Merigoesaround

There are many reasons why I am working for CGAP but one is to learn as much as I can about market-driven, innovative interventions that could be applied to education and health programs. Development policies in education need a large amount of fresh air. A hurrican of innovation. I have two ideas. ONE. Imagine the following: a low-income mother from Nowayoutland, she saves some money, she has to save to face shocks, such as one of her 3 kids getting sick. She is among the poorest of the poor in her community. A poverty-measurement tool confirmed so. This mother saves some money into an account opened at a microfinance institution. The microfinance insitution acts as a government agent. The mother can't touch that money: those little savings are for emergencies and for her three kids education. Each 10 dollars that she saves is matched by a dollar from the government from Nowayoutland. Isn't this like a dream safety net scheme? TWO. And now think of an exchange program that bri...

Once in my life I had a terrible crush on a Minister. The Minister of Justice. This was in Albania, some years ago. The female staff of my employer in that country, including me, loved him into pieces. While I await the results of the presidential election there I just found out via http://www.eca.al/ that my Minister won in his district. With Ministers like him European integration in the Balkans should advance much faster. But this is not the case. European integration is neither widening nor deepening. Europe seems less united than ever before. Directionless. Or maybe is just me feeling less European than some years ago.

Some weeks ago I was in Spain, in Madrid, concretely. I was there for a seminar slash conference, the new way of developing Africa, organize a conference, preferably in a country with more than 300 days of sun, running water and European bathrooms. Spain has great potential as conference destination (another idea that runs in my head is to promote Spain as the Florida of Europe, with luxury kind of assisted housing for old Japanese and Russians...down with the crisis!! this idea is great - I share IP with my friend Miguel btw, in case he is reading this). So I went to Spain for work. I learned more and more things about the industry I work for during the seminar, this sector is more commercial and complicated than I ever thought of. Spanish men...however, they are quite simple, it sufficed a nice tight dress and some make up to get a guy in the street calling me "Vaya Bombonsito" ("what a nice little sweet you are"). This kind of compliments can be sweetly told or d...

My life is my life and I live it the way I want. Partly true. We all compare ourselves to others, just like economists compare GDPs per capita. This deep reflection to say that boyfriend husband has been slightly downgraded in my personal scale since I know one of his friends is a (hot) European Space Agency ASTRONAUT. BH is an accomplished, goodlooking, caring guy...but not an astronaut. My love for BH is in absolute terms. No worries. Having a dream is the essence of happy, driven lives...but dreaming of being an astronaut and becoming one is out of reach. Or isn't? BHs spatial friend got an engineering degree, a PhD in Astrophysics and had a clear direction where he wanted to be: up there, in the space. Maybe dream chasing is what differentiates absolutely from relatively happy lives.

If there is a cool topic to be working on right now, this is it: microfinance. Forget Dambisa Moyo (even if she is quite supportive of microfinance) and the Easterly-Sachs online dramas, the development world is waiting for an answer on what microfinance can and cannot do. The answer is unfortunately blurred but on the way of being clarified. I think there are three groups of constituencies that are either helping or damaging the microfinance world. The rigorous observers: Some must-read blogs ( this and another one at PSD blog) this week portrayed a recent paper by some of the members of this group. There is good news for microfinance: the existing business owners of a Hyderabad slum appear to use microcredit to expand their businesses, durables spending (i.e. investment) and business profits increased. Unfortunately, there is a down side and some bad news. On the down side, the introduction of microcredit had little impact on non-financial aspects of development (health, education ...

Since Moyo was interviewed in the FT some months ago http://www.ft.com/cms/s/2/4121b1fa-ee5a-11dd-b791-0000779fd2ac.html?ftcamp=rss she's being literally everywhere. Even in my friend’s Martin facebook status. Today he wrote: “Moyo in the FT weekend, what's wrong with the press?” If Ms. Moyo wanted to heat the development debate, she has truly excelled at that. Among Collier, Rodrik, Easterly and the likes, a stylish young women with (also) something non conventional to say is refreshing. Maybe that is part of her success. Moyo's proposal of cutting aid for developing countries in the next five years and helping the poor through microfinance, for instance, leads me to the question: what if even if her idea has pitfalls is it really about time to get to the bottom of the pyramid with close-to-the-poor interventions that relegate governments to a temporary second stage? I think what is catchy of Moyo’s message is the kind of Yes We (Africans) can , empowering message behind ...

