… more oil is spilled from the [Niger] delta’s network of terminals, pipes, pumping stations and oil platforms every year than has been lost in the Gulf of Mexico, the site of a major ecological catastrophe caused by oil that has poured from a leak triggered by the explosion that wrecked BP‘s Deepwater Horizon rig last month.

For instance:

On 1 May this year a ruptured ExxonMobil pipeline in the state of Akwa Ibom spilled more than a million gallons into the delta over seven days before the leak was stopped. Local people demonstrated against the company but say they were attacked by security guards. Community leaders are now demanding $1bn in compensation for the illness and loss of livelihood they suffered. Few expect they will succeed. In the meantime, thick balls of tar are being washed up along the coast.

Within days of the Ibeno spill, thousands of barrels of oil were spilled when the nearby Shell Trans Niger pipeline was attacked by rebels. A few days after that, a large oil slick was found floating on Lake Adibawa in Bayelsa state and another in Ogoniland. “We are faced with incessant oil spills from rusty pipes, some of which are 40 years old,” said Bonny Otavie, a Bayelsa MP.

Read the article here. Hopefully, one of the outcomes of the Gulf oil spill would be that people start talking more about spills in other parts of the world.

Read more here. Their website is here.

… because the governors plan to start signing execution warrants of those sentenced to death –  as a way to decongest prisons.

The announcement, according to the prisoners, had caused them great shock, anxiety and trauma and they, therefore, want the court to stop any planned execution because it would be cruel and inhuman to kill them after such trauma.

They also want the court to intervene to save their lives because some of them have cases in court challenging their conviction and sentences, and in some cases, challenging the mandatory provisions of the criminal law under which they were sentenced.

The death row inmates, through their counsel, Mr. Chino Obiagwu, who is also the national coordinator of Legal Defence and Assistance Project, LEDAP, are asking the court for leave to sue in representative capacity for themselves and on behalf of all prisoners on the death row in Nigerian prisons.

See the story here.

You can see more from LEDAP, the NGO, here. The decision was covered by PRI’s The World last month.

Senegalese economist Sanou Mbaye on some of the problems French West African countries have been facing since independence:

On the monetary front, the CFA Franc Zone’s member countries dismantled the federal structure that united them [French West Africa and French Central Africa] during French occupation and erected trade barriers instead. The CFA franc issued by two sub-regional central banks (BCEAO and BEAC) are not interchangeable. As a result, regional trade and economic integration have been stifled.

The ensuing economic difficulties were exacerbated under President François Mitterrand, whose prime minister, Pierre Bérégovoy, pursued a strong French franc – a policy that ultimately led to a massive 100% devaluation of the CFA franc in 1994. And the euro’s appreciation against the dollar from 2002 until very recently meant that the shift in the CFA franc’s exchange-rate peg from the French franc to the euro caused a repeat of that scenario. With the bulk of their exports denominated in US dollars and their imports priced mainly in euros, chronic structural deficits have wrecked the Franc Zone economies, and the prospect of a second devaluation looms larger by the day.

What is in it for France?:

More appalling is the fact that France guarantees the CFA franc’s free convertibility into hard currency, originally on the condition that all 15 Franc Zone countries surrender 100% of their foreign reserves to the French Treasury. The amount was reduced to 65%, and then 50%, in 2005, but France still deducts its share directly from these countries’ export earnings.

Moreover, the mandatory 20% foreign exchange cover stipulated in the convention signed with France in 1962 now stands at 110%. And a foreign-exchange control enacted in 1993 ensures that only France benefits from this capital drain by limiting the free flow of capital to France alone. The ensuing massive capital flight has bled the region’s economies and eroded their competitiveness.

POST-DOCTORAL FELLOWSHIPS FOR RESEARCH ON ‘THE HUMAN ECONOMY’

UNIVERSITY OF PRETORIA, SOUTH AFRICA

The Faculty of Humanities at the University of Pretoria invites applications from suitably-qualified researchers for Post-Doctoral Fellowships to contribute to an interdisciplinary project on ‘The Human Economy’.

People always insert themselves practically into economic life on their own account. But what they do is often obscured, marginalised or repressed by dominant economic institutions and ideologies. The human economy is conceived of as being made and remade by people themselves, being based on a holistic conception of human needs and with the interests of humanity as a whole in mind.

This project builds on and will contribute to a collaborative international research program that began in the World Social Forum, 2001 and has already brought together theoretical and practical work on alternative economic institutions in Brazil, Argentina, France, Britain and other countries. Its prime focus is on the growing scope for economic initiatives that lie between the stark alternatives of the free market and state planning. As well as guaranteeing social rights, governments must encourage forms of self-organization where solidarity has a greater role. Equality and freedom come from the mutuality of everyday life, and not just from market contracts or citizenship.

