By-Two Kaapi in an oilfield

Arvind Subramanian of the WSJ has authored this brilliant paper on how foreign aid is stifling innovation in poor countries and goes on to explain how investment on local innovation efforts is more appropriate than charity.

I love this line of thought. I always have.

But Arvind goes a little overboard in saying this:

When Ms. Jolie appears on the screen calling for more aid, she not only distracts our attention toward her obviously good looks, she may also be distracting our attention away from the search for more effective solutions to helping the poorest around the world.

Give that lady a break. Yes, she might be driving people to donate more, but people are not forgetting about innovation by just ogling her.

Or are ya? Quit staring and code that software for those $100 laptops!!