Lawrence Hecht's Event Blog

A Heebster Purim

Fun, fun, fun, Judaism is cool! What other religion tells you to get drunk, so drunk you can’t tell the difference between Haman (bad guy) and Mordechai (good guy)? In honor of Purim Nancella, Scott, and I went to American Schmidol at the Bowery Ballroom. This spoof of American Idol was organized by Heeb magazine and the record label JDub and featured karaoke contestants being judged from actors from popular Comedy Central shows.

]]> Nancella was dressed up as Queen Esther. We both got drunk. I flirted with pretty girls, which made me feel confident. Once the show got started I got into it. I felt alive as I screamed encouragement and criticism from the balcony. I got more drinks and went down to the very front of the stage. Eventually, I called my sister and confirmed our plans to meet her at another Purim party. Nancella and I said goodbye to Scott and then…Nancella asked me to jump on the stage and give one of the judges a note saying, “you’re cute, let’s hang out, here’s my info”. So, of course I jumped onto the stage in front of several hundred people, handed David Wain the note and supposedly one of the other judges mouthed “sexy” with a nod to the note’s author. Wow, I don’t know if that experience was more exhilarating for me or for Nancella.

We continued onward to the Upper West Side where we met my sister Lanna, who looked especially pretty that night.

The night ended with Lanna performing a great stunt, but she’s kinda private and won’t let me talk about her exploits that night at a bar called Yogi’s.

Conversation with Jonathan Lethem

I shouldn’t have been so excited to hear Jonathan Lethem speak just because he was recently awarded the MacArthur Fellowship, which is the “genius award” my father used to talk to me about. I had never read any of his books, which include Fortress of Solitude and Motherless Brooklyn, but luckily he didn’t refer to them too much during the conversation.

]]> The evening was hosted by the CUE Art Foundation in its Chelsea gallery. The conversation was moderated by William (Bill) Corbett, an Irish-American Bostonian who happened to be wearing a green sports coat. The conversation started off with a discussion of Lethem’s roots growing up in Brooklyn. Then, they talked about his introduction to books through jobs working in used bookstores. Probably the most notable thing I took away from the evening was that Lethem is a voracious reader. It seems to me that he must read a 2-3 books a week at a minimum. Is this what it takes to be an accomplished writer?

Corbett soon steered the chat towards movies. Supposedly, Lethem is also an accomplished film critic. They talked about The Searchers, Red River, and Rio Bravo, and then proceeded to talk about how much better book version of The Talented Mr. Ripley was compared to thee movie. Lethem gave a brilliant answer when asked about how he feels about books being adapted to the big screen. He said that he has different expectations for books compared to movies, and that he doesn’t tend to like movies when they try too hard to be “true” to the book.

Pillow Fight

Do you have childhood memories of a pillow fight? Do you like to engage in public activities others steer away from? If so, then you should have been at the pillow fight in Union Square this Saturday.

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]]> Newmindspace organized this event as interactive public art. A Wikidepdia article says this activity fits into the larger social phenomenon of flash mobbing. I heard about this absurd event through the listserv Nonsense NYC. Other bizarre events I participated in include Chengwin's Homecoming and a reenactment of a Roman Vomitorium.

Why do I participate in these types of things? I usually don’t gravitate towards sporting events or organized public activities. I like non-conformity, but this was still a community activity even if most of the participants were weirdos. I took part in the pillow fight not because I had some deeply loved childhood memory, but rather so I could say I did another “only in New York City” thing. The prevalence of people who brought cameras indicated to me that others also attended because of the novelty of it all. That being said, most of us had an amazing time releasing our tension by swinging pillows at each other.

Photo is from brooklynvegan

The participants were of all ages, but I bet over 50% were ages 21-28. There were a surprisingly large number of females. At first I felt a bit bad about hitting a girl, but I got over that pretty quickly. I got hit in the head so many times. I smiled a lot even as I repeatedly got hit over the head. After 30 minutes of fun, I was soaked with sweat on the cold winter day. My friends had stood to the side and didn’t participate. I was covered with feathers that I just couldn’t get off my coat, hat, or scarf. At the end I was glad to leave.

