From a WSJ review of Stealth of Nations: The Global Rise of the Informal Economy: Mr. Neuwirth introduces us to a woman named Jandira who for a decade has peddled coffee and homemade cakes to the unlicensed vendors at São Paulo’s early-morning wholesale market for pirated movies. Her street-corner business, she proudly tells him, has enabled… Read More »
Just learnt of him through NPR’s A Blog Supreme. A short bio: Loueke was born in Benin, studied music in the Ivory Coast as a teenager, did further jazz-specific training in Paris for five years and finally ended up with a Berklee scholarship. In Boston, he met his trio: Swedish bassist Massimo Biolcati, who has… Read More »
In a group interview in September, 18 disgruntled truck drivers in Cotonou, Benin, vented their frustrations to two Trade Hub consultants: driving freely from Cotonou to Ouagadougou was impossible without harassment, they said. They sometimes spend three days at borders where customs officials hold up paper work when they refuse to pay bribes; meanwhile, their… Read More »
Here in Cotonou, the easiest way – and in many ways the most practical way – to get around is by Zemidjan, the commercial motorcycle operators. Today, on my way from the market, the Zem rider tried to dodge another one on the new Honda Grom, realized that he was going to run into a… Read More »
I moved to Cotonou yesterday. From what I’ve seen, it is a pretty normal city. I will be here for a while so whoever is passing by/around could leave me a message. Of course, I will continue blogging.