Friday, April 27, 2007

Where is Bono?

Call me cynical but it seems to me that there are a lot of people out there who like to talk about saving Africa, but when one man...namely Paul Wolfowitz, not Bono...actually does something to help the poor people who live there...well he gets shafted for his trouble. Time and again the good old boys find a way to turn institutions like the World Bank or the United Nations into some sort slush fund account for international thieves and parasites. If they do not allow people like Wolfowitz or Bolton to bring reform to these institutions, will the time come when the American people refuse to support them any longer? Will they kill the golden goose?

From the Opinion Journal:

"I would say that Wolfowitz's performance over the last several years and his leadership on African issues should certainly feature prominently in the discussions . . . . In the Liberian case and the case of many forgotten post-conflict fragile countries, he has been a visionary. He has been absolutely supportive, responsive, there for us . . . . We think that he has done a lot to bring Africa in general . . . into the limelight and has certainly championed our cause over the last two years of his leadership, and we look forward to it continuing."

The deputy prime minister for Mauritius, Rama Krishna Sithanen, then piped in that "he has been supportive of reforms in our country . . . . We think that he has done a good job. More specifically, he has apologized for what has happened."

Sub-Saharan Africa is the world's poorest region, and Mr. Wolfowitz has appropriately made it his top priority. On his first day on the job, he met with a large group of African ambassadors and advocates. His first trip as bank president was a swing through Burkina Faso, Nigeria, Rwanda and South Africa. He also recruited two African-born women vice presidents, a rarity at the bank.

If you're surprised by that last fact, then you don't appreciate that the World Bank has always been a sinecure for developed-world politicians. They get handsome salaries, tax free, and their performance is measured not by how much poverty they cure but by how much money they disperse.

Mr. Wolfowitz has upset this sweetheart status quo by focusing more on results, and especially on the corruption that undermines development and squanders foreign aid. Yet many of the poor countries themselves welcome such intervention. At the same April 14 press conference, Zambian Finance Minister N'Gandu Peter Magande endorsed the anticorruption agenda:

"We should keep positive that whatever happens to the president, if, for example, he was to leave, I think whoever comes, we insist that he continues where we have been left, in particular on this issue of anticorruption. That is a cancer that has seen quite a lot of our countries lose development and has seen the poverty continuing in our countries. And therefore . . . we want to live up to what [Wolfowitz] made us believe" that "it is important for ourselves to keep to those high standards."


Good luck with that.

22 comments:

Barry Dauphin said...

Terrye
As I read the WSJ this morning, I thought the same thing. Why doesn't Bono spend some of his political capital (never mind Paulson) to defned Wolfowitz?

Rick Ballard said...

Screw Bono. Why are US taxpayers supporting anything with 'World' in its name? Is there any reason that we need EUroweenie help in making decisions regarding loan guarantees?

If the World Bank is such a wonderful thing, where is the list of its 'success stories'? What do we 'get' for the 'give'?

ex-democrat said...

agreed, rick, but terrye's question is a good one: one to be recalled the next time some pompous narcissist from the entertainment world purports to lecture the rest of us on morality. a liberal friend of mine had dinner with Bob Geldof recently. "Did you ask him why he hasn't weighed in to defend Wolfowitz and his proposals to end corruption at the World bank?" i asked. "Actually, i spent most of the time trying to get my daughter a job in his latest project" came the response.
That tells you all you need to know about liberals.

Habu said...

Buddy,
I hope the paper came out well, I'm sure it did under your keen eye.

An interesting aside to Carrie Nation. As you know I have a place in Montana. Now in Montana Butte is known as the toughest town anywhere and after reading up on it's history I would put it up against any town ever in the USA. (I don't go near Butte)
But here's what happen to Carrie Nation when she showed up in Butte with her prohibition travelling band.

