Elizabethan Sea Dogs by William Wood

Elizabethan Sea Dogs by William Wood Hardback: 260 pages Publisher: Yale University Press Released: 1918

Source: Bought at library book sale.

Book Description, my take:
Written in 1918 and a part of the Yale Chronicles of America series, this book takes a look at the development of England's navy from King Henry VIII to the death of Queen Elizabeth, notable seamen during this time, and England's attempts to colonize North America up until 1618.


Review:
Elizabethan Sea Dogs is a history of how England's fleet went from insignificant to ruling the seas and their activities in the New World from King Henry VIII's reign to the end of Queen Elizabeth's reign. The book contained some quotes from various sea journals of the explorers and quotes from some sea songs. Overall, the book was easy to read and fairly interesting. I'd recommend the recent re-release of this "classic" to those who enjoy reading about the English navy.

Chapter 1 talked about the voyages of exploration of John Cabot and his family. Chapter 2 talked about how King Henry VIII strengthened England's naval power. Chapter 3 talked about William Hawkins (1530) and the life of a sailor at that time. Chapter 4 talked about what life was like under Queen Elizabeth (mainly the political, economic, and business practices). Chapter 5 talked about John Hawkins three voyages from 1562-1567.

Chapter 6 talked about Francis Drake's treasure hunt (1564-1573). Chapter 7 talked about Francis Drake's sailing completely around the world (1577-1581). Chapter 8 talked about Francis Drake's sailing to New Spain to damage and plunder Spain's towns there (1582-1587). Chapter 9 talked about Francis Drake, etc., against the Spanish Armada (1588). Chapter 10 talked about Francis Drake's Lisbon Expedition (1589) and Richard Grenville's famous "the one and the fifty-three" battle (1591).

Chapter 11 talked about Sir Walter Raleigh and England's various attempts to colonize North America (1577-1618; Sir Humprey Gilbert to James Smith). Chapter 12 talked about Drake's last voyage and death (1589-1596). The Appendix explained more about the development of the various types of ships used during this time period and how the navy had worked before then.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

I Taught Myself Crochet kit

I Taught Myself Crochet kit by Boye Paperback: 32 pages Released: 2010

Source: Bought at Walmart.

Kit Description from Back Cover (slightly modified):
Even beginners can crochet beautiful things.

Kit includes:

• Complete instructional DVD
• Special section of tips and techniques for left-handers
• Boye crochet hooks, sizes F, G, H, I, K
• Afghan hook, size I
• Plastic tapestry Yarn needles
• Stitch marker rings
• Bulky knit yarn bobbins

Note: I own the 2010 version sold at Walmart which includes an instructional DVD. The book has a lady with a blue crochet sweater on the cover (see right), but the rest of the kit looks like the top picture.

Includes 16 Patterns:
(11 Beginner patterns, 4 Easy patterns, 1 Intermediate pattern)

• Cro-Hook Cool Coasters
• Easy Crochet Bag
• Easy Scarf
• Cell Phone Case
• Color Block Mesh Poncho
• Hairpin Lace Skinny Scarf
• Ruffled Skinny Scarf
• Broomstick Lace Pillow
• Wavy Baby Blanket
• Bright Nights Wrap/Throw
• Mesh Scarf With Posies
• Girl's Wrist Warmers
• Summer Stripes Throw
• Summer Strips Pillow
• The Gift Poncho
• Soft Sage Camisole

My Review:
The I Taught Myself Crochet book was pretty bare-bones, but it did get the basic necessary information across. It explained the different Boye crochet products and what they're used for (steel crochet hooks, aluminum crochet hooks, jumbo crochet hooks, afghan hooks, CroHook, and two sets). It explained the different yarn weights, what hooks are good to use with the different yarn weights, yarn weight metric equivalents, crochet hook sizes, and a long list of crocheting abbreviations.

The book taught how to do a slip loop, chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet, half double crochet, double crochet, treble crochet, increasing and decreasing, joining yarn and changing colors, finishing techniques, gauge, afghan stitch, how to use the cro-hook (needed equipment not included), how to make broomstick lace (needed equipment not included) and how to make hairpin lace (needed equipment not included).

