Fungerer bistandspolitikken?

Asle Toje har skrevet en del bra om norsk bistandspolitikk i det siste, basert på Norads årlige resultatrapport.

Tynt fra Norad og Utviklingen som forsvant.

Konklusjonene i evalueringene har i de senere år blitt stadig mer duse. [..] I dag konkluderer de aller fleste med variasjoner på temaet «her har mye gått bra, men enkelte ting har ikke gått fullt så bra og dette bør følges nøye framover». Denne praksisen fører med seg et åpenbart problem. Hvis alle initiativer får samme skussmål er det jo umulig å bruke dem som rettesnor for å rette pengene dit de gjør mest nytte? Norge «løser» dette med å spre bistanden tynt i mange sektorer og mange land. Noe må da virke.

Dette er en interessant debatt.  Det er ikke gitt at bistand gjør mer nytte enn skade.  Vi kan ikke være for fine på det.  Hvis bistand kan løfte land ut av fattigdom, så er det kanskje verdt det om mye forsvinner i korrupsjon og militæropprustning.  Men det må altså fungere.

Selv synes jeg vi burde måle oss selv ikke på hvor mye vi gir, men på hvor mye vi handler med og investerer i fattige land.  Vi burde avskaffe alle gjenværende subsidier og handelsbarrierer.  Og oppfordre resten av verden til å følge etter.  Det løser ikke alle problemer, men det vil løse noen.

Så kan vi også vurdere vanlig bistandsarbeid.  Men da som et sekundært, eksperimentelt virkemiddel.  Det har jo ikke fungert så bra så langt.

Der var julekalenderen spist opp

.. så da har julen kommet?  Jeg har aldri helt forstått dette med sjokoladejulekalendere.  Jeg fikk denne av søsteren min, hun syntes jeg burde ha en.  Men hvis jeg vil ha sjokolade kjøper jeg det vel på vanlig måte?  Og da er det ikke fullt så tungvint innpakning?

Bah, humbug!

256 + 256 posts

It’s only been half a year since the previous 256 posts anniversary, but here we are again at 512 posts.  It’s because of all the movie posts – there’s one about every second day now.  I sometimes wonder if there may be some readers who aren’t the least bit interested in movies from the 1940’s.  But nah – that would be peculiar.  Full speed ahead!  We may reach the 50’s within a year.

For the 512 event I’ve redesigned the blog, by which I mean I’ve moved it to WordPress and selected one of their generic themes.  I picked one with black and grey, which for some reason appealed to me.

WordPress is a much better blog platform than Blogger.  They provide the basics for free, and charge for upgrades, (such as domain mapping), which may be why I got such immediate, friendly help today when I struggled to import the old blog entries.  Yay profit motive.

The new address is http://max256.bearstrong.net/, but thanks to the magic of The Internet, you won’t have to update any feeds or bookmarks.

40’s movies marathon – part 57

The Way Ahead (1944, UK, Reed) – Whiny city people get drafted, go through training, become soldiers. Fantastic battle scenes, and I love the sense in these British wartime movies of a young Britain emerging, to take over from the old. Watched it all.

This Happy Breed (1944, UK, Lean) – I’m all for a little cheerful patriotism in a wartime movie, but this is too much: Two veterans of the Great War have such stiff upper lips about it that it sounds like they had a jolly good time in the trenches, and besides it’s all over now so why make a fuss about it? Watched: 14 minutes.

Soul of a Monster (1944, USA, Jason) – Satan heals a good man, and makes him evil. This is a good candidate for Bad Movie night, with hilariously retarded lines. Watched: 11 minutes.

The True Story of Lilli Marlene (1944, UK, Jennings) – Documentary about Lilli Marlene, the sentimental song that first swept the German soldiers, and then the English soldiers who fought them in North Africa, seemingly becoming the property of whoever was currently ahead in the war. This is amazing. They’re using a song to tell the story of the shifting winds of war – but also of the things that all soldiers have in common. Watched it all.

Destiny (1944, USA, Le Borg) – Cops chase robbers. Bang-bang, bang-bang! Watched: 5 minutes.

Four Jills in a Jeep (1944, USA, Seiter) – Another patriotic war musical. War truly is hell. When will it end? Watched: 5 minutes.

40’s movies marathon – part 56

Ivan Grozny – Part 1 (1944, Soviet Union, Eisenstein) – A delirious fantasy about Russia’s great and all-powerful Führer, a man who is worshipped by The People and will soon make Russia into a Third Rome, ready to unleash its holy fury on all who stand in its way. Watched it all. Starring Gaahl as Ivan the Terrible.

The Adventures of Mark Twain (1944, USA, Rapper) – Mark Twain was born under a comet, and grew up with Tom Sawyer, Huckleberry Finn and slaveboy Jim. At twelve, he lectured the elders at the temple about the scriptures, and everyone was amazed at his understanding. Watched: 7 minutes.