Every few years a several month shutdown would happen due to strikes, low copper prices, or company efforts to break the union. The miners worked every hour of the day so every eight hours another shift hit the bars and brothels. Although the rest of the state had closing hours, Butte bars stayed open. The brothels were famous throughout the west from the parlors to the low rent "cribs" individual rooms just big enough for a cot and a door. One such row of cribs is an electrical shop on Mercury Street across from the old Dumas once a famous brothel and now an antiques shop. Butte brought keno to the U.S. adapting it from a Chinese gambling game. Butte also ended the anti-liquor crusading career of Carry Nation. Nation showed up with her ax in 1910 but she ran into May Maloy a barkeep and madam who beat her so badly that Carry fled town and retired for good.

Carrie Nation and Butte,MT

Miners and mining owner goons made things so bad at one point that the US Army was sent to Butte to restore order..they were lead by then Capt. Omar Bradley.

Habu said...

'Smoking gun' tape of Hillary previewed
Excerpt of conversation now available, allegedly shows commission of felony

Clinton's participation in the planning of the event would make Paul's substantial contributions a direct donation to her Senate campaign rather than her joint fundraising committee, violating federal statutes that limit "hard money" contributions to a candidate to $2,000 per person. Furthermore, knowingly accepting or soliciting $25,000 or more in a calendar year is a felony carrying a prison sentence of up to five years.



Hillary Guilty?

Habu said...

Lest words lose their meaning

Bill Otis at the ACRU blog has launched a Dictionary of Poltical Correctness. Here are some of the first few entries:

Multiculturalism - Multiculturalism is a big word meaning, "The West stinks." The shorthand version is, "America stinks." Under multiculturalism, George Washington, a slave-owning white male with no accomplishments of note, is out, and Che Guevara, an anti-imperialist leader, is in.

Verbal violence - Verbal violence is a statement a liberal doesn't like but has trouble refuting analytically. Thus, if you say that hard-edged feminism is at odds with traditional families -- the kind in which children usually do best -- this is "verbal violence" against women, and you have to sit in the corner (or sit out the next semester, or attend the sensitivity class, etc.).

Bill has entertained me for years with this brand of insightful humor. Now he belongs to the blogosphere.


My personal favorite I've seen so far is:

Tolerance - Tolerance is the mind-set that requires you to assume that every way of living is as good as every other way of living. Thus, if a woman has X number of kids by Y number of men, none of whom she troubled herself to get to know all that well, much less marry, we must accept this in the name of "tolerance" of a "non-traditional lifestyle." (Indeed, we are required not merely to tolerate it but foot the bill). If you are rude enough to point out that the kids who come into the world this way are much more likely to be poorly educated, not to mention abused by the next boyfriend, you are "intolerant." In bygone days, "tolerance" had a different meaning, to wit, an open attitude of good faith toward socially benevolent behavior and beliefs even if different from your own, but that view is now held principally by old fogies.

Habu said...

Previous post from POWERLINE

http://powerlineblog.com/

Unknown said...

rick:

that was my point about the killing of the goose.

habu is interesting.

Habu said...

terrye,
Thank you for the compliment. It's really more a factor of the material but I'll graciously accept the "interesting" compliment.

I have blogged with Buddy at another site for about a year but we both grew somewhat soured on the atmosphere there so we chilled.

Buddy Larsen is the interesting guy. He often times is sparse with his badinage but believe me he knows what from what and has a great sense of humor and an encyclopedic knowledge.

I branched out to several sites and knowing this was his I wanted to participate.

Rick Ballard said...

habu,

Between antisemites and defeatists BC turned into a cesspool - I stopped bothering to read comments there a long time ago. Terrye uses the "your first chance is your last chance" doctrine regarding scurrilous comments here and I support (and help) her in doing so.

Glad to see you here.

Unknown said...

Why, rick, you are making me sound positively school marmish.

I am gentle as a lamb and have the patience of a saint.

And don't you forget it.

Habu said...

Rick,
Thanks for the welcome. Yeah BC was my first blogging experience. Initially it was informative but as you pointed out things changed. Then there was a rush by many, me included over to the Elephant Bar which was a haven for the banter that drove wretchard crazy.
Well the EB in my opinion became a site for blame America first. Now I still blog there because I know what I know and I'm not obliged to let some of the statements go unchallenged...I'm very much persona non grata there but I'm not involved in the talent or swimsuit competition so being the most popular doesn't bother me.

