No comments about Globalization and the Race to the Bottom in Developing Countries: Who Really Gets Hurt?.

5 comments about The World's Banker: A Story of Failed States, Financial Crises, and the Wealth and Poverty of Nations (Council on Foreign Relations Books (Penguin Press)).

1. it's strange that sby would think fit to write a review without reading the book, particularly when the rating is so extreme, though credit should be given for honesty (in admitting not having read the book)
   
   this book is indeed very readable and well researched, it's a rare book that provide insights into the world's most important institution that fights proverty, and correct many biased views that are fostered by the media and the ngos



2. The World Bank has done nothing more than enslave the people of lesser-developed countries in sweatshop labor camps to help their countries claw their way out of debt traps, while the leaders of these countries steal the funds and export it to Swiss bank accounts. This account of failed World Bank president Paul Wolfenson's term demonstrates again how big money doesn't help LDCs to improve the livelihoods of their people. I really recommend this book, especially following the awarding of a Nobel Peace Prize to someone who understands the principles of microlending. Microlending will help many more people get on their feet than these huge disbursements of World Bank cash that prop up corrupt governments that oppress the poor.



3. A story of burning ambition. Make no mistake about it, James Wolfensohn wanted to be head of the World Bank. He desired it from the late 1970s until 1995 when he finally achieved his ambition, becoming an American citizen in a rushed ceremony to make himself more presentable to the political circles in Washington that always select the Bank's chief.
   
   Biographer Sebastian Mallaby, a British-born columnist for the Washington Post and previously the Economist magazine, describes Wolfensohn as "the most ambitious man I know". He reports this son of a Jewish migrant to Australia was "beside himself with excitement" on hearing President Jimmy Carter was considering him for the World Bank's presidency in 1980.
   
   Another 15 years would pass before Wolfensohn, who in a packed life had found time to be an Olympic fencer, Wall Street high flyer and accomplished musician, would get the job of his dreams. What followed was the most turbulent and controversial decade in the bank's history.
   
   Mallaby asserts the upheavals were not all of Wolfensohn's making. He took over from a series of grey, uninspiring functionaries at a time when the anti-globalisation movement was beginning to get up steam. The Bank's 50th anniversary meeting in Madrid in 1994 was disrupted by demonstrators chanting "50 years is enough", denouncing its failure to address world poverty and demanding it be closed for good.
   
   For the one-time Aussie, this was a challenge to be relished and Wolfensohn must have thought that at 60, he had accumulated all the worldly wisdom and experience needed to meet it. That he was to be proved wrong is not a total indictment of the man. There is nothing on Earth quite like the World Bank, a vast, rambling bureaucracy full of brilliant, often contending individuals, at the mercy of an overbearing board, each member with a special agenda, and besieged by non-government organisations full of passionate anger, demanding the impossible and denouncing every minor misstep.
   
   The new man believed he could counter this with his chief assets, sincerity and charm. He could be everyone's friend, uniting donor countries, Third World governments and the plethora of non-government organisations who were his sternest critics, in one noble crusade to ban poverty from the planet. They were glorious, yet doomed ideals well suited to the man described by a colleague as "full of grandiose ideas but not much of a manager".
   
   But was this such a bad thing? Mallaby believes that after a succession of uninspiring technocrats at its head, the Bank needed Wolfensohn's flamboyance and spontaneity, recapturing some of the pioneering spirit of one of its great presidents, Robert McNamara.
   
   McNamara had wanted the bank to have a human face, Wolfensohn wanted it to go over the heads of grasping and often corrupt Third World governments and deal directly with those who would benefit from its loans. In the world of realpolitik neither was wholly achievable, and for Wolfensohn it was a tough lesson to learn.
   
   He did not cope well with failure, and when a coalition of Tibetan activists, the environmental lobby and professional China haters in the US Congress scuppered the Qinghai irrigation scheme, he lashed out at his own staff. "Didn't they ever read the newspapers? Didn't they know that Tibet was supersensitive? - and he would summon people to his office and demand whose arse he should kick first. It was not an edifying spectacle..."
   
