An interesting article from the Aid Thoughts blog looking at the importance of Dambisa Moyo's book, Dead Aid versus the importance of "Dead Capital" which examines the importance of privately held real estate (or lack of there of) in Africa.  Here is an excerpt: "De Soto’s team measured at least $9.3 trillion dollars in dead capital in the third world, certainly an underestimate given that he counted only real estate. The potential value of this dead capital, when unlocked by a national, legitimate formal property system, would be multiplied several times over.  By contrast Moyo (and other aid critics) focus centrally on the failure of aid to achieve a result. By various reckonings this is anything between $300 billion and $2 trillion of dead aid – and after a decade of aid-growth regressions it’s clear we have little idea what, if any, multiplicative effect it has."

A short article that is definitely worth reading, here is the whole article - Aid Thoughts; Why is Dead Aid is more important than Dead Capital?

There is a new documentary coming soon, about two Americans who travel to Africa and live on a dollar a day.  It is hard to tell from the videos on their website (Give A Damn?) if this will be another documentary that reinforces typical stereotypes of the "white savior trying to help poor, starving Africans" or if they will say something insightful and important.  Either way, it sounds like an amazing journey.

New Book (same topic) sparks new controversy. You can check out the book here:

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