A big plus at both BC and EB was the banter with Buddy but he (I believe) got sick of the atmosphere in those places too.

So I'll be around and we'll just have to fix the worlds problems right here.

buddy larsen said...

habu, you're too kind, go stand in the corner. No, really, I'm not a working member here--I'm just a light commenter, shame on me. Terrye gets the champagne toast, as you'll soon see after you follow her awhile.

buddy larsen said...

haven't followed Wolfie's case as close as I should--but some days ago I noted firmly that the people who don't lie were saying he did nothing wrong, and the people who do lie were saying he did. So, Bolton, Rummie redux.

buddy larsen said...

Late 60s, roughnecking summers and flunk-out semesters in Montana & Wyoming, I saw--was in on some, oft to my chagrin--what looks from this point in time, to me, to have been the last of the Old West.

Saturday nights in Miles City, or Gillette, or Casper, yer saloon would have four groups--the strangers (the contract harvesters in season, and the roughnecks, following the drilling rigs across the landscape), and the locals, cowboys and townies. The cowboys and townies had all the girls in the early evening, but the numbers became fluid as the hours wore on. Everyone was young, tougher n a boot, and very drunk. Oh, yeah, we had some brawls. I always tried to just watch, as working derricks with busted hands was godawful painful. I look back and can't believe how different the world was then. Maybe it's just me--hah!

ambisinistral said...

Habu,

I also recognize you from the BC. I rarely post there, but do read it on a regular basis, primarily for Wrethards comments.

The bantering was getting a bit out of hand. I like the Biased-BBC's method of handling that problem -- they run regular open threads that act as catch basins for the back and forth between commenters (and they're frequently the most interesting threads).

These are disheartening times. Those of us who think the war is ongoing, and still needs to be fought because to surrender is unthinkable are dwindling at the moment. Ah well, history never moves in a straight line, our day will come.

buddy larsen said...

Carry A. Nation was 6' tall & 180 lbs, in her heyday. A genuine wild-ass American original.

buddy larsen said...

Disheartening times is right. If I had to burrow down to the single nugget of demoralization, for me it's that the war and the world situation is so plainly obvious, that I have a hard time with the Dems--a hard time respecting them. And that's not good, it's 1850s-ish. Wars always start long before anyone notices.

buddy larsen said...

A father watched his young daughter playing in the garden.

He smiled as he reflected on how sweet and pure his little girl was.

Tears formed in his eyes as he thought about her seeing the wonders of
nature through such innocent eyes.

Suddenly she just stopped and stared at the ground. He went over to her to
see what work of God had captured her attention.

He noticed she was looking at two spiders mating. "Daddy, what are those two
spiders doing?" she asked.

"They're mating," her father replied.

"What do you call the spider on top?" she asked.

"That type of spider is called a Daddy Longlegs," her father answered.

"So, the other one is a Mommy Longlegs?" the little girl asked.

As his heart soared with the joy of such a cute and innocent question he
replied "No dear. Both of them are Daddy Longlegs."

The little girl, looking a little puzzled, thought for a moment, then lifted
her foot and stomped the spiders flat, saying "Well, we're not having any of that
brokeback mountain shit in OUR garden."

richard mcenroe said...

or in the words of Dame Edna... "Cooee, Bono?"pit

Habu said...

George Washington called him indispensible to our Revolutionary War victory. A damn high accolade. His words are always worth the reading, they never grow out of date, they are for eternity.

THE CRISIS

December 23, 1776
THESE are the times that try men's souls. The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of their country; but he that stands by it now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict, the more glorious the triumph. What we obtain too cheap, we esteem too lightly: it is dearness only that gives every thing its value. Heaven knows how to put a proper price upon its goods; and it would be strange indeed if so celestial an article as FREEDOM should not be highly rated. Britain, with an army to enforce her tyranny, has declared that she has a right (not only to TAX) but "to BIND us in ALL CASES WHATSOEVER" and if being bound in that manner, is not slavery, then is there not such a thing as slavery upon earth. Even the expression is impious; for so unlimited a power can belong only to God.


The Crisis in full

Habu said...

Hair Ball

I Feel Pretty,oh so Pretty