading through the book that she spends a minimum of time there, and frequently escapes to the comfort of her upper middle class accommodation.

The search for work is quite realistic, but then chapter after chapter is devoted to a description of a series of quite ordinary and unremarkable jobs, described as if they were the most extreme examples of Calcutta sweat shops, which only illustrates how the author is insulated from the real world. The author is vague on the subject, but I suspect that each of these jobs was only carried out for a few days. A real person in such a situation would not be able to withstand the gaps in income which would result in such rapid changes of employment,

The opening chapters give quite a lot of good detail of the economics of living at this end of the social scale, but as the book progresses, monetary accounts fade away, so the reader is unable to determine whether the author is actually making financial headway, treading water, or getting deeper into debt. In reality, I suspect that the author abandoned quite early any attempt to actually survive on the minimum wage, and treated the whole experience as an exercise in journalism.

In short, a tremendous opportunity wasted.


New Labour at its best, 02 Jun 2005
This book is odd. It mocks the Church of England for being the Conservative party at prayer, but then defends it for the good work it does in the community. It attacks Thacherite reforms as being immoral, but then states that Unions discriminated against women workers and kept a tight, therefore unpleasant leash, on the rest of the workforce. It belittles those who want to succeed and make a better life for themselves (take the example of the telesales man) blind to the fact that, for many, that dream of self betterment is all they, me included, have. The list of contradictions goes on and on. The only thing we know for sure is that Toynbee hates the conservative archetype, which she says she finds in an Old People's home. My impression is that she made this character up in order to remind people of who the enemy is. If that man did in fact exist, which I sincerely doubt, the fact that he invested his life, talent and skills in providing jobs and providing care for the elderly is irrelevant. What is important for Toynbee is that he wears a pinstripe suit and that he has small pig-like eyes.
I forced myself to read this book until the end and was mightily relieved when I finished it. It is morally vain, philosophically empty and indescribably haughty. Not worth the paper it was written on.

Patronising, 15 Apr 2005
As someone who has spent a long time living in a family dependant on benefits, and having to suffer the social stigma of poverty and it's undignified nature, Polly Toynbee has written this book in order to inform others of the harshness of life at the bottom of the economic ladder, and I have a problem with it.

I work a low paid job at a supermarket, and my educational opportunities are limited and would like my voice to be heard, not a middle class person taking it upon themselves to speak for me. Yes, I do not doubt her sympathy, but that is not what many poor want; it is instead the chance to express their opnions and further their lives in a less oppressive way. Part of the problem is middle class dominance of politics, and it's reporting of it in a social context. Whatever happened to communication? Let the poor have the opportunity to speak for themselves, I am sure they would have alot to say, and it would be from a genuine perspective. Toynbee can immerse herself in it (poverty) but she is not of it.

Another thing is the negative life she imposes upon working class experience, rather than also focusing on the economic realities. I have many happy times being working class, times where myself and others have found ways to cope with our siuations in a positive way. It is not just grim estates and horrible landlords, and soul destroying work. Tell us something we don't know already. Of course she was going to find it tough, she comes from a more comfortable world, and her senses and feelings being in alien situations are going to be picking up experiences and their consequences in a more intense way. But to put it another way- yes it is good journalism, but from an unskilled, manual worker doing low paid work, and having experienced some of the things she describes in her book, it seems a bit ridiculous when someone plays at poverty for a bit in order to tell other people what it is like to live in poverty. Ask the poor themselves! We aren't stupid you know!

She goes on about the voicless and invisible. Well, she is contributing to that condition of being powerless and impotent politically.

Poverty Bites, 04 Jan 2004
Hard Work is the British version of Nickel and Dimed and Toynbee does justice to the genre. Toynbee works mind-numbing jobs that pay just enough to keep her in poverty. She packages pastries and cleans hotel rooms, she lives in a squalid flat she can barely afford, and she tries to make ends meet on minimum wage. It is very depressing.

Toynbee finds that being one of the working poor is to be defeated at every turn. When she gets her dark, damp, unfurnished flat, she has to borrow money from the Housing Authority to furnish it because she won't get paid until she has been working for at least two weeks. She can't make an appointment to see the doctor because her job doesn't allow any paid time off. She can't try to get a better job because all the employers want to schedule interviews during her work hours (and she can't afford to take time off) or they want her to devote the day to waiting for an interview. She can't even make her views as a voter known, because to get to the voting station would mean unpaid time off from work, or an hour on the bus and in line waiting to vote after a 10-hour shift on her feet.

Life is a constant Catch-22 and she finally admits defeat when she has to move out of her apartment because the building's front door doesn't lock, there are drug dealers in the lobby, and she can't afford a phone.

In between descriptions of her alternate life in the slum, she splices discussions of the politics behind the policies regarding wages and poverty in Great Britain. Even for someone who isn't familiar with British government, it is very clear. It is also obvious that we in America have a lot in common with Britain.

Challenge What You Think You Know..., 03 Jan 2009
Let's consider some facts before talking about increasing aid: Why should we care about the poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America? If we give them more aid, where would it go? Afterall, conventional wisdom suggests that Africa's leaders are so corrupt that our aid money will end up in the pockets of some bespectacled dictator or in some Swiss bank account. Moreover, everyone knows that Africans lack morals and self-restraint. Evidence: the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and a population explosion on that `dark' continent. Those Africans cannot seem to control themselves or wean themselves from superstitious, pre-modern beliefs!

If you have ever wondered about these aforementioned bites of `conventional wisdom' then Jeffrey Sach's End of Poverty is a must-read. Using empirical data, Sachs debunks conventional wisdom to demonstrate that Africans value hard work as much as Americans and that corruption is not as clear a barrier to development as we might believe.

Professor Sachs, who is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is a world-renowned expert on development. In this marvellously argued book, Professor Sachs points out that the whole world was poor before the year 1800. Due to a combination of geography, socio-political realities and economics, the Industrial Revolution was birthed in Europe. This enabled European societies to become wealthier, as they were able to improve productivity of their economies (i.e. their economies started to grow). Much of the rest of the world (Africa in particular) has not been able to catch up because of a combination of the following factors:
* Poverty itself
* Fiscal trap
* Physical geography
* Governance failures
* Cultural barriers
* Geopolitics

Sachs comprehensively dismisses the notion that there is one magic bullet that can end extreme poverty. Some ideas making the rounds in development circles: lack of markets, lack of property rights, cultural barriers etc. Sachs argues for a clinical approach to development economics. Like a sick patient, a `sick' economy needs to be treated based on a diagnosis of the particular failings in the economy. According to Sachs, too often in the last two decades, the IMF and World Bank have applied a standard remedy to failing economies: liberalisation, privatisation, structural adjustment. The results of this approach have been devastating to say the least.

As a Nigerian, who came of age during the structural adjustment programmes (SAP) of the late 1980's, I can personally attest that the 1990's were periods of unimaginable financial distress in my family. At the time, little did I know that SAP (as we called in when I was a kid), was recommended and driven by misguided ideologues at the World Bank who had no inkling of the particular situation on the ground in Nigeria.

