I arrive at the track and field track and am already sweating. The bicycle ride from home is just 10 minutes. The air seems cool at the sunset but is just an impression. As soon as you stop moving the sweat starts. I jump down. Pay the 10 Pesos offer at the entrance. Lock the bike. Fix my iPod Shuffle. Earplugs. Walk to the loop. For the first time in my life I find myself […]
Here is my contribution on working remotely in the last issue of ODEye, the internal newsletter of the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) Far away, but still so close (with a little help from IT and PRINCE2) The Wim Wenders movie Der Himmel über Berlin is– the story of two angels who comfort mortals, but cannot be seen by them. Images from that movie came to mind when I was asked to contribute to ODEye […]
Almost midnight. Quiet evening. House is almost empty of furniture. Luggage are ready upstairs. In few hours we will leave from Ha Noi. We have been living here for two years and three months. This afternoon I was sitting in the garden in front of our house at the Swedish Camp in Ha Noi. It just stopped to rain. Drops where falling from the leaves of the bushes. Gray clouds and a nice breeze. I […]
When I was CEA chair, I sent the following guidelines to my staff as they started drafting the Economic Report of the President. A friend recently emailed me a copy, and I thought I would share them with blog readers. They are good rules of thumb, especially for economists writing for a general audience. ERP Writing Guidelines
“As an economist in good standing, I am quite capable of writing things nobody can read. Indeed, unreadable writing – my own and others’ – played a key role in helping me arrive at the views presented here [i.e. in this book]. But what the world needs now is informed action; and to get that kind of action, ideas must be presented in a way that is accessible to concerned people at large, not just […]
‘Thus the seasons come and go, and the years pass by. I’ll age one more year, and probably finish another novel. One by one, I will face the tasks before me and complete them as best I can. Focusing on each stride forward, but at the same time taking a long-range view, scanning the horizon as far ahead as I can. I am, after all, a long-distance runner’ ‘The end of the race is just […]
First thing I check when in my room at the Cemara Hotel here in Jakarta is to check whether the water whirls clockwise or any clockwise when I pull the tap in the bathroom sink. This time I checked before leaving Ha Noi. Checked carefully in the kitchen sink and the whirl was definitely clockwise. I checked here in Jakarta, first time the water left to the pipes without any whirl (too much water or […]
I have two daughters. Olga age four. Venla age two. I look at their pictures on the whole of my room in Southwark (London). It is evening. Maybe ten o’clock. I have finished packing my two bags for today’s flight back to Ha Noi via Singapore. I have cleaned the room. Thrown paper away. Folded the jumpers I will not need during the next two months. Put them in a box. Took plastic bags to […]
PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA: If there is anyone out there who still doubts that America is a place where all things are possible; who still wonders if the dream of our founders is alive in our time; who still questions the power of our democracy, tonight is your answer. Its the answer told by lines that stretched around schools and churches in numbers this nation has never seen; by people who waited three hours and four […]
It is 11:33am. I am in Ha Noi, PC room at our house at the Swedish Camp. John McCain has just conceded victory of the 2008 US Presidential elections to Barack Obama. This is history in the making and I listened live!