Hit me baby one more time, Gitmo style

I cringed upon typing that title. Honestly, I couldn't decide whether to laugh or cry upon reading this. It would appear that American (or Western, if you will) pop music serves the dual purpose of background music in cheesy teeny-boppy clubs, and as a torture strategy in prisons in Iraq, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay: 

The message, as released Guantánamo prisoner Ruhal Ahmed explained in an interview earlier this year, was less significant than the relentless, inescapable noise. Describing how he experienced music torture “on many occasions,” Ahmed said, “I can bear being beaten up, it's not a problem. Once you accept that you're going to go into the interrogation room and be beaten up, it's fine. You can prepare yourself mentally. But when you're being psychologically tortured, you can't.” He added, however, that “from the end of 2003 they introduced the music and it became even worse. Before that, you could try and focus on something else. It makes you feel like you are going mad. You lose the plot and it’s very scary to think that you might go crazy because of all the music, because of the loud noise, and because after a while you don’t hear the lyrics at all, all you hear is heavy banging."

Given that I've never been in such a position (whew!) I of course have little room to comment, but I'd venture to guess that the degree to which this is actually 'torture' depends greatly on the individual. If it were me, I'd be busting out the dance moves left and right. Though I suppose that would cause some problems of its own....  [HT: Boing Boing]

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Immigration to the US, 1820-2007 v2 from Ian Stevenson on Vimeo.

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Collier, infrastructure and the Chinese in Africa... a formula for success?

While (re)reading through Collier's Bottom Billion last night, a thought occurred to me: maybe the Chinese have it ('it' being part of the solution to Africa's development woes) right. Bear with me as I wade through my thoughts....

Collier places much emphasis on the importance of transport infrastructure - particularly among landlocked states - as one of  the key engines for economic growth. Landlocked states are in a dubious position as without their own access to ports, for instance, they are reliant on those of their coastal neighbors. Yet, if your coastal neighbor is Sudan, or Nigeria, or Angola, chances are your goods aren't going to get very far - not only because of the rather, let's say, questionable political realities there, but also because their infrastructure is also, well, questionable. 

Infrastructure development has become 'so last season' among many development agencies, who are instead focused on more fashionable objectives like HIV/AIDS research, education, women's rights, etc. While of course important (very important in most cases) and worth pursuing, exclusive emphasis on objectives such as these has blinded some donors to the need for infrastructure development. Not the Chinese.  A report put out by the Center for Chinese Studies at the University of Stellenbosch tracks the Chinese interests in Africa's construction and infrastructure projects. The Chinese are rebuilding a stretch of road connecting landlocked Ethiopian farms to ports in Kenya, and have generally taken to building roads, bridges, tunnels - you name it - left and right. 

Of course questions abound over the percentage of local vs. imported labor, labor conditions, and the ultimate (or ulterior?) motives behind China's enthusiasm for construction in Africa (I have a few guesses). Placing those aside for a moment, I must admit that (re)reading Collier's arguments left me wondering whether Chinese investment in the form of construction may just be the ticket. Do the Chinese have it right after all?