Attention, Saviours of the World

There is still great hope for humanity in this world. People still believe change is possible and that perhaps, someday mankind will actually live in utopia. Well, that’s all fine, but at what point did we start believing this would be easy? When will the clichés end? If all we needed to save the world was love, wouldn’t it have been saved by now?!?Let us assume, just for the sake of argument, that life is black and white, and love, joy and other happy things can save the world. Surely if that was the case, some bright spark would have had found a way to institutionalize love by now. Wouldn’t some intellectual have proposed establishing a Ministry of Care & Affection which could ensure that love was equitably distributed across the general populace? And why hasn’t anyone made love and caring mandatory behaviour in schools yet? Or found a way to tax hate?So, OK, maybe life is a little bit grey. And maybe, we don’t have all the answers. Isn’t it time that we admitted this to ourselves and stopped pretending? Ever wonder what that kind of honesty would be like? Here is my suggested viewing for all future saviours of the world - Hugh Laurie, from “A Bit of Fry and Laurie” singing “All We Gotta Do Is…”

A Satirical Approach to Disprove Neoliberalism

There have been many discussions in our class lately about neoliberalism and the Washington Consensus that have changed my outlook on the economic history of the world quite drastically. The Washington Consensus was basically the commonly held belief among the leaders of developed countries in the late 1970s and 1980s in neoliberalism and the superiority of market forces. For the uninitiated, let me just briefly explain. Basically, in a neoliberalist world, there are three key dogmas:

1. Markets, market forces & privatization - Good
2. Governments - Rubbish
3. Government regulation & intervention - The spawn of Satan

For years, neoliberals have pushed for further deregulation of markets and privatization of strategically important national industries. Their argument is that only market forces work and are far more efficient than government forces, but just how efficient is a system, when it works great for a little while showing tremendous results and then blows up gloriously in your face, once every few years? Atleast that is what happened in the developed countries; in the developing world, it was just one catastrophe after another with economies collapsing like dominos.

We, now know, that neoliberalism can't work in the real world - thank you Wall Street for that valuable lesson. But if that wasn't proof enough for the neoliberals that market forces alone are not the solution to every situation, here is yet another argument for them, arranged, rather delightfully, in the comedic stylings of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry from their show, A Bit of Fry and Laurie. This wonderfully framed political satire was made as part of the pilot episode of the show, way back in 1987. It really makes one wonder what the world would be like if it had paid more attention to satirical BBC comedy shows... Perhaps, its time I started watching more comedy shows, all in the name of economics, of course...

What Economists can learn from Impressionists

So this may seem like a crazy idea – after all, what do economists have to do with an art movement originating in France in the 19th century? Not a lot and perhaps, that is the problem. Indeed, most economists might be indignant with this suggestion. What, pray tell, can scientists such as themselves learn from an art movement?

For the uninitiated, Impressionism was a 19th century art movement that originated in France. It was a reaction against the formalism that characterised the academic art of that time. Although, the Impressionists were still Realists, which was the accepted art movement of the time, their innovative methods led them to develop a different meaning of reality than the one the Realists sought.

The Impressionists were more interested in the effects of light and they sought to understand its effects on form. They understood colours and how they reflect from object to object and how the very nature of colour changes with time. Their quest to capture light led them to work ‘en plein air’, outdoors and in the very heart of the scene they sought to capture.

As the movement evolved, the artists realized that their depictions changed by the minute as the light in which they viewed them changed. Impressionism became an attempt to create a spontaneous, undetailed depiction of the world through careful representation of the effects of natural and reflected light on objects. And so their concern for representing the individual object faded, while concern for representing that fleeting instant, the subjective impression grew.

This realization - that objectivity is not achievable in art, was groundbreaking. It provided a natural disclaimer for all Impressionist art – this was not an objective isolated reality being depicted, it was the human impression of that reality and therefore could be imperfect. Reality became what the individual saw; it was subjective and dynamic.

Economists tend to think of themselves as above society or as part of some über-society filled Homo Economicus – the rational man. In this perfect reality, economic models function perfectly and all the assumptions on which they are based are true. But what if we don’t actually live in such a world? What if the Impressionists are right? What if reality actually is subjective?

Isn’t it time economists had the same realization about their work – that no matter how hard they try, they can never depict a completely objective reality? If you think about it, every single economic theory is deeply embedded in the very culture of the economist. Each measure, each hypothesis is trying to see reality from different coloured lenses and yet economists choose to pretend these colours don’t exist.

Colour and light should matter just as much for Paul Krugman as they mattered for Berthe Morisot. Of course, for economists, colour and light, are metaphors for the context of situation they are trying to assess. Everything is contextual and all economic theories should come with a disclaimer that clearly identifies the author’s perspective. I just think economics would be a more enlightening subject if it was less caught up in trying to validate itself as a science and more observant and aware of the ever-changing social paradigm in which it exists.

Merely recognizing the colour and light that falls through their lenses is not enough, however. Economists need to understand how the changing light affects the reality they are trying to understand. Just as in art, the economic landscape of a region looks very different in the darkness and in the light and economists need a more nuanced understanding.

Impressionism was an attempt to capture a snapshot of the dynamic surroundings we live in a way that reflected this dynamism instead of trying to freeze the viewer in that instant. Monet painted the bridge in his garden at Giverny over and over again during different times of day and in different seasons in order to really understand the different realities possible.

