Jon Camfield

Thinking about tomorrow’s threats against human rights and Internet Freedom. Frustrated Optimist, gardener, salsa dancer, cook, husband, dad, embarrassed Texan. Opinions here are my own. he/they.

2 minute read

Carrot: "The World Bank has promised to contribute a record $3.5bn (£1.7bn) to help the world's poorest countries. The figure is double what the agency initially said it would give ..."

Carrot: "[Zoellick , World Bank President] also reduced the charges on loans to emerging countries, such as China, for the first time in nine years."

String: Head-scratching: "The dramatic step is part of the World Bank's strategy to increase its business with 79 nations classified as middle income, including India, Brazil, Russia and South Africa and get them to help with poverty-fighting efforts."

Stick: "Mr Zoellick warned that if the Group of Eight industrialised nations stuck to their promise made in 2005 to cancel the debts of the world's poorest countries, a shortfall was likely to emerge in the World Bank's aid pot."

...and the hand holding the stick: "He urged developed countries to increase their donations so as to help impoverished economies invest in their infrastructure and become sustainable, and not leave them to rely on money from countries that do not have their best interests at heart. "

Read: Pay the Bank or the commiesterrorists win!

Remember, Zoellick is new to his WB job, having served as the US Trade Rep for the thus-far failed Doha round, and then as Deputy Secretary of State to dubya. To quote from an Oxfam article regarding his stint as USTR:
Another area of trade policy in which the Bush administration exercises global leadership, superbly captured by the Zoellick manifesto, can be summarised in a single word, `hypocrisy'. Like the British colonialists that attracted the ire of the Boston tea party fraternity, the United States is a good old-fashioned mercantilist power, combining protectionism at home with a commitment to free trade overseas.