ADB in Asia : Creating Poverty through Corporate Colonization ************************************************ MOBILIZE HONOLULU MAY 4- 11 2001!!! In May 2001, a little-known institution called the Asian Development Bank will hold its Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawaii. As it has done for the last 35 years, Bank staff and directors will meet behind closed doors to make decisions that will affect people living throughout Asia and the Pacific-decisions that have impoverished the lives of hundreds of thousands of people and wreaked environmental destruction. Like other international financial institutions, the ADB has come under increasing fire in recent years. At the ADB�s last Annual Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, thousands of Thai villagers demonstrated for three days outside the Bank�s meeting place demanding that the Bank stop several projects. The ADB is hoping to avoid controversy by holding its upcoming meeting in Honolulu. What is the ADB? The Manila-based Asian Development Bank was created in 1966 to provide loans and technical assistance to so-called "developing" countries in the Asia-Pacific region. The Bank has lent billions of dollars to governments and private companies, mainly for large-scale resource exploitation and infrastructure development projects, such as roads, dams and coal-fired power stations. Together with the World Bank and the Japanese government, the ADB has also played a major role in promoting deregulation, economic liberalization and privatization in the region over the last 34 years. What is the US role in the ADB? Japan and the US are the two largest funders of the ADB. Our tax dollars go toward supporting this little known and unaccountable institution. A board of 12 Executive Directors governs the operations of the ADB and its 2000-person staff. Japan and the US are the two largest shareholders in the ADB, together controlling more than 32% of the voting power within the Bank. The ADB-poverty reduction or poverty creation? Poverty is a vivid reality for millions living in Asia. While the ADB declares �poverty reduction" to be its most important mission, its project often lead to further impoverishment of the poor. The ADB promotes and imposes a development model based on rapid economic growth and free market reforms. These policies fail to recognize the value of subsistence livelihoods and their contributions to national economies. ADB-supported infrastructure projects, such as roads and dams, have destroyed the natural resource base upon which communities depend and have damaged the social fabric of the region. At the same time, these projects serve to transfer money and resources into the hands of local elite and foreign corporations. The ADB�s plans for privatizing basic government services in the region have largely backfired as prices have skyrocketed and the poor can no longer afford energy and water services. The ADB fails to recognize the impacts of its own policies. Instead, the Bank continues to promote more loans to developing countries and encourages them to restructure their economies toward the export of goods and services. For developing countries, this strategy has resulted in increased debt, impoverishment and environmental destruction, and has increased their vulnerability to the ups-and-downs of foreign markets. Meanwhile, developed countries have benefited from a flurry of contracts for Western corporations. Today, the poor are sending more money to the rich than the other way around, and all in the name of poverty reduction. Unaccountable and Undemocratic The ADB operates in a secretive and undemocratic manner and is unaccountable to those whose lives and livelihoods it affects. Decisions on large projects with significant social and environmental impacts are made in remote offices at the central government or international level with little input from members of civil society or the local communities who are the intended "beneficiaries" of development projects. The ADB is not accountable to the people affected by its projects and programs, nor to the taxpayers in donor countries whose money supports the Bank, its staff and operations. By its own analysis, more than 40% of ADB projects fail to achieve their stated objectives. Neither the ADB as an institution-nor its highly paid staff-accept legal, financial or moral responsibility for these failures. Project development studies and environmental and social impact assessments of ADB-funded projects and programs are not subject to public hearings and independent peer review and are often undertaken by consultants who have a vested interest in the implementation of these projects. In several donor countries, the income received by private companies through project contracts with the ADB is equal to, or greater than, the amount contributed to the ADB by these countries. The ADB is simply a mechanism for donor governments to subsidize their own domestic private sector. http://hawaii.indymedia.org/ �������������������������������������������� Asian Development Bank WATCH Asian Development Bank Watch (ADB-Watch) is a network of environmental, indegenous rights, social and economic justice, human rights, religious, and development groups and concerned citizens. Our work involves Raising awareness about the ill effects of the ADB Creating dialogue around environmental and social justice issues surrounding the ADB Building