   The US presidential transition, at the beginning of his second term, did not help matters. The new Treasury Secretary, Paul O'Neill, was openly contemptuous of the Bank and indeed the entire international aid structure, declaring the world had spent "trillions of dollars on development and there's damn little to show for it". O'Neill offered the startling argument that if South Korea had lifted itself from poverty to middle-class comfort in four decades, every Third World country should be able to do the same.
   
   And yet the Wolfensohn-led bank somehow weathered these storms. After a late start it showed leadership in facing the AIDS threat; the more hysterical NGOs were eventually cut loose and their criticisms ignored, while some of the "Volvo-style" loan conditions, so irritating to many recipient countries, were eased.
   
   Despite 10 years of obstructionism, bitter infighting and over-the-top criticism, the president never lost his enthusiasm for the job. At the end he was even testing the water for a third term - the Bush White House would have none of it - and he could count among his diverse friends and supporters United Nations Secretary General Kofi Annan, the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, and Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands.
   
   Mallaby does not come to any hard and fast conclusions about his client. He sees Wolfensohn as an indifferent manager, while giving him credit for broadening the Bank's agenda beyond macroeconomic policy to meet head on the problems of corruption and debt relief. He was able to bring the larger and more responsible NGOs on board but took a long time to realise that others "had no off switch".
   
   The book finishes on an inconclusive note. Was Wolfensohn's presidency valuable? Did he do more harm than good? Perhaps in an increasingly complex world, with so many voices clamouring to be heard, there can no longer be clear-cut answers to questions like these. Suffice to say the World Bank survives and there are no mass demonstrations demanding that "60 years is enough".



4. A lot of us get into the development business starry-eyed and hoping to change the world in a positive way, small as it may be. Unfortunately many of us are unprepared for the stark political reality which dominates the development business and really discourages us bleeding heart liberals. And guess what, it's not always about the poor. Mallaby writes very well, and you really start to empathize with the tempermental and difficult Wolfenson. Although one of the more dedicated World Bank presidents (he changed his nationality hoping to increase his chances) with a committment to development, he constantly had to battle his way through a number of vested political interests (including his own) and still got nowhere close to meeting the Bank's mission of a "world free of poverty." Mallaby shows that the development business is not for the faint-hearted: whether you're working for an NGO, bilateral or multilateral agency. Wolfensohn not only took a beating, but so did his staff who had to put up with his temper. In sum, this should be required reading for those contemplating a career in development.



5. I have read some books about Africa lately and I was interested in knowing the work made by the World Bank in this continent. Althought the book is focused in James Wolfensohn Presidency, this was a revealing reading that shows all the difficulties the Bank must face in order to provide the best aid to the target country and to keep the bank shareholders satisfied. Adding to that, the book describes the problems in the management of the Bank, its organization and inertia, the always problematics NGOs, and more importantly, the way to help countries in their "economic development", which is by far a very difficult thing to do. There is no recipe for that, you can establish a framework but there are other factors to consider in a case by case basis -- certainly reading Wolfensohn experience ultimately provide that, experience and knowledge. This is a well researched book, readable in its whole extension.

2 comments about The Restoration Economy.

1. Storm Cunningham's The Restoration Economy: The Greatest New Growth Frontier: Immediate & Emerging Opportunities for Businesses, Communities & Investors is a worthwhile read for all. Businesses, unions, economic development leaders, and conservationists will truly find that this book is an exciting introduction to thinking outside the box when it comes to restoration. At last, a strong argument has been made that clearly articulates that restoration is not a "donation" to be given back to society. Indeed, restoration of both built and natural environments can be seen as fee for service and a strong source of economic vitality across the board. As the author points out, not only do communities and the natural environment benefit from restoration, but restoration can provide a strong platform for successful businesses and cutting edge economic development. In a style not unlike that of Paul Hawkin, Storm Cunningham has gifted us with a visionary yet pragmatic perspective of a bureoning Restoration Economy across multiple sectors of our current economy. It is likely that many currently unfamiliar to the promise of restoration such as bussiness, unions, and economic development leaders will find the book a useful tool in providing baseline arguements and understanding. For those already versed in the potential of restoration, this book will only strengthen and further legitimize your own efforts to advance restoration.



