false 19 39 37 true 5702143 read 0 true 91880 currently-reading 2 true 91879 to-read http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/73585902 Kathy's review of My Detachment
by Tracy Kidder

Hmm..I didn't realize he'd written anything other than "Mountain beyond Mountains"? If you've got any used copies of his books sitting around, Crispen will be in the states soon and you could mail a copy to his parents to bring back to me : ) I'll get them back to you next time we're home. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72625842 to: The Fortune at the Bottom of the Pyramid: Eradicating Poverty Through Profits (The Wharton Press Paperback Series) by CK Prahalad
I’d heard a lot of good things about this book, so I had pretty high expectations, which the book did not meet. The author writes as if viewing the poor as consumers is a revolutionary idea that will “eradicate poverty through profits”. However, the “poor” I’ve worked with from refugee camps in Darfur to the villages of Lesotho already viewed themselves as consumers. Sure, we were beyond “the coca-cola border” and they weren’t buying brand names that we recognize, but even the poorest of the poor buy matches, cooking oil, pots, water storage devices, blankets and underwear. Chinese businesses in Africa have been taking advantage of “the fortune at the bottom of the pyramid” for decades, but the author doesn’t mention any of those businesses. I believe in the free market system and do hope this book inspired more people to develop businesses that truly improve the lives of the poorest. I love the idea of internet kiosks so people can obtain government documents without having to pay off a corrupt official, and I really love the idea of a village machine where a single poor farmer can bring his cow to be milked and instantly receive cash, but I think it’s important to remember that there are actually very few “products” on the planet that people actually need. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/72625721 to: Culture Shock: Indonesia (Culture Shock! Indonesia) by Cathie Draine
Loved it! I’d recommend any foreigner living in Indonesia (including myself) read this book once a year. The book was written in such a positive light that it made me realize so many more wonderful things about Indonesian culture. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70932777 to: The Culture of Fear: Why Americans Are Afraid of the Wrong Things (Paperback) by Barry Glassner
Did you know that there were never any razor blades in apples? I read this book a long time ago and just haven’t gotten around to writing the review for awhile, however I find myself still thinking about the book a lot. While it's not perfect, I think it should be required reading, to educate individuals on how to analyze news shows, mass emails and newspapers. Tip #1: read the title of the “expert” or find the source of the information, ask what their qualifications really are and think about what be their motivation for making the statement. The author basically goes through things Americans are afraid of (such as tainted Halloween candy) and the things we should really fear (such as the poor quality of education). Have any of you read this? I'd love to discuss this with friends or family! ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/70665639 to: A Moveable Marriage: Relocate Your Relationship without Breaking It (Paperback) by Robin Pascoe
A friend gave me this book and highly recommended it, so I felt obligated to read the whole thing. However, if it hadn’t been a super short book, I never would have been able to finish it. I just really don’t get it. Moving to a new, interesting place has been really fun for both me and my husband. It’s been great to share this adventure together, so frankly the author and the women she writes about come across to me as materialistic and unappreciative of how wonderful other cultures can be. It didn’t help that I have no sympathy for people who complain about how difficult it is to manage “the help.” (Please, you have a maid! Just be grateful and spend your time doing something useful or at least go out and enjoy the amazing new people around you rather than sitting around the house whining about how they do things differently than you). I have heard that the author is a very entertaining public speaker, so I will read the other book written by her that my friend gave me aimed at children living abroad. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/56827804 Confessions of an Economic Hit Man (Paperback) by John Perkins
While I think some of John Perkins experiences in his book “Confessions of an Economic Hit Man” are embellishments and half-truths, his book still made me question many of my long held beliefs and further convinced me that I MUST change.

There are too many quotes I want to remember and disconnected thoughts I had while reading this to write a good essay on this, so here’s just a few in bulleted form:

Stats
• UN Human Development Report shows that, the gap between rich and poor is increasing (the income ratio between wealthiest 20% to the poorest 20% “went from 30 to 1 in 1960 to 74 to 1 in 1995)
o The UN estimates that we could “provide clean water, adequate diets, sanitation services and basic education to every person on the planet” for ½ what we’ve spent on the Iraq war to date. (The author adds, “and we wonder why terrorists attack us?”)


Thoughts
o Jefferson wrote about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. When did the American dream switch to being about a owning a McMansion with 5 bedrooms? I think we have to shift the American dream to being about finding peace in a simple life, lowering our stress, living simpler lives and limiting our consumption.
o We are kings and queens! We were, “born into one of the wealthiest societies history has ever known”
o I couldn’t help but think of the wall street executives who say they are still entitled to large bonuses when the author questions why we think that “People who excel at stoking the fires of economic growth should be exalted and rewarded, while those born at the fringes are available for exploitation.”
o How come we can get a man on the moon, but not an immunization in every newborn babies arm? Or every child in school?
o Basotho often told me that Zambia was so peaceful because they wouldn’t except the big “loan” aid. It makes since to me now that they were protecting themselves from getting into debt and then having to do what their debtors tell them to.
o I think there is hope. As I understand it US companies can be fined for in US court for misbehavior abroad. For example, Chiquita Brands International was fined $25 million by the US government for giving money to paramilitaries who killed tens of thousands of Columbians (Aljazera, 2009)

