Anani is a co-founder of Kafa, an advocacy and support group focusing on violence against women that receives funding from the UN Trust Fund. (Kafa means "enough"). She got involved in the issue eight years ago, she told me, "because I felt that the issue of women's rights – especially when it comes to violence against women – is the core of development in any country." Anani has estimated that "as many as three-quarters of all Lebanese women have suffered physical abuse at the hands of husbands or male relatives at some point in their lives."

The obvious place for Anani to start, particularly with her background as a social worker, was supporting victims, which Kafa does. But it has since broadened its ambitious agenda: Anani and fellow activists are drafting a law to have family violence cases tried outside of the religious courts, have created a public awareness campaign to "air dirty laundry" (more on that here) and talk openly about domestic violence, and are convening men's forums to critically assess gender.

In Lebanon, cases that involve violence within the family are tried in courts that are organized by over a dozen sects, in what's referred to as the multiconfessional system. The treatment of the women in these courts can vary widely, with, for example, the acceptable age of marriage being younger in Muslim courts versus Christian ones. According to IRIN (a humanitarian news source operated by the UN), "Islamic religious laws do not prosecute marital rape nor so-called honour killing."

Under this new law, domestic violence cases would be "under the civil code, with a specialized judge, specialized in family issues," Anani said.

Overall, Anani has found she needs to tailor her message to the audience and downplay feminism per se. "When you address the issue as being women's rights, it's always provoking," she said. "But when we address this as, it's not about women's rights issue, it's about human rights, and it's about the family and the unit of the family, then things change."

Her latest project is helping launch a national men's forum in partnership with the White Ribbon Campaign, tying in with UNIFEM's theme this year of addressing men's roles in stopping violence against women.

"We discovered that men sometimes are allies to women's rights even more than women themselves are towards each other," Anani said. "Even if you go to a very conservative area of Lebanon, you can find men passionately talking about their sexual education and the right to select a partner, and criticizing early marriage in a way you can never imagine a woman criticizing it."

One of the questions posed at the forums, which in the pilot program have included university professors, mayors of municipalities, and members of the youth movements: "What is the gender role imposed by the society that you hate most?"

"They will tell you, 'I hate the way they expect for example that I shouldn't cry, or that I should be the one defending the country or bringing food to the table. Why not a partnership?' You hear amazing things," said Anani.

She added, "You should ask the readers of the blog the same question." Anyone?

Related: In Pictures: Enough Is Enough [Oxfam]
[UNIFEM]
About Kafa [Official Site]
Move To Take Domestic Violence Cases Out Of Religious Courts [IRIN]

[Beirut, October 22. Image via Getty.]

Two girls pick books from the children's section during the opening of the annual Francophone Book Fair in Beirut on October 22, 2009. The 16th edition of the Salon du livre francophone de Beyrouth, will be on till November 1st including several cultural events around it with Beirut being the World Book Capital for this year. AFP PHOTO/RAMZI HAIDAR (Photo credit should read RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images)

[Beirut, October 12. Image via Getty]

A Palestinian girl holds up a model of a rebuilt house during a demonstration by refugees in central Beirut on October 12, 2009 to demand speedier rebuilding of Nahr al-Bared refugee camp in northern Lebanon, destroyed in a 15-week standoff between Islamists and the Lebanese army in 2007. AFP PHOTO/RAMZI HAIDAR (Photo credit should read RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images)

[Beirut, October 7. Image via Getty]

A Lebanese woman stands at the entrance of her shop adorned with the cross emblem of the Christian Lebanese Forces party in Sannine street in Beirut's southern Christian neighbourhood of Ain al-Rummaneh on October 7, 2009. One person was stabbed to death and four others were injured in sectarian clashes that broke out overnight in Beirut's southern suburbs, an army spokesman said. The spokesman, who spoke on condition of anonymity, told AFP that the violence pitted youths from the mainly Shiite district of Shiyah against residents of the nearby Christian area of Ain al-Rummaneh. AFP PHOTO/JOSEPH BARRAK (Photo credit should read JOSEPH BARRAK/AFP/Getty Images)

We've covered this before on Jezebel - the children going to Club Libby Lu for makeovers as young as three years old; the marketing of bikini waxes to eight year olds; the ten year olds getting microdermabraison; and other manifestations of kiddie spas

However, the scene emerging in Beirut has a slightly different twist:

"It's not about spoiling our children," says Maya Hilal, 34, the owner of Spa-Tacular, located in Beirut's trendy Ashrafieh district.