solidarity with local communities in Asia and the Pacific Articulating and exploring alternatives to the destructive policies and projects of the ADB A GLOBAL CALL TO ACTION FROM ADBWATCH HAWAI'I Join the campaign against the Asian Development Bank ADB Annual Meeting * Honolulu May 9-11 Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) Events May 5-11 2001 No Aloha for the ADB ! Join the Global Movement for Justice! Expose the Destructive Policies and Projects of the ADB! The Asian Development Bank (ADB) is a multilateral sister of the World Bank that funds projects which create poverty and undermine local control and cultural rights throughout Asia and the Pacific. The ADB is holding its Annual Meeting in Honolulu, Hawai'i from May 9-11. Parallel NGO event opportunities May 5th to May 11th ADBwatch Hawai'i invites you to join in and create non-violent activities and events challenging globalization and the ADB's record of imposing destructive and oppressive policies, projects and programs on communities throughout Asia and the Pacific. ADBwatch is a broad network of people working for economic justice in Hawai'i, and includes youth, students, economic and environmental justice and human rights activists, Kanaka Maoli (Native Hawaiian) cultural rights activists, clergy, academia, and unions. The ADB Annual Meeting was originally scheduled for Seattle but after massive WTO protests in Nov/December of 1999, the venue changed to Honolulu with the expectation of avoiding resistance and scrutiny. At last year's ADB Annual Meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, 5,000 Thai villagers and farmers protested for 3 days against water usage fees being imposed by the ADB. Keep the pressure on! Help to expose ADB's destructive policies and show the world there is no aloha for the ADB. Show the World that There is NO ALOHA FOR THE ADB!! ADBwatch challenges financial institutions that perpetuate economic terrorism. Our goals: Educate the public on specific ways that ADB (and globalization) increases the gulf between rich and poor Identify ways that globalization impacts people and resources in Hawai'i Identify the impacts of globalization on cultural and economic rights of indigenous peoples Help to unravel the corporate myth of Hawai'i as paradise. Hawai'i is occupied by the US military, colonized politically and economically and we face serious pollution problems. The rights of the Kanaka Maoli are under serious increasing attack by the US and state governments and now by organized right and Campaign for a Colorblind America, a conservative racist, anti-affirmative action organization. For more information, contact us: ADBwatch-UH-Hawai'i 2465 Campus Road RIO Box # A-4 Honolulu, Hawai'i 96822 [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.crosswinds.net/~hexis/ADB-Watch.html �������������������������������������������� THE FOLLOWING ARTICLE APPEARED IN THE LATEST ISSUE OF THE GREEN LEFT WEEKLY.AUSTRALIA NEWS HAWAII: No Aoha for Asian Development Bank BY NORM DIXON The Pacific tourist Mecca of Honolulu is to be the next focus of demonstrations against the international capitalist financial institutions - in this case the Asian Development Bank. The ADB's board of governors is to meet at the Honolulu Convention Center, May 7-11. Protest organisers - and the Honolulu Police Department - expect that thousands, many from the Asia and Pacific Ocean region, will demonstrate on May 9 against the ADB's anti-Third World policies and projects. The May 9 protest, and other activities beginning May 5, is being organised by ADB Watch, a broad coalition of groups - students, environmentalists, trade unions, indigenous Hawaiians and human rights activists - working for social and economic justice in Hawaii and around the world. ADB Watch issued a call to progressive movements across the world to come to Hawaii �to create non-violent activities and events challenging globalisation and the ADB's record of imposing destructive and oppressive policies and projects on communities throughout Asia and the Pacific�. The Honolulu Police Department (HPD), the city council and the state government have moved to institute a range of repressive measures to deal with the protests. The HPD's 1900 officers, as well as firefighters, sheriff's department officers and the Hawaii National Guard have received special training for �handling civil disturbances, dealing with crowds and other situations�, reported Honolulu Advertiser last December. All police leave has been cancelled during the ADB gathering and officers who normally do desk work will be put on the streets. The HPD is demanding an extra US$6-7 million to provide security for up to 3000 ADB and government officials, as well as media workers, expected to attend the meeting. Among those attending will be many finance ministers from the Asia-Pacific region. US president George W. Bush may also attend. In early April, some 5500 members of the paramilitary Hawaii National Guard donned flak jackets, face shields and helmets and �trained for riot control� before TV cameras and press reporters. Police have been harassing activists as they hand out leaflets in Waikiki and, in one case, a driver with a �Shut Down ADB� bumper sticker was stopped and questioned. The HPD has announced that to �monitor� protesters, police will be checking airlines' lists of arriving passengers and surfing the internet. The Honolulu City Council has introduced