Professor Sachs also strongly advocates increases in rich world aid to 0.7% of rich-world GDP in order to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDG's). He further stresses that in an increasingly globalised society that no one country is an Island; idea that the rich world can remain islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty is unrealistic. It is a message that the rich ignore at their peril.

By detailing his experience in working in Bolivia, China, Poland, Russia and in Africa, Sachs comes across as a very intelligent, urbane, compassionate, thoughtful and optimistic man. He is very well versed in the economics as well as the social implications of neglecting the poor in today's world. He calls the rich world to rise to challenge of realising the Enlightenment ideal of progress and dignity for all mankind. Indeed, his call is not on based on altruism but on the fact that helping the poor and getting them on the `globalisation train' is an act on enlightened self interest.

Yes, rich country electorates can afford and are willing to increase aid to the poor. No, there is no magic bullet and yes, it is in the long-term security interests of the rich to end poverty. Increased aid will need to be long-term (at least a decade). Ending extreme poverty is one of the key challenges of our generation. No country can end poverty alone; it needs broad consensus and the engagement of the multilateral post-World War II institutions such as the UN and the World Bank. Sachs outlines the cost and a workable plan for achieving the Millenium Development Goals.

Sachs does not pull any punches in describing the sheer ignorance and tight-fistedness that has characterised US foreign policy under the Bush administration. Similarly, he challenges the World Bank and IMF for their failings in the last two decades. However, he insists that the United States can rise to the challenge of ending poverty just as it did in reconstructing Europe (The Marshall Plan) after World War II. The End of Poverty is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in moving beyond the sound bites and glib media coverage of the development agenda. Sach's plan/vision for achieving the MDG's is grand and engaging. It deserved 4 stars.


Novel Approach to Development Economics, 29 Apr 2008
This book is breath-taking in scope, pulsating with captivating optimism and inspiring in its bold proposals. For Jeffrey Sachs, no mountain is too steep or too high to climb. Time and again, when this David locks horns with the Goliaths of the World Bank and the White House, he invariably emerges triumphant.

He makes it sound so amazingly easy when he recounts the systematic diagnosis, prescription and treatment that lead to the dramatic arrest of hyperinflation in Bolivia and Poland. The extended medical metaphor is neither haphazard nor purely stylistic. It reflects Sachs' recommendation of a novel approach to development economics which he sees as analogous to the challenges of a paediatrician trained to grope for answers through "differential diagnosis". Couldn't this be of interest to a country like Zimbabwe today running a four digit inflation? He then goes on to make a fascinating and onstructive overview of the reversal of economic fortunes in China and India in the 80's and 90's.

As the economic advisor to the Jubilee 2000 Campaign for the cancellation of the poorest countries' foreign debt, he provided the very powerful theoretical underpinning for the initiative. What was particularly remarkable about the movement was the way it succeeded in roping in support from across all imaginable divides: religious, ideological, political, racial, cultural and class, gaining enthusiastic ownership and invaluable sponsorship by conservative and liberal congressmen in the US, by the left and the right in Europe, including the Pope. The World Bank and the IMF were also brought on board, initially kicking and screaming sceptically, but in the end going along with fervent gusto.

Starting from a close observation of the impact of disease burden on economic development in Africa, Sachs led the very successful advocacy for US policy changes on the fight against HIV/ Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis, enlisting in the process the support of other donor countries, foundations and UN institutions and securing the support of African leaders such as President Obasanjo of Nigeria. This culminated in the setting up of the now famous and highly effective Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria in 2001. He can also claim vicarious paternity for President Bush's remarkably successful Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

Sachs deserves the credit for pointing out to the US government that it wasn't enough to open up its market to the products from developing countries. They would be easily kept out by the much more efficient East Asian producers unless an element of preferential access was introduced. This is what led to the drawing up of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), an initiative which underscores the cynicism of EU's Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme purporting to open up duty free access to the European market for the poorest countries knowing all the while that they face such severe supply side constraints that the advantage is doomed to remain largely theoretical. Indeed their lot is likely to be made worse by the fact that in reciprocation for the EBA favour, they are required to grant tariff free access to EU products, thereby providing the last nail for the coffin of their nascent industries which can never hope to compete with EU imports.

Jeffrey Sachs very usefully attempts to connect his suggestions on initiatives for sustainable development to the UN's Millennium Development Goals and compellingly repeats: "This time can be different!" He has the strength of conviction and the courage to propose and launch pilot village-level actions in different parts of the world to show that what he advocates is not mere rhetoric but can actually be put to practice.

A significant weakness in his model is over-reliance on external aid. He expends considerable effort to show that many developed countries, chief among them the US, have only given lip-service to the goal of meeting the UN's Official Development Assistance target set at 0.7% of GDP. Yet he somehow hopes they can soon be made to see the light and agree to shoulder their part of the burden, without showing how to arrive at that.


Bono could save more lives if he gave all his money instead of just his opinion , 16 Nov 2007
To honest, I am being a bit naughty.
I havn't read the book.
I think I will buy one soon.
When I have enough money.
Anyway.
I am sure the guy who wrote this book is really good, and is really sincere.
and I do believe that celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the n.. do loads of good work putting their face about, and giving their words. They probably even make quite good donations, which I am sure would be size-able in comparison to what most of us could give.
However, as most things, how much you give is relative to how much you have.

If all the celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the N.. (or sponge Bob) gave all of what they had, only keeping enough to live on, and used the money to set up self sufficient economies, or a global self sufficient economy, then, most of the problems in the world would be sorted.

I think i am not the only one that gets p*ssed off listening to multi millionairs telling us poor people to give away all we have (which, some of us do.)

I wonder how much of the money made from writing this book, as well as other books on the market written by other authors, is actually used to help set up self sufficient economies, and writing the many wrongs that have been done in the history of our crap greed based world.

It's about time capitalists, used their amazing talents to create revenue (through capitalizing their assets which are skills) to save peoples lives.

Anyway, good luck to all.
I hope you all enjoy reading, and giving what you can to change the world in a positive way.

A great book, 17 Sep 2007
This book is spiritually satisfactory indeed but it over-hypes the need for "infinite aid". The ideology of "bigger is better" hardly functions in the African geographical and cultural context.
The millenium development goals (currently being implemented by the UN) backed by the author are superb. I hope that the millenium development villages (the real beneficiaries) being pioneered by the author will be the springboard for the rest of the continent because it tackles the local needs rather than the donors'.


If wishes were horses, 19 Nov 2006
There is probably one indisputable truth from the story of Western aid to Africa over the last fifty years: it has had little positive effect, but it has resulted in corruption and expenditure on numberless failed projects of greater or lesser magnitude.
Given this lesson, what should our response be in the future? A prudent person might feel that a major increase in aid was a very risky strategy. It would at least require an enormous effort to persuade us that the results would not be as paltry as has resulted from the many billions of dollars already spent.
Or instead, you can take in on trust from Jeffrey Sachs that it's all gonna be just fine.
This is a near-worthless book. If you want to understand something about how really to help Africa without boosting the egos of grandstanders like Sachs, read anything by William Easterly.