"It's a matter of maintaining their cleanliness. It's hygiene. It's feeling good about yourself."

A graphic designer, Hilal created the brightly-coloured salon with the help of her sister when her oldest daughter, now seven, began to show interest in primping and pruning.

"I started feeling that our salons, adult salons, they're not for kids. The colours they use, the treatment, the whole thing," she told AFP. "So I got the idea: why don't I start a place for them, suited to their age, where they can be relaxed and happy.

"A place that's fun, colourful."

What is most compelling about this piece is how beauty rituals are placed within a cultural context. The author, Natacha Yazbeck, makes a point to note:

The image of the impeccable Lebanese female was perhaps best immortalized in a 2006 photograph that captured perfectly manicured young women driving in a red convertible through the rubble of Beirut's southern suburbs, destroyed by Israeli bombing in a war with the Shiite militant group Hezbollah that summer.

The photograph by Spencer Platt won the World Press Photo award that year for capturing the "complexity and contradiction of real life," according to the jury.

And in a country that functions similarly with or without government, the Lebanese beauty craze is, to some, not a luxury but a routine part of life no matter their circumstances — or age.

The still image illustrating this post is from the Lebanese movie Caramel, which debuted in 2007. The Wikipedia entry explains:

Caramel revolves around the intersecting lives of five Lebanese women. Layale (Nadine Labaki) works in a beauty salon in Beirut along with two other women, Nisrine (Yasmine Al Masri) and Rima (Joanna Moukarzel). Each one has a problem: Layale is stuck in a dead-end relationship with a married man; Nisrine is no longer a virgin but is set to be married and in her conservative family where pre-marital sex is not accepted; Rima is attracted to women; Jamale (Gisèle Aouad), a regular customer and wannabe actress, is worried about getting old; Rose (Sihame Haddad), a tailor with a shop next to the salon, is an old woman who had devoted her life to taking care of her mentally unbalanced older sister Lili (Aziza Semaan), but has found her first love. The film doesn't refer to any of the political problems or recent warfare that has troubled Lebanon. Rather, Labaki's tale paints everyday people with everyday problems.

Yet and still, the production notes explain:

The shooting of Caramel ended just 9 days before the Israel war on Lebanon erupted in July 2006, and was released in Cannes exactly one year after the shooting began.

While we often critique the rampant spread of beauty ideals targeting a younger and younger set, one of the dynamics of beauty culture that often goes discussed (in the feminist circles I roll in, at least) is the power of bonding and reclamation in ritual. The women featured in Caramel all faced different life circumstances, but all bonded over one common thing - the love of the transformative power of self-improvement. Yazbeck's point that something as basic as grooming can evolve into an act of resistance in the face of soul crushing events is important. I am reminded of an essay by Paula Austin in Colonize This! called "Femme-Inism":

I often watched [my mother] do her makeup in front of the small mirror that sat on a tiny square table across from the bed I had slept on, in the bedroom I shared with my mother and sister. She would dab some foundation from the bottle into her hand and smear it evenly across and around her face. She used concealer around her eyes and covered that with powder. She wore black eyeliner, above and below her lid, which she administered with a pencil. She wore eye shadow and mascara. Lastly, she lined her lips, using some shade of burgundy. When she finished dressing, her shoes and pocketbook always matching, the room smelled like her expensive perfume long after she had gone.

This was her ritual each day, the donning of her costume. This was her feminine armor, her feminist attire. This was the very thing that brought her strength and power. I could tell this by the way she stepped out onto the street in her blue polyester floral dress that hugged her hips and thighs, her strong calves shaping down into her white pumps, her ass and pocketbook both swaying. Her sexy gait was evidence of her prowess, and both she and I were proud. She was unknowingly modeling for me.