2. The Restoration Economy, the Greatest New Growth Frontier by Storm Cunningham is a book that bridges the gap between business/ development and conservation/landscape management. Those with a business bent will find that it brings into focus what most of us have seen over the last few decades, a shift is taking place from new development being primary to redevelopment and restoration being primary. It explains a lot about the trends in redevelopment and gives great insights into where business might concentrate as more and more oportunities present themselves to restore the built environment we all live in. Making brownfields and industrial sites more livable; rehabilitating highways and bridges; upgrading water and waste water facilities; rebuilding after wars and natural disasters; and recreating historic sites and structures are all actions of the restoration economy. Cunningham does a superb job of showing how these activities are all pointing us in one direction: making our built environment more livable. But the story does not end there. As a society we are now also heavily involved in the restoration of forests, prairies, farms, wetlands, fisheries, etc, etc, etc. This is because humans have now been everywhere on earth, and almost everywhere that humans have been, we have left a mess that needs to be cleaned up. This provides literally thousands of oportunities for businesses, large and small, to get involved in clean up and restoration. By reading this book, one not only gets a sense of where business will be going in the future, one also gets the sense that as a society it is time to intergrate the management of built and natural environments into one comprehensive whole. This book helps us all understand more completely that the disparate sectors of our economy that have been involved in various phases of restoration now are feeling the pressure of a coming together. The more there is a coming together, the more effective will be the process of making landscapes livable throughout the world.

2 comments about The China Miracle: Development Strategy and Economic Reform.

1. "The China Miracle" provides an extensive study of the China's economic development since the establishment of People's Republic of China in 1949. Since the economic reform began in the late 1970s, China's economy grew rapid, with an average annual GNP growth rate of 10% for the past two decades. The China's experience contrasts greatly with the vast difficulties faced by the transition in the form Soviet Union, and Central and Eastern European countries. The success of China's reform thus has attracted worldwide attention.

   The authors attempts to answer four questions that are often raised: 1) Why did Chinese economy grow slowly before the reform in 1979 but then grow rapidly afterwards? 2) Why did cyclical fluctuations - the "vigor/chaos" cycles - become part of China's reform process? 3) Can China continue the trend of reform and development and maintain a sustained, rapid growth in the future? 4) What are the general implications of China's experience for other developing and transition economies?

   The book remains optimistic about the future success of China's economic reform. Yet, it also points out several problems with the economic reforms that are needed to be dealt with, such as the difficulties in the reform of State-owned enterprises (SOEs), the increasing unevenness in regional development and income distribution, etc. For more discussions on the SOE reform, the book "Stated-owned Enterprise Reform in China" written by the same authors provides a comprehensive study on this issue.

   Overall, this book is a very good textbook and reference to students and scholars who are interested in Chinese economy and its future development.




2. This isn't a good book at all, for the views expressed are either out-dated or can be easily gathered from a brief search through dated newspapers or the internet. Nothing new is offered and the amount of scholarship involved is suspect. Treat it with extreme caution, especially when using it to do research.

5 comments about Fair Trade for All: How Trade Can Promote Development (Initiative for Policy Dialogue Series C).

1. Generally I think it is another great book from Stiglitz. The MakePovertyHistory campaign, Bono, Bob Geldof and their Live8 concerts has shined a bright light on trade justice.
   
   The World Trade organisation literally has the livelihoods of billions of people in its hands. This book shows how the trading relationships between rich and poor countries have become so unfair that the rich countries are creating more poverty. Free trade does not automatically lead to poverty eradication or environmental sustainability. In fact, if done wrong, it can increase poverty and cause harm to countries at different stages of development.
   
   If you want to understand the issues behind fair trade and the problems facing people in poor countries, this is an excellent place to start.



2. You don't have to be an economist to realise that the World Trade Organisation is failing the poorest countries. But this book is a compelling explanation of what is going wrong, and the best case yet for change.
   
   Stiglitz is a Nobel Laureate in Economics who served in Clinton's White House and was Chief Economist of the World Bank. He was there when much of the current trade policy architecture was being built and he has a lot of insights to impart to readers. This book does not disappoint.
   
   The chapters on the role of neoliberal economic policies in the growth process are especially interesting. Stiglitz takes a nuanced view, arguing that the introduction of market forces is important, but that, in the presence of other distortions, countries will face important challenges to make sure that globalisation does more harm than good.
   
