Well said, Vijayan. There's always been a debate over whether the politician is the bigger problem, or the bureaucrat. I have always held that even bigger than the two, there's another formidable force - the status-quoist. And, the solutions to the countries problems lies in tackling him.
Muralidhar Rao On Sun, Jan 18, 2009 at 6:50 PM, Vijay Menon <[email protected]> wrote: > > 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 -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
