Grace Bahng

According to the Nations Brands Index (NBI) survey, the US is back on top as the most popular or admired nation in the globe. Jumping an unprecedented 6 places to go from seventh place last year to first place this year, this continues the message from many in the world to the US that they seem to like POTUS #44 much better than POTUS #43.  The jump is even more remarkable considering the major role that the US played in the global financial crisis earlier this  year.  POTUS #44 may be criticized for not doing substantially much but he seems to be improving the global image of the US abroad (I suppose many are overlooking his refusal to meet with the Dalai Lama who was visiting Washington on account of POTUS #44’s visit to China next month).

The NBI survey is an annual survey that measures the image of 50 countries with regards to: “Exports, Governance, Culture, People, Tourism and Immigration/Investment”.  According to the website, approximated 20,000 adults from 20 countries are interviewed online.

See more rankings here.

The big news today is two Americans win the Nobel in Economics today. Both have been important contributors to public administration research. Even more notable is that Ostrom is the first woman to receive the honors and has a background in poli sci out of UCLA. She currently works out of Indiana University’s Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis and focuses on common pool resource management.

NY Times article on Nobel

With all this chatter about Nobel prizes, debate continues around the which strategy to take in Afghanistan. You have Biden (Newsweek cover) on one side arguing the focus needs to be in Pakistan and you have McChrystal and his report arguing we need more troops to protect the Afghan people who have been abandoned more than once by the US. Counterinsurgency vs. counterterrorism…meanwhile, we’re 8 yrs into Afghanistan…

Reports from friends are coming in from Manila (population: 15 million) of the worst flooding 40 years. Typhoon Ketsana (or Ondoy, as it is locally known) poured an entire month’s of rainfall on Manila in just 24 hours. Aid has been slow to spread as the President Arroyo was slow to act at first. Estimates place more than 345,000 as having been evacuated from their homes and experts are using this as an example of climate change.

A friend in Manila sent me a list of the following NGOs doing work on the ground to consider donating to:

• PhilippineAid.com
• Ayala Foundation
• World Food Programme
• Ateneo Alumni Northeast, Inc

Here’s a review of Dead Aid by Paul Collier (author of The Bottom Billion)

He also writes, “The function of aid is not to make us feel better about ourselves; it is to promote development…”. I think that’s important for a lot of groups to remember. I’ve heard and seen many groups go to foreign lands just to appease some sort of pain in their hearts. While I can appreciate that there is pain in their hearts (since apathy can be difficult to avoid), we want groups that will take a long-term perspective rather than a short-term one (often based on emotions or feelings of compassion).

Anyways, his article is worth a read. Her book is getting a lot of press but I’ve also seen a great deal of criticism of it (although mostly from developers).

Lots of news out of North Korea:

1) North Korea announced plans to launch a satellite which is more likely a missile. Japan has said that it will fire at anything that flies over its air space (Read article here)

2) North Korea also kicked out 5 US NGOs that were distributing food aid to the North Korean people last week (Mercy Corps, World Vision, Global Resource Services, Samaritan’s Purse and Christian Friends of Korea) (Read article here.)

3) And 2 American journalists (Euna Lee and Laura Ling) working for Al Gore’s Current TV were detained in North Korea. There is still unclarity about whether they were detained in China or N. Korea. If they were detained in China it would be seen as North Korea kidnapping civilians. If they were detained in North Korea they could be charged with espionage facing 5 to 20 years in North Korean prison. (Read article here.)

Been chugging along on my dissertation so haven’t had much of a chance to post but read this this morning and thought it was pretty cool. News out of MIT (go beavers!): research that would recharge batteries in seconds. Plus, one of the researchers is Korean (fighting!).

“Kang and Ceder are most excited about the innovation their discovery will bring to the electric car. ‘The ability to charge and discharge batteries in a matter of seconds rather than hours may open up new technological applications and induce lifestyle changes,’ the team writes in their Nature paper.”

Update on m-banking:
Policymakers are taking steps to move the movement along.