Quotes
o “There is more to the world than your big houses and fancy stores. People are starving and you worry about oil for your cars. Babies are dying of thirst and you search the fashion magazines for the latest styles.” (53)
o “You must open your hearts to the poor and downtrodden, instead of driving them further into poverty and servitude. There’s not much time left. If you don’t change you’re doomed.” (53)
o “Stop worrying so much about the outcome of soap operas, football games, quarterly balance sheets, and the daily Dow Jones averages, and …instead reevaluate who we are and where we want our children to end up.”
o People, “present themselves, through the media they control, as cultural icons and try to convince us that penthouses and yachts bring happiness”

Changes
o I will consume less. Why do people get into consumption cycles (www.storyofstuff.com)? Why do people get, “sucked into a system that …is unbalanced”?
o Is it worth the price future generations will have to pay, just because it’s more convenient to:
 Drive rather than walk, even though we need the exercise
 Buy bottled water rather than refill a container, even though it uses more energy to create new bottles and creates trash when we through it away
 Watch TV rather that talk with our family
 Buy new when we could get it at a second-hand store
 Take a new plastic bag, when we could get in the habit of bringing cloth
 Eat processed fake food when we know locally grown green vegetables are healthier (and taste better)
• Writing Style
o The author is no Thomas Paine. I think he’s self-aggrandizing, and even now, as he tries to “confess” by writing the book, he clearly wants glory and fame.
o I don’t believe there were “coincidences” but rather he made choices day in and day out that got him where he was.
o Often his writing lacks enough data for example he says, “the IMF …pressured Caracas to support the corporatocracy in many other ways”. I want to know, what were the other ways?
o I think the author wrote the wrong book. He should have just left out the whole NSA thing as it distracts from his story. It would have been more powerful if he had just told the story of how most of us, unwittingly promote the oppression of the masses each time we go shopping for things we don’t need.
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/55448377 The White Man's Burden: Why the West's Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good (Paperback) by William Easterly
YYet another book on what a poor job my profession (humanitarian aid) and others are doing to alleviate human suffering. While I don’t agree with the author's main argument that large dreams such as the Millennium Development Goals distract from poverty alleviation efforts, I agree with many of his smaller discussion points: There are many ways we can reduce human suffering more effectively.

I found the section that talked about the US’s military interventions fascinating. If nothing else, because it reminds me that while we are making mistakes as we build schools and latrines the negative consequences are not that bad. I prefer the humanitarian communities method as compared to the militaries. While, I'm sure there are positive examples where military intervention helped impoverished masses, that this book is missing, I found this to be a disturbingly long list of negative consequences of cold war interventions.

Table 8: Some Cold War Intervention and Negative Consequences (abridged)
Vietnam war - 58,000 dead soldiers, millions dead Vietnamese, communists still rule
US support of military ruler in Cambodia in 1970 - Khmer Rouge genocide
US arming mujahedeen against in Afghanistan in 1979 – civil war and chaos in Afghanistan continued after Soviets withdrew, then the mujahadden supported perpetrators of September 11 attacks
CIA backed coup in Guatemala in 1954 – Decades of civil war and death squads; genocide against Indian population
Korean war 1950 – 2.5 million Koreans killed, left behind rough state of N. Korea
CIA-Backed coup in Iran in 1953 – Shah’s tyranny, Khomeini’s revolution, hostage crisis,
Backing Liberian dictators 1945-1985 – Liberia collapse into horrific and violent anarchy under born-again warlord Charles Taylor, who fueled civil wars in Sierra Leone and Cote d’Ivoire
Backing Hailie Selassie in Ethiopia against Soviet-backed Somalia – Military overthrows Selassie and aligns itself with Soviets; two decades of civil war;
Switching to backing Somalia against Soviet-backed Ethiopia – Devastation of Ethiopia-Somalia with war and famine
Backing army of El Salvador against Marxist rebels – 70,000 dead, right-wing death squads rape and murder “guerillas” (sometimes American Catholic nuns)
Backing Contras in Nicaragua against Soviet-backed Sandinistas – Civil war in Nicaragua, destroyed Nicaraguan economy
Assassination of Lumumba, support of Mobuto in Zaire – Mobutu loots billions; civil war
Backing Jonas Savimbi against Soviet-backed Angolan government – Landmines outnumber people; Government wins anyway; civil war continues after Soviets leave;
]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50687051 to: One Hundred Years of Solitude (Hardcover) by Gabriel García Márquez
I’ve heard so many good things about this Nobel Prize Winner, I’m a little afraid to admit that I really did not like it. I appreciated the story of the one family member who accidentally became the leader of a rebel army, but there was just way too much incest and insanity. I’m just not sure what the draw is that makes everyone love it so much. What did I miss? ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50687005 to: The Trouser People: A Story of Burma in the Shadow of the Empire (Paperback) by Andrew Marshall
Interesting to learn more about Myanmar/Burma, but wish he’d said more about what’s really going on there now. ]]> http://www.goodreads.com/review/show/50686844 to: The Tao of Coaching: Boost Your Effectiveness at Work by Inspiring Those Around You (Hardcover) by Max Landsberg
It’s a good thing this only took me a few hours to read. After reading good to great, which was based on evidence, the Tao of Coaching was annoying to read. There was no data, no facts, just one persons opinion. Even the examples weren’t real and the conversations really sounded forced. It almost turned me off to the whole idea of coaching, but I still think it's important to build the capacity of my team, so I'll try to use some of what I read.
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