A woman with a mission, 19 Sep 2008
For anybody who thinks that poverty is only relative and the true hardship of poverty only lives in the past or anyone who thinks that Britain is heading steadily in the direction of a classless society---This is a book you MUST read to bring you out of your complacent dreamworld and closer to a understanding of the awful conditions ,wages and yes poverty that many of your fellow citizens live in.Polly Toynbee takes the ultimate and valuable step of stepping into the low paids shoes with an assumed identity in order to truly understand and feel the nature of their circumstances.
Even somebody who has always been far from naive about the persistence of poverty in parts of Britain like Polly was shocked at what she discovered and almost depressed at the thought that so many are trapped in this rut for life.Unethical and greedy employers who exploit your desperation via a cavalier disregard for fair and reasonable working conditions.Knowing that many cant afford to complain.We are spared no details ,and rightly so as those who live the details are the ones who Polly is taking us on a journey to understand.
This excellently written book left me with a very clear understanding of how a multitude of disadvantages collectively combine together to place the low paid in an almost impossible position, over a barrel as they say,each disadvantage exacerbating the other.Educate yourself and read this book--the authors direct and detailed approach will help you feel what its like to walk in others shoes.
All credit to the author for her no apologies in keeping it real attitude and doing what many wouldnt dare attempt--stepping into the world of the most disadvantaged instead of playing it safe and just talking about it.I believe this book is essential reading for anyone serious about social justice and even more essential for those who currently arent serious about it.This book cannot fail in constructively enaging the reader with the issue.A must for any sociology student.Very informative.




















An opportunity wasted, 15 May 2008
The book begins promisingly enough, with the author learning how to "work the system" to obtain grants and loans for furniture and basic necessities to get started.

The squalor of the council flat allocated to her adds to the realism, but it is clear from reading through the book that she spends a minimum of time there, and frequently escapes to the comfort of her upper middle class accommodation.

The search for work is quite realistic, but then chapter after chapter is devoted to a description of a series of quite ordinary and unremarkable jobs, described as if they were the most extreme examples of Calcutta sweat shops, which only illustrates how the author is insulated from the real world. The author is vague on the subject, but I suspect that each of these jobs was only carried out for a few days. A real person in such a situation would not be able to withstand the gaps in income which would result in such rapid changes of employment,

The opening chapters give quite a lot of good detail of the economics of living at this end of the social scale, but as the book progresses, monetary accounts fade away, so the reader is unable to determine whether the author is actually making financial headway, treading water, or getting deeper into debt. In reality, I suspect that the author abandoned quite early any attempt to actually survive on the minimum wage, and treated the whole experience as an exercise in journalism.

In short, a tremendous opportunity wasted.


New Labour at its best, 02 Jun 2005
This book is odd. It mocks the Church of England for being the Conservative party at prayer, but then defends it for the good work it does in the community. It attacks Thacherite reforms as being immoral, but then states that Unions discriminated against women workers and kept a tight, therefore unpleasant leash, on the rest of the workforce. It belittles those who want to succeed and make a better life for themselves (take the example of the telesales man) blind to the fact that, for many, that dream of self betterment is all they, me included, have. The list of contradictions goes on and on. The only thing we know for sure is that Toynbee hates the conservative archetype, which she says she finds in an Old People's home. My impression is that she made this character up in order to remind people of who the enemy is. If that man did in fact exist, which I sincerely doubt, the fact that he invested his life, talent and skills in providing jobs and providing care for the elderly is irrelevant. What is important for Toynbee is that he wears a pinstripe suit and that he has small pig-like eyes.
I forced myself to read this book until the end and was mightily relieved when I finished it. It is morally vain, philosophically empty and indescribably haughty. Not worth the paper it was written on.

Patronising, 15 Apr 2005
As someone who has spent a long time living in a family dependant on benefits, and having to suffer the social stigma of poverty and it's undignified nature, Polly Toynbee has written this book in order to inform others of the harshness of life at the bottom of the economic ladder, and I have a problem with it.

I work a low paid job at a supermarket, and my educational opportunities are limited and would like my voice to be heard, not a middle class person taking it upon themselves to speak for me. Yes, I do not doubt her sympathy, but that is not what many poor want; it is instead the chance to express their opnions and further their lives in a less oppressive way. Part of the problem is middle class dominance of politics, and it's reporting of it in a social context. Whatever happened to communication? Let the poor have the opportunity to speak for themselves, I am sure they would have alot to say, and it would be from a genuine perspective. Toynbee can immerse herself in it (poverty) but she is not of it.

Another thing is the negative life she imposes upon working class experience, rather than also focusing on the economic realities. I have many happy times being working class, times where myself and others have found ways to cope with our siuations in a positive way. It is not just grim estates and horrible landlords, and soul destroying work. Tell us something we don't know already. Of course she was going to find it tough, she comes from a more comfortable world, and her senses and feelings being in alien situations are going to be picking up experiences and their consequences in a more intense way. But to put it another way- yes it is good journalism, but from an unskilled, manual worker doing low paid work, and having experienced some of the things she describes in her book, it seems a bit ridiculous when someone plays at poverty for a bit in order to tell other people what it is like to live in poverty. Ask the poor themselves! We aren't stupid you know!

She goes on about the voicless and invisible. Well, she is contributing to that condition of being powerless and impotent politically.

Poverty Bites, 04 Jan 2004
Hard Work is the British version of Nickel and Dimed and Toynbee does justice to the genre. Toynbee works mind-numbing jobs that pay just enough to keep her in poverty. She packages pastries and cleans hotel rooms, she lives in a squalid flat she can barely afford, and she tries to make ends meet on minimum wage. It is very depressing.

Toynbee finds that being one of the working poor is to be defeated at every turn. When she gets her dark, damp, unfurnished flat, she has to borrow money from the Housing Authority to furnish it because she won't get paid until she has been working for at least two weeks. She can't make an appointment to see the doctor because her job doesn't allow any paid time off. She can't try to get a better job because all the employers want to schedule interviews during her work hours (and she can't afford to take time off) or they want her to devote the day to waiting for an interview. She can't even make her views as a voter known, because to get to the voting station would mean unpaid time off from work, or an hour on the bus and in line waiting to vote after a 10-hour shift on her feet.

Life is a constant Catch-22 and she finally admits defeat when she has to move out of her apartment because the building's front door doesn't lock, there are drug dealers in the lobby, and she can't afford a phone.

In between descriptions of her alternate life in the slum, she splices discussions of the politics behind the policies regarding wages and poverty in Great Britain. Even for someone who isn't familiar with British government, it is very clear. It is also obvious that we in America have a lot in common with Britain.