   This book is full gems of economic reasoning and a great introduction to some of the big questions of global economics and development.



3. The authors state rightly that trade policies should be designed to raise living standards and to integrate developing countries into the world trading system. Global poverty (more than 2 billion people live on less than a dollar a day) is the world's most pressing problem.
   They say rightly that the developed countries have to date received the lion's share of the benefits from previous trade negotiations. Those ought to do more for the developing countries. The adage should be `help-my-neighbor', nor `beggar-my neighbor'. Right should persevere over might.
   
   Therefore they want to put a radical new trade model on the table of the Doha Round: the Market Access Proposal (MAP). Their model is simple and straight:
   All developing countries can have free access to all markets with (1) a larger GDP (Gross Domestic Product) and (2) a larger GDP per capita.
   
   Besides MAP, they give also recommendations for the upcoming trade negotiations, of which many will be extremely difficult to realize, even partly: liberation of labor markets and unskilled services, promotion of labor mobility (immigration), elimination of agricultural subsidies, no technical provisions (like rules of origin), no export subsidies, no tariffs, no non-tariff barriers (dumping duties), no currency exchange manipulations, no arms sales, no briberies, pro-generic drug policies, elimination of secret bank accounts.
   
   They also want better access to financial means for developing countries, institutional reforms (a less costly accession mechanism) and a new international trade tribunal.
   By the way, trade negotiations should be about trade, not about intellectual property rights.
   Generally, they ask for more democratic media, which are actually controlled by a few rich conglomerates.
   
   Any trade agreement that differentially hurts developing countries more or benefits the developed countries more should be considered as unfair.
   
   J. Stiglitz and A. Charlton have written a most necessary book. The implementation of their simple and radical proposition should constitute a big leap forward for the developing countries and concomitantly for global international trade.
   
   This book is a must read for all participants of trade negotiations and for all those interested in the future of mankind.
   
   N.B. For a viewpoint of the South I recommend Walden Bello's `Dilemmas of Domination'.



4. Stiglitz is certainly a critic of the free trade ideology but his arguments are much more intellectually robust than I see from either the economic nationalists like Lou Dobbs or the anti-globalization movement (and those two are distinct among themselves). He doesn't favor developed world protectionism, and actually makes a few strong points against it. However his proposals do respond to some of the claims of the anti-globalization movement even if he doesn't accept their quasi-Marxist outlook in total.
   
   Stiglitz favors global trade agreements and infrastructure but he would change the rules. Basically he suggests a regimen where wealthier countries (measured either by GDP in the aggregate or per capita) would give preferential access (i.e. little or no trade barriers) to poorer nations. Thus India would get access to the U.S. market without reciprocating on American products but India would have to give access to Uganda without getting equal treatment in return. The poorer nations would have more leeway to employ subsidies and tariffs and have longer transition periods to liberalization but the long run goal would still be fewer barriers to trade.
   
   Stiglitz makes a very strong case that even if one accepts that trade barriers are a bad idea, the developed and less developed nations aren't on a level playing field when it comes to arbitrating trade disputes, simply because of size.
   
   He also suggests intellectual property issues and a common set of investment rules should not be part of global trade governance. Those are interesting points of view, certainly intellectual property enforcement is spotty in the third world already. He suggests that if investment agreements are wise for developing countries they will implement them on their own. He gets a little vague on this point because he suggests that labor and environmental standards should be WTO functions if investment rules are, which makes one wonder if really believes investment rules should be in or out. On the flip side, he also thinks allegations of currency manipulation should not be part of the agenda.
   
   The dogmatic free traders like Milton Friedman contend there is never any net benefit to protectionism; Stiglitz obviously departs from this point of view in that he selectively endorses it for developing countries. It is hard to argue with much of his logic, I just wonder if the developed world would act as altruistically as he suggests they should. The reluctance of the larger economies to part with farm subsidies is an obvious obstacle, on the other hand what he suggests is already the case in manufactured goods.
   
   Stiglitz deserves credit for moving beyond the simplistic and often disingenuous claims from the developed world who are just engaging in rent-seeking behavior. His proposals would involve governments in aiding people who are genuinely less well off rather than coddling inefficient industries in the developed world.