When I was eleven or twelve, I was punished for wearing makeup. I would wait until my mother was out of the room at bedtime and I would sneak an eyeliner pencil from the makeup drawer to under the bed. In the morning, I would pretend I was looking for my shoes and slip the eyeliner into my pants pocket, sneaking it out of the house.

Somewhere between the apartment door and the building's front door down five flights of stairs, I would hurriedly apply the makeup, lining my eyes with blue pencil and combing on the black mascara I had stolen from Woolworth's. I was never delicate enough. I was rough, rushed, and heavy handed. Once applied, as hideously as it may have looked, I stepped out from the apartment building. Out onto Ocean Avenue in Flatbush, where I was a poor Black girl, living in someone else's apartment in an all-white neighborhood, where my family was seen as "the help." And at eight in the morning, on that street with all of its white faces staring down at me or not seeing me at all, I walked with my head up high and made it to the bus stop without flinching. It was my armor, too.

While scholars quoted later in the piece cast some doubt as to the effectiveness of teaching the necessity of beauty through purchases and consumption - and the ascension to upper class narratives that paint that perception - I still wondered what exactly was being taught to these girls. Pride in oneself? Was it simple early indoctrination to our culture that prizes the beauty in women above all else? Or are these women, on some level, arming children with the ability to use small gestures (like hair and makeup) to cope with horrific circumstances?

Beauty Bug Bites Beirut's littlest [Sydney Morning Herald]
Caramel [Wikipedia]
Colonize This! Young Women of Color On Today's Feminism [Amazon]

Earlier: Why Let A Girl Play When She Can Be Made Over Like JonBenet?
Bikini Waxing
How Many 8-Year-Olds Have To Get Bikini Waxes Before We All Agree The Terrorists Have Won?
Sugar, Spice, And Oxygen Facials

[Beirut, September 27. Image via Getty]

Women from Senegal's delegation wave national flags as they enter the field at Beirut's Sports City during the opening ceremony on September 27, 2009 of the 'Jeux de la Francophie' (Francophone Games), a four-yearly event that organisers hope will shine a positive spotlight on a country long rocked by political unrest. Some 3,000 athletes and participants from 42 countries are expected for the September 27-October 6 extravaganza, which is being held under tight security. AFP PHOTO/RAMZI HAIDAR (Photo credit should read RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images)</blockquote<

[Tripoli, September 1. Image via Getty]

Female soldiers from Benon march during a military parade in Tripoli on September 1, 2009 to mark the 40th anniversary since Kadhafi seized power in the north African desert state. The multi-million-euro anniversary celebrations of the bloodless coup that brought Kadhafi to power on September 1, 1969, are attended by African, Arab and Latin American leaders but largely ignored by the West. AFP PHOTO/MAHMUD TURKIA (Photo credit should read MAHMUD TURKIA/AFP/Getty Images)

[Lebanon, Pennsylvania; August 11. Image via Getty]

LEBANON, PA - AUGUST 11: Katy Abram of Lebanon, Pennsylvania, holds a sign as she waits in line to attend a town hall meeting held by U.S. Sen. Arlen Specter August 11, 2009 in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. Specter held the town hall meeting to speak about health care reform. (Photo by Chris Gardner/Getty Images)

Update: It gets better: Katy just turned up on MSNBC!

[Beirut, August 6. Image via Getty.]

A model presents a dress from Lebanese designer Edward Arsouni's fall/winter 2009-2010 collection at a fashion show held in the gardens of a historic palace in Beirut late on August 6, 2009. AFP PHOTO/RAMZI HAIDAR (Photo credit should read RAMZI HAIDAR/AFP/Getty Images)

[Hadath, Lebanon; July 29. Image via Getty]

Magnum Shooting Club 2008 Champion Saydeh Hajjar, 25, poses at the shooting club in the Lebanese town of Hadath, east of Beirut on July 29, 2009. Guns are popular in Lebanon, where civil war raged from 1975-1990. The Magnum Shooting Club, established in 1995, accepts clients fron the age of ten, accompagnied by their parents. Professional and amateur gun enthusiasts are trained in the art of pistol shooting, a sport the club managers say demands top mental and physical fitness. AFP PHOTO/JOSEPH BARRAK (Photo credit should read JOSEPH BARRAK/AFP/Getty Images)