National Velvet (1944, USA, Brown) – England in the 1920’s. A land of green meadows and stern but nice authority figures. Watched: 20 minutes. Introducing Elizabeth Taylor as a horse-mad 12-year old.

The Halfway House (1944, UK, Dearden) – A magical inn in Wales appears from thin air whenever someone needs help to work out their problems. The problems in this case include a couple who wants to get divorced, a captain who thinks he’s a coward, and a girl with an Irish boyfriend. Watched it all.

The Uninvited (1944, USA, Allen) – Some uninteresting people move into a house that may or may not be haunted. Watched: 12 minutes.

The Lady and the Monster (1944, USA, Sherman) – It was a dark and stormy night. The mad scientist was hard at work in his castle, connecting dead monkeys to electrodes. Watched: 8 minutes.

40’s movies marathon – part 55

Murder, My Sweet (1944, USA, Dmytryk) – This is about as good as noir movie titles get. And the movie itself is good too. I’ve seen it before, which may be why I was able to follow much of the plot, but the plot is incidental. The approach is expressionistic: Thugs, dames and cops, and Philip Marlowe in the middle. Watched it all.

Wilson (1944, USA, King) – Here I draw the line: A presidential biopic that plays the Hail to the Chief in the intro?! (Every time I hear that tune I think of Blazing Saddles.) Watched: 11 minutes.

Hotel Reserve (1944, USA) – The pre-war French police asks an amateur photographer for help to find a German spy. It’s no wonder they lost. Watched: 17 minutes.

Voodoo Man (1944, USA, Beaudine) – Bela Lugosi is kidnapping women for use in a ritual that will bring his dead wife back to life. Finally an enjoyable B-horror! Watched it all.

Dragon Seed (1944, USA, Conway) – Americans pretend what it’s like to live in China, an exotic country that is so far away that it was not even possible to get hold of Chinese actors. Watched 13 minutes, then fast forwarded to see what the Japanese soldiers looked like: Mediterranean, with moustaches and lecherous grins.

Bride by Mistake (1944, USA, Wallace) – It’s nice to be a veteran. You can relax and play ping-pong, and there’s a rich woman living right next door you can go flirt with. Watched: 12 minutes.

Scalzi’s unsuccessful holiday specials

John Scalzi presents The 10 least successful holiday specials of all time, not including That One.

Ayn Rand’s A Selfish Christmas (1951)

In this hour-long radio drama, Santa struggles with the increasing demands of providing gifts for millions of spoiled, ungrateful brats across the world, until a single elf, in the engineering department of his workshop, convinces Santa to go on strike. The special ends with the entropic collapse of the civilization of takers and the spectacle of children trudging across the bitterly cold, dark tundra to offer Santa cash for his services, acknowledging at last that his genius makes the gifts — and therefore Christmas — possible. Prior to broadcast, Mutual Broadcast System executives raised objections to the radio play, noting that 56 minutes of the hour-long broadcast went to a philosophical manifesto by the elf and of the four remaining minutes, three went to a love scene between Santa and the cold, practical Mrs. Claus that was rendered into radio through the use of grunts and the shattering of several dozen whiskey tumblers. In later letters, Rand sneeringly described these executives as “anti-life.”

Also: An Algonquin Round Table Christmas, and The Lost Star Trek Christmas Episode: “A Most Illogical Holiday”.

40’s movies marathon – part 54

Lifeboat (1944, USA, Hitchcock) – A group of strangers are thrown together in a lifeboat, and must find a way to tolerate each other. One is a Communist, another a self-centered reporter – and then there’s a Nazi from the submarine that just sunk their ship. Watched it all.

Enemy of Women (1944, USA, Zeisler) – I expected war movies made during the war to be less like Lifeboat, and more like this, a cheap, sensationalistic character assassination of Joseph Goebbels. I was wrong. Watched: 13 minutes.

Once Upon a Time (1944, USA, Hall) – Where lesser people would only see a worm that wiggles, theatre producer Cary Grant has the vision to see a caterpillar that can dance. Watched: 21 minutes.

Champagne Charlie (1944, UK, Cavalcanti) – Ealing Studios celebrates the popular culture of their grandparents. Two music hall artists in the 1860’s compete with each other about making the most popular song about alcohol. Watched it all.

Standing Room Only (1944, USA, Lanfield) – Factory girl Paulette Goddard tricks her way into the highest position a woman can dream of: becoming the handsome manager’s secretary. Watched: 9 minutes.

Return of the Vampire (1944, USA, Landers) – Foggy graveyard: Check. Boring people who struggle to fit the supernatural into their narrow little scientific minds: Check. Watched: 8 minutes.

Port of 40 Thieves (1944, USA, English) – Turns out there are noir movies that aren’t the least bit interesting. Watched: 15 minutes.