This is a blog about economics and tropical forests. I write it simply as a hobby. I write in the hope that in the struggle my writing will help me find what I truly want to say. I hope readers will find I’m talking about things that matter and are of interest, that are provocative and also amusing to them. I’m going to make my own point of view known – - life is too short to pull any punches.

I call myself a conceptual economist. That is, I’m interested in economic and social structures. I want to know how the parts work, denkyem.jpgbut also how they fit. For example, markets are social constructs. Their feedback loops are often intricate, usually tangled or knotted and far from understood. We try to find out how and why they work, and we try to think about what would happen if changes occur. This means continually testing our own our ideas and concepts of society – and at the same time understanding how these structures shape our view of the world. Many we will find to be inequitable and inefficient. But to change them we have to know what they are. This is what I try to do. Marx said famously that philosophers tried to understand the world, but the point was to change it; but without a better understanding you will not know how to change the world – at least not for the better. But you can´t get away from the analysis: numbers do count,  and economists need to ask the relevant questions, based on economic theory, and use the data to identify & remove the constraints to growth and development.

Jonathan Davies Oct 2007

Jonathan Davies is a journeyman economist, who has lived and worked for 20 years in Africa and Central America, and now lives in Girona, Catalunya. Between 2005 -2007 I helped on the forest reforms in Liberia.

denk_sm2.gifThis Adinkra symbol is DENKYEM (“the crocodile”). It is the symbol of adaptability. The crocodile lives in the water and yet breathes air. They also have sharp teeth. See more adinkra symbols and meanings.

Header photo is of Sapo National Park, Liberia, which I took from an UNMIL chopper accompanied by Ethiopian peacekeepers.