Novel Jews Reading Series at KGB Bar

Once a month a bunch of intellectual Jews gather in the Lower East Side. Surrounded by Soviet propaganda, the evening could have taken place 50 or 100 years ago, but this is New York City circa 2006. Novel Jews is a series of readings by Jewish authors that is organized by Alyssa Abrahamson of the 14th Street Y and Alana Newhouse of the Forward. KGB Bar provides a kitschy venue with Communist icons adorning the red walls.

]]> When I arrived, I ordered a KGB energy drink that was actually re-labeled Red Bull. Ilana Stanger-Ross read a slightly erotic excerpt from her book Sima's Undergarments for Women. Narrated from the perspective of an older Jewish saleswoman, she talked about different sizes of breasts and nipples. I heard how women bond by making fun of men for not noticing underwear. Finding a bra that fits is important according to a recent New York Times article I read. I pay attention to lingerie, but it's not something I'm going to buy for a woman without her being there with me. It was a week before Valentine's Day and I was seated next to many women in the tightly packed red-themed room. I wonder if my cheeks reflected an image of bashfulness when the Stanger-Ross character admitted to an unwanted glance at a customer's breasts. I was self-conscious about my own glances and thoughts.

The other author that night was Lara Vapnyar, who read from a yet to be published novel, Memoirs of a Muse. She spoke from a Russian immigrant's perspective. Unfortunately, I got bored trying to listen to the soft-spoken women with a thick accent.

JAP: Jewish American Powerhouse

Yeah, it usually means Jewish American Princess, but that term didn't define the three black clad women on a Makor panel about “Debunking the Myth of the JAP”. According to Rhonda Lieberman, Isabel Rose, and Alana Newhouse, a JAP is stereotypically spoiled, loves shopping, shallow, high-maintenance, pushy, has disposable income, expressive, opinionated, whiney, narcissistic, and much more. Of course Urban Dictionary has its own list of definitions. When I told someone at work about this lecture, he referred to Gilda Radner's “Jewess Jeans” Saturday Night Live skit.

]]> Alana Newhouse is the arts and culture editor at the Forward. In a March 2005 Boston Globe article she wrote, “First identified in postwar America, the JAP was a girl lavished with the best in life-from the top of her professionally straightened mane of hair, to the nose job she got for her 16th birthday, to a wardrobe of designer clothes and the most expensive shoes money could buy.” Ms. Newhouse grew up in an Orthodox family and went to Barnard.

Isabel Rose is the author of The JAP Chronicles. She said she had problems getting booked on her book tour because of the word's stigma. Many people consider it to be Anti-Semitic and an ethnic slur like “nigger”. She's now making the novel into a musical that will include the ditty, “Don't Worry, Be JAP-py”. Ms. Rose grew up on the Upper East Side and went to Yale.

As a self-described Jewologist, Rhonda Lieberman said a JAP was like pornography, you know it when you see it. She associates the archetypal JAP with the evils of consumer culture. Ms.Lieberman is an artist who Newhouse said produced an iconoclastic group of pieces that included a “geltbelt”. She teaches at Yale and has taught at the Art Institute of Chicago.

All three women are Jewish American Powerhouses. Confident and success professionals, these women don't fit many of the stereotypes mentioned above. During Q&A, a guy in his mid-50's rambled on about his anxieties about living up to the expectations of strong Jewish women. I understood where he was coming from.

Listening to Alana Newhouse, I got the impression that emasculated Jewish men started to use the word JAP pejoratively approximately the same time feminism was empowering women in the 70s and 80s. In other words, coming from a Jewish guy, the term reflected hostility because his social/professional status was being threatened.

