Blog: June

Omar Hernandez dies

Omar Hernández, one of the most amazing musicians I've known, was recently killed. Another depressing day... man is, indeed, the wolf of man.

Posted on:
2010.06.12 -0500

Tags:
art , homo homini lupus , music , people

Configure ssh on Netgear WGR614 v7 router

Need to access Windowz XP computer via ssh through a Netgear WGR614 v7 wireless router...

  1. Install ssh (openSSH) on server computer.
  2. Configure the ssh daemon so that it's running properly.
  3. Add ssh port 22 as an exception to the Windowz Firewall.
  4. Go to 192.168.1.1 (or www.routerlogin.net) with browser to configure router.
  5. In 'Port Forwarding' under 'Advanced', hit the 'Add Custom Service'.
  6. Add ssh, port 22, and set the 'Server IP Address' to the (internal) IP of the Windowz machine assigned by the router. To check what this is, run ipconfig from the command line (should look something like 192.168.1.xxx).
  7. Check that the port is indeed accessible from the outside with http://canyouseeme.org. If that works, you are set.
  8. ssh using the public IP of the Windowz machine (given by http://canyouseeme.org or http://whatismyip.com) from a remote client.

Posted on:
2010.06.10 -0500

Tags:
code

A Brief History of Aid

[...] The 1980s also saw the rise of the neo-liberal thinking which argued that governments should liberalize their economies in favor of the laissez-faire paradigm, which encompassed [...] the private market. The experience of the newly industrializing economies of Asia gave these market-based ideas a popularity boost in policy circles in the United States and Europe. The Asian tigers seemed to have achieved high growth rates and unprecedented poverty reduction with free-market policies and an outward orientation. As free-market proponents, Milton Friedman and the Chicago School of Economics had great influence on the policies and thinking of the US President, Ronald Reagan, and the UK's Prime Minister, Margaret Thatcher. [...]

In Africa, as with other parts of the developing world, this economic overhaul necessitated two new aid-based programmes: first, stabilization, and then structural adjustment. Stabilization meant reducing a country's imbalances to reasonable levels [...]. Meanwhile structural adjustment was aimed at encouraging greater trade liberalization and reducing price and structural rigidities by such means as removing subsidies.

Both the World Bank and the IMF launched aggressive aid programmes to institute these two initiatives; the IMF's Structural Adjustment and Enhanced Structural Adjustment Facilities are examples of these. Poor governments received cash in the form of budgetary support, and in return agreed to embrace the free-market solutions to development. This would entail minimizing the role of the state, privatizing previously nationalized industries, liberalizing trade and dramatically reducing the civil service. [...]

By the end of the 1980s, emerging-market countries' debt was at least US$1 trillion, and the cost of servicing these obligations colossal. Indeed, the cost became so substantial that it eventually dwarfted foreign aid going into poor countries -- leading to a net reverse flow from poor countries to rich to the tune of US$15 billion every year between 1987 and 1989.

[...] The aid campaigners capitalized on the success of raising cash for emergency aid, and extended it to a platform to raise development aid; something entirely different.

In some recent times, the Irish musician Bono has made his case directly to the US President, George Bush, in a White House visit in October 2005, and Bob Geldof was a guest at the 2005 G8 meeting in Gleneagles, Scotland, and advised the UK's Commission to Africa. It would appear, despondent with their record of failure, that Western donors are increasingly looking to anyone for guidance on how best to tackle Africa's predicament.

Scarcely does one see Africa's (elected) officials or those African policy makers charged with the development portfolio offer an opinion on what should be done, or what might actually work to save the continent from its regression. This very important responsibility has, for all intents and purposes, and to the bewilderment and chagrin of many an African, been left to musicians who reside outside Africa. One disastrous consequence of this has been that honest, critical and serious dialogue and debate on the merits and demerits of aid have atrophied. As one critic of the aid model remarked, 'my voice can't compete with an electric guitar'.

Dead Aid (2009)
Dambisa Moyo

Posted on:
2010.06.07 -0500

Tags:
texts