[Avignon, France; July 20. Image via Getty]

Lebanese dancer Yalda Younes performs in 'Non' creation (No) from Lebanese composer Zad Moultaka, on July 20, 2009 in Avignon, southern France, as part of the 63rd Avignon International Theatre festival. AFP PHOTO ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT (Photo credit should read ANNE-CHRISTINE POUJOULAT/AFP/Getty Images)

[Byblos, Lebanon; July 12. Image via Getty]

Lebanese women sunbathe at a beach resort in the ancient city of Byblos, north of Beirut, on July 12, 2009. AFP PHOTO/JOSEPH BARRAK (Photo credit should read JOSEPH BARRAK/AFP/Getty Images)

Lebanese poet and provocateuse Joumana Haddad's eroto-anatomical-literary magazine, whose focus is the human body, has been making waves since before it launched, prompting charges of "blatant vulgarity and obscenity." As the Washington Post's update tells us, since the magazine's launch, blogger reactions have run the gamut from "God bless her, there must be some angels protecting her," to the chilling, "She is the perfect model of a person who has to be stoned to death."

But the proof, as anyone at 4 Times Square can tell you, is in the sales. Now in its second issue, the quarterly is selling like gangbusters, not just in secular Lebanon - a traditional center of liberal thought with relatively loose censorship laws - but in surrounding regions, especially Saudi Arabia. Haddad has always cited the venerable tradition of erotic writing as an impetus for launching Jasad, and is proud that her magazine doesn't have a Western equivalent - although she acknowledges that it's less needed in more sexually open societies. Of course, one could easily argue that the publication wouldn't exactly hack it here, especially in such a challenging print marketplace. The current issue contains "themes" like "The Penis - between His and Hers," "The ABC of plucking pussy hair," and an essay titled "My First Time" as well as regular features "Eros in the Kitchen" and "The Voyeur's Corner." Art ranges from (naked) Egon Schiele portraits to (naked) 18th century tableaux. Truthfully, it feels more like an enthusiastically-executed, Anais-Nin-worshiping, vaguely-conceived college publication than a ready-for-prime-time glossy.

But as reaction shows, the stakes are much higher, and whatever one thinks of the content, the magazine's existence shows a lot of courage on Haddad's part. But does the publication's obvious desire to shock and enrage do its purpose a disservice? Haddad must be aware that a good part of her readership isn't exactly reading it for the articles - although, like Playboy, I guess it's got that pretext on its side. But in a region where, just a border away, some women are disenfranchised, can such blatant provocation really do anything other than strengthen walls, rather than make hairline cracks? Haddad would say yes.

Jasad [Official Site]
Beirut's 'Body' Language Pioneer [Washington Post]

Earlier: Lebanese Magazine Advocates Nudity, Change

• People at Washington's Sidwell Friends School (where Sasha & Malia go) are disappointed that the Obamas "only" donated autographed magazines to their charity auction rather than agreeing to hang out with the highest bidder. [MSNBC]