That leads me to JDate. During Q&A, I noted that in many profiles I read, a woman tries to distance herself from other “JAPs” by saying she's not “your typical Jewish girl”. A young lady in the audience noted with disgust that she's read guys' profile in which they think using the words “Gucci” and “Prada” will get them a Jewish girl. The panelists noted with pride that non-Jewish guys are going on JDate in looking for a Jewish girl. They didn't say anything about gentile women on the site or Jewish guys going for shiksas because they are supposedly less demanding and better in bed. I personally doubt the latter comment.

I don't think the myth of the JAP was totally de-bunked. Many of the stereotypes of a JAP describe Jewish women in general. There are so many working Jewish women in my generation that it is hard to think they're truly spoiled. I don't think there is anything JAP-py about appreciating nice things or expecting to be treated like a lady. The panel ended with a well-dressed woman in her late 60s or early 70s getting up and giving an impassioned defense of being a JAP if that means embracing your good-fortune and loving family.

Subway Security

Starting off the fall lecture season, tonight's public forum was definitely an example of “deliberative democracy”, as the host Brian Lehrer put it. At least four people were removed from the audience for exercising their First Amendment right to scream, mostly about the trampling of the Fourth Amendment right against unreasonable searches.

The forum's topic was subway security and the underlying theme was the level of civil liberties we are willing to forgo in order to be safe. The forum had two panels, one on random searches, and another on surveillance cameras. The advent of random searches on the subway looking for terrorist bombs was the impetus for the discussion, but hasn't the subway always been dangerous?

]]> Almost everyone on the first panel agreed with David Harris, author of Good Cops: The Case for Preventive Policing and Profiles in Injustice: Why Racial Profiling Cannot Work , that the best way to catch a terrorist was to look for suspicious behavior rather than ethnicity. Heather MacDonald of the Manhattan Institute played her role as the panel's conservative to the hilt. She defended racial profiling by saying that the terrorist threat was coming from Islamic terrorists so the police should target South Asian and Arab men. She provocatively asked if it would make sense to search black men if the police were looking for a Klu Klux Klan member. After listening to the other panel members, immigration lawyer Sohail Mohammed and law professor Stephen J Ellmann, I concluded that random searches are so ineffective that they are not worth relinquishing any of our civil liberties.

While random searches might not work, the increased police presence in the subways that comes with the searches probably will decrease crime and terrorism. As everyone panics about terrorism, a side benefit is that anti-terrorism efforts can also reduce random crime. This is what I think might happen as new surveillance cameras are added to subways.

I am reflexively against surveillance cameras but am close to being convinced that they can are a good thing. The NYC Police Department is installing over a thousand cameras into the subways. Almost everyone agrees that cameras don't prevent crimes or terrorism, so why use them? Because they help solve crimes after the fact. For example, cameras in the London Underground helped capture the terrorists in this summer's subway and bus bombings. As many convenience store owners can attest, cameras won't deter most criminals. That said, I have noticed the drop in the number of drug dealers in Washington Square Park since Giuliani installed cameras. Interestingly, no one in the audience represented a high crime area where residents have been asking for subway cameras to protect them from criminals long before terrorists became a concern.

There are many reasons why surveillance cameras are bad. Unfortunately, the second panel's main opponent of cameras, Donna Lieberman of the New York Civil Liberties Union, came across as a hysterical liberal. She and some audience members overstated the technological ability to be able to monitor, record, and save the data recorded by surveillance cameras. Heck, most tapes are re-recorded over after 24 hours or a week, and most video footage is never viewed by an actual person. Remember, the federal government is already able to monitor our phone conversations and emails, but there are not enough law enforcement officials to actual review the massive amount of data. The Center for Democracy and Technology has an excellent resource for those of you who want to learn about what the federal government is doing to monitor our every electronic move.

The panel was co-sponsored by The Smith Family Foundation and will be broadcast on WNYC.

Vacation -- Pt. 4 -- Fahmy Family, Wedding, Naxos

The Fahmy family is so much fun! Their hospitality is top notch! Tarek Fahmy is one of my best friends. He invited me to his brother Ziad’s wedding to Kaila. Tarek’s father and mother, Adel and Ferial, reveled in the wedding week’s festivities.

