Category Archives: quiz

aid, poverty, quiz, war

Military Spending and Development Aid

The correct answer is here. A comparison between aid spending and military spending for a selection of countries is here. I should add that I believe development aid is very important, but I don’t believe that it can solve all problems, that it doesn’t create problems, or that the amounts given should necessarily always get bigger.

More on development aid. More on military spending.

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quiz, uncategorized

Human Rights: Thinking Outside the Box

thinking outside the box

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The expression “thinking outside the box” means thinking beyond convention or conventional wisdom, beyond the boundaries of the familiar and the usual, off the trodden path. It means imagining unusual, creative and new solutions to problems, solutions that are different from the normal, knee-jerk reactions to things, and from the normal way of looking at things and doing things. It implies forgetting all the assumptions that everyone else is making.

The expression has become part of standard management mumbo jumbo, unfortunately. Future managers are taught to think outside the box, in an effort to encourage them to be creative and original (but not too much). The expectation is that managers who are creative and innovative will help to boost the company’s profits.

The phrase comes from a riddle many of you probably already know. For those who don’t: take a look at the image below. You see a “box” containing 9 dots. The goal is to link all 9 dots using 4 straight lines or less, without lifting the pen.

thinking outside the box riddle nine dots

The solution is here. I guess that makes the meaning of the expression somewhat clearer. I try to apply this approach to the subject of human rights. A few examples (click on the links to know more):

  • The rule of law, although normally a prerequisite for the enforcement of human rights, can often be the most efficient tool to violate them. See here and here.
  • Oppression and exploitation can occur by mutual agreement.
  • Human rights activism can be counter-productive and self-defeating.
  • No matter how hard we try to protect people’s human rights, they often don’t care about human rights, or even reject them. So why do we try?
  • Human rights violations may be self-inflicted.
  • Some human rights violations may actually benefit the victims, and may not benefit the perpetrator.
  • Some human rights may be taken to such a logical extreme that they become duties.

Here‘s a post that deals in some detail with the topic of “thinking” (inside or outside the box). And there’s another riddle here.

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human rights and international law, law, quiz, war

Test Your Knowledge of International Humanitarian Law During Wartime

Take the test here (there are only 12 questions). More on humanitarian law here and here. Other tests: test your knowledge of human rights, and test your knowledge of the death penalty. And, if you really want to learn something about yourself, test how racist you are.

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education, quiz

Test Your Knowledge of Human Rights and Economics

Time for some serious fun: try this human rights quiz, and this economics quiz (via Greg Mankiw). And if you’re a new reader, there has also been this quiz testing your knowledge of the death penalty, and this one testing how racist you are.

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discrimination and hate, quiz, racism

Racism (3): Test Your Racism

racism

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Try this test and see how racist you are, consciously or even – and more interesting – unconsciously. A few words from the designers of the test:

It is well known that people don’t always ‘speak their minds’, and it is suspected that people don’t always ‘know their minds’. … No personally identifying information is collected. IP addresses are routinely recorded, but are completely confidential.

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