Paul Collier is Presented with the Gelber Prize

Francisco Noguera — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 10:07:45 -0400

March 29, 2008 - 09:00, Globe and Mail

Interview with Gelber Prize Winner Paul Collier

Story Link: http://www.theglobeandmail.com/servlet/story/RTGAM.20080328.wreckoning0329/BNStory/International/home

Teaser:
LONDON - "I think that economists have a responsibility to write in such a way to be read by ordinary people and by political leaders," the bearded and bespectacled Oxford professor says, in a quiet and careful tone, from his home in France. "So I wrote a book that's very readable."

That may not sound like a humble claim, but then Paul Collier has very clearly been read by a lot of people lately. His book, The Bottom Billion, argues plainly and often rudely that a dramatic change is needed in the way we deal with the world's poorest nations. It stands out from the pile of angry manifestos written by former aid-agency gurus during the past year for one important reason: It has become part of our language.

In January, United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon declared that 2008 should be "the year of the bottom billion," citing Mr. Collier's ideas, and then invited him to spend a day lecturing to the members of the UN Security Council. In the weeks that followed, he was invited by the cabinets of Britain, Norway, the Netherlands and Japan to deliver seminars in foreign aid.

On Tuesday in Toronto, Mr. Collier will be presented with the $60,000 Lionel Gelber Prize, the top honour in non-fiction book writing. While this prize has often gone to books that are elegantly written (Eric Hobsbawm's Age of Extremes) or meticulously researched (Steve Coll's Ghost Wars), in this case the judges have plainly gone for sheer clout: Wherever you find yourself these days, somebody seems to be citing Paul Collier.

LONDON - "I think that economists have a responsibility to write in such a way to be read by ordinary people and by political leaders," the bearded and bespectacled Oxford professor says, in a quiet and careful tone, from his home in France. "So I wrote a book that's very readable."

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Paul Collier is Presented with the Gelber Prize