]]> Tarek’s aunt and uncle, Kamal and Zahia, were the de facto wedding planners because they were the proprietors of Kamari Village, which is a series of concrete villas on top of a hill. I spent a lot of time in Kamal and Zahia’s kitchen, living room and porch.

Zahia is Adel’s sister. Adel’s two other brothers are Taher and Salama. Huguette is married to Taher and lives in Montreal, as does their daughter Rania. Taher doesn’t speak English and looks like Adel. Huguette is cute, but not as much as her daughter. I think I had a short crush on Rania. Salama and Kathy are Kareem’s parents. Kareem is the cousin from Tarek’s stories. Kareem was just like Tarek had described. Kareem bartends and manages restaurants in Ottawa, Canada.

Kathy is Irish and lives in Cairo, where Salama does “development work” and helps small and medium sized businesses. He created a one-stop shop to help businesses deal with bureaucracy and red tape.

The reason for my entire trip was the wedding between Ziad and Kaila. I had gone to the same high school and college with Ziad. I became friends with Ziad while visiting Tarek’s house. Ziad and I could talk about books and argue about politics for hours on end. Ziad’s bride is a M.L.S. (Masters of Library Sciences). She grew up in Arizona and her family lives in Iowa and Minnesota. I am not sure where this posting's photos came from, but here is a photo of Kaila and Ziad:

I met Kaila my first night on Naxos at a big dinner. She is cool. Her friend Jodi works for the State Department, but may become a university professor. Ziad is on a Fulbright Scholarship writing his dissertation and Kaila works at the American University in Cairo. In Cairo, Kaila and Ziad are friends with Eduardo and Angela. Angela actually spent several years teaching in Bologna.

Although I had already eaten lunch in the town with Kareem and Tarek, I ate a lot at dinner. I got drunk on cheap table wine. I danced with the belly dancer and talked to everyone. I decided to walk up the hill to the complex when I broke a glass. Here is a picture of Kamal with the belly dancer:

The next day, after hanging out at Kamal and Zahia’s, Tarek and I drove around the island. It was classic Tarek and Larry fun. We drove north through many mountains. The landscape was beautiful. It was like parts of Northern California, but better. After driving for over 45 minutes, Tarek wanted to head back the way we came. I said NO. I didn’t want to see the same things on the way back. I convinced Tarek to go around the island’s coast. I figured we are on an island, how hard could be to get lost? Well, we did get lost for a bit. I said “let’s go this way”, and the next thing we knew, we ended up on a dirt/concreted road that dead-ended at the sea. Overall, it took 80 minutes to get back, but it seemed like forever because of all the turns and hills.

That night we went to the rehearsal dinner at an Italian restaurant in the small city of Naxos. The food was good, especially the mushrooms, but I didn’t have rip-roaring good time. I was tired and didn’t talk a lot. I talked to Kaila’s father. He is an electrical engineer, like my father.

I never got to rent a motor bike and didn’t go in the water (the bay and a jacuzzi) after my first day on Naxos.

The wedding ceremony was held on a sea cliff. It was picturesque. Violinists played some of my favorite songs. Eduardo played a song on his guitar with vocal accompaniment by his wife Angela. Uncle Kamal was the “minister”. There were about 45 guests and members of the wedding party. We were given white flowers, but I didn’t know their names. The guests made themselves into aisles that closed behind the wedding procession. The photos taken afterwards took 2-3 times as long as the ceremony itself. Here is one of them:

The bride was beautiful. She wore a simple white dress. The three bridesmaids each wore a light blue dress, each its different hue.

After the wedding, we went for drinks at Kaila’s mother’s place. We all drank and laughed. I drank Dewars whiskey.

Next, we went to another restaurant for the reception. It was the consensus that this place was the best restaurant so far. Kareem asked be to get on my chair and dances, so I did. I also danced with Tarek’s mother and Kaila’s relatives. I boogied down with Jodi to Aretha Franklin’s “R.E.S.P.E.C.T”.

