Archive for April, 2008
Blogging for governance: on countries and governments
Tuesday, April 29th, 2008In my last blog entry a couple of days ago, I discussed the importance of watchdog NGOs for IFI accountability and transparency, and also gave a list of some NGOs that blog, and of some that do not. Yet nowadays blogging is also of paramount importance for making governments and their actions more transparent and […]
Blogging for Transparency & Good Governance: on IFIs
Saturday, April 26th, 2008 Blogs are playing an increasingly important role for improved governance. Blogs do not face the restraints of commercial print media. The blogosphere is a planet apart from traditional PR departments of public institutions, enabling citizens to share unfiltered information, expose misdeeds, and freely express views. Blogs help make governments and public institutions more accountable. In real time.
Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) were also involved during the […]
Let us read a book today
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008What happened on this day almost 400 years ago, namely April 23rd, 1616? I just learnt that three great writers died exactly on the same day, namely the greatest icon of spanish literature, Miguel de Cervantes (’Don Quijote’), the peruvian ‘El Inca’ Garcilaso de la Vega (not to be confused with the eponymous Spanish poet and writer, […]
talking about rule of law…
Thursday, April 17th, 2008I accepted an invitation to be a panelist in the ”National Town Hall Meeting” on the Rule of Law, commemorating the 50th Anniversary of Law Day, which will be held on Wednesday, April 30th, from 4 to 6pm. It is sponsored by the American Bar Association (ABA), in cooperation with the just opened Newseum (at 55 Pennsylvania Ave., in […]
Myth #4: From Crisis to Regulating (or Transparenting instead?)
Friday, April 11th, 2008Recall the downfall of Enron, WorldCom, Parmalat and others, in the aftermath of the vast corporate corruption scandals a few years back. Then we witnessed a push for tightening the corporate regulatory framework in the US (through SOX). It is naïve to argue now that it makes sense to return to the pre-Enron and pre-SOX regulatory framework. Or to continue […]
Pulitzer, Music, and Governance
Wednesday, April 9th, 2008When I wrote a couple of days ago about Verdi blogging and promoting freedoms, I thought that it was a decent metaphore which may resonate with some. But then I got a comment skeptical about opera passion in the US. And then I read (and was pleased) about a Pulitzer Prize having just been awarded to Gene Weingarten of the Washington Post for his […]
Verdi would have blogged
Monday, April 7th, 2008 Emerging from a beautifully sung performance of Rigoletto at the Washington Opera, I thought that the composer, Giuseppe Verdi, ever the creative non-conformist, would have been a blogger today. He would be taking advantage of the blogosphere to fight censorship, and to push the artistic (and other) boundaries of the day (and the tomorrow).
Verdi started to feature freedom from opression themes in his operas in […]
IT for Governing or for Governance?: From Hungary to Chile to Burma
Tuesday, April 1st, 2008‘Governing’ or managing a country more efficiently used to be the preferred and top-down interpretation of the concept of governance in the past, as discussed in my previous posting, addressing myth # 3 – which challenged some of the ‘governorexics’ and ’governoskeptics’. Through a few illustrations, let me selectively showcase how a few IT-related innovations were put to use for past ‘governing’ objectives, and lets see how applications of IT did evolve […]