• Levi Johnston's mother Sherry's prosecutor is pissed that she told him she had to leave the state on family business, since he now knows that "business" was appearing on Tyra. [Huffington Post]
• More torturous than watching all of Sherry Johnston's interviews is listening to John McCain try to defend not investigating any of the Bushies who signed off on torturing people. [ThinkProgress]
• But add him to the list of people who think Dick Cheney should STFU. [Politico]
• Newt Gingrich, having not (yet) been waterboarded, doesn't know whether it is torture. Put him on the sign-up sheet after Mr. Hannity! [ThinkProgress]
• The FBI interrogator who got most of the information out of Abu Zubaydah before the CIA started torturing him thinks that torture is useless. He wanted to arrest the CIA contractors doing it before the Administration made it "legal," but his bosses recalled him to the States instead. [Time]
• Twenty Americans are sick from the swine flu, so it's a public health emergency. There are a million Americans living with HIV and more than 500,000 have died, but I guess 20 Americans throwing up is a big deal. [Politico, Avert]
• Governor Rick Perry plans on getting his state to secede... after he gets his precious federal swine flu dollars, that is. [ThinkProgress]
• Shane Murphy, who was second in command of the American vessel seized by Somali pirates, thinks Rush Limbaugh is a race-baiting asshole. Unlike elected Republican officials, he ain't takin' that assertion back. [Boston.com]
• Hillary Clinton has told Iraqis that we won't let their country go to hell. Any more than we already have, that is. [Associated Press]
• She also thinks Lebanon should try being moderate. The Syrians disagree. [NY Times]
• Minnesotans have had it up to here with Norm Coleman's bullshit. [Politico]
• And prepare to break out the world's smallest violin: lobbyists are complaining they don't have enough access to the White House to lobby effectively! [Washington Post]

The magazine, while centered on the idea of "the body," deals with arts, literature, society and spirituality. As the magazine's mission statement puts it,

Jasad aims to reflect the body in all its representations, symbols and projections in our culture, time and societies, and hopes, by doing so, to contribute in breaking the obscurantist taboos. [It] consists of different sections and columns, ranging from reportages, testimonies and articles, to essays, translations and creative writings, all covering the fields of cinema, literature, arts, theater, science, etc. And, of course, a wide variety of photos, illustrations and paintings that revolve around the axis of the body. Each issue will feature on its cover, as well as inside, the works of a controversial [Arabic] artist.

Thirty-eight-year-old Joumanna Haddad, the poet, translator, and journalist who founded the magazine and serves as its controversial pinup, explains her imperative thus in an interview with Muslimah Media Watch:

For me it's outrageous that the body is something that we can't talk about because if you go back to our cultural and literary heritage you'll see that we have Arabic writers who go back to 10th century who speak about these topics in a beautiful free way. On a more recent level in our contemporary time it's become taboo to say things freely. When we come to say a word we say it in Arabic or French because it seems vulgar in Arabic but normal in English or French.

Haddad, who is pictured extensively in the magazine, has faced criticism from family and friends - and, not shockingly, from more powerful critics. Hizbullah officials attempted to shut down the magazine's stand at at the Beirut book fair and vigilantes have defaced posters and been vocally critical online. Still other critics condemn the magazine for playing on easy ideas of eroticized Orientalism rather than exploring intellectual freedom in a meaningful way. However, the commercial response has been encouraging: the debut issue sold out its 3,000 copy run in ten days. Even if some of this interest was purely prurient, Haddad could argue that all these readers got the magazine's message. Is eroticism in this case a powerful tool, or a distraction from the issues? Probably both. But it's a time-honored way of drawing attention, and, even if you choose to put the most critical interpretation on the magazine's content, as PETA would probably argue, sometimes the ends justify the means.

Jasad: Sex, Fetishes, and the Erotic in a new Arabic Glossy [Muslimah Media Watch]
New Lebanese magazine warns "for adults only" [Menassat]
Lebanese Editor Defies Norms With Magazine Glorifying the Body [Huffington Post]
Jasad Magazine [Official Site]

What people were not shocked about was the crime itself. According to the AP, in Egypt, "Rumors abound of businessmen and politicians peddling out actresses and singers in prostitution rings. The frequent marriages and divorces of celebrities and businessmen make big news." Dubai brass are also pissed about the murder, because they're trying to change their image as the skanky Vegas of the Persian Gulf. "The emirate has recently cracked down on tourists going topless on beaches, and has launched a public anti-corruption effort." (Recall the two British expats now facing six years in the slammer for having sex on a Dubai beach).

Anyway, it remains to be seen if the arrest of Mustafa will result in actual jail time. Some speculate that he's merely been arrested to show that Egypt is tough on upper class malfeasance, and that he will be acquitted when the case goes to trial. Considering the overwhelming evidence — police have pretty damning phone calls on record between Mustafa and the hit man — Tamim can have some postmortem justice.

