Terrorism Alert!

Apparently, Washington has come across some "strikingly alarming" evidence for a terrorist attack on America. Wait, on America, or on certain American institutions that go against everything that Americans should stand for (see: democracy)? Indeed, two of the main targets for attack are the IMF and World Bank. I think we should all hope and pray (if you are into that) that nobody gets hurt and the buildings are evacuated before the attacks; but it is also important to pray that those two buildings are bombed to hell. Talk about destroying terrorist bases.

Former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers told Congress in 1995 that, for every $1 that the U.S. spent on the World Bank, it got back $1.30 in contracts for U.S. corporations.
Summers called this "enlightened self-interest." He should have called it extortion.

A few Terrorist Activities of the WB and IMF (random order):
1. the number of people in the world living on $1 a day increased to 1.3 billion as a result of the East Asian financial crash of 1997-98--and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) austerity policies that followed
2. In South Korea, a country whose income was approaching European levels, unemployment skyrocketed from approximately 3 percent to 10 percent
3. In Indonesia, the worst hit country, poverty rates rose from an official level of 11 percent before the crisis to 40 to 60 percent in varying estimates. (hey, at least we can wear Nike shoes! that probably evens things out)
4. The state of Orissa, in eastern India, received a $350 million loan from the Bank in 1996 to restructure its electricity industry. But the condition was privatization of the state electricity board, which was taken over by the U.S.-based power company AES in mid-1999 for $10 million.
After privatization, power rates in Orissa jumped by 500 percent--despite the fact that only 20 percent of households could afford power when the industry was run by the state.
5. In October 1999, Orissa was hit by devastating cyclones that killed thousands and made millions homeless. Even as the state government was struggling to cope with the disaster, Dennis Bakke, the chief executive of AES, demanded to be paid $60 million for the cost of repairs to the electricity system.
6. Since its creation, one out of every four trade disputes that came before the WTO involved one country challenging another’s laws on health, safety or the environment. In each case, the WTO has ruled against such regulations--on the grounds that they amounted to an illegal trade barrier and had to be removed or modified.
7. Indonesia’s Suharto–the vicious tyrant who ruled for four decades until he was toppled in 1998–was especially notorious for funneling money to himself and his family. But the World Bank had nothing but praise for Indonesia under Suharto.

It only took a few minutes of searching and reading online to find these examples. There are many more if you actually go out and read a book on them, such as (as I have mentioned before) Greg Palast's The Best Democracy Money Can Buy.

FIGHT TERRORISM, FIGHT THE WORLD BANK AND IMF!