I missed Adel’s feast on Sunday afternoon. Before I left they had put a full sheep on a rod and were going to roast it for 4-6 hours.

It was Greek Orthodox Easter and of course the airplane from Naxos to Athens was late. I was a bit stressed. I was the last passenger to arrive for my flight to Schipol (Amsterdam). I have started reading Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides. This Pulitzer Prize winning novel is about a Greek immigrant family in Detroit. It is narrated by a hermaphrodite.

Overall, I give my vacation a rating of “excellent”. Tarek and I might visit Kareem in Ottawa in the near future.

Vacation -- Pt. 3 -- Athens

I know the origin of the saying, “it’s all Greek to me.” Or is the saying, “it looks “it sounds like Greek? The Greek alphabet is indecipherable at first glance. I took a 3-hour bus ride from the port of Patras to Athens. We drove in to Athens through the port of Piraeus. We passed lots of strip clubs. The Lonely Planet book from 1999/2000 wasn’t wrong about this part of town.

]]> My worst fears were realized when the bus driver (who, btw, didn’t like me and didn’t speak English) left us off without directions about where to go. It was approximately 11:30 pm at this time.

Luckily, there was a subway station nearby and a map indicated that I was near the city centre. I easily found the Acropolis. I walked up a dark path and was a little spooked. I relaxed on my back on a stone bench and was incredibly comfortable. I should have stayed there longer. It turns out it was an upscale, gay neighborhood. I walked up closer to the Parthenon and got as close as I could.

I walked around a bend and found several paths going down through various types of trees, brush and rocks, all the way to the Plaka neighborhood. It was a very large hill. I had an amazing view of the city. It reminded me of the view from a cemetery near my old house in Glover Park, Washington D.C. I could hear local kids riding around on motor bikes. I spent some time looking for a spot to take a nap, but after a bit I got cold. I descended down the paths then a maze of narrow roads.

I found a major business area and church. I slept on a bench and got cold again. I spent the rest of the night freezing, laying down for a few minutes, freezing, cursing the fact that I didn’t get a hotel room, thinking I should have known better. I ended up in a huge plaza below the building that houses the national parliament.

I got to the airport early and had had time to buy a wedding present and a two more books. Sitting down, I struck up a conversation with a bunch of Americans. It turns out they were Keila’s aunts and cousins.

Vacation -- Pt. 2 -- Ferry

As expected, I took a ferry from Venice to Greece, but that is about the only part of my ferry ride that went as planned.

]]> I got to Venice well enough. I got to Venice and it was pouring. I decided that I had to purchase the ferry tickets because I was becoming anxious. I walked around and asked and walked and finally found Minoan Lines. I decided to just buy a ticket and get on board because I was tired and the boat was leaving soon.

On the way to sea, we passed by Venice and I was filled with regret. It was so beautiful. Why hadn’t I stayed? I thought I had made a horrible decision. Would I ever get back to Venice? Or would I just see it in movies. Venice looked so much more majestic than Bologna.

I see why the travel guides recommend against taking the ferry. Everything was overpriced on the boat. I slept on a lounge chair for a few hours. Then I walked around. Then I slept on the floor. I kept waking up, expecting to get to our destination around midnight. It was so cold outside that I couldn’t stay out for more than 10 minutes. It was pitch black. Peering from the arm rails, all I could see was the white crests rising from the boat. Then I woke up and saw that morning had arrived.

My luck wasn’t that bad after all. It turns out that if I had gotten on the ferry as planned – after staying a night in Venice – then I would have missed my plane from Athens to Naxos. Since I had been under the impression that I would get to Athens a day early, I had been planning on getting an early ferry to Naxos or site seeing in Athens. Now, I though maybe I would get a hotel room and go shopping for a wedding present.

All this being said, my vacation planning sucked! I should have taken a plane. Or, should have not gone to Bologna or Italy? Who knows. I am constantly second-guessing myself, but luckily it hasn’t been debilitating. I just didn’t expect to be on a boat for 28+ hours.

