From Nigeria to Nitrogen Chemistry: A Many-Storied Tribute

China is frustrating me today (visa drama… don’t ask… all I can say is that I’m writing this from Hong Kong) so I’ve taken this opportunity to reflect a bit on stories far from China, connecting the book in my hands with my childhood in California and my education from all over.

I just started reading Half of a Yellow Sun, by Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie, the novelist who inspired this blog’s title.  I’d like to share a passage from early in the story.  Odenigbo (Master), a professor at a university in Nigeria, has just hired thirteen-year-old Ugwu to be his houseboy.  Odenigbo announces that he will send Ugwu to school:

“There are two answers to the things they will teach you about our land: the real answer and the answer you give in school to pass.  You must read books and learn both answers.  I will give you books, excellent books.”  Master stopped to sip his tea.  “They will teach you that a white man called Mungo Park discovered River Niger.  That is rubbish.  Our people fished in the Niger long before Mungo Park’s grandfather was both.  But in the exam, write that it was Mungo Park.”

“Yes, sah.” Ugwu wished that this person called Mungo Park had not offended Master so much.  (14)

This reminds me of the way I learned history as a child.  When I was at home over New Year’s, I found a book called One-Minute Stories of Great Americans, a gift from my history buff grandfather when I was six or seven.  more »

The Hired Protester: a sticky China meme

My grandmother Virginia Swanberg is a prolific reader and article clipper.  The other day, when I took her out for lunch in San Francisco’s Mission District, she presented me with a cut-out of this article by Cara Anna of the Associated Press:  Hired protestor fights to save restaurant from demolition (this headline appeared in the San Francisco Chronicle.)

Wanted: One live-in protester, $146 a month, no days off.

When the managers of a Beijing restaurant marked for demolition were too busy to fight it, they posted an Internet ad and hired a stranger to stay there around the clock. The job seems to be a first for China, where frenzied urban construction has led to violent evictions, protests and even suicide.

Huddled on a makeshift bed in the trash-strewn, freezing restaurant, Lu Daren said he once worked for a demolition crew and understands their tactics.

“I’m tired,” the 46-year-old said Thursday, after a long night of fending off the latest visit from what he suspects were hired thugs by the landlord. “Tired, tired, tired.” He stays — wrapped in blankets, reading the newspaper or writing idle poetry, occasionally taking short walks— because he thinks the restaurateurs have been treated unfairly. [more]

I’m sharing this story because I think it showcases several memes about China: more »

Obama, Microfinance, and China

This post originally appeared on the Wokai blog on December 29, 2008.

Yes, there is at least one connection between these three words.  Her name is Nancy Barry.

A trailblazer in the field of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty, her current work focuses on creating pragmatic ways for large corporations in China, India, Mexico, and Colombia, to create opportunities for the working poor in these countries.  For many years she was the President of Women’s World Banking, an international microfinance network.

I just came across this article from an Indian finance website, describing her role as a close advisor to Barack Obama.

Named one of the most powerful women in the world, Nancy M. Barry, 59, the Founder and President of Enterprise Solutions to Poverty and former President of the New York-based Women’s World Banking, is no stranger to the limelight. Known to be a close confidant and friend of the Obama family, she is now expected to play a key role in shaping the new US regime’s relationship with India and Indians. President-elect Barack Obama’s mother, Ann Dunham, worked with her as the first policy change manager of Women’s World Banking, from 1992 to 1995.

Says Barry: I see in Obama many of the qualities of his mother: the capacity to get to the heart of the matter, the ability to get different factions to work for common cause, and a passion to work together in building economies that work for the majority. more »

China’s Development Policy Goes Rural

This I wrote for the Wokai blog, October 23, 2008.

I just came across this excellent clip from CCTV, highlighting how China has shifted the focus of its development to rural areas, with a focus on microfinance (hat tip to Rich Brubaker):

Last year, when I was working for the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai, I interviewed Wang Li from Citi, who appears in this clip.  She described how the Citi Microentrepreneurship Awards in October 2007 served as a stepping stone towards the broader expansion of microfinance in China.  I am impressed to see how quickly these changes have occurred.

China has also recently transformed its rural land policies, allowing farmers to trade or rent the land on which they work. more »

The Man in the Fountain, Wal-Mart, and China’s Course of Development

Email sent to friends and family, October 19, 2006. It inspired many responses.

Ni hao jiaren he pengyou!
(That means, “Hello family and friends”)

I hope this note finds you well.

Living in China has complicated my perspective on international development. It casts a different light on my experiences in Chile and my idealistic Berkeley education. I started thinking about this when I read that microfinance inventor Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize. more »