'Forgotten' people: a revealing history that's very depressing! , 06 Nov 2007
Despite my heading, I enjoyed reading this book and I believe that Amity Shlaes has provided information and made revelations regarding a period following which, as always, the victors wrote up the history and hid the mistakes. The thing is, was the four-term President Roosevelt a fool or was he a conniving shyster, trying his hardest to destroy capitalism at home and the British Empire overseas? I still don't know, but I have my suspicions, as did Winston Churchill. For me, the most important information in the book was that Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt surrounded themselves with - not to put too fine a point on it - communists, communist sympathisers and communist spies. (If readers of this review want to know their ignominious names, then they should buy or borrow the book!). We suffered the same in England, too, for some of our post-World War II Governments were of the same ilk. The latters' excuses, however, were more unforgivable than those of FDR's people, for the evils of Stalin's Soviet Union after the War were all too clear to anyone with eyes to see or ears to hear. For example, I can never forgive Mr Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin, with an exhausted and powerless Winston looking on, carving up the ruins of Europe at the Yalta conference in 1945. It took another 44 years for poor Poland's freedom to be restored and, by then, the Poles' country had literally been moved. The book, which is well-researched and well-punctuated but less well-written, is mostly about what led up to that evil debacle, however, and it has been helpful to me to 'see' how FDR's mind was working prior to the War. Sure, the depression was a very major crisis, but how differently it might have been dealt with under, say, a Wendell Willkie (probably the book's 'hero,' not Andrew Mellon as someone has suggested), a conservative Democrat until he was driven into the arms of the Republican Party and did pretty impressively in the 1940 election - what a shame he ended as he did, too young to die and a Republican to boot!

Caveat Presidents: The Dangers of Reaching Beyond Your Understanding, 20 Aug 2007
Prior to FDR becoming president, federal government actions seldom had much effect on the economy or the nation's culture. The exceptions were when the federal government waged war, tampered with the currency or the money supply, or indulged in social experiments (like Prohibition). Prior to Hoover, there was usually a social consensus that the government that did the least was best.

Amity Shlaes' anecdotal history of the Great Depression highlights the dangers that occur when government begins to intervene in the economy and social structure in too many ways, too quickly, and too intrusively.

One of the key mysteries of the Great Depression was why the U.S. economy was hit so much harder than the British one. Some economists argue that a more established economy will experience fewer perturbations during a global recession or depression because those concerned about safety will seek out the oldest financial markets. Ms. Shlaes suggests that the Americans meddled too much and scared off investments.

The book's title is drawn an example of flawed government legislation described by William Graham Sumner in 1883 where two parties seek to help a third party in a way that requires a fourth party to participate . . . but without considering the effect on the fourth party -- the forgotten man who "always pays." Interestingly, the book points out the many different people who were identified by politicians of the era as the forgotten man.

Ms. Shlaes' story focuses on the class warfare that FDR conducted against business executives, wealthy people in general, and shareholders . . . and how that class warfare encouraged those groups to behave in ways that made the depression deeper and longer lasting than it would have been without the class warfare.

The story of the Great Depression is told by following the lives of a number of people who were prominent as government leaders (such as Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and FDR), members of government (such as FDR's brain trust and Felix Frankfurter), industrial and financial leaders (Andrew Mellon, Samuel Insull, and Wendell Willkie), Supreme Court justices, those involved in key law suits that challenged the New Deal, religious and social leaders (Father Divine), and those who addressed the social ills of the time more directly (Bill Wilson's founding of Alcoholics Anonymous). This approach makes for good reading, but light understanding.

Anyone wanting to attach causes to effects will be disappointed in the book. While many connections are suggested, the analysis to back up those connections is missing. Fans of FDR will feel like he is unfairly expected to be perfect. Those who are concerned about giving the most people a sense of being treated fairly will feel like that aspect of the book is underdeveloped.

Did FDR make mistakes? Yes. Did Herbert Hoover make mistakes? Yes. Did the Federal Reserve make mistakes? Yes. Did Congress make mistakes? Yes. But you knew that already.

The main benefit of this book is that you'll get to know the supporting cast from those times (especially those who were initially very impressed by the Soviet Union) much better than you would have otherwise. That will enrich your appreciation of the mental set and tenor of the times.

If you would like to know more about the history of public electrical power, you'll also find this book to be a helpful resource,

Challenge What You Think You Know..., 03 Jan 2009
Let's consider some facts before talking about increasing aid: Why should we care about the poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America? If we give them more aid, where would it go? Afterall, conventional wisdom suggests that Africa's leaders are so corrupt that our aid money will end up in the pockets of some bespectacled dictator or in some Swiss bank account. Moreover, everyone knows that Africans lack morals and self-restraint. Evidence: the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and a population explosion on that `dark' continent. Those Africans cannot seem to control themselves or wean themselves from superstitious, pre-modern beliefs!

If you have ever wondered about these aforementioned bites of `conventional wisdom' then Jeffrey Sach's End of Poverty is a must-read. Using empirical data, Sachs debunks conventional wisdom to demonstrate that Africans value hard work as much as Americans and that corruption is not as clear a barrier to development as we might believe.

Professor Sachs, who is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is a world-renowned expert on development. In this marvellously argued book, Professor Sachs points out that the whole world was poor before the year 1800. Due to a combination of geography, socio-political realities and economics, the Industrial Revolution was birthed in Europe. This enabled European societies to become wealthier, as they were able to improve productivity of their economies (i.e. their economies started to grow). Much of the rest of the world (Africa in particular) has not been able to catch up because of a combination of the following factors:
* Poverty itself
* Fiscal trap
* Physical geography
* Governance failures
* Cultural barriers
* Geopolitics

Sachs comprehensively dismisses the notion that there is one magic bullet that can end extreme poverty. Some ideas making the rounds in development circles: lack of markets, lack of property rights, cultural barriers etc. Sachs argues for a clinical approach to development economics. Like a sick patient, a `sick' economy needs to be treated based on a diagnosis of the particular failings in the economy. According to Sachs, too often in the last two decades, the IMF and World Bank have applied a standard remedy to failing economies: liberalisation, privatisation, structural adjustment. The results of this approach have been devastating to say the least.

As a Nigerian, who came of age during the structural adjustment programmes (SAP) of the late 1980's, I can personally attest that the 1990's were periods of unimaginable financial distress in my family. At the time, little did I know that SAP (as we called in when I was a kid), was recommended and driven by misguided ideologues at the World Bank who had no inkling of the particular situation on the ground in Nigeria.

Professor Sachs also strongly advocates increases in rich world aid to 0.7% of rich-world GDP in order to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDG's). He further stresses that in an increasingly globalised society that no one country is an Island; idea that the rich world can remain islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty is unrealistic. It is a message that the rich ignore at their peril.

By detailing his experience in working in Bolivia, China, Poland, Russia and in Africa, Sachs comes across as a very intelligent, urbane, compassionate, thoughtful and optimistic man. He is very well versed in the economics as well as the social implications of neglecting the poor in today's world. He calls the rich world to rise to challenge of realising the Enlightenment ideal of progress and dignity for all mankind. Indeed, his call is not on based on altruism but on the fact that helping the poor and getting them on the `globalisation train' is an act on enlightened self interest.

