MFIs and evidence

An article from David Bornstein - intrepid economic reporter in developing countries - about the continued equivocal evidence regarding microfinance.

More to come soon.

Grameen Bank and the Public Good

Adventures in the caribbean

My 3 week sojourn to Haiti is coming to an end. Yippee! It has not been an easy trip, mostly because of the situation in Port-au-Prince. Yes, I realize this is a country still reeling from tragedy and devastation. And yes, I am fully aware of all of the people living in the tent camps tucked into former parking lots, parks, sports fields and barren hillsides. More on that later.

Due to the shortage of hotel rooms, we rented a house for the duration of our stay. In principle, a good idea - more space, the ability to cook, no crazy old french men to deal with ( the hotels are full of them!). Alas, the day before we arrived into the city, a big storm / hurricane / tornado came through. It is unclear what type of weather phenomenon it was, but it was intense and not forecasted. And it resulted in most of the city being left in darkness as trees fell, electricity poles broke, and tents blew away. Two weeks later, still no lights in the house. Given that it gets dark by 6pm, we’ve been rocking the candles and cold showers. But, for someone whose work involves the computer, internet, and other such office amenities, this threw a wrench into our plans.

Luckily (I think), the neighbor is a consultant for this study. And he suggested the house. He has a sweet set up, with satellite dishes, wireless internet, a generator to power it all, and many servants. If you are going to be a career consultant, its best to live in a country with a low cost of living! His “office” is on the balcony, overlooking the city and the sea. We basically kept going to his house to power our electronics, and use the internet, until we bought a 100 foot long extension cord, and strung it through a window. Now, we can sit in the dark, but have power to our computers. Working by candle light. It’s most incongruous.

These inconveniences aside, there have been, as there tend to always be, adventures. I spent a week with “Cousin of Tarantula” in my bathroom - it would come out in the evenings, and hang around the toilet. Once, it went into the toilet - and I could neither flush it down nor get it out. Of course, that meant I had to go to the bathroom. I came to accept “Cousin of Tarantula” - a hairy spider with a body the size of a silver dollar. Until one day.... when, during a shower, I looked up to see... Tarantula herself. This gigantic beast was hanging out in a corner, with a belly full of eggs (a white sack under the black hairy black hairy large hairy black body). Oh. It was not pleasant. This was my first week in Haiti, and we had decamped to an island (Ile a vache) in order to plan and strategize. That meant I could try and find a hotel staff person to deal with the beast. Except, how to say “Ridiculously large tarantula creature” in french? It was shooed off, for the moment, but it was not to be deterred.

Later in the evening, the far too solicitous hotel owner, fortified with several shots of rum, offered to “check out” my room for me. I wasn’t too keen on it, but relented and he went off alone to see if Tarantula was still in the bathroom. I, for one, had decided to use the bathroom of my colleague. When he still hadn’t returned after 10 minutes, I decided to go looking for him. I announced my arrival in the room loudly, and he appears in the door of the bathroom, disheveled, sweaty, wet... mumbling something about “don’t worry about that balled up towel behind the toilet.” and “I had to clean up.” The fight was dirty. But Tarantula was dead.

Russians, and 3 containers of hemorrhoid cream

Although my evenings in Haiti were few, there was enough time to hear stories from some very willing story tellers about the days in the aftermath of the earthquake.

As an example of the ridiculous reach of litigious American society, in the days immediately after the earthquake, when relief workers, doctors, EMTs and others were pouring into Haiti willing to do anything, at least one USAID employee was tasked with running around the tarmac, trying to identify surgeons and get them to the Embassy. The plan was to identify them, make them into teams, and deploy them to the various sites where they were needed. Seeing as how they were arriving from the US, it made sense for the US embassy to want to coordinate their deployment. Alas, the US military was also arriving. And they did not feel that they could ensure the security of the medical teams. So, surgeons, who had come for the express purpose of saving lives, were napping in the embassy compound while USAID and the military argued over the security assessments. In the meantime, relief teams from other countries were arriving, and getting right to work. The airport runner ( a really nice man with a much more important job normally) told me:

“The doctors were lying on the ground with their hands behind their heads. Just waiting. They had everything with them for a mobile hospital. But they couldn’t go, in case something happened to them and the government got sued. Finally, 3 days later, the military said that they could provide security. We went at 2am to set up the tents. By 6am, they were operating. But you know who got there before the Americans? The Russians. The Israelis. The Turkish. The RUSSIANS!”

This was the same man who has no love lost for Dr. Sanjay Gupta, because he maintains that our favorite Indian reporter was purposefully seeking out the bad stories, and not telling any of the good ones. Currently, if CNN reports something, it comes to the attention of President Obama. Who calls Hillary. Who calls Rajiv. Who calls the USAID mission director in Haiti. Therefore - CNN=Bad.

All of the help which poured in from around the world came in many different forms. Much of it came in random donations. Including some company which sent 3 shipping containers full of hemorrhoid cream. Given that many of the medical storage facilities were also affected by the earthquake, there is neither any place to put all of these supplies, nor the need in Haiti for so much salve. Some of the donations now have to be destroyed, because they cannot be used or stored properly-a real shame.

A well-meaning American came to Haiti saying that he had a machine which could make water out of air. Given the shortage of potable water, this could be a useful machine. Prior to the earthquake, Haiti’s main tertiary care hospital did not have potable water on its premises. He requested (read demanded) that the USAID mission assist him in getting his machine from the port to the hospital. Given poor road conditions, this was a tricky affair to organize, and not a priority as locals figured - the hospital didn’t have water before...surely it isn’t an emergency now. But Mr. Well-meaning is also well-connected, and had the ear of some senator. CNN came to do a story. The machine found its way to the hospital. 6 months later, the hospital administrator wants the machine off of his property. He didn’t ask for it. He doesn’t use it. It consumes too much fuel to operate.