Tuesday, May 16, 2006

Property Rights and Goat Kneecaps

One of my favorite Duke students, engineering major but with an encompassing sense of responsibility and potential, sent this note back from Uganda....

GREETINGS FROM KAMPALA!

Hey,

I read De Soto, passed it on to my teammate, and signed it over to the director of the Rural Agency for Sustainable Design in nearby Nkokonjeru. It's definitely seeing a full life! We actually talked once about the need to register titles for property there, and about how title registration is (definitely) separate from land ownership, at least culturally? in some ways. All fairly confusing, but it was nice to draw from the book and then be able to give it to them! So thanks.

In other news, Mosques DO sound at 5:30 am the whole world-'round, and "fried goat meat" may or may not consist of goat kneecap, depending on how specific you make your order.


I had suggested he read Hernando de Soto's THE MYSTERY OF CAPITAL on the plane on the way over. If you haven't read it, you might want to pick it up. (Yes, my friend John Nye hates it, but he is such a detail guy).

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