Yes, rich country electorates can afford and are willing to increase aid to the poor. No, there is no magic bullet and yes, it is in the long-term security interests of the rich to end poverty. Increased aid will need to be long-term (at least a decade). Ending extreme poverty is one of the key challenges of our generation. No country can end poverty alone; it needs broad consensus and the engagement of the multilateral post-World War II institutions such as the UN and the World Bank. Sachs outlines the cost and a workable plan for achieving the Millenium Development Goals.

Sachs does not pull any punches in describing the sheer ignorance and tight-fistedness that has characterised US foreign policy under the Bush administration. Similarly, he challenges the World Bank and IMF for their failings in the last two decades. However, he insists that the United States can rise to the challenge of ending poverty just as it did in reconstructing Europe (The Marshall Plan) after World War II. The End of Poverty is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in moving beyond the sound bites and glib media coverage of the development agenda. Sach's plan/vision for achieving the MDG's is grand and engaging. It deserved 4 stars.


Novel Approach to Development Economics, 29 Apr 2008
This book is breath-taking in scope, pulsating with captivating optimism and inspiring in its bold proposals. For Jeffrey Sachs, no mountain is too steep or too high to climb. Time and again, when this David locks horns with the Goliaths of the World Bank and the White House, he invariably emerges triumphant.

He makes it sound so amazingly easy when he recounts the systematic diagnosis, prescription and treatment that lead to the dramatic arrest of hyperinflation in Bolivia and Poland. The extended medical metaphor is neither haphazard nor purely stylistic. It reflects Sachs' recommendation of a novel approach to development economics which he sees as analogous to the challenges of a paediatrician trained to grope for answers through "differential diagnosis". Couldn't this be of interest to a country like Zimbabwe today running a four digit inflation? He then goes on to make a fascinating and onstructive overview of the reversal of economic fortunes in China and India in the 80's and 90's.

As the economic advisor to the Jubilee 2000 Campaign for the cancellation of the poorest countries' foreign debt, he provided the very powerful theoretical underpinning for the initiative. What was particularly remarkable about the movement was the way it succeeded in roping in support from across all imaginable divides: religious, ideological, political, racial, cultural and class, gaining enthusiastic ownership and invaluable sponsorship by conservative and liberal congressmen in the US, by the left and the right in Europe, including the Pope. The World Bank and the IMF were also brought on board, initially kicking and screaming sceptically, but in the end going along with fervent gusto.

Starting from a close observation of the impact of disease burden on economic development in Africa, Sachs led the very successful advocacy for US policy changes on the fight against HIV/ Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis, enlisting in the process the support of other donor countries, foundations and UN institutions and securing the support of African leaders such as President Obasanjo of Nigeria. This culminated in the setting up of the now famous and highly effective Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria in 2001. He can also claim vicarious paternity for President Bush's remarkably successful Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

Sachs deserves the credit for pointing out to the US government that it wasn't enough to open up its market to the products from developing countries. They would be easily kept out by the much more efficient East Asian producers unless an element of preferential access was introduced. This is what led to the drawing up of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), an initiative which underscores the cynicism of EU's Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme purporting to open up duty free access to the European market for the poorest countries knowing all the while that they face such severe supply side constraints that the advantage is doomed to remain largely theoretical. Indeed their lot is likely to be made worse by the fact that in reciprocation for the EBA favour, they are required to grant tariff free access to EU products, thereby providing the last nail for the coffin of their nascent industries which can never hope to compete with EU imports.

Jeffrey Sachs very usefully attempts to connect his suggestions on initiatives for sustainable development to the UN's Millennium Development Goals and compellingly repeats: "This time can be different!" He has the strength of conviction and the courage to propose and launch pilot village-level actions in different parts of the world to show that what he advocates is not mere rhetoric but can actually be put to practice.

A significant weakness in his model is over-reliance on external aid. He expends considerable effort to show that many developed countries, chief among them the US, have only given lip-service to the goal of meeting the UN's Official Development Assistance target set at 0.7% of GDP. Yet he somehow hopes they can soon be made to see the light and agree to shoulder their part of the burden, without showing how to arrive at that.


Bono could save more lives if he gave all his money instead of just his opinion , 16 Nov 2007
To honest, I am being a bit naughty.
I havn't read the book.
I think I will buy one soon.
When I have enough money.
Anyway.
I am sure the guy who wrote this book is really good, and is really sincere.
and I do believe that celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the n.. do loads of good work putting their face about, and giving their words. They probably even make quite good donations, which I am sure would be size-able in comparison to what most of us could give.
However, as most things, how much you give is relative to how much you have.

If all the celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the N.. (or sponge Bob) gave all of what they had, only keeping enough to live on, and used the money to set up self sufficient economies, or a global self sufficient economy, then, most of the problems in the world would be sorted.

I think i am not the only one that gets p*ssed off listening to multi millionairs telling us poor people to give away all we have (which, some of us do.)

I wonder how much of the money made from writing this book, as well as other books on the market written by other authors, is actually used to help set up self sufficient economies, and writing the many wrongs that have been done in the history of our crap greed based world.

It's about time capitalists, used their amazing talents to create revenue (through capitalizing their assets which are skills) to save peoples lives.

Anyway, good luck to all.
I hope you all enjoy reading, and giving what you can to change the world in a positive way.

A great book, 17 Sep 2007
This book is spiritually satisfactory indeed but it over-hypes the need for "infinite aid". The ideology of "bigger is better" hardly functions in the African geographical and cultural context.
The millenium development goals (currently being implemented by the UN) backed by the author are superb. I hope that the millenium development villages (the real beneficiaries) being pioneered by the author will be the springboard for the rest of the continent because it tackles the local needs rather than the donors'.


If wishes were horses, 19 Nov 2006
There is probably one indisputable truth from the story of Western aid to Africa over the last fifty years: it has had little positive effect, but it has resulted in corruption and expenditure on numberless failed projects of greater or lesser magnitude.
Given this lesson, what should our response be in the future? A prudent person might feel that a major increase in aid was a very risky strategy. It would at least require an enormous effort to persuade us that the results would not be as paltry as has resulted from the many billions of dollars already spent.
Or instead, you can take in on trust from Jeffrey Sachs that it's all gonna be just fine.
This is a near-worthless book. If you want to understand something about how really to help Africa without boosting the egos of grandstanders like Sachs, read anything by William Easterly.

