Wolfowitz Says Won't Preach Democracy at World Bank

Reuters ^ | Mar 27 2005

[hedgetrimmer]

Paul Wolfowitz, Washington's controversial pick to head the World Bank (news - web sites), has pledged to be an "international civil servant" if confirmed in the job and said he would not to use it as a platform to preach democracy.

The former ambassador to Indonesia and a key figure in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq (news - web sites) said in an interview published in the Jakarta Post newspaper on Monday he would concentrate on poverty reduction with a special focus on Africa.

"If I am confirmed I will be an international civil servant. I will be president of a multilateral organization with 184 member nations," Wolfowitz said in the interview in Indonesia's leading English-language daily.

"I am very aware that I am accountable to a different group of people than I am in my current job...The job of the president of the bank is to pull together the most effective possible consensus."

Wolfowitz, who is currently deputy secretary of defense in the administration of President Bush (news - web sites), has proven a controversial choice because of his role in planning the 2003 Iraq invasion that was bitterly opposed by many European countries and the Muslim world.

However, approval by the bank's board, which operates by consensus, is likely a foregone conclusion and is expected by the end of this month. Washington has the largest voting share on the 24-member board and traditionally nominates the president.

Asked if he would use his position to promote democracy, Wolfowitz said:

"I think people know what I think on that subject, but I think I'll be more effective if I concentrate on those things that lead to poverty reduction and economic development."

Wolfowitz said while issues of corruption and governance were not easy to separate from democracy, he would focus on getting donors to be more generous, developed countries to open their markets and developing nations to tackle corruption.

He said the bank had made Africa a special priority.

"In part that's because some of the most horrible conditions of poverty in the world, compounded by the severe health epidemics, are to be found in Africa," Wolfowitz said.

[hedgetrimmer]

So the federal government is just a bump in the career paths of the "international civil servants". ***

The World Bank is not a “bank” in the common sense. It is one of the United Nations’ specialized agencies, and is made up of 184 member countries. These countries are jointly responsible for how the institution is financed and how its money is spent. Along with the rest of the development community, the World Bank centers its efforts on the reaching the Millennium Development Goals, agreed to by UN members in 2000 and aimed at sustainable poverty reduction.

http://web.worldbank.org/WBSITE/EXTERNAL/EXTABOUTUS/0,,contentMDK:20040558~menuPK:34559~pagePK:51123644~piPK:329829~theSitePK:29708,00.html

[America's Resolve]

Wolfowitz Says Won't Preach Democracy at World Bank

So. ummmm. What exactly is wrong with preaching democracy????

The most advanced, successful countries in the world are democracies. BAR NONE!!!

[Texas Eagle]

What the hell is an international civil servant? Sounds like something out of Austin Powers movie.

[Huguenot]

Maybe he's trying to say that preaching democracy isn't really part of the job. I don't know. I never paid much attention to the World Bank. I don't know what someone in his position normally does. I couldn't even tell you who had the post last.

[antiRepublicrat]

So. ummmm. What exactly is wrong with preaching democracy????

[tinfoil hat on] Because if we preach democracy in Africa, then they might develop functioning economies where the World Bank money actually goes to improve conditions rather than on useless projects and dictators' pockets. If this happens enough times, then third-world poverty might go away, and then there would be no more need for the World Bank. IOW, the World Bank's (our) money needs to be wasted in order for the institution to perpetuate.

[LoudAmericanCowboy]

[telebob]

Wolfowitz doesn't have to preach democracy to effect democratic change. His role is to control the purse strings to 'starve out' the kleptocrats and dictators that now suck at the teat of the world bank.

Don't worry, he's still Bush's boy...

[hedgetrimmer]

huh?

[LoudAmericanCowboy]

Sorry, should have put a caption

After these past 4.5 years, Wolfowitz has to promise not to preach freedom and democracy?

[hedgetrimmer]

Don't worry, he's still Bush's boy...

The world bank is one of the United Nations’ specialized agencies. Wolfowitz says he has a new group of people to answer to (hint: not the American people).

The world bank is a wealth redistributions system. It arranges for "rich countries" to give their money away to "poor countries". It is effectively an unconstitutional foreign aid agency, because only congress is allowed by the constitution to administer foreign aid. Whats worse, as a specialized agency of the UN,the UN's pet program for advancing global socialism--sustainable development-- is a major impetus for world bank investment.

[LibWhacker]

I'm hoping he means that actions speak louder than words, and that his every decision will be a bludgeon for democracy.

[telebob]

I understand what the World Bank is. You're missing my point.

[hedgetrimmer]

Ah.

[goodnesswins]

Seems odd....if it's a "bank".....it needs MONEY....democracies seem the best way to create/grow MONEY....so WHY NOT PREACH DEMOCRACY? Would it insult the little tyrants?

[SAJ]

The World Bank pre-dates the UN by about 21 months. It was created as an adjunct to the Bretton Woods agreement of 1944, which was itself designed by certain of the confreres of the arch-socialist Keynes, if you please.

The WB's original mission was to be generally a lender of ''last resort'' to signatory nations; this hasn't been the case for decades, of course. It is now, as you so accurately note, merely another instrument of redistribution...as if international redistribution has EVER brought one nation -- ANY nation -- into a developed nation status, or indeed produced even ONE positive result for a borrowing nation (over more than, say, two years' time).

Why the devil would Wolfowitz issue such an idiotic disclaimer? Well, I've my views on that particular question, which views, I promise you, will not be well received by FReepers generally, and will be loathed by the ''Bushbots'' here.

[hedgetrimmer]

The United Nations Monetary and Financial Conference held at Bretton Woods in July 1944 prepared the Articles of Agreement set out in Schedule I for an International Monetary Fund and in Schedule II for an International Bank for Reconstruction and Development;

The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development is the bank you are thinking of, the World bank is the successor.

These proposals for an international fund and international bank are concrete evidence that the economic objectives of the United States agree with those of the United Nations. --PRESIDENT ROOSEVELT'S MESSAGE TO CONGRESS ON BRETTON WOODS MONEY AND BANKING PROPOSALS

[SAJ]

Exactly. The IMF has mutated, too. Originally, per Bretton Woods, IMF was merely to be an institution that restored ''balance'' to the sundry monetary accounts of the signatories. When Bretton Woods collapsed from 1971-1973, the IMF reinvented itself, a la the World Bank and without any treaty authority, and turned itself into a self-perpetuating group of bailout artists.

Which, as history has demonstrated too amply, is yet another fiction. IMF ''lends'' (read: gives) money to corrupt regimes under the notional condition that said regime will impose what is inevitably a socialist regime, to wit, higher taxes, more import/export restrictions, MUCH more business regulation, and so forth.

Between the World Bank and the IMF, in terms of principal repaid on their ''loans'' to assorted nations, exactly $100 million has been repaid -- by Mexico in 1979. The rest of the couple of hundred billion (that's 'billion' with a 'B')? Fuhgeddaboudit (I do love that construct word from New Yorkish dialect, btw). Gone forever, into the pockets of assorted kleptocrats.

FReegards to you, and, if Wolfowitz won't change the tune at the World Bank, you'll have a very, very clear indication of exactly what President Bush is all about. We will, all of us, see shortly (not an encouraging sign, btw, that Herr Prime Minister Shoe-Odor now supports Mr. Wolfowitz).

[sergeantdave]

A money-sucking organization of socialist pirates, engaged in theft - land for debt swaps - and mass murder - agitating against DDT use in Third World countries.