Here’s a profile of the passengers on the ferry: Lots of Greeks. They smoke a lot. I think a majority of the Greeks were truck drivers. There were a lot of old folks, including in that group some German, Scandinavian, and British. There were some backpackers.

I finished reading Dress Your Family in Corduroy and Denim by David Sedaris. I liked it but couldn’t help wondering if his other books were better. Halfway through reading Citizen Girl by Emma McLaughlin and Nicola Kraus, I was worried I wouldn’t finish it. Happily, it finally engrossed me.

Vacation -- Pt. 1 -- Italy

Since I hadn't gone to Europe in years, this counts as an "event".

I left work early and caught a flight out of JFK. The plane ride was painful. I had a middle seat and the lady sitting to my left was very fat.

]]> After arriving in Milan, I took a bus to the train station. From the window, Milan seemed to be a cross between Barcelona and Amsterdam. After arriving at the train station, I remembered that most Italians don’t speak English. In fact, I didn’t speak any English until I had been Italy for over 24 hours.

Looking for food on Saturday night, I was confounded. I didn’t want fast food or pizza because of the bread factor and Passover. I had already abandoned my plans to go to a seder at a Chabad House. Restaurants are intimidating because of the language barrier and all my eating restrictions. Then, of course, after waking up for a long nap, I walked around for several hours and everything was closed except for bars and alcohol establishments. I went to bed without dinner. I woke up late on Sunday, and of course all the restaurants were closed until 7:00 pm. I ended up again walking all around the city, surviving on coffee and Coca Cola Light.

Taking a coffee break, I compared this experience to when I backpacked in ’97. I noted that again there were large periods of time in which I kept quiet –- when I did talk, it seemed like a whisper.

I saw lots of buildings, but had no desire to visit a museum.

Here are some quick observations: CNN was on in English. There are a lot of South Asians in Bologna. A lot of apartments had rainbow “Pace” flags hanging from their apartment. I think “pace” means “peace”.

I walked through an open air flea market. Just like in the U.S., most of the stuff was junk. I went to a big bookstore. It had Wi-Fi, English books, a bar with music, and a see-through floor that exposed an ancient Roman excavation.

I went to a bar/restaurant nearby my hotel. The bartender spoke English. I ate the free tapas and had some drinks.

My feet hurt from walking around so much. That’s what happens when you get lost on purpose. During my ramblings, I joked to myself that I was speaking Italian because I was using my hands to communicate.

Marketing and Media Party

I attended a rather worthwhile networking event organized by mediabistro.com and BtoB Magazine. The venue, Light, was upscale and they even served some hors d'oeuvres. I am happy to report that mediabistro.com still organizes some of the best free networking events in New York City.

The attendees were a mix of freelance writers, public relations professionals, marketers, and few other professionals. I am particularly glad I had a chance to meet David Berkowitz of icrossing. David has been an Internet professional forever. I got excited when I remembered his references to eMarketer.com, and reveled at his ability to talk about the Industry Standard.

Pop Criticism and Cred in the Era of MP3s, Zines and Blogs

The panel sponsored by National Arts Journalism Program at Columbia University. The panelists were Michael Azerrand of emusic.com, Amy Phillips, Tunde Adebimpe of TV on the Radio, Knox Robinson of The Fader, Anthony DeCurtis of Rolling Stone and Tracks, and Brandon Wall of prefix magazine. The moderator was Sasha Frere-Jones of The New Yorker.

The event started 15-20 minutes late, and that was after they made the general public wait at the door while working journalists and journalism students were given special seating privileges. Hmmm, the panel had 2-3 graduates of the J-School and except for the band member were all professional writers. I should have anticipated that they would believe that blogging helped instead of challenged them professionally.

