Anurag > Recent Status Updates

When a couple goes out to dinner
for their anniversary, for example, the thought of feeling superior to their friends and neighbors probably never enters their minds. Their goal is just to share a memorable meal. But a memorable meal is a quintessentially relative concept. It is one that stands out from other meals.

To demand quality for its own sake is to be a discerning buyer. But to wish to outdo one’s friends and neighbors is to be a boor, a social moron - there are people whose aim is to flaunt their superiority over others. But most of us do our best to avoid such people, and the fact that we succeed most of the time suggests that they are relatively rare.

In Smith's view, Lewis XIV, a French prince, was famous not famous because of his administrative genius, but by the virtue of his shape, skin and his voice - accomplishments that were frivolous. A man of inferior rank must have more desirable qualities to look up to (and thus have real expectations of social mobility).

We weep even at a feigned representation of tragedy.

We week even at a feigned representation of tragedy.

A philosopher is a company - only to another philosopher.

The little sympathy we feel for bodily pain (compared to pains of solitude and fear of death esp in Greek tragedies) is the foundation of the propriety of constancy and endurance.

Violent hunger (eating voraciously) is deplorable in all cultures but sympathy for hunger is plentiful.

Individual perceptions of beauty matter less - in front of the what is considered beautiful by society (populace).

Individual perceptions of beauty matter less - in front of the what is considered beautiful by society (populace).

We sympathize even with the dead.

Trinkets (Adam Smith) cannot be turned into bread.

China doesn't insist on strict financial accounting.

TNZ is particularly vulnerable to corruption in the energy sector.

Despite poor track record and allegations of corruption, CCM is very popular in the rural hinterland.

The pressure to publish positive results is real (foreign aid corresponds to about 5% of TNZ's GDP)

In authors' view, the CCM oligarchy is reinforced by Chinese partnership into aid programmes.

Spurred imports could have improved the exchange rate (more demand for TNZ currency would increase its price) - but the project failed because of corruption.

Bhagwati thinks that corruption may have desirable effects.

Corruption produced a disconnect between parallel markets manipulated by the colonial elite and the protectionist trade policy.

Parallel illegal markets expanded in Tanzania in late 80s and 90s.

Even the membership of nationalist parties had declined in 60s and 70s. The separation of civil service and political institutions wasn't considered important anymore. Mwinyi - who wanted to spur growth through markets - was to face friction from the Nyrere inspired party members. Economically, the food staples were less accessible to lower economic classes.

The opportunities for the merchant class have reduced since colonial times (because of the nationalistic monopolies that military governments have unleashed). Marriage to military officials and political influence have become more established ways for social mobility. Women seem to have suffered because of these developments.

The onslaught of MNCs didn't do much to prevent conflicts between bourgeoisie and then working class - since capital was still very much under control by the once colonial class.

The differences between south and north developed because of differential access to education (Islamic influence in North).

The labour employed was hardly permanent. The government was the major employer of wage labour. The colonial interaction only limited market participants from hurting the interests of colonial powers.

The colonial powers had left the distribution of resources to the market. Slavery was once expanded through coastal trade but once abolished, it was the peasantry that the trade relied upon.

The decline in middle-class standards was also evident with the crisis. Scarcity was so severe that overvaluation of currency didn't help prices and rent-seeking not nearly sufficient.

The industrial groups were winners in the first years of ISI, but they soon became losers as the economic crisis deepened. In fact industrial workers (ironically enough) never supported the socialist structure.