laws to make it easier for police to arrest people �camping� in the city's parks and to outlaw the wearing of �masks� or �disguises�. The aim of the anti-camping measure is to ban protesters' camps and remove homeless people from the city during the ADB meeting. The laws will remain in place after the ADB meeting has ended. In another move designed to prevent protesters gathering, the HPD and the city council will close several public parks nearest the ADB meeting site, claiming they will be needed as �staging areas� for police and security forces. Not only will demonstrators be banned but also paddling clubs, little league baseballers and soccer teams. Around 4000 protesters greeted the ADB at the bank's last meeting in Chiang Mai, Thailand, last May. The ADB meeting was originally planned for Seattle but following the 1999 mass anti-corporate protests, ADB officials looked for another venue. After heavy lobbying by the Hawaii Tourism Authority, the meeting was shifted to Honolulu. This has resulted in the unusual situation in which the �independent� Hawaii Tourism Authority has become the official spokesperson for the authorities. The authority has even diverted $500,000 to help the police buy riot gear, in the name of �promoting tourism�! Hawaii Tourism Authority executive director Bob Fishman told the February 7 Honolulu Weekly: �We are training and developing a police force for a higher level of proficiency that makes Hawaii a more attractive place... We will not tolerate excessive inconvenience.� http://hawaii.indymedia.org/ �������������������������������������������� ADB in Asia : Creating Poverty & Corporate Colonization ******************************************** http://hawaii.indymedia.org/adbinasia.pdf Another World is Possible, Alternative Events on Globalization and the ADB Honolulu, Hawaii, May 4-11, 2001 ***************************** http://hawaii.indymedia.org/schedule.pdf �������������������������������������������� Honolulu Star Bulletin Thursday, April 19, 2001 [ASIAN ECONOMIC OUTLOOK] ---------------------------------------------------------------------- ARVIND PANAGARIYA Economic slowdown across Asia will be short-lived THE ASIAN Development Bank, which will hold its annual meeting in Honolulu in May, believes that the economies of East and Southeast Asia will experience a considerable slowdown during 2001. The good news, however, is that the slowdown will be short-lived, with the region returning to its growth trend in 2002, which may affect the economy of Hawaii. The ADB, in its annual forecast, predicts that growth in the newly industrial economics will decline to 4.3 per cent in 2001 before rebounding to 5.6 in 2002. The corresponding forecasts for Southeast Asia are 4 and 4.6 per cent, respectively. The growth rate for all of ADB's developing member countries, which stood at 7.1 per cent in 2000, will decline to 5.3 per cent in 2001 before it rebounds to 6.1 per cent in 2002. The most important factor underlying Asia's temporary slowdown is the slowdown in the United States that began in the second half of 2000. The forecast assumes that the U.S. economy will grow a shade below 2 per cent in 2001, while Japan and Europe will grow in the range of between 1 to 2 per cent and 2.5 to 3 per cent, respectively. The ADB also predicts that India and the People's Republic of China will maintain their current momentum, growing at 6.2 and 7.3 per cent, respectively, in 2001. Due to structural reforms under way in these economies, and because their ratios of trade to the overall economy are much lower than those of most East and Southeast Asian economies, they are expected to stay on course. The main risks related to the weakening of the U.S. economy are based on strong fundamentals, flexible product markets and the possibility that recent investments in high technology have permanently boosted the trend in growth rates. The bank expects that growth in Europe, and especially in the euro monetary area, has become sufficiently self-sustaining to withstand a U.S. slowdown. Although data from Japan suggest that recovery is faltering, it is premature to conclude that Japan will slip back into recession. The ADB believes that outward-oriented trade policies help to lower poverty. Since developing Asia is labor abundant, it has a comparative advantage in labor-intensive goods. Increased trade increases the demand for labor, helping the poor directly. In addition, there is compelling evidence that outward-oriented policies promote growth, which, in turn, provides jobs and governments with the fiscal resources to fund anti-poverty programs. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- Arvind Panagariya is chief economist of the Asian Development Bank. <http://starbulletin.com/2001/04/19/editorial/special.html> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% NO COLD WAR FOR THIS CHINA Mark Weisbrot, AlterNet Though American leaders remain wedded to the idea of the US ruling the world, lucrative business deals are much tastier than a new Cold War with China. <http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryID=10733> %%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%%% NOT ONE OR TWO, BUT HUNDREDS OF PROTESTS Naomi Klein, Globe and Mail There weren't two protests that took place in Quebec City -- one a "peaceful" labor march, the other "violent" anarchist riot. There were hundreds of protests, all resisting the passive vision o