5. Read it. It did taught me a lot about economic premises discussed in class. Prof Stiglitz is great. The book addresses topics I was supposed to hear in other business courses but this book really nailed it

1 comments about Silent Revolution: The Rise And Crisis Of Market Economics In Latin America- 2nd Edition.

1. Duncan Green is the director of research at the Just Pensions Project and an expert on socially responsible investment. In Silent Revolution: The Rise And Crisis Of Market Economics In Latin America (now in an updated and expanded second edition), Duncan Green offers the reader a hard look at the economic reforms which are wrenching the Latin American market today. Silent Revolution is a clarion wake-up call against unchecked dangers of neoliberalism run wild, the environmental costs of adjusting to change, the IMF and World Bank as "poverty brokers", and so much more. A stark and thoughtful discussion of potentially global importance, Silent Revolution ought to be mandatory reading for students of economics, governmental and corporate policy makers, and the non-specialist general reader with an interest in contemporary Latin American issues.

5 comments about Ripples from the Zambezi: Passion, Entrepreneurship, and the Rebirth of Local Economies.

1. "I can't myself raise the winds that might blow us, or this ship, into a better world. But, I can at least put up a sail so that, when the wind comes, I can catch it."
   
   E. F. Schumacher
   
   This was a fun and insightful book to read. Amidst all the discussion about radical, disruptive and breakthrough innovation, this book is a refreshing reminder that small things can make a big difference. It's a reality check for big budget innovation programs and economic development programs that usually end up stealing a company from one community in order to develop the economy of your community (a zero sum game by the way). This book is about dedicated, skilled innovators with a passion for their innovations and facilitators who provided the missing ingredients preventing these passionate innovators from making their ideas a reality. Sometimes, those missing ingredients were connections to the right people. Sometimes they were small sums of money (ridiculously small amounts of money that yielded great returns). And, sometimes it was adding small supportive or enabling innovations that turned an idea into a viable business model. And, always it's about the pattern of product, process and procedure innovation that worked.
   
   Sirolli's journey began as a member of an Italian economic aid organization in Zambia. They noticed that the land along the Zambezi River was incredibly fertile. They thought that if they brought modern farming knowledge and applied it to the land, they would demonstrate to the natives just how much they could benefit. Of course, what did the Italians decide to grow? Tomatoes. The soil and weather were perfect. And, the tomatoes grew - the biggest most beautiful tomatoes the Italians had ever seen. The Italians watched with pride as their crop matured. The natives silently watched and laughed among themselves. One morning, just when the crop was about ready to be harvested, Sirolli reports that they came to the fields to find them totally destroyed. The hippos of the Zambezi had eaten all the tomatoes and laid the fields to waste, and the only tell tale signs were the ripples in the water.
   
   Sirolli quotes Pliny the Elder, "There is always something new out of Africa." Sirolli writes, "Those who have worked in an African country will tell you, if they are honest, that they always learn from the expereince much more than they had bargained for...I am no exception." Later he states, "I became conscious of the fact that we were not doing the right thing - and consciousness is an extraordinary thing."
   
   "Right now, in your community, at this very moment, there is someone who is dreaming about doing something to improve his/her lot. If we could learn how to help that person to transform the dream into meaningful work, we would be halfway to changing the economic fortunes of the entire community," the author comments. This is Sirrolli's credo. It is clear upon reading the book that the author has had a good classical education (formal or informal). His thinking about innovation is colored by Schumacher, Maslow and Rogers.
   
   His advice, based on Schumacher is, "If people don't ask for help, leave them alone. And, there is no good or bad technology to carry out a task - only an appropriate or inappropriate one. Something big, modern and expensive is not necessarily best; it all depends on the circumstances."
   
   "Because of Maslow and Schumacher," he writes, "I came to understand that successful development has to do with the quality, not quantity of life." Human beings are striving creatures. When one level of need is met, people move on to higher levels in an endless cascade. Is it any wonder that this country grew as it did because the founders understood this about people and claimed equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness?
   
   With this framework, the author was able to explain his experiences in Africa. "They were secure and did love and had self esteem in the same proportions Western people had, maybe even more. Some of them were beautiful, wise, self-actualizing people reaching for the apex of full humanness," Sirolli writes.
   
