structural problem

I've been reading a book called "Africa Doesn't Matter" by Giles Bolton. It's an interesting and extremely pragmatic take on what can and should be done to help the poor in Africa. It includes many pages on the flaws and limitations of our current way of trying to help.

One thing that resonated for me was the fact that reducing poverty takes long term planning and action. I think he's correct when he says "The wider reason for our inactivity, however, is that governments respond well to problems that havea maximum four to five year time scale - in other words, not longer than an electoral cycle". He calls this a "structural problems of democracy". We tend to penalize those leaders who try to do things that may be wise for future generations, but lacking in immediate gratification.

Outside of a better educated electorate, I'm scratching my head as to what else can be done about this "structual problem".

Faith

This little film somehow just keeps chugging along. It's certainly not a blockbuster, and I have my moments of despair. But one day I notice the blog has a follower, another day there's an inquiry from another educational distibutor and a few days after that a Youtube video has a comment. Someone has posted a new review on Amazon. Long after I'd given up on festivals I got a notice today that we've been accepted into one in Philadelphia:

http://www.philadelphiaindependentfilmfestival.com/

Overall I think I've learned to have faith that the film will find its niche.

Talking about democracy

Looks like an interesting affair:


http://www.unh.edu/democracy/conference2009/

The problem of constituency

We've been told by viewers on both the Left and the Right that our documentary is "biased". Which gives us confidence that we are have been generally successful in being non-partisan. The problem with this approach lies in the marketing - whom should we be targeting? My feeling is that our audience is the small, but I think influential people who are thoughtful and open-minded. (not to mention interested in politics and ideas).

It's a constituency I'd like to encourage, and not only for self interested reasons:

http://e-democracy.org/

hosts several issues forums relating to encouraging thoughtful discussion. One way they do this is to make sure that people use their real names so that they can not make destructive comments under the cover of anomity as so many in the blogsphere do.

The United States Issues forum will open after 100 members sign up. It needs 37 more as of this date.

http://forums.e-democracy.org/groups/us

So check it out.


FROM THEIR WEBPAGE:

Opening Soon - Join us for a civil, more deliberative discussion of national public policy issues and politics in the United States among people with diverse political perspectives. Conversations include topics from today's Congressional hearings, White House press briefings, breaking national news stories with public policy implications, new think-tank reports, etc. Modeled on legislative debate where one may not speak a second time until others have had an opportunity to speak, participants may only post once every 12 hours. In addition, name calling of any kind (including using political labels as pejoratives) and personal attacks violates the rules all participants agree to upon joining. Multiple rule warnings leads to participant suspension for this forum. Also, those posting use their real legal name (as your "Display Name" when you register) and list their city and state of primary residence on their member profile. New members will be prevented from posting until they fill out their profile. This requirement differentiates us from other discussion forums across the Internet, but is a critical element of E-Democracy.Org's foundation