Clear black-and-tan illustrations were included, though I would have liked more of the steps illustrated. It's great for a refresher, but not enough for an absolute beginner who's never crocheted, knitted, etc. The instructions were very good, but I guess I'm a visual learner when it comes to crocheting. There was also a tan-tinted photo of what a square of each stitch would look like, however it was difficult to see due to the coloring. All of the basic stitches (slip loop to treble crochet) were also taught for left-handers.

The patterns look fun, but this book didn't teach you how to read the patterns. You might be able to muddle through them with frequent looks at the included abbreviation chart, though. Three of the patterns required equipment not included in this kit.

The DVD included with this kit was Learn to Crochet with Erin Elkins. The DVD was 11 minutes and 47 seconds long. We were shown how to do a slip knot, chain stitch, slip stitch, single crochet, double crochet, and finish off the yarn ends on your piece.

It was easy to see what the presenter was doing, however, she sometimes didn't do what she told us to do. (For example, she described a "yarn over" as putting the hook under then over the yarn, but sometimes she did the opposite. She never explained why she sometimes didn't do it the way she said to, so I'm assuming she just goofed.) Because of this, I found the DVD more confusing than helpful.

Personally, I found naztazia's YouTube videos, How to Crochet - Part 1 - Basics for the Absolute Beginner and How to Crochet - Part 2 - Basics for the Absolute Beginner, very clear and much more useful. She also taught more of the basic crochet stitches.

The hooks included with the kit were easy enough to use, but I've since bought a full set of Susan Bates hooks and I much prefer them. The book and DVD didn't explain how to use the included stitch marker rings or bulky knit yarn bobbins. (I learn pattern-reading and the use of stitch marker rings from another book, Crocheting in Plain English.)

Overall, this kit was a cheap way to see if I'd enjoy crocheting, especially since I had the additional help of the YouTube videos. I'm sure I'll use the book to refer back to about abbreviations and to double-check how to do the various stitches (now that I've done them some). However, this probably wasn't the best set to get in a longer-term perspective.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

The Great Turning Point by Dr. Terry Mortenson

The Great Turning Point: The Church's Catastrophic Mistake on Geology--Before Darwin by Dr. Terry Mortenson ISBN-13: 9780890514085 Paperback: 272 pages Publisher: Master Books Released: September 28, 2004

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Publisher's Website:
Many people in the Church today have the idea that “young-earth” creationism is a fairly recent invention, popularized by fundamentalist Christians in the mid-20th century. Is this view correct? In fact, scholar Terry Mortenson has done fascinating original research on this subject in England, and documents that several leading, pre-Darwin scholars and scientists, known as “scriptural geologists” did not believe in long ages for the earth. Mortenson sheds light on the following:

• Before Darwin, what did the Church believe about the age of the earth?


• Why did it believe this way?


• What was the controversy that rocked the Church in 19th-century England?


• Who were the “scriptural geologists”?


• What influences did the Church contend with even before Darwin’s book?


• What is the stance of the Church today?

This book is a thoroughly researched work. The history of the Church and evolution is fascinating, and it is interesting to see not only the tremendous influence that evolution has had on the Church, but on society as well.


My Review:
The Great Turning Point is a look at the historical background of an ongoing debate in geology relating to the age of the earth and the origin of the various rock layers. The author explained the intellectual, religious, and cultural context of the debate, including what Bible commentaries were saying about Genesis. He also explained the marks of geological competence in the early 1800s. Personally, I found this section the most interesting.

The second part took a closer look at Granville Penn, George Bugg, Andrew Ure, George Fairholme, John Murray, George Young, and William Rhind. The author gave a short biography for each person and talked about how knowledgeable they were in geology, what they said about geology, their attitude toward the study of geology, their view of the relationship between Scripture and geology, about their writing, and more.

The book contained quotes from the writings of the scriptural geologists and of those against them so you could hear their positions in their own words. The information was well-footnoted so you could see where the quotes and information came from. The language was formal, and a lot of information was covered (information-dense). It took concentration to absorb everything, but it wasn't difficult to follow. If you're interested in this subject, then this book contains some very good information.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from the Introduction
Geologist H.H. Read prefaced his book on the granite controversy a few decades ago with these words, "Geology, as the science of earth history, is prone to controversy. The study of history of any kind depends upon documents and records. For the history of the earth's crust, these documents are the rocks and their reading, and interpretation are often difficult operations."