Perhaps it’s time economists worked ‘en plein air’ and immersed themselves in long periods of study in the very heart of the object of their study, in order to see it from different angles and understand how it changes. Economic history, therefore, becomes far more important than it is given credit for. Understanding the causal links between a change in our impression of the reality and an event in our environment will be crucial to creating a good depiction.

Camille Pissaro, one of the pioneers of the Impressionist technique and the most consistent contributor to the movement, once said to his young students, "We are all the subjects of impressions, and some of use seek to convey the impressions to others. In the art of communicating impressions lies the power of generalizing without losing that logical connection of parts to the whole which satisfies the mind." If only, some economists had attended that class.

An Ode to a Little Black Book

Imagine your memory is an art gallery or a history museum - filled with exhibitions with different themes. "That's right, folks. Parisian Adventures through the right and if you turn left you will go straight into the Temples of Cambodia section."

Like every museum, even your memory needs a guide - leading you through the exhibition - pointing out interesting facts about each artefact and narrating funny anecdotes that one would never understand with just a picture. "And this picture was taken when the camera fell from her hands because a busker on the Champs Elysee frightened her."

So in this museum in my mind, who is the guide? I like to think my little black book, my little diary is my guide. It contains a blow-by-blow account of the trip and I can write exactly what I saw and did, who I met and talked to and of course, what I was thinking at that minute. After all, even though a picture is worth a thousand words, sometimes, even that isn't enough, is it?

But I have often asked myself - why bother? Why bother building the museum? Why bother trying to remember every minute? This doubt reaches its peak when instead of sleeping on the beach in the glorious sunshine, I am desperately trying to note down what happened yesterday. Is it worth ruining the now to remember the past? Well, obviously the past must have been fantastic enough for me to want to document it.

I guess its just me desperately trying to hold on to my memories, hold on to the good times a bit longer. To continue the museum train of thought, this is essentially the same rationale for the success of gift shops and souveneir shops. People like to have something that reminds them of what they learnt or saw. I am like that one child clutching tightly at the cheap souveneir toy even though I know I would probably have lost it or forgotten it by the evening. That may have sounded far more depressing than was intended. Forgetting would be depressing but I don't want to forget - hence, the diary, the little black book. Therefore, keeping a diary is a sign of hope, something that will always help you remember.

As you might have guessed by now, if you are still with me, this is an ode to my diary. The one that got lost. My little companion traveled with me all over the world and contains an entire wing of the museum in my mind. And I lost him. If I were still in the place where I lost him, I would put up LOST notices all over that would probably read something like this:

LBB and I in happier times - at 1:56 a.m. at the LCC Terminal of Kuala Lumpur Airport last year

MISSING: LITTLE BLACK BOOK

Value: Priceless

Description: Faithful; Nondescript; Leather-bound; Filled with yellowing pages with beetle-tracks like handwriting on it; Answers to the name of LBB(if it could hear).

Please return immediately to Ridhima. Contact at xxxxx

Always Inspirational

The Ladder of St. Augustine

Saint Augustine! well hast thou said,
That of our vices we can frame
A ladder, if we will but tread
Beneath our feet each deed of shame!

All common things, each day's events,
That with the hour begin and end,
Our pleasures and our discontents,
Are rounds by which we may ascend.

The low desire, the base design,
That makes another's virtues less;
The revel of the ruddy wine,
And all occasions of excess;

The longing for ignoble things;
The strife for triumph more than truth;
The hardening of the heart, that brings
Irreverence for the dreams of youth;

All thoughts of ill; all evil deeds,
That have their root in thoughts of ill;
Whatever hinders or impedes
The action of the nobler will;--

All these must first be trampled down
Beneath our feet, if we would gain
In the bright fields of fair renown
The right of eminent domain.

We have not wings, we cannot soar;
But we have feet to scale and climb
By slow degrees, by more and more,
The cloudy summits of our time.

The mighty pyramids of stone
That wedge-like cleave the desert airs,
When nearer seen, and better known,
Are but gigantic flights of stairs.

The distant mountains, that uprear
Their solid bastions to the skies,
Are crossed by pathways, that appear
As we to higher levels rise.

The heights by great men reached and kept
Were not attained by sudden flight,
But they, while their companions slept,
Were toiling upward in the night.

Standing on what too long we bore
With shoulders bent and downcast eyes,
We may discern--unseen before--
A path to higher destinies.

Nor deem the irrevocable Past,
As wholly wasted, wholly vain,
If, rising on its wrecks, at last
To something nobler we attain.

- Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

A Chance to Learn

When the hand of failure shatters your hopes
And reality lays siege to your dreaming spires,
Take an honest look at yourself, reassess and see
The dissonance between your actions and desires.

Dreaming the dream is not enough;
It is merely the map that guides your way.
The voyage will be long and hard to endure
Persistence and Diligence must be your mainstay

Accept your mistake - as a chance to learn.
Have faith that you will get there in the end.
Work hard and long and strive and toil
And make your Destiny your friend.

Pick up your feet and pull up your socks

“If you want to leave your footprints
On the sands of time
Do not drag your feet”
- A.P.J. Abdul Kalam

“The expectations of life depend upon diligence; the mechanic that would perfect his work must first sharpen his tools.”
- Confucius

“Do not wait; the time will never be "just right'. Start where you stand, and work with whatever tools you may have at your command, and better tools will be found as you go along.”
- Napoleon Hill

“Laziness may appear attractive but work gives satisfaction.”
- Ann Frank

Time Management & Habits

“Time stays long enough for anyone who will use”
- Leonardo Da Vinci

“We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.”
- Aristotle

“Motivation is what gets you started. Habit is what keeps you going.”
- Jim Ryan