True Believers at the World Bank (From McNamara to Wolfowitz)

[IndianaGreen]

Published on Monday, May 30, 2005 by the Los Angeles Times
True Believers at the World Bank
Rigid ideology is a threat, not an asset.

by Barbara Garson

A few decades after the end of the war that he managed, former Defense Secretary Robert McNamara told us that the Vietnam War had been a mistake and he apologized.

Great. But when, I'd like to know, is he going to apologize for the World Bank?

<snip>

To get ready for privatization, South African communities followed the World Bank/IMF suggestion that water rates be raised so consumers would get used to paying the full cost. The water of many people was cut off when they couldn't pay their bills. In some places they started taking water from rivers. The result was a cholera epidemic.

Cholera is an extreme result for a development scheme. But then, privatizing water in Africa is an extreme application of the World Bank's private investment theory. After all, a private company has to have some way of making money.

How is a private water company supposed to recoup the expense of extending pipelines to people who are simply too poor to pay the real cost? If you buy a Third World water company, it's far easier, you'll quickly discover, to recoup the investment by siphoning the water out to be bottled and consumed elsewhere.

http://www.commondreams.org/views05/0530-28.htm

[NorCalDem]

1. We seriously need to stop all this BS

Who came up with the idea of BUYING a god-damn RIVER to be sold back to the indigenous people living on that river at a sharply increased cost, so high that they can't afford it and therefore have to go without water. Don't we understand, it's AFRICA, not NYC, people are not industrialized, the culture isn't ready for privatized water. Who gave these corporations the right to buy all the worlds natural resources, and then provide only for those capable of paying their prices. This is ridiculous. After we take back our government, our next duty should be to capture and prosecute these corporate swine that think they are God's gift to world, when all they do is squeeze the life out of it.

[HereSince1628]

2. The World Bank is a great tool for domination and empire building

Step one...get the target nation to borrow money from the WB
(this can be greatly facilitated by undertaking a prolonged aerial bombing campaign or surface invasion)

Step two...get them to borrow more money from the WB at higher interest rates (promise them that development will bring them into the world economy)

Step three...get them to borrow more money from the WB to pay interest

Step four...install puppet goevernment to deal with economic distress

Step five...repeat step three and four until local currency collapses

Step six...blackmail them, er, ...offer to relieve them of their debt in return for "favorable" trade agreements.

[truth2power]

3. Read "Confessions of an Economic Hit Man". n/t

[bemildred]

4. Corporations are the modern equivalent of medieval fiefdoms.

The divine right of money has replaced the divine right of Kings.