This book analyzes one such controversy, an extremely important one at that, during the first half of the 19th century in Britain, which has sometimes been called the "Genesis-geology debate." At that time a tenacious and denominationally eclectic band of scientists and clergymen (and some were both) opposed the new geological theories being developed at the time, which said that the earth was millions of years old. These men became known as "scriptural geologists," "Mosaic geologists" or "biblical literalists."

The label "scriptural geologists" is preferred since three of their book titles used these terms and it was the most common label used by their contemporaries and by later historians. However, we need to be aware of the label's liabilities. It has not always been used carefully, resulting in confusion and inaccurate analysis. Calling them scriptural geologists obscures the fact that some of them were competent geologists while others were not (and did not claim to be). Conversely, it sometimes is and was used by opponents to imply, erroneously, that these men all developed their objections to old-earth geological theories solely on the basis of Scripture. Also, at least one of their contemporary critics, an old-earth geologist, also described himself by the same title. Finally, a few of their contemporary critics and several later historians have lumped scriptural geologists together with their opponents under this label. So it is necessary to have a clear view of what they believed.

The scriptural geologists held to the dominant Christian view within church history up to their own time, namely, that Moses wrote Genesis 1-11 (along with the rest of Genesis) under divine inspiration and that these chapters ought to be interpreted literally as a reliable, fully historical account. This conviction led them to believe, like many contemporary and earlier Christians, that the Noachian flood was a unique global catastrophe, which produced much, or most, of the fossil-bearing sedimentary rock formations, and that the earth was roughly 6,000 years old. From this position they opposed with equal vigor both the "uniformitarian" theory of earth history propounded by James Hutton and Charles Lyell, and the "catastrophist" theory of Georges Cuvier, William Buckland, William Conybeare, Adam Sedgwick, etc.

They also rejected, as compromises of Scripture, the gap theory, the day-age theory, the tranquil flood theory, the local flood theory, and the myth theory.Though all but the myth theory were advocated by Christians who believed in the divine inspiration and historicity of Genesis 1-11, the scriptural geologists believed their opponents' theories were unconvincing interpretations of Scripture based on unproven old-earth theories of geology.

Read excerpt from chapter one.

To Be Perfectly Honest by Phil Callaway

To Be Perfectly Honest by Phil Callaway ISBN-13: 9781590529171 Trade Paperback: 216 pages Publisher: Multnomah Books Released: May 3, 2011 Book on Publisher's Website

Source: I received this book for free from WaterBrook Multnomah Publishing Group for this review.

Book Description from Back Cover:
Veteran author and speaker Phil Callaway is no stranger to daunting challenges. He has been laughed at—repeatedly—by large crowds of people from Halifax to Hong Kong. He fathered three children in three years, spent much of last year on airplanes built by the lowest bidder, and flipped an out-of-control ATV, which doesn’t mean he sold it for a profit. So who better than Phil Callaway to boldly accept a challenge that would make the average person run and hide?

Phil promised to tell the truth for an entire year, and he wasn’t joking. Twelve months later, his journal was crammed with successes, near-successes, and outright failures. During his year-long experiment with veracity, he made a disastrous financial investment, fielded hundreds of intrusive questions from friends and strangers, attended a thirty-year class reunion, and waded into possibly the most revealing—and hilarious—situations he has ever documented.

Find out what happens when a follower of Jesus does his level best to always tell the truth. There is no doubt you’ll be entertained. But don’t be surprised if you are left with a question: how might your life be changed if you sold out to the truth—with no exceptions?


My Review:
To Be Perfectly Honest is a humor book about Christian living. My main problem with the book was that I thought it was about insights (illustrated by true stories) into the unexpected benefits of always telling the truth. That took up only about 10-15 pages in the book. The rest of the book was mainly about getting a laugh out of the reader.

The author stated that he didn't feel that jokes counted as lies. So a book about telling the truth contained deliberate lies for the purpose of getting a laugh. Not so much a problem in theory, but I sometimes had a hard time figuring out when he was telling a true, naturally funny story and when he was lying in order to make the reader laugh. While I love to laugh and find life quite funny, I unfortunately didn't understand or enjoy most of his humor.