A woman with a mission, 19 Sep 2008
For anybody who thinks that poverty is only relative and the true hardship of poverty only lives in the past or anyone who thinks that Britain is heading steadily in the direction of a classless society---This is a book you MUST read to bring you out of your complacent dreamworld and closer to a understanding of the awful conditions ,wages and yes poverty that many of your fellow citizens live in.Polly Toynbee takes the ultimate and valuable step of stepping into the low paids shoes with an assumed identity in order to truly understand and feel the nature of their circumstances.
Even somebody who has always been far from naive about the persistence of poverty in parts of Britain like Polly was shocked at what she discovered and almost depressed at the thought that so many are trapped in this rut for life.Unethical and greedy employers who exploit your desperation via a cavalier disregard for fair and reasonable working conditions.Knowing that many cant afford to complain.We are spared no details ,and rightly so as those who live the details are the ones who Polly is taking us on a journey to understand.
This excellently written book left me with a very clear understanding of how a multitude of disadvantages collectively combine together to place the low paid in an almost impossible position, over a barrel as they say,each disadvantage exacerbating the other.Educate yourself and read this book--the authors direct and detailed approach will help you feel what its like to walk in others shoes.
All credit to the author for her no apologies in keeping it real attitude and doing what many wouldnt dare attempt--stepping into the world of the most disadvantaged instead of playing it safe and just talking about it.I believe this book is essential reading for anyone serious about social justice and even more essential for those who currently arent serious about it.This book cannot fail in constructively enaging the reader with the issue.A must for any sociology student.Very informative.




















An opportunity wasted, 15 May 2008
The book begins promisingly enough, with the author learning how to "work the system" to obtain grants and loans for furniture and basic necessities to get started.

The squalor of the council flat allocated to her adds to the realism, but it is clear from reading through the book that she spends a minimum of time there, and frequently escapes to the comfort of her upper middle class accommodation.

The search for work is quite realistic, but then chapter after chapter is devoted to a description of a series of quite ordinary and unremarkable jobs, described as if they were the most extreme examples of Calcutta sweat shops, which only illustrates how the author is insulated from the real world. The author is vague on the subject, but I suspect that each of these jobs was only carried out for a few days. A real person in such a situation would not be able to withstand the gaps in income which would result in such rapid changes of employment,

The opening chapters give quite a lot of good detail of the economics of living at this end of the social scale, but as the book progresses, monetary accounts fade away, so the reader is unable to determine whether the author is actually making financial headway, treading water, or getting deeper into debt. In reality, I suspect that the author abandoned quite early any attempt to actually survive on the minimum wage, and treated the whole experience as an exercise in journalism.

In short, a tremendous opportunity wasted.


New Labour at its best, 02 Jun 2005
This book is odd. It mocks the Church of England for being the Conservative party at prayer, but then defends it for the good work it does in the community. It attacks Thacherite reforms as being immoral, but then states that Unions discriminated against women workers and kept a tight, therefore unpleasant leash, on the rest of the workforce. It belittles those who want to succeed and make a better life for themselves (take the example of the telesales man) blind to the fact that, for many, that dream of self betterment is all they, me included, have. The list of contradictions goes on and on. The only thing we know for sure is that Toynbee hates the conservative archetype, which she says she finds in an Old People's home. My impression is that she made this character up in order to remind people of who the enemy is. If that man did in fact exist, which I sincerely doubt, the fact that he invested his life, talent and skills in providing jobs and providing care for the elderly is irrelevant. What is important for Toynbee is that he wears a pinstripe suit and that he has small pig-like eyes.
I forced myself to read this book until the end and was mightily relieved when I finished it. It is morally vain, philosophically empty and indescribably haughty. Not worth the paper it was written on.

Patronising, 15 Apr 2005
As someone who has spent a long time living in a family dependant on benefits, and having to suffer the social stigma of poverty and it's undignified nature, Polly Toynbee has written this book in order to inform others of the harshness of life at the bottom of the economic ladder, and I have a problem with it.

I work a low paid job at a supermarket, and my educational opportunities are limited and would like my voice to be heard, not a middle class person taking it upon themselves to speak for me. Yes, I do not doubt her sympathy, but that is not what many poor want; it is instead the chance to express their opnions and further their lives in a less oppressive way. Part of the problem is middle class dominance of politics, and it's reporting of it in a social context. Whatever happened to communication? Let the poor have the opportunity to speak for themselves, I am sure they would have alot to say, and it would be from a genuine perspective. Toynbee can immerse herself in it (poverty) but she is not of it.

Another thing is the negative life she imposes upon working class experience, rather than also focusing on the economic realities. I have many happy times being working class, times where myself and others have found ways to cope with our siuations in a positive way. It is not just grim estates and horrible landlords, and soul destroying work. Tell us something we don't know already. Of course she was going to find it tough, she comes from a more comfortable world, and her senses and feelings being in alien situations are going to be picking up experiences and their consequences in a more intense way. But to put it another way- yes it is good journalism, but from an unskilled, manual worker doing low paid work, and having experienced some of the things she describes in her book, it seems a bit ridiculous when someone plays at poverty for a bit in order to tell other people what it is like to live in poverty. Ask the poor themselves! We aren't stupid you know!

She goes on about the voicless and invisible. Well, she is contributing to that condition of being powerless and impotent politically.

Poverty Bites, 04 Jan 2004
Hard Work is the British version of Nickel and Dimed and Toynbee does justice to the genre. Toynbee works mind-numbing jobs that pay just enough to keep her in poverty. She packages pastries and cleans hotel rooms, she lives in a squalid flat she can barely afford, and she tries to make ends meet on minimum wage. It is very depressing.

Toynbee finds that being one of the working poor is to be defeated at every turn. When she gets her dark, damp, unfurnished flat, she has to borrow money from the Housing Authority to furnish it because she won't get paid until she has been working for at least two weeks. She can't make an appointment to see the doctor because her job doesn't allow any paid time off. She can't try to get a better job because all the employers want to schedule interviews during her work hours (and she can't afford to take time off) or they want her to devote the day to waiting for an interview. She can't even make her views as a voter known, because to get to the voting station would mean unpaid time off from work, or an hour on the bus and in line waiting to vote after a 10-hour shift on her feet.

Life is a constant Catch-22 and she finally admits defeat when she has to move out of her apartment because the building's front door doesn't lock, there are drug dealers in the lobby, and she can't afford a phone.

In between descriptions of her alternate life in the slum, she splices discussions of the politics behind the policies regarding wages and poverty in Great Britain. Even for someone who isn't familiar with British government, it is very clear. It is also obvious that we in America have a lot in common with Britain.

'Forgotten' people: a revealing history that's very depressing! , 06 Nov 2007
Despite my heading, I enjoyed reading this book and I believe that Amity Shlaes has provided information and made revelations regarding a period following which, as always, the victors wrote up the history and hid the mistakes. The thing is, was the four-term President Roosevelt a fool or was he a conniving shyster, trying his hardest to destroy capitalism at home and the British Empire overseas? I still don't know, but I have my suspicions, as did Winston Churchill. For me, the most important information in the book was that Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt surrounded themselves with - not to put too fine a point on it - communists, communist sympathisers and communist spies. (If readers of this review want to know their ignominious names, then they should buy or borrow the book!). We suffered the same in England, too, for some of our post-World War II Governments were of the same ilk. The latters' excuses, however, were more unforgivable than those of FDR's people, for the evils of Stalin's Soviet Union after the War were all too clear to anyone with eyes to see or ears to hear. For example, I can never forgive Mr Roosevelt and Marshal Stalin, with an exhausted and powerless Winston looking on, carving up the ruins of Europe at the Yalta conference in 1945. It took another 44 years for poor Poland's freedom to be restored and, by then, the Poles' country had literally been moved. The book, which is well-researched and well-punctuated but less well-written, is mostly about what led up to that evil debacle, however, and it has been helpful to me to 'see' how FDR's mind was working prior to the War. Sure, the depression was a very major crisis, but how differently it might have been dealt with under, say, a Wendell Willkie (probably the book's 'hero,' not Andrew Mellon as someone has suggested), a conservative Democrat until he was driven into the arms of the Republican Party and did pretty impressively in the 1940 election - what a shame he ended as he did, too young to die and a Republican to boot!