Since I last posted on the subject of blogging after listening to the Charlie Rose Show, this post will just include bullet points:

]]>  Amy Phillips also writes for Pitchfork. Amy Phillips uses a different writing style when blogging. Her posted IM conversations are supposedly really good. She was the only panelist to really express the immediate satisfaction you get when people read and respond to your own thoughts and words.
 Anthony DeCurtis was older than the other panelists. He represented the “old guard” that values the value and responsibility of the media to be a filter.
 Knox Robinson represented the “new guard” and doesn’t want anyone to be his filter on experiencing the world of ideas. I agree with lots of what Robinson believes, but he spoke too much compared to the rest of the panel.
 Frere-Jones said music critics often talk to each other in some sort of a feedback loop. Feedback loops are often blamed for disconnects between writers and their audience. Bloggers are often criticized for talking among themselves, navel gazing, inside jokes, and links to their friend’s websites.
 Free music and photos drives the online audience just as much as good, informative writing.
 I wonder how many former zines publishers now have a blog?
 Cred is still doled out by the establishment rather than the underground.
 B-dance = 1) Swarming bees; 2) the buzz created by a good pr campaign; 3) the rapid rise of Arcade Fire.

Purim KaBlahBlah Bash

Heeb and Storahtelling teamed up to throw a great Purim party at Club Rare in New York's Meat Market.

Several hundred Jews came to this masquerade party based on the Madonna them of "Esther Don't Preach". Overall, I bet there were at least 20 people dressed up as Esther, five Mordechai costumes, 15 men dressed up as women, and 5 women dressed up as men.

If you are familiar with the party's organizers, you know that the party attracted many "cultural Jews" and an irreverent attitude towards almost everything. Unlike some of my friends, I don't get annoyed by this crowd.

The entertainment included StorahTelling's Rebbetzin Hadassah Gross as the hostess, and the music of Divahn, the Klezmatics, Basya Schechter of Pharaoh's Daughter and DJs Busquelo and Acidophilus.

On a personal note, I bent and twisted the metal of at least five groggers until they were utterly destroyed.

Reforms Right and Left: The Indian Economy Since the Crisis of 1991

Before the presentation, I challenged several of the people sitting around the table that Paul Wolfowitz might not be a bad choice for the World Bank presidency. I got a series of responses that reminded me that the New School had been the last bastion of legitimate Communist Economics. And then the lecture began:

J. Mohan Rao of the University of Massachusetts at Amherst led a workshop at the New School’s Bernard Schwartz Center for Economic Policy Analysis. These are my observations based on what I heard:

]]> Professor Rao evaluated the impact of India’s economic reforms by comparing economic growth in the 80’s and the 90’s. Since 1980, the Indian economy has had 5-year economic cycles steadily grown and average growth of 5.7%. While growth rates were similar in the 80’s and 90’s, the growth in the 80’s was unsustainably fueled by government debt spending and financial controls. However, the 90's might have created social inequities.

A government financial crisis in 1991 led to a series of reforms that dealt with openness of finance, foreign trade, and domestic policies. The reforms aimed at globalization, but may not have directly affected external integration. Many of the reforms that were prescribed are similar to those promoted by the IMF and World Bank, and that have been called the American Consensus. The reforms included:
 Reducing non-tariff barriers
 Broadening export incentives
 Reducing tariffs by 80%
 Reducing barriers to foreign direct investment
 Devaluation of the exchange rate
 De-licensing the private sector
 Taking away set-aside sectors for small companies and the public sector

The effectiveness of the reforms was questioned at the workshop. One failure is the social inequity that the reforms MIGHT have caused. The middle class and college educated have benefited, but not everyone. In fact, the manufacturing sector stagnated and agricultural output fell in the last 15 years. That’s significant because 60% of the population is involved in agriculture. Personally, I wish there was stronger, quantitative evidence that the poor’s standard of living declined because of Neo-liberal economic policies.

Another problem with the reforms was that the 80% drop in tariffs was followed by a dramatic drop in government revenues. Public capital was 5.6% of GDP in 1991, but 2.6% of GDP in 2000. This had dramatic ramifications throughout Indian society. Reduced funding limited the government’s ability to regulate. Maybe India wouldn’t face periodic brown-outs if the government had more money to invest in its national infrastructure.

