codshit.com: Stiglitz warns of violence if Wolfowitz goes to World Bank

Tuesday 22 March 2005

Stiglitz warns of violence if Wolfowitz goes to World Bank

Joe knows what he's talking about, this appointment is like givng the fox it's own keys to the chicken coup! On a side issue, why is that the last two presidents of the World Bank have both had "Wolf" in their names? The Cosmic Coincidence Control Centre must be working overtime on this one...

Prof. Joe Stiglitz

Joseph Stiglitz, the former chief economist of the World Bank and one of the world's most influential economic thinkers, has launched a savage attack on US plans to appoint Paul Wolfowitz as the World Bank's new president.

In an exclusive interview, the American Nobel laureate said: "The World Bank will once again become a hate figure. This could bring street protests and violence across the developing world." He described President Bush's determination to appoint his deputy defence secretary to the important post as "either an act of provocation or an act so insensitive as to look like provocation". Wolfowitz is widely regarded as the creator of the policy that led to the US war in Iraq.

The choice of Wolfowitz has also created a dilemma for Tony Blair and Gordon Brown. They fear he would stand in the way of their high-profile initiative to alleviate African debt and poverty. However, they are reluctant to spark a dispute with the White House by going public with their concerns. "This is a big problem for us," said an official close to the chancellor. "We are still working out what to do."

The presidency of the World Bank is in the gift of the White House, while the International Monetary Fund, its sister body, is normally run by a European. The Bank is the world's most important development institution. It is the main lender to poorer countries for a whole range of projects, including the fight against poverty and HIV/Aids.

In an interview with Liam Halligan, the economics correspondent of Channel 4 news, Stiglitz said he was concerned that the Bank would "become an explicit instrument of US foreign policy". He added: "It will presumably take a lead role in Iraqi reconstruction, for instance. That would jeopardise its role as a multilateral development body."

This is Stiglitz's first public utterance since last week's nomination. When he was the World Bank's chief economist - under the current president James Wolfensohn, whose decade-long tenure ends in June - he played a major role in rebuilding its battered reputation.

Full story...

Enlightenment

Do you feel like you're living in some Orwellian nightmare? Or perhaps you feel as if you're plugged into The Matrix? Well if so, you've come to the right place. No matter how messed up you thought the world was, by the time you've finished reading some of the things I've found on my travels in Cyberspace you'll realise that 1984 was just a typo!

A note to the non-ravers out there: codshit is NOT a derogatory or insulting term and bears no relation in offensiveness to its four-letter cousin, it's a word used to describe the nonsense that people sometimes talk when they are off their heads. To understand what codshit is watch the film Human Traffic.

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Wisdom

Americans have different ways of saying things. They say 'elevator', we say 'lift'...they say 'President', we say 'stupid psychopathic git'....
.: Alexi Sayle :.

If you confront the Universe with good intentions in your heart it will reflect that and reward your intent... usually... It just doesn't always do it in the way you expect.
.: G'kar :.

So there, we have figured it out, go back to bed America, your government has figured out how it all transpired. Go back to bed America, your government is in control again. Here, here's American Gladiators. Watch this, shut up. Go back to bed America, here's American Gladiators. Here's 56 channels of it. Watch these pituitary retards bang their fuckin skulls together and congratulate you on living in the land of freedom. Here you go America, you are free... to do as we tell you.
.: Bill Hicks :.

Let there be no doubt that the people of the free world are engaged in a war... In the next few years, we are either going to see the people of the free world rise up against these fascists, now setting the stage for global war, or we are going to see the end of democracy as we know it with martial law the end result.
.: David Shayler :.

Nothing will end war unless the people themselves refuse to go to war.
.: Albert Einstein :.

Wisdom