Scholars who have undertaken research relevant to these topics in disciplines such as Social Anthropology, Sociology, History, Political Economy, Development Studies, Philosophy, Literature or Geography are welcome to apply.  Because the making of world society is at stake, there are no restrictions on where this research has been done. But the Faculty has a particular interest in fostering a dialogue on such issues between researchers from countries in the ‘global South’.

The Faculty intends to award up to six Fellowships associated with this project to begin in January 2011, with the aim of bringing together scholars from around the world, and stimulating an international and interdisciplinary exchange of ideas. Successful applicants will

• Have completed a doctoral degree in a relevant discipline within the past seven years
• Preferably be younger than 40 years
• Have undertaken in-depth and high-quality research on a topic relevant to the project

Fellowships are for one year (2011), with the possibility of renewal for a further year depending on progress.  Fellows will be expected to write up and publish research relevant to the designated theme, and will have an opportunity to undertake additional, comparative research in southern Africa, should this be appropriate.

Successful applicants will also be expected to

• Contribute to the Faculty of Humanities Seminar Programme
• Participate in an International Workshop on ‘The Human Economy’ to be hosted by the Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria in the course of 2011
• Provide guidance to postgraduate students who will undertake research on topics linked to the interests of particular Fellows.  Each Fellow would mentor at least one student.

Fellows will receive

• A tax-free stipend of up to R175 000 per annum
• A return air ticket between their country of residence and South Africa
• Funding for possible research in southern Africa
• Funding to attend one international conference outside South Africa during their tenure
• Access to the facilities of the University of Pretoria, including office space.

Applicants must complete the University of Pretoria Post-Doctoral Application Form before 30 June 2010.  Applications will be considered by the university’s Post-Doctoral Fellowship Committee.

For further information, please contact

John Sharp, Professor of Social Anthropology and Deputy Dean, Faculty of Humanities, University of Pretoria (john.sharp@up.ac.za)

OR

Keith Hart, Honorary Professor of Social Anthropology, University of Pretoria (johnkeithhart@gmail.com)

1. The iPad revolution – NYB

2. Cost of transportation in West Africa – NEXT

3. Financial Times refused to publish this Amnesty International ad

4. Did Charles Taylor give Naomi Campbell a ‘blood diamond’? – BBC

5. A pay-what-you-want restaurant – Chris Blattman

A new book by Milford Bateman, who is described as “a freelance consultant specialising in local economic development policy, particularly in relation to the Western Balkans,” is described in the following terms on the publisher’s website:

Over the last thirty years or so, microfinance has risen to become one of the most high-profile policies to address poverty and under-development in developing and transition countries. It is beloved of rock stars, royalty, movie stars, high-profile politicians and ‘trouble-shooting’ economists. Its most famous pioneer, Muhammad Yunus, was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.

In this provocative and controversial analysis, Milford Bateman reveals that microfinance doesn’t actually work. That, in fact, the case for it has largely been built on a desire to advance a particular free market ideology, on hype and egregious half-truths, and – latterly – on the Wall Street-style greed, deception and individual self-interest of those promoting and working in microfinance. Using a multitude of case studies from across the globe – from India to Cambodia, Bolivia to Uganda, Serbia to Mexico amongst many others – he exposes why many of its most fundamental building blocks are largely myths. In doing so, he demonstrates that microfinance actually constitutes a major barrier to sustainable economic and social development, and thus also to sustainable poverty reduction.

As developing and transition countries attempt to repair the devastation wrought by the global financial crisis, Bateman argues forcefully that the role of microfinance in development policy needs to be urgently and fundamentally reconsidered.

H/T Blacklooks

The Economist interviews Dele Ogun, head of the Genesis Project, on the political situation in Nigeria.

Wondering why I like Lady Gaga? Read this NYMag article.

The idea is that standard economics is often too simplistic:

But in most economic analysis, the decision makers’ point of view is quite narrow. It starts with what people like and don’t like. People may have a taste for oranges or bananas, or a preference for enjoying life today instead of saving for the future. They then decide what to buy or how much to save, given prevailing prices, interest rates, and their own income. Economists have included in such analysis that people interact with others, but they have largely treated such social interactions in a mechanical fashion, as if they were commodities.

Their proposal:

As economists and policymakers, we could be content to continue looking only at prices and income and related statistics to explain people’s decisions. In some circumstances, that might be enough to understand what is happening. But in many other situations, we would miss major sources of motivation – and thus would adopt useless, if not counter-productive, measures aimed at producing the outcomes we seek. Identity Economics provides the broader, better vision that we need.