That the French are crazy about their food is no news. But to sympathize with their habit of eating the inside parts of animals, the tripes and so on...needs longer than the short half a year I have been here. Or another dinner at my friends' terrace. It might be very refined to eat those parts of the animal anatomy but in my country they are used to produce fibers for instruments or as a coat for chorizos. I have very sweet memories of my childhood winters in my grandma's village...the ritual of killing the pig (la matanza) and producing chorizos and ham; when I think about this twice now I reckon I should be a traumatized (and vegetarian) adult. La matanza is probably the least child-friendly activity you can think of. I am going to avoid describing how they sacrifice pigs in rural Spain for the sake of keeping my friends reading me and this posting free of digressions. I admire how the French eat viscera in a classy, refined, different way. From my friends' Matt&Mich...

When traveling to a Muslim country there are some things that you should not do and others you should be ready for. I managed to do many of the wrong things in a short Saturday morning. Hence, the one in the picture above is merigoingaround. Woke up. 30 degrees outside. What to wear, a simple tank top with an apparently too conspicuous cleavage. WROOONG . Showing boobs and shoulders in a small village of 2000 inhabitants is not interculturally sensitive. Village time. Walked around with the villagers. Glanced at potatoes fields, men, many unemployed young men. Got interested in their economic activity. Eco-tourism might work, I think. They indicated they have some cows and sheep. Do you have pigs? I asked. WROOONG. Lunch time. Sweet villagers preparing a two-course meal based on roast chicken and couscous. Me wants to go to the ladies' room. No ladies' room, just lots of fields. I like that, reminds me of my summers. Lady of the house indicates I better go to the place where th...

Needing some protection?: Fed up with your kids, looking for a school surrounded by nature, a cheaper alternative to a Swiss boarding school, where to ship them out?: Contrast. Like other transition economies Morocco is populated by virginity soap adolescent shoppers (Touch me!) and villages with no electricity or access to water. Accompanying a mission to explain the benefits of eco-sanitation to remote Moroccan villagers I felt the old feeling of transition. Transition to what. Morocco is almost there, close to having citizens who have access to education that teaches kids something, health services that can heal you without killing your pocket, good roads that facilitate people and markets' mobility, water, electricity access...almost there but not yet. At least not big chunks of the country. What can be done for the next development push? How can the country create employment for those thousands of youngest whose main distraction appears to be watching the Spanish soccer league...

TED just told me that the Spanish word Ole! comes from Allah. A little bit of me wants to be her, dark hair version. http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/elizabeth_gilbert_on_genius.html

I once lived with an important person in an incredible house. It made me feel special. He owned many things, a vintage car, a mansion in Upper Georgetown, a collection of old books. He also had an original vintage poster hanging in one of the walls and used to say that the lady in the poster turned him on. This important person accumulated many things but he was all by himself. In the house, we were three, the important person and owner of everything, Usman and me. Usman was brought up in Pakistan and as a son of a general he used to call our third roomie 'Sir'. And so did I. Sir Maguire died yesterday. He was the first American I ever really met and the one that taught me most of the few things I know about the US today. Sir Maguire was a mix of an intellectual version of Mr. Scrooge and Bart Simpson. It was the best white, posh, racist, septuagenarian roommate one could wish for. Kentucky Derby Mint Juleps, Irak's invasion, the death of his ex-wife, the fact that his son...

Sometimes I wonder what a normal life would be. Do you ask yourselves that? Is normal to ask yourself if your life is normal? I think normal is boring, monotonous and makes you old faster. Maybe feeling abnormal keeps life interesting, maybe it is pure egocentrism and attention seeking. Do you know anybody normal? Why do we have so many words that mean nothing unless you make comparisons? I found the answer: normal is nothing else than a washing machine cycle (from Whoopie Goldberg.I know, I know, not precisely Plato but the message goes through)

...is my charity contribution to this city and often an enormous test to my patience. When I recently moved to a 17-minute commute from work I thought that would be a short very doable daily metro ride, especially because I do not need to change lines and I can sit, read, observe, listen to music…or so I thought. Well, I do listen to music indeed. Accordionist, Slavic and Roma singers, guitar players, drum players…the longer the ride, the wider the variety of free concerts you get inside the metro train. Sometimes those are really sad concerts from really sad people. I am intrigued by the lives of the singers who beg within the metro, their wrinkles and damaged hands insinuate hardship. Their dark voices, dirty nails, greasy hairs combed with enormous dignity, eventual golden tooth and unfashionable pullovers. Somebody should write their stories. Singing while begging deserves a coin, even if small. The worse the singer, the more I feel I need to give him/her some euro cents…I might b...

