When something is repeated over and over again and not disputed then it is perceived to be correct. So let me write on this oft repeated “so called conspiracy” by the World Bank on “poor developing countries” and how we are all too blind too see their “sinister” designs.
Elsewhere is this groups I have also been named as someone who would know the true inside story of GBWASP and how the World Bank and its so called agent (need I name??) threatened to loot our ‘poor country” and state until the great socialists came to rescue us!! They were supposed to take over our resources, our water. Conveniently, as the argument goes, this privatization /take over of resources was an unwritten agenda, a behind the scenes conspiracy. So deep a conspiracy that the only ones who knew about it was this same anti World Bank lobby. So much easier to invent a conspiracy then really search for a real one.!! The point is all this kind of talk, is rooted in some ancient view of the world of black and white, good and evil and also from the last bastions of those who have “anti-America” as the core minded agenda. Along with this “anti” stance is the anti capitalism, anti privatization stances. The story is simply.(since I am supposed to know about GBWASP) that the World Bank. wanted in the project a) Transparency b)Accountability c) Citizen participation (do these tenets seem familiar !!) And yes sustainability. That means a system where the project is self sustaining, not forever dependant on subsidies. Free from political and bureaucratic milking. And not eating into tax payer’s money in perpetuity…a commercially feasible project. That’s about it. It is this objective ( and yes the world bank does have sustainability and commercial viability as tenets) that was construed by this so called citizen centric lobby to mean privatization of natural resources, an extremely emotional issue which requires only wild accusations for a project to grind to a halt. And remember, this same lobby had an unforgiving hate for the “agent” who was responsible for the citizen participation part of the World Bank agenda. And guess what ..the government did not refute the charges. It was in their interest to limit world bank influence and citizen participation for a mega project like this ( good money was available for milking please !!) And that’s the short story of how the anti America/anti privatization/ anti World Bank lobby played into the hands of the bureaucracy and political class and destroyed something that could have been a watershed infrastructure project, with an inbuilt watch dog mechanism. So in conclusion, The World Bank is not lily white and blameless. No one is. But this taken for granted stance that all things World Bank is a sinister conspiracy, and the tendency to promote this as an internal belief system in CAF,is the actual sinister conspiracy!! --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Citizens' Action Forum" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/citizens-action-forum?hl=en -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
