Wednesday, February 02, 2005

Fighting in developing world

It is an interview of Jeffrey Sachs in Davos, Switzerland, from the International Herald Tribune last week. Sachs was a famous economist in the 1990s when he worked as the economics advisor to Bolivia, Poland and Russia. Though his suggestion of shock therapy in macroeconomics was controversial. Later he left Harvard (he became full professor at 29) after Lawrence Summers was appointed as the president. In the recent years, he changed his attention to fighting with global poverty by leading United Nations' Millennium Development Goals.

In the interview, Sachs criticized the industrialized countries like the States, Japan, and Germany etc. for putting too little in helping the poor. In fact, as I know, some nations often broke their aid pledge in the past too. Hope the haves know that they are more responsible to the world; their assistance is crucial. So the disasters, such as Indian Ocean tsunami, could not bring such huge destruction in future.

Other interviews with Sachs last year (in Chinese): Economic Observer, Economy Magazine