Life-a-deux has some new aspects I am really appreciating. Snoring, even if subtle, or the fact that laundry is double are not part of them.Boyfriend husband is turning 32 tomorrow. He has decided to challenge aging by buying himself a way, way too expensive longboard skateboard. BH has so many hobbies that we do not have space for his gadgets anymore. Let him enjoy, Moroccan roads won't be like Parisian alleys. Thank God (yes, God, why not, it is Easter and I am spiritually a Catholic even if rationally I am probably on the agnostic side) my only hobbies are studying challenging languages, visiting places who make my mum unhappy, reading FT from beginning till end during weekends and telling myself I am going to become a yoga teacher when I know perfectly well my lower-back is not ready for wild twisting. So, life a deux is making me think I need a more manual, physical hobby than reading or writing this blook (blog+biobook). Since getting home internet connection in France take...

Sat in the plane. Smiled. Planes give me the thrill of going somewhere, of visiting a new or an old place or the joy of just going home, like in this occasion. Happiness. Grabbed the in-flight magazine and noticed some papers in between. "What is anxiety? How to overcome anxiety?" Text highlighted by the passenger who sat in the exact same plane, in the exact same seat I was sitting in now, only some hours before, but, who unlike myself, was probably not happy. Depression. Arrived home. Late on a Friday. Very late for a flight but very early for a Spanish Friday party. Again the immense joy of being with my parents, with boyfriend husband, of seeing my friends, of new announcements of weddings, new babies, healthy growing ones and the memories and gossips from high school times. Happiness. Back in the plane. Took off. Paris. Train delayed. Suicidal accident blocking traffic. Depression.

Despite working on financial access and responsible finance issues the closest contact that I have had to somebody remotely poor lately is with the Bangladeshi cleaner who hoovers my office every day. I welcome her everyday with a big smile. Always smaller than hers. The bindi, long black crispy hair, white teeth and shiny eyes of this tiny women remind me day after day that I should work to give opportunities to people who do not have them. I think I need to get out of posh and stupid Saint Germain right now.

The headline would go along these lines: "99 percent of the youngsters between 25-35 are going through a crisis of extreme insatiability" I am not sure if 99 percent of that group population suffers from that but that same percentage of my friends certainly do experience acute insatiability. Me included. I think this permanent impossibility of feeling satiated or fulfilled stems from the fact that we have too many choices. The days are too short. The to-do lists are too long, the dreams too large. Mobility is not an issue anymore, we can work from here, from there or from both. Choices might seem something good at first but they can lead to many suboptimal decisions and specially to wasting valuable time that could be used for something satiating like doing sports, sharing time with friends or family, or volunteering. Instead too many choices mean too many minutes evaluating the pros and cons of x versus y versus z. The four hour week blog is written by a guy who is more a ...

Volunteerism + Tourism Voluntourism

My bestfriend (BF) has subscribed to http://www.match.com/ . I promised my BF (using Mrs. Moneypenny techniques here*) I will treat this confidentially. Meaning 1- I won't disclose his/her name, gender and 2-I will respect number 1 if BF keeps sharing match.com insights with me. I am seriously tempted to subscribe to match.com. My boyfriend husband thinks I do not need it. I obviously don't, I found the perfect match 2795 days ago, but I twitter, blog, facebook, asmallworld, decayenne, am I really up to date in the business if I do not try online or speed dating? I feel virtually incomplete. Online matching services seem quite a resource to couple finding. I hear that in India, Shaadi http://www.shaadi.com/ does wonders. I used to be quite conservative with this virtual or matrimonial agencies, that could not be 'love'...I think it all changed at the age of 10. My mum and dad were friends with a couple who used to come home quite often. I remember that the lady spoke a...