Egypt Tycoon Held For Tamim Death [BBC]
Pop Star's Slaying Turns Into Mideast Drama [AP via MSNBC]
Not Business As Usual [Al-Ahram]

Earlier: Couple Caught Having Sex On The Beach Face Six Years In The Slammer

MOE: Did you check out Geraldine Ferrarro giving Shep Smith a beej? How could someone be SO HYPER AWARE OF anything even remotely construable as "sexist" still be saying things like "black journalists who are Obama surrogates like Bob Herbert." Because yes, Bob Herbert is so simpleminded, so singlemindedly focused on electing one of "his own" that — oh yes, and the only reason he has his New York Times platform is surely tokenism in the first place — why would a progressive white woman even read him to begin with?
MOE: You know he doesn't have anything worth saying about misogyny

MEGAN: Like Shep wants a beej from a girl...
MOE: Dude
MOE: I'm shaking from anger.
MEGAN: Also she wants an "independent group to do a study on media." Like Media Matters?
MOE: Yeah maybe they should check out that Obama surrogate Bob Herbert who hasn't had anything nice to say about Hillary in the past six months because he's so sexist

MOE: OH EXCEPT WELL THIS FIVE MONTHS AGO

If there was ever a story that deserved more coverage by the news media, it’s the dark persistence of misogyny in America

MEGAN: Also, so, can we check her crazy hair? She's got a tuft sticking up in the back. How did that happen?
MOE: Okay, I can't handle it anymore, let's just have a moment of silence for Ted Kennedy's brain. I had dinner with Jennifer Gerson last night and she said that as an intern for MSNBC she was once charged with escorting him up a platform and he was outraged to find that he had to climb steps. "There were literally two steps," she said. My kind of septugenarian! Although…not if I stay in this apartment!!
MEGAN: Well, I think his knees are shit. But, yes, it doesn't surprise me. But brain cancer sucks. I'll bet he thought his heart would get him.
MOE: Okay, in another window SinisterRouge is calming me down. (Imagine if Geraldine Ferrarro was a commenter! She'd get put on notice, and then she'd just go crazy and her last comment would be something like "Hang that darkie from a tree!" and then she'd claim it was a joke and then no one would pay attention to MY brand of "controversy" anymore.)
MEGAN: I love that she's the one calming you down today. I mean, Ferraro just makes me sad. I'm sad that's she's turned into this caricature of a nasty old woman whose racism shows and who is so concerned with her supposed victimhood that she dismisses the claims of others. She was the first female candidate for the vice presidency of the United motherfucking States of America and she's stomping all over the legacy of that. I realize that not everyone reading this would remember, but I remember 1984 and I remember thinking it was, like, totally normal that a woman be running and then realizing it wasn't and thus how cool she was. Only now she's not cool. So I'm more saddened than outraged.

MOE: Uh, in other news Hillary won Kentucky by a 30-point margin. Um, dumb question: are there no black people in Kentucky or something? What's up with that? Also oil went above $130 a barrel, another new record.
MEGAN: I have deliberately avoided looking at gas prices while in New York, a situation helped by the fact that the only times I've passed any have been in a cab and I've been intoxicated. I'm sure they're high.
MOE: A friend of mine asked me the other day why oil prices were so expensive and I was like "1. China 2. India 3. The market tends to overreact 4. no exploration or real incentive for exploration." But I forgot to add "the dollar." And seriously regarding the exploration thing I'm not sure whether that's still true.
MEGAN: Also, Obama barely campaigned in Kentucky. I think despite his crazy fundraising skills, he's conserving his money at this point to get through the convention and Pennsylvania sort of proved that sometimes its just a waste. He doesn't need Kentucky, so he didn't spend so much to make that margin tigihter.
MOE: Kentucky is only like 7.5% black.

Gross reports having students of his at the University of Kentucky tell him they had never seen or talked to a black person before coming to Lexington, a college town of nearly 300,000 people. In some areas of Kentucky, Gross says there's perhaps only one or two black families there.