Why did I read this book? I don't struggle with telling the truth. Nonetheless, I was interested in the subtitle's claim of "One man's year of almost living truthfully could change your life. No lie." Since the humor was a flop for me, it's too bad that I didn't even get any new "honesty" or "Christian living" insights out of the book. Every time he had an "aha!" moment, I was thinking, "You mean, you didn't know that?" But I guess I gained the insight that not every longtime Christian knows these things.

I should mention that I was bothered that the author felt that telling the truth was an excuse to be cruel or arrogant toward others. (For example, he said mean things about his wife's cooking and justified it as being truthful. He refused to laugh at someone else's jokes if he didn't find them funny, which he used to do just to be polite. He never understood that you can find something both nice and truthful to say in "be polite" situations.)

And while I appreciate the author's willingness to be open about his struggles as a Christian and while he did come to some good conclusions, I didn't like his attitude toward practically everyone in his life (made me glad I didn't know him) and I didn't agree with every Christian insight he came to. (I'm glad he no longer feels the need to pretend about his feelings when praying to God since that's pointless, but I don't agree that God's pleased by him being openly angry at Him. Phil's angry because he thinks he knows better than God about how things ought to be done, but, well, that didn't go over too well with God in the Garden of Eden.)

There were some discussion questions at the back of the book that focused mainly on telling the truth and the insights Phil gained. They, like this book, seem geared mainly toward those who lie frequently.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.

Book Quote: Lost Boys of South Sudan

From A People Tall and Smooth: Stories of Escape from Sudan to Israel by Judith Galblum Pex (pages 37, 39, 46-47):

From 1983 to 1987 our life was stressful. Food was no problem, but when the government heard that rebels were in a particular place, they would come and even abduct children. So in 1987 when I was about ten years old, I decided to run away and join the other boys who were fleeing our area.

During the war the policy of the Arab-controlled government was to Islamize the boys especially. They aimed to change our ideology. The government soldiers might seize girls and women and abuse them, but boys were crucial to their plan to create a new Muslim society. They would brainwash the boys, give them guns, and send them back to kill their own people. That's how they operated. And that's why our parents sent us boys away.

Not all of us reached Ethiopia. We were protected by two or three rebel neighbors who were guiding us and fighting for us. But still, lions, leopards, and other wild animals killed many. Boys also died of hunger and thirst. Some were shot. Although the tribal militias were fighting with our guards, the bullets reached us too.

Each child received a tiny ration of water, barely enough for one day. In the desert they weighed the precious water for us.

'Be strong,' our leaders told us. 'When you reach the river you can drink as much as you want.'

Thankfully, in south Sudan a lot of gazelles pass through in herds, and our leaders hunted them. We children collected firewood and skinned and butchered the animals. We put the meat right on the fire. We had only a few pots, so if another group was cooking, we had to wait before we could have some soup. Only if we stayed in one place for a few days did we have time to wait. Otherwise roasting was the main way to cook. There were also wild vegetables to forage in the bush. We just ate what we wanted, depending on where we came from and what kind of wild fruits we had learned about in our area.

There were so many of us children traveling that I can't even estimate the number. In 1987 when we reached a place called Panyido over the border in Ethiopia, there were more than twenty thousand boys. For various reasons, no girls were with us. Because most of us were young, even eight years old, we started getting childhood diseases like chicken pox and measles. I witnessed a lot of my cousins dying in the camp but I didn't catch those sicknesses because I'd already had them at home. Many of us died of hunger and diseases. There was no treatment. Our rebel guards were trying to help us, but what could they do?

'You must come and care for these thousands of children,' the Ethiopian government begged the United Nations.

They came; but still our life was very, very, very hard. We suffered a lot. We were left to fend for ourselves. We had to build our own houses an construct roads too. When we went to the bush to fell trees, some of our friends never returned. We left them out there, killed by lions.

The few adults all lived separately from us. The grownups couldn't even help us except to just lend a hand in burying our friends. We buried most of them ourselves but if adults were around they helped us. They could also assist in unloading relief supplies from trucks, work that was too heavy for us boys.

A People Tall and Smooth by Judith Galblum Pex

A People Tall and Smooth: Stories of Escape from Sudan to Israel by Judith Galblum Pex ISBN-13: 978-0-98-189293-1 Trade Paperback: 220 pages Publisher: Cladach Publishing Released: April 15, 2011

Source: Review copy from the publisher.