   The level of what is enough at each stage of development is set by cultural and psychological factors. Some people get stuck in the pursuit of material goods and others have lower levels of satisfaction and move on to the next higher state of development. The natives had enough food, safety and security for them, and they could move on to higher levels of human development.
   
   From Carl Rogers he found that "that it was possible to help people heal themselves by simply being there, listening, facilitating and responding to the client's needs for communication and finding values to live by." "The aim is not to solve one particular problem but to help the individual to grow so that he can cope with the present problem and with later problems in a better, more integrated fashion."
   
   Later, he continues, "Reading about the champions of the human race, I couldn't avoid creating, in my mind, a demonology - that is, a list of the demons oppressing us. Contrary to Dante's Inferno, however, my hell wasn't populated by naked gluttons, greedy merchants, and assorted petty sinners. The torturers had no tails; rather they were well-dressed authoritarian figures who, in the name of an idea, would torture and beat the psychological life out of the people in their power. From unyielding bureaucrats to religious fanatics, from political extremists to avid do-gooders, my demonology started to contain anybody who dreamt up a code of conduct and tried to manipulate or coerce others to follow it."
   
   Sirolli's encourages his facilitators to support clients who have a marriage of both passion and skill. "But becoming what we are is invariably difficult," he writes. "We have to commit ourselves to a course that may prove to be unpopular with our peers, unfashionable among our friends, and unbecoming in the eyes of our parents. Striving for individuality is always a lonely business. Passion is what propels us during our solitary journey." Commenting on skill he writes, "Our generation is a generation without masters. We are still under the impression, and like to think, that The Beatles didn't have to learn how to play music; that Jimi Hendrix picked up a guitar one morning, put a big joint in his mouth, and started to play like a god. Does the next, younger generation, understand that there cannot possibly be art without skill?"
   
   "Facilitation," he writes, "is based on the belief that it is human to dream and desire. Faith in human nature is what makes it work." "The skill of the facilitator is to become available to those who have the dream and to help them acquire the skills to transform it into meaningful and rewarding work. The skill of facilitation is therefore a communication skill with a twist. It isn't so much that facilitators have to communicate to their client; rather they have to be the kind of person one likes to talk to." Their role is to simple remove the obstacles that stifle a client's growth.
   
   He identifies the characteristics of facilitators:
   
    Facilitators are passive
    Facilitators are visible
    Facilitators provide just-in-time help
    Facilitators work in confidence
    Facilitators act like swans
    Facilitators love action
    Facilitators are a loaded spring
    Facilitators assess the person and the motivation behind the idea.
    Facilitators understand that ideas are cheap, passionate individuals are rare
    Facilitators establish true communications and build trust
    facilitators don't play power games
    Facilitators are non-threatening, unassuming friendly listeners who make people want to talk to them.
   
   
   The book is full of examples and case histories, and is divided into 14 chapters:
   1. Out of Africa
   2. The Technology Fix
   3. Homo Cupeins - The Desiring Man
   4. Out of the Mountain Cave Back to School
   5. The Art of Shoemaking
   6. The Esperance Expereince
   7. The Esperance Model Applied
   8. On Facilitation
   9. Training Facilitators
   10. A Word of Caution
   11. Facilitation and Economic Development
   12. A Quiet Revolution
   13. The Politics of Personal Growth
   14. Epilogue - Civic Society, Social Capital, and the Creation of Wealth
   
   As you can see from the outline, the discussion covers a good deal of territory and Sirolli has meaningingful insights in all the topics. For example, "The shift by governments away from resource driven economies to valued-added ones cannot take place without recognizing that our greatest assets are not the ones that lie underground. Our greatest assets must be our energy, imagination, and skill - our commitment to good work and to the pursuit of excellence and the courage to fulfill our ambitions. Every single person is important in the creation of a better, wealthier, smarter society. Whether employed are not, engaged in export service industries, in the arts, sports or tourism, the quality, both of personal and professional, of every single person is what will make a country prosperous."
   
   And, "Thus the freedom to become is the key to unlocking civic society and long term economic prosperity. Wealth can be generated in the short term in exploiting natural resources, but 1,000 years of prosperity can only be created intelligently by working together, exchanging ideas, sharing technology and resources, and helping each other do well in the understanding that a myriad of wealthy self-employed people produce an economic system immensely more resilient than any alternative."
   
