Video Will Make Him a Rock Star

Doug and I both present our students with the portfolio of ideas about economic development represented by economists Jeffrey Sachs, Paul Collier, and William Easterly. Easterly is the author of two books, including The White Man's Burden (an intentionally sarcastic title), about the massive failure of traditional Western aid program to benefit the typical poor person in Africa. Indeed, Easterly is squarely in the camp that Western aid has probably been counter-productive.

Doug recently showed me this You Tube video, the coming attraction for a documentary on Easterly and The White Man's Burden. Interestingly, the movie is produced by Damascus Films, whose trademark is "From Saul to Paul in 24 frames per second." Given that so much Christian discussion on helping Africa starts and stops with "giving aid", this has the potential to be transformative.