Book Description from Back Cover:
"At that time gifts will be brought to the Lord Almighty [to Mount Zion] from a people tall and smooth-skinned." -Isaiah 18:7

The popular beach town of Eilat, at the southernmost tip of Israel, is visited daily by international tourists who want to visit the warm waters of the Red Sea. But when hundreds of tall, dark Africans show up to stay, curiosities are piqued. Where did they come from? Why are they in Eilat of all places? When a group of them enter The Shelter hostel run by John & Judy Pex, answers to these questions unfold.

These are the very real stories of how and why five refugees escaped the genocide in South Sudan and Darfur, made their way through Egypt and smuggled into Israel, the only country their Islamic government prohibits them to go. They fled across the border with nothing but the clothes on their backs. No food. No money. No papers. No possessions. Just thankful to be alive.


All of the author's proceeds from the sales of A People Tall and Smooth will go to projects for the Sudanese refugees.


Advance Praise for A People Tall and Smooth:

"Although much has been written about the Lost Boys of Sudan who resettled in large groups in the United States beginning in 2000, very little, if anything, has been written about the countless Sudanese who fled alone to neighboring countries. Judy Pex breaks the silence, unfolding the perilous journeys of Sudanese refugees. For many it was a choice that came at tremendous cost: imprisonment, separation from their children and spouses, hunger, brutal beatings and death. It's a story of resilience, determination and the choice for freedom--at all cost."
--Joan Hecht, award-winning author of The Journey of the Lost Boys


My Review:
A People Tall and Smooth "A People Tall and Smooth" is the combined autobiographies of 4 Christian Sudanese refugees from South Sudan, 1 Muslim Sudanese refugee from Darfur, and the Israeli author (who happens to be a Messianic Jew). The author explained how she ended up in Israel running The Shelter Hostel and how she and her husband first meet the Sudanese refugees.

After helping these refugees for a while, she asked several of the refugees to tell her their story for this book. (They spoke the story into a tape recorder, the author transcribed the material and edited the sometimes disjointed stories so that they were in chronological order, then she confirmed with the person that she'd written up their story correctly.) As the person tells his or her story, the author inserted some comments into the text (using another font so you could tell that the "speaker" had changed). These included her thoughts about how different their lives were from hers or brief stories about the other refugees that the main story reminded her about.

The stories were well-written and easily kept my attention. While the stories were vivid, they weren't graphic. I keep feeling that all Americans (and people from other 1st world countries) need to read stories like these so we can get a realistic perspective on our own lives. While the author did give an overview of the conflicts in Sudan, we mainly get an individual's personal view of the conflict and how it affected them. We also see the problems that refugees face after they survive the conflict and survive fleeing from it.

A black and white map showing the areas under discussion was included as well as some color photographs of the Sudanese refugees. Overall, I'd highly recommend this book.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One
People from over one hundred nations intermingle in Israel. Besides Jews from Kazakhstan and Kansas, Burma and Belgrade, Calcutta, Congo and places in between, over a million tourists every year add to the mosaic. Include in the mixture two hundred thousand legal and illegal workers from countries such as China, Thailand, Philippines, Nepal and Ghana, and it’s clear that the average Israeli is used to seeing faces of all colors and shapes.

In 2007, however, a new group appeared on the scene whose appearance and status was unlike any other till this time. We began to notice men, women, children and babies on the streets in our town of Eilat who were exceptionally black and strikingly tall.

“Where do they come from and who are they?” My husband John and I asked ourselves. “What language do they speak?” Having managed The Shelter Hostel in Eilat on the Red Sea since 1984, we are used to interacting with diverse people groups and were eager to meet these new arrivals.

Our questions were answered when a tall, dark man walked through our front gate one morning. “I’m Gabriel, a refugee from Sudan,” he introduced himself in perfect English.

Read more from chapter one.

More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel

More Than Good Intentions by Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel ISBN-13: 9780525951896 Hardcover: 320 pages Publisher: Dutton Adult Released: April 14, 2011

Source: Review copy from the publisher provided as an eBook through NetGalley.

Book Description from Goodreads:
A leading economist and researcher report from the front lines of a revolution in solving the world's most persistent problem.