Caveat Presidents: The Dangers of Reaching Beyond Your Understanding, 20 Aug 2007
Prior to FDR becoming president, federal government actions seldom had much effect on the economy or the nation's culture. The exceptions were when the federal government waged war, tampered with the currency or the money supply, or indulged in social experiments (like Prohibition). Prior to Hoover, there was usually a social consensus that the government that did the least was best.

Amity Shlaes' anecdotal history of the Great Depression highlights the dangers that occur when government begins to intervene in the economy and social structure in too many ways, too quickly, and too intrusively.

One of the key mysteries of the Great Depression was why the U.S. economy was hit so much harder than the British one. Some economists argue that a more established economy will experience fewer perturbations during a global recession or depression because those concerned about safety will seek out the oldest financial markets. Ms. Shlaes suggests that the Americans meddled too much and scared off investments.

The book's title is drawn an example of flawed government legislation described by William Graham Sumner in 1883 where two parties seek to help a third party in a way that requires a fourth party to participate . . . but without considering the effect on the fourth party -- the forgotten man who "always pays." Interestingly, the book points out the many different people who were identified by politicians of the era as the forgotten man.

Ms. Shlaes' story focuses on the class warfare that FDR conducted against business executives, wealthy people in general, and shareholders . . . and how that class warfare encouraged those groups to behave in ways that made the depression deeper and longer lasting than it would have been without the class warfare.

The story of the Great Depression is told by following the lives of a number of people who were prominent as government leaders (such as Calvin Coolidge, Herbert Hoover, and FDR), members of government (such as FDR's brain trust and Felix Frankfurter), industrial and financial leaders (Andrew Mellon, Samuel Insull, and Wendell Willkie), Supreme Court justices, those involved in key law suits that challenged the New Deal, religious and social leaders (Father Divine), and those who addressed the social ills of the time more directly (Bill Wilson's founding of Alcoholics Anonymous). This approach makes for good reading, but light understanding.

Anyone wanting to attach causes to effects will be disappointed in the book. While many connections are suggested, the analysis to back up those connections is missing. Fans of FDR will feel like he is unfairly expected to be perfect. Those who are concerned about giving the most people a sense of being treated fairly will feel like that aspect of the book is underdeveloped.

Did FDR make mistakes? Yes. Did Herbert Hoover make mistakes? Yes. Did the Federal Reserve make mistakes? Yes. Did Congress make mistakes? Yes. But you knew that already.

The main benefit of this book is that you'll get to know the supporting cast from those times (especially those who were initially very impressed by the Soviet Union) much better than you would have otherwise. That will enrich your appreciation of the mental set and tenor of the times.

If you would like to know more about the history of public electrical power, you'll also find this book to be a helpful resource,


poverty, 03 Jan 2009
This book was so useful to me when writing an essay on poverty (BA HONS level) it became my bible, so current,upto date and very easy to read.

Challenge What You Think You Know..., 03 Jan 2009
Let's consider some facts before talking about increasing aid: Why should we care about the poor in Africa, Asia and Latin America? If we give them more aid, where would it go? Afterall, conventional wisdom suggests that Africa's leaders are so corrupt that our aid money will end up in the pockets of some bespectacled dictator or in some Swiss bank account. Moreover, everyone knows that Africans lack morals and self-restraint. Evidence: the prevalence of HIV/AIDS and a population explosion on that `dark' continent. Those Africans cannot seem to control themselves or wean themselves from superstitious, pre-modern beliefs!

If you have ever wondered about these aforementioned bites of `conventional wisdom' then Jeffrey Sach's End of Poverty is a must-read. Using empirical data, Sachs debunks conventional wisdom to demonstrate that Africans value hard work as much as Americans and that corruption is not as clear a barrier to development as we might believe.

Professor Sachs, who is director of the Earth Institute at Columbia University, is a world-renowned expert on development. In this marvellously argued book, Professor Sachs points out that the whole world was poor before the year 1800. Due to a combination of geography, socio-political realities and economics, the Industrial Revolution was birthed in Europe. This enabled European societies to become wealthier, as they were able to improve productivity of their economies (i.e. their economies started to grow). Much of the rest of the world (Africa in particular) has not been able to catch up because of a combination of the following factors:
* Poverty itself
* Fiscal trap
* Physical geography
* Governance failures
* Cultural barriers
* Geopolitics

Sachs comprehensively dismisses the notion that there is one magic bullet that can end extreme poverty. Some ideas making the rounds in development circles: lack of markets, lack of property rights, cultural barriers etc. Sachs argues for a clinical approach to development economics. Like a sick patient, a `sick' economy needs to be treated based on a diagnosis of the particular failings in the economy. According to Sachs, too often in the last two decades, the IMF and World Bank have applied a standard remedy to failing economies: liberalisation, privatisation, structural adjustment. The results of this approach have been devastating to say the least.

As a Nigerian, who came of age during the structural adjustment programmes (SAP) of the late 1980's, I can personally attest that the 1990's were periods of unimaginable financial distress in my family. At the time, little did I know that SAP (as we called in when I was a kid), was recommended and driven by misguided ideologues at the World Bank who had no inkling of the particular situation on the ground in Nigeria.

Professor Sachs also strongly advocates increases in rich world aid to 0.7% of rich-world GDP in order to meet the Millenium Development Goals (MDG's). He further stresses that in an increasingly globalised society that no one country is an Island; idea that the rich world can remain islands of prosperity in a sea of poverty is unrealistic. It is a message that the rich ignore at their peril.

By detailing his experience in working in Bolivia, China, Poland, Russia and in Africa, Sachs comes across as a very intelligent, urbane, compassionate, thoughtful and optimistic man. He is very well versed in the economics as well as the social implications of neglecting the poor in today's world. He calls the rich world to rise to challenge of realising the Enlightenment ideal of progress and dignity for all mankind. Indeed, his call is not on based on altruism but on the fact that helping the poor and getting them on the `globalisation train' is an act on enlightened self interest.