Interesting fact: In the last 14 years, the India’s foreign trade grew from 14% to 26% based on a Trade/GDP ratio. As a comparison, the U.S.’s ratio is 16% and China’s is about 31%.

Between 1991 and the present, Indian IT and IT-enabled Services (i.e., call-centers) were the only sectors that grew dramatically faster than the rest of the economy. Coupled with a world-class higher education system, this has lead many people to think that India can “leapfrog” stages of development into a “knowledge economy”. However, this might not be the best approach. The IT companies compete globally and don’t necessarily have strong links to the rest of the domestic economy. Would a traditional development strategy that focused on industrial jobs have been a better approach?

The Congress Party recently unseated the BJP government because of most people hadn’t benefited from globalization and the economic reforms. Like Lula’s government in Brazil, the Left’s coalition hasn’t made drastic policy changes, but they may want to consider these two policy recommendations:
 Increase income taxes. This will make the rising middle class pay for needed government services.
 Invest in infrastructure projects. China is far ahead of India in this area.

The Future of the Planet is in Your Hands

Sitting and listening to 2004 Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Professor Wangari Maathai, I couldn’t help but compare her to Abraham Lincoln and Nelson Mandela. Lincoln’s speech at Cooper Union Great Hall in 1860 propelled him to the Republican Party’s presidential nomination. Mandela is the last Nobel Peace Prize winner from Africa and one of my political heroes. While she may not be in their league, her accomplishments and story are inspirational.

Wangari Maathai won the Nobel Peace Prize for leading the GreenBelt Movement for “30 years of struggle to renew Kenya’s natural resources and instill a sense of responsibility and ownership at the grassroots level….Some people have asked what the relationship is between peace and environment, and to them I say that many wars are fought over resources, which are becoming increasingly scarce across the earth. If we did a better job of managing our resources sustainably, conflicts over them would be reduced. So, protecting the global environment is directly related to securing peace.” The GreenBelt Movement has planted 20 million trees and has become an entry point to more holistic approaches to solving problems.

Happening on International Women’s Day, the audience was as diverse as I’ve ever seen: the young and old; pink, orange and coiffed hair; philanthropists, students, activists and many New York intellectuals; and CSPAN’s Book TV, Democracy Now! and WBAI were there to record the event.

]]> Wangari’s publisher introduced JFK’s niece and human rights activist Kerry Kennedy, who spoke too long. Finally Wangari gave a 20 minute speech and then gave incisive answers to a few audience questions. Here are some facts and my comments on what was said:

1) Wangari claims successful countries and communities are built on the interdependent foundations of human rights, democracy, environment and peace. If economics were included in her philosophy, then I would be less skeptical about it.

2) Wangari was taunted, hospitalized and jailed because she opposed the building of an office tower in the middle of a national park. Wangari’s notoriety propelled to a seat in Kenya’s National Assembly. From her comments, you can tell she dislikes ex-President Daniel arap Moi.

3) Debt relief was talked about. Wangari told a joke about Bono. Wangari logically argued that African countries shouldn’t be saddled with obligations created by corrupt “big men”. She briefly mentioned debt consolidation as another compromise option.

4) Hunger and poverty makes people cut trees for firewood. A lack of trees causes soil to erode and flow away from formerly fertile lands. This situation turns to violence and war as people fight for scarce resources.

5) Professor Wangari believes environmental policy should be sustainable and equitable.

6) To potential supporters, she said they can help with money, morally, and with political pressure.

7) In 1960, Wangari came to the U.S. for her B.A. and M.A. thanks to a JFK program to prepare a next generation of leaders for Kenyans who gained independence from Britain. JFK also started the Peace Corps.

8) MOST IMPORTANTLY, I am happy to have seen a strong woman whose accomplishment empitomize the ideals of so many of my peers.