Friday, May 18, 2007
'How he has always seen himself'
He thought he could transform the Middle East. He thought he could transform the World Bank. Wrong on both counts. ... Paul D. Wolfowitz was probably sincere in his desire to clean up the World Bank's high-minded hackerama. But I have little doubt that a.) he simply lost out in a complex game of ethical footsie played by both sides b.) he employed the same ham-handed tactics that may have worked at the Pentagon with the support of the secretary of defense -- but led to bureaucratic blowback at a World Bank where even the janitors were against him. He shouldn't have been appointed to the job in the first place. ...
As for international organizations in general, one has to see them up close and personal to truly appreciate how insulated they are from both accountability and reality. I was living in Cameroon when the World Bank was negotiating with Chad on funding for a new oil pipeline that would ultimately run through Cameroon. It seemed everyone on the streets in Cameroon knew the Chad government was about to take the World Bank to the cleaners. Sure enough, the oil and money started flowing-- and one of the first things the Chad government did with its new cash was buy military helicopters, not school books for the kids. The World Bank was outraged. But as one NGO type later put it to me, "Seriously, what were they expecting?" ... I bring this up only because the Chad fiasco is mentioned in the above article. ...
He thought he could transform the Middle East. He thought he could transform the World Bank. Wrong on both counts. ... Paul D. Wolfowitz was probably sincere in his desire to clean up the World Bank's high-minded hackerama. But I have little doubt that a.) he simply lost out in a complex game of ethical footsie played by both sides b.) he employed the same ham-handed tactics that may have worked at the Pentagon with the support of the secretary of defense -- but led to bureaucratic blowback at a World Bank where even the janitors were against him. He shouldn't have been appointed to the job in the first place. ...
As for international organizations in general, one has to see them up close and personal to truly appreciate how insulated they are from both accountability and reality. I was living in Cameroon when the World Bank was negotiating with Chad on funding for a new oil pipeline that would ultimately run through Cameroon. It seemed everyone on the streets in Cameroon knew the Chad government was about to take the World Bank to the cleaners. Sure enough, the oil and money started flowing-- and one of the first things the Chad government did with its new cash was buy military helicopters, not school books for the kids. The World Bank was outraged. But as one NGO type later put it to me, "Seriously, what were they expecting?" ... I bring this up only because the Chad fiasco is mentioned in the above article. ...