Yes, rich country electorates can afford and are willing to increase aid to the poor. No, there is no magic bullet and yes, it is in the long-term security interests of the rich to end poverty. Increased aid will need to be long-term (at least a decade). Ending extreme poverty is one of the key challenges of our generation. No country can end poverty alone; it needs broad consensus and the engagement of the multilateral post-World War II institutions such as the UN and the World Bank. Sachs outlines the cost and a workable plan for achieving the Millenium Development Goals.

Sachs does not pull any punches in describing the sheer ignorance and tight-fistedness that has characterised US foreign policy under the Bush administration. Similarly, he challenges the World Bank and IMF for their failings in the last two decades. However, he insists that the United States can rise to the challenge of ending poverty just as it did in reconstructing Europe (The Marshall Plan) after World War II. The End of Poverty is an excellent read for anyone who is interested in moving beyond the sound bites and glib media coverage of the development agenda. Sach's plan/vision for achieving the MDG's is grand and engaging. It deserved 4 stars.


Novel Approach to Development Economics, 29 Apr 2008
This book is breath-taking in scope, pulsating with captivating optimism and inspiring in its bold proposals. For Jeffrey Sachs, no mountain is too steep or too high to climb. Time and again, when this David locks horns with the Goliaths of the World Bank and the White House, he invariably emerges triumphant.

He makes it sound so amazingly easy when he recounts the systematic diagnosis, prescription and treatment that lead to the dramatic arrest of hyperinflation in Bolivia and Poland. The extended medical metaphor is neither haphazard nor purely stylistic. It reflects Sachs' recommendation of a novel approach to development economics which he sees as analogous to the challenges of a paediatrician trained to grope for answers through "differential diagnosis". Couldn't this be of interest to a country like Zimbabwe today running a four digit inflation? He then goes on to make a fascinating and onstructive overview of the reversal of economic fortunes in China and India in the 80's and 90's.

As the economic advisor to the Jubilee 2000 Campaign for the cancellation of the poorest countries' foreign debt, he provided the very powerful theoretical underpinning for the initiative. What was particularly remarkable about the movement was the way it succeeded in roping in support from across all imaginable divides: religious, ideological, political, racial, cultural and class, gaining enthusiastic ownership and invaluable sponsorship by conservative and liberal congressmen in the US, by the left and the right in Europe, including the Pope. The World Bank and the IMF were also brought on board, initially kicking and screaming sceptically, but in the end going along with fervent gusto.

Starting from a close observation of the impact of disease burden on economic development in Africa, Sachs led the very successful advocacy for US policy changes on the fight against HIV/ Aids, Malaria and Tuberculosis, enlisting in the process the support of other donor countries, foundations and UN institutions and securing the support of African leaders such as President Obasanjo of Nigeria. This culminated in the setting up of the now famous and highly effective Global Fund to Fight Aids, TB and Malaria in 2001. He can also claim vicarious paternity for President Bush's remarkably successful Emergency Plan for Aids Relief (PEPFAR).

Sachs deserves the credit for pointing out to the US government that it wasn't enough to open up its market to the products from developing countries. They would be easily kept out by the much more efficient East Asian producers unless an element of preferential access was introduced. This is what led to the drawing up of the African Growth and Opportunities Act (AGOA), an initiative which underscores the cynicism of EU's Everything But Arms (EBA) scheme purporting to open up duty free access to the European market for the poorest countries knowing all the while that they face such severe supply side constraints that the advantage is doomed to remain largely theoretical. Indeed their lot is likely to be made worse by the fact that in reciprocation for the EBA favour, they are required to grant tariff free access to EU products, thereby providing the last nail for the coffin of their nascent industries which can never hope to compete with EU imports.

Jeffrey Sachs very usefully attempts to connect his suggestions on initiatives for sustainable development to the UN's Millennium Development Goals and compellingly repeats: "This time can be different!" He has the strength of conviction and the courage to propose and launch pilot village-level actions in different parts of the world to show that what he advocates is not mere rhetoric but can actually be put to practice.

A significant weakness in his model is over-reliance on external aid. He expends considerable effort to show that many developed countries, chief among them the US, have only given lip-service to the goal of meeting the UN's Official Development Assistance target set at 0.7% of GDP. Yet he somehow hopes they can soon be made to see the light and agree to shoulder their part of the burden, without showing how to arrive at that.


Bono could save more lives if he gave all his money instead of just his opinion , 16 Nov 2007
To honest, I am being a bit naughty.
I havn't read the book.
I think I will buy one soon.
When I have enough money.
Anyway.
I am sure the guy who wrote this book is really good, and is really sincere.
and I do believe that celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the n.. do loads of good work putting their face about, and giving their words. They probably even make quite good donations, which I am sure would be size-able in comparison to what most of us could give.
However, as most things, how much you give is relative to how much you have.

If all the celeb's like Bone-o and Bob the N.. (or sponge Bob) gave all of what they had, only keeping enough to live on, and used the money to set up self sufficient economies, or a global self sufficient economy, then, most of the problems in the world would be sorted.

I think i am not the only one that gets p*ssed off listening to multi millionairs telling us poor people to give away all we have (which, some of us do.)

I wonder how much of the money made from writing this book, as well as other books on the market written by other authors, is actually used to help set up self sufficient economies, and writing the many wrongs that have been done in the history of our crap greed based world.

It's about time capitalists, used their amazing talents to create revenue (through capitalizing their assets which are skills) to save peoples lives.

Anyway, good luck to all.
I hope you all enjoy reading, and giving what you can to change the world in a positive way.

A great book, 17 Sep 2007
This book is spiritually satisfactory indeed but it over-hypes the need for "infinite aid". The ideology of "bigger is better" hardly functions in the African geographical and cultural context.
The millenium development goals (currently being implemented by the UN) backed by the author are superb. I hope that the millenium development villages (the real beneficiaries) being pioneered by the author will be the springboard for the rest of the continent because it tackles the local needs rather than the donors'.


If wishes were horses, 19 Nov 2006
There is probably one indisputable truth from the story of Western aid to Africa over the last fifty years: it has had little positive effect, but it has resulted in corruption and expenditure on numberless failed projects of greater or lesser magnitude.
Given this lesson, what should our response be in the future? A prudent person might feel that a major increase in aid was a very risky strategy. It would at least require an enormous effort to persuade us that the results would not be as paltry as has resulted from the many billions of dollars already spent.
Or instead, you can take in on trust from Jeffrey Sachs that it's all gonna be just fine.
This is a near-worthless book. If you want to understand something about how really to help Africa without boosting the egos of grandstanders like Sachs, read anything by William Easterly.

A woman with a mission, 19 Sep 2008
For anybody who thinks that poverty is only relative and the true hardship of poverty only lives in the past or anyone who thinks that Britain is heading steadily in the direction of a classless society---This is a book you MUST read to bring you out of your complacent dreamworld and closer to a understanding of the awful conditions ,wages and yes poverty that many of your fellow citizens live in.Polly Toynbee takes the ultimate and valuable step of stepping into the low paids shoes with an assumed identity in order to truly understand and feel the nature of their circumstances.
Even somebody who has always been far from naive about the persistence of poverty in parts of Britain like Polly w