Nicholas Lembo's blog

The ongoing financial crisis has had many effects throughout the world. Political leaders are coming and going from office, banks are being bailed out, and central banks are pumping billions of dollars of borrowed money into securities to boost investor confidence.

 
With such high-level people and institutions involved, the media often overlooks how the financial crisis is affecting people in developing countries. One of the most serious problems, besides huge worldwide job losses, is the continuation of the "food crisis".

With the release of US Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's latest plan to clear bad loans off the books of troubled banks in the US, the fact that the elaborate auction is essentially a public-private partnership has flown under the radar amidst celebrations and critiques.

Public-private partnerships (PPPs) are a relatively old tool of development work. PPPs are often implemented in developing countries for large-scale infrastructure projects, landscape or agricultural improvements, or any number of other "public goods" projects. Typically, governments will finance part or all of the project, while private firms will carry out the construction or operation of the project.

Cell phones get a bad rap in most parts of America. Self-help gurus promise serenity if we turn off our Blackberries, planes ban their use, and public conversation is largely frowned upon in crowded places. This is a marked difference from most parts of the developing world. Why? In America, mobile devices have come to epitomize convenience but are underutilized for valuable information sharing. In the developing world mobiles are obviously still used for conversation and staying in touch, but they also provide an outlet for cheap and long-distance transfer of information that was previously impossible. However, despite their ubiquity, some people are still ignorant of their usefulness.

Sri Lanka has, for better or worse, been in the news a lot lately. Their cricket team was the target of a violent terrorist attack in Pakistan while visiting for international matches. Back at home, the military is closing in on the last Liberation Tigers of Tamil Eelam, sparking even more violence.

Over the past year the world has experienced unstable prices in more ways than we could have imagined not that long ago. Just as turbulent as international stock exchanges and food prices? Crude oil.

Over the summer of 2008, oil prices peaked close to $150 a barrel. Last week it was selling below $40. Crashing prices mean tightening budgets in many countries that rely on income from oil extraction. In places such as Russia, Venezuela, and Iran, social programs that derived most of their funding from resource sales have been drastically cut. 

There's been a lot of crowing in Washington these past few days. As the US, and the rest of the world, try to navigate through our current financial crisis and recession, governments are increasingly turning to fiscal stimulus packages in attempts to boost domestic economies. 

The idea is simple enough. Fiscal stimulus is basically a fancy way of saying that the government will borrow money, either from its citizens or other countries by issuing bonds, to spend on infrastructure renewal, industrial development, or even tax cuts for corporations and citizens. It's difficult for even the world's best economists to really determine how effective such programs are in the long term but as unemployment continues to rise around the world, policymakers are beginning to wonder whether they have any other options.

Sudan. Images of overcrowded, hot refugee camps immediately come to mind. In a land of dichotomies, with a conflict driven largely by land rights and oil, the last thing this country needs is another split in its society, but one is emerging. Old vs young.

Hi everyone and welcome to Youthink! I'm excited to be part of the Youthink! blog, which I hope will be a wonderful way for all of us to share our ideas of how we see, and hopefully can shape, the world around us. I’ve been blogging on international politics, economics, and development on my personal site (http://blog.zzzeitgei.st/) with young scholars for some time. With my training in anthropology and development, much of my work and research is focused on issues facing young people throughout the world. My time living throughout Asia has shaped my beliefs on the importance of local and community efforts in spurring development and shaping our own shared future.

In all of my time in Asia (pretty much everywhere minus Afghanistan), I was most struck by how even the most mundane aspects of daily life in the developing world are shaped by decisions and policies made all over the world. We may not always see how or think this is the case, but prying a little deeper into how our world operates can show just how truly connected our lives are.