When it comes to global poverty, people are passionate and polarized. At one extreme: We just need to invest more resources. At the other: We've thrown billions down a sinkhole over the last fifty years and accomplished almost nothing.

Dean Karlan and Jacob Appel present an entirely new approach that blazes an optimistic and realistic trail between these two extremes.

In this pioneering book Karlan and Appel combine behavioral economics with worldwide field research. They take readers with them into villages across Africa, India, South America, and the Philippines, where economic theory collides with real life. They show how small changes in banking, insurance, health care, and other development initiatives that take into account human irrationality can drastically improve the well-being of poor people everywhere.

We in the developed world have found ways to make our own lives profoundly better. We use new tools to spend smarter, save more, eat better, and lead lives more like the ones we imagine. These tools can do the same for the impoverished. Karlan and Appel's research, and those of some close colleagues, show exactly how.

In America alone, individual donors contribute over two hundred billion to charity annually, three times as much as corporations, foundations, and bequests combined. This book provides a new way to understand what really works to reduce poverty; in so doing, it reveals how to better invest those billions and begin transforming the well-being of the world.


My Review:
More Than Good Intentions focused on what programs (or parts of programs) actually achieved their objective of helping the poor. The authors talked about the studies they've done on this and explain their findings about what works, what doesn't, and how various programs might be improved. The authors acknowledge that people don't always act in their long-term best interest, so we need to understand why the poor act in certain ways (including overlooked problems they face), modify programs to take that into account, and test those programs to see if they're working.

The book was easy to read and very engaging. It contained interesting stories of real people that were impacted by these programs. I'd highly recommend this book to those who donate money to organizations that help the poor and to the people who run these programs.

The topics the authors covered were their studies on how to "sell" a program to poor people (as in, get them to use it), various types of microfinance programs (individual, group, along with basic business training, along with specific business advice, etc.), microsavings programs, agricultural programs, educational programs, and health programs (including reproductive health). The last chapter listed the 7 programs that they discussed that they're the most excited about.


If you've read this book, what do you think about it? I'd be honored if you wrote your own opinion of the book in the comments.


Excerpt from Chapter One, from pages 3-4, 5
... Sometimes, even when we have all the good intentions in the world, we don't find the most effective or most efficient way to act on them. This is true whether we want to save fish, make microloans, distribute antimalarial bed-nets, or deliver deworming pills. The question is: How can we get beyond our good intentions and to the best solutions?

The only real consensus view on the issue is about the gravity of the problem. Three billion people, about half the world, live on $2.50 per day. (To be clear, that's $2.50 adjusted for the cost of living--so think of it as living on the amount of actual goods that you could buy for $2.50 per day in the United States.) In the public dialogue about aid and development--that vast complex of people, organizations, and programs that seek to alleviate poverty around the world--there are two main competing explainations for why poverty persists on such a massive scale. One camp maintains that we simply haven't spent enough on aid programs and need to massively ramp up our level of engagement. They point out that the world's wealthist nations dedicate on average less than one percent of their money to poverty reduction. In their view, it just doesn't add up. We could get serious about ending poverty, they say, but we haven't even given our existing programs a fair chance. The first thing we have to do is give more. A lot more.

The other camp tells a starkly different story: Aid as it exists today doesn't work, and simply throwing money at the problem is futile. They point out that $2.3 trillion has been spent by the world's wealthiest nations on poverty reduction over the past fifty years and ask: What have we accomplished with all that money? With poverty and privations still afflicting half the globe, can we really claim to be on the right track? No, they say, we need a fresh start. The aid and development community as it exists today is flabby, uncoordinated, and accountable to nobody in particular. It's bound to fail. They argue that we need to pull away resources from overgrown, cumbersome international organizations like the United Nations, wipe the slate clean, and focus instead on small, agile, homegrown programs.

....Jake and I propose that there actually is a way forward....Sometimes aid works, and sometimes it does not....The critical question, then, is which aid works. The debate has been in the sky, but the answers are on the ground. Instead of getting hung up in the extremes, let's zero in on the details. Let's look at a specific challenge or problem that poor people face, try to understand what they're up against, propose a potential solution, and then test to find out whether it works. If that solution works--and if we can demonstrate that it works consistantly--then let's scale it up so it can work for more people. If it doesn't work, let's make changes or try something new.