Sunday, September 20, 2009

Ethiopian Economics

TED conferences videos have a collection of speeches made by prominent academics and other public figures who talk about their "ideas worth spreading." Speakers from across the globe represent a variety of disciplines including economics, engineering, biology, religious studies, political science, and psychology.

The Common Theme Community at MC has selected a group of short videos of speakers in the areas of Peace and Justice from the TED collection. I found the following video especially interesting and quite relevent to what we have been discussing in class.

http://www.ted.com/talks/elene_gabre_madhin_on_ethiopian_economics.html

Please watch the video and put down your comments. Please make your postings non- repititive. If someone has commented on a question, please try to post something that is different from that comment or try to answer a different question. If this video has left you with questions, your posting can raise your own questions, but please elaborate on them and make responses that suggest some solutions or directions.

Comment on any of the following questions :

1. What did you learn about markets after watching this video? Is there a role for government in creating markets?

2. Why was grain left in the fields to rot in Ethiopia in 2002? Were you surprised to learn this? What does this say about the role of markets and government in an economy?

3. How will ECEX help ethiopian economy?


4. What are the different components needed for agricultural market to be set up?

5.What did you learn from this lecture?


6. How can an economist contribute to peace and justice?