MOE: Also Kentucky declared neutrality during the Civil War…
MEGAN: I actually met someone once in her forties who had never seen a black person until she left her state. It was, um, interesting. I'm amazed it still happens.
MOE: Though it was a slave state and in the early 1830s slaves comprised a quarter of the population. They just never had much of a plantation economy…Is it possible my perception of Kentucky has been skewed because some huckster from Indiana decided to dress in "stereotypical Southern gentleman type clothing to promote his restaurant chain"?? Um why yes it may be!
MOE: Oh in other news Hezbollah has veto power over everything the Lebanese government does now.
MEGAN: Oh, well, that's great. I love how having the power to scuttle stuff is important.

MEGAN: Kentucky was an okay state. I drove through it once. It was sorta pretty, plus, obviously, bourbon.
MOE: OBVIOUSLY
MOE: So, here's something else. I was on the train yesterday with this lady who was really nice and let me use her phone. Her computer said "Property of the World Bank" and she told me how she was coming up to New York to present a new survey on economic development and by George it would appear she was not pulling a fast one on me! And check this:

But departing from free-market orthodoxy, the panel also said that governments had a far greater role to play in development than was recognized in the markets-are-king 1980s and 1990s. To boost growth, the panel urged developing nations to spend heavily on infrastructure and endorsed, with some reservation, government subsidies to build local industries.

MOE: You don't say!

Among the findings that are bound to stoke the most controversy: democracy isn't essential for growth. Autocratic governments that allow "vigorous debate" internally on economic policies are sufficient, the report said. Free trade isn't a prerequisite either. Some fast-growing economies kept barriers high to imports, even as they promoted exports, the report said.

MEGAN: Oh, wait, someone noticed China! Cool!
MOE: Well yeah and who did China notice? Why…Korea, Taiwan, Singapore, Japan, Malaysia, Indonesia and also Thailand!
MOE: But what I really love is this:

Former U.S. Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers praised the commission's focus on government-led growth policies, but said its emphasis on economic winners didn't fully take into account how industrial policies deepened corruption in many countries and failed to ignite growth there. "It's like looking only at those who made fortunes in the stock market without diversifying their portfolios" to figure out the best way to get rich, he said.

MEGAN: Indonesia's kind of a hot mess, though, and has oil/natural gas, so I think that's a little different. But otherwise, I agree with your list.
MOE: Um, actually, looking at the United States economy is what that is like.

MOE: Well yes, Indonesia is an incredible mess, which is why China managed to grab so much manufacturing business from them as Suharto's government crumbled.
MEGAN: Indonesia is one of those places I'd really like to visit. I don't know why. I wish I was like my friend Tim, who parlayed a Masters in theology to a job as an investment banker, saved a shitload of money and bailed on life to travel the world for a year. I am really jealous of him right now, and not just because I keep looking at his flickr account.
MOE: Which speaks to Larry Summers' point, but the fact is that Korea and Taiwan both paid close attention to Japan's climb up the "economic value ladder" into more sophisticated manufacturing. When you manufacture computer chips, for instance, which are by definition very small and shrink in size every 18 months, the cost of sending them down the Insatiable Consumption Esophagus toward the US is not that great. So your population can eventually see much more of the cost! But semiconductor plants are incredibly expensive and sophisticated to operate, so while they're harder to transplant in other countries — though the Taiwanese have certainly been doing just that in China despite the fact that you still can't get a direct flight between the two countries — they also require a lot of PLANNING. INVESTMENT. An educational strategy.
MOE: And then! Much to the chagrin of shareholders…semiconductors are a highly cyclical business! So while the demand keeps growing, sometimes you have to sell them at a loss!
MOE: It can be painfully low-margin…again something the market doesn't reward!
MEGAN: Oh, God, stop, visions of grad school case study horrors dancing in my head!
MOE: BUT. Your countrymen will thank you!
MOE: Sorry, it just completely kills me that you mention how we need better economic and industrial planning in this country to some people and they act like you're fucking advocating the next Great Leap Forward.
MEGAN: I mean, the problem with industrial planning is that you take the concept, throw in 20,000 businsess lobbyists and 535 Members and Senators and you come up with a bullshit plan that won't help anyone that really needs it and will help whomever has the political capital to get help. Ahhh, democracy.