   And, "The beauty of Maslow's theory is that it explains that helping each other is not done out of charity, but out of our need to be appreciated, loved and respected."
   
   Michelangelo, who believed his role as a sculptor was to release the images that were already in the stone, wrote:
   
   "The best of artists hath no thought to show
   which the rough stone in its superfluous shell
   doth not include; to break the marble spell
   is all the hand that serves the brain can do. "
   
   To make his point, he carved a series of "unfinished" works depicting humans emerging from the rock (The Prisoners).
   
   Metaphorically, the facilitator's role is the same.
   
   And, if the facilitator is blessed with double insightful vision and can not only see the beauty inside the innovator, but can see the community that could emerge as a result, then a community transformation can occur.
   
   You just have to read this book. And, when you do, write something about it. Better yet, use it.



2. I work with small businesses and developing entrepreneurs and this book helped me see another view and perspective in the work i go. I recommend it for anyone who works in the small business (and micro business) community and who would like some new direction on how to build local economies.



3. I loved the book. Not only it gives great insights on enterpreneurship, it also teaches us that facilitation can be applied in all aspects of life, from work to family with fantastic results.
   
   I highly recommend the book.



4. Don't read this book. DO WHAT IT SAYS! I seldom applaud things. This I do.



5. "Ripples from the Zambezi" is a beautiful, simple, common sense book with profound implications for catalyzing successful small business creation and growth. It was recently recommended to me by an economic development agency official working in an affluent, conservative U.S. Midwestern county. He felt some of the approaches might work for his area; and in reading the book, I concur with his conclusions.
   
   In efforts to inform work on strategic innovation and marketing, I have plowed through far too many derivative, nonsensical business titles over the years. Before I picked this up, I was a little concerned that it might be a cult book; however, given the importance of rural renewal, I was willing to give any earnest voice the benefit of the doubt.
   
   It was wrong to have prejudged "Ripples from the Zambezi." If this has risen to the status of a cult book, then Mr. Sirolli would be the first to suggest that you never mindlessly apply any approach he might propose. In our left-brain weighted society, it is easy to mistake an enthusiastic voice for a naïve one--but there is a basis for this enthusiasm that is powerful, and which Mr. Sirolli explores fully.
   
   The ideas here are different. Mr. Sirolli speaks to the potential and the results of connecting with each entrepreneur holistically to engage heartfelt intention and remove obstacles to successful growth. The message--that individuals can realize hope for themselves, for their families, and for their communities borne of connecting passion with skill and action is a big message--and the Renaissance man who delivers it is capable to the challenge.
   
   Every paragraph of Ernesto Sirolli's book is loaded with mature, interdisciplinary insight. It is a book whose "time has come" and whose wisdom is carefully woven through the subtext: it's personal, easy to read, and gut-wrenchingly smart.

No comments about Culture and Prosperity: Why Some Nations Are Rich but Most Remain Poor.

1 comments about Rural Development: Putting the last first (World Development).

1. Chambers is a giant in his field to be sure, but his book boasts extensive insight into the arena of development. His observations and suggestions are applicable on a grand scale as effective strategies for beginning successful development across the developing world.
   By pointing out the 5 key aspects of poverty, the poverty itself, physical weakness, isolation, vulnerability, and powerlessness; Chambers offers a means in which effective development strategies can be applied to combat such factors.
   Chambers is also keen on pointing out how the development community have made mistakes, and does not mince words. He is quick to point out the evils and ineffectiveness of the academic world and how they have worked against development in the past, even though the man was an academic. That criticism aside however, his points about the traps of academia, the biases transferred to the third world by outsiders with varying attitudes, and his suggestions for combating poverty across the globe make for a seminal work in the field of development policy, and is a must read for anyone who is interested in studying the development field.

1 comments about The Little Black Book of Economic Development.

1. This book will give you an insiders view of just how the real world of high stakes negotiations for local economies is being fought... it is the true Art of the Deal today. If you want to understand how community economies can work and should work as well as the dark side of this industry. This book has over 50 insiders comments on their own experiences and best practice examples.