Michael L. Ross > Quotes

“growth have different consequences for gender relations: when growth encourages women to join the formal labor market, it ultimately brings about greater
gender equality; when growth is based on oil and mineral extraction, it discourages women from entering the
labor force and tends to exaggerate gender inequalities”
― Michael L. Ross

“Oil production affects gender relations by reducing the presence of women in the labor force. The failure of women to join the nonagricultural labor force has profound social consequences: it leads to higher fertility rates, less education for girls, and less female influence within the family. It also has far-reaching political consequences: when fewer women work outside the home, they are less likely to exchange information and overcome collective action problems; less likely to mobilize politically, and to lobby for expanded rights; and less likely to gain representation in government. This leaves oil-producing states with atypically strong patriarchal cultures and political institutions”
― Michael L. Ross, Oil, Islam, and Women

“In the 1980s and 1990s, Venezuela’s Petróleos de Venezuela S.A. (widely known by its acronym, PDVSA), was one of the world’s most politically independent and well-managed national oil companies. In the early 2000s, President Hugo Chávez stripped PDVSA of its independent authority and replaced its top officials with loyal followers. He then placed PDVSA in charge of administering a new set of social programs, closely tied to his political machine. By 2004, two-thirds of PDVSA’s budget went to social programs, not petroleum-related activities. As its social programs grew, PDVSA’s transparency fell. After 2003, its financial disclosures dropped sharply, and independent observers found its activities increasingly difficult to monitor.73”
― Michael L. Ross, The Oil Curse: How Petroleum Wealth Shapes the Development of Nations

“Michael is an excellent storyteller and has done a wonderful job depicting Luther, and the other black characters in this book. He has done his homework and depicts many historical facts about Nicodemus in a most enlightening and creative way. It has been a pleasure working with someone who has made a concerted effort to get things right.

Angela Bates
Nicodemus Descendant/Historian
Executive Director
The Nicodemus Historical Society and Museum”
― Michael L Ross, The Founding

“This was nothing like doing drills in front of Morrison or even the skirmishes they’d seen in the war up to this point. What compelled men to don clothes of different colors, like skins, march out on a field, and kill without thinking, based on the color of that woolen skin?”
― Michael L. Ross