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Go Home Wolfowitz V. Corruption

THE SPINE SEPTEMBER 14, 2006

Wolfowitz V. Corruption

BY TNR STAFF

I know that most of you know that the president of the World Bank, Paul Wolfowitz, is, as I am, a member in very good standing of the Elders of Zion. So it follows that anything I say in his behalf might be dismissed as an act of fraternity or, worse yet, ethnic clannishness. But there is an article by Steven Weisman on the front page of the business section of today's New York Times about a controversy in and around the Bank over the tough stand Wolfowitz has taken with regard to rampant corruption in particular countries that are recipients of the institution's loans and contracts.

The Times specifies India, Chad, Kenya, Congo, Ethiopia, Indonesia (a place he knows quite well, since he was once the American ambassador there), Kenya, Bangladesh, and even Argentina as particular villains, which is to say, targets of Wolfowitz's disciplined wrath. He has even barred more than 300 companies from business with the World Bank.

But that's not what the article is really about. It's about the opposition that had coalesced in international banking circles against Wolfowitz and his struggle against one of the mainstays of Third World economies. To be blunt: This means his struggle with people and institutions whose very habits are corrupt, degraded, and inimical to the lives of poor people whom the Bank tries to help. The culture of the World Bank itself is hostile to Wolfowitz, because he was an architect of the Iraq war. Another criticism is that he has not paid sufficient tribute to his predecessor, James Wolfensohn. Horrors!

What's especially intriguing is that Wolfowitz's inside critics seem prepared to go on funding those who pilfer from the public till. It's as if combating fraud is "somehow at odds with development." What fraud means in these circumstances, of course, is the diversion of funds from the approved projects to the pockets of men and women who probably have been lining their pockets with other people's money for years.

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17 comments

Paul Wolfowitz is indirectly highlighting the never ending corruption of the United Nations. But aren't the World Bank and the UN separate institutions? Oh come on, let's get real. Leftist utopians prefer to avoid reality. This is why Claudia Rosett did not even get a well deserved Pulitzer nomination. A number of right wing crazies long ago warned of black helicopters and UN domination of American institutions. Yes, they are weird people---but sometimes they were more right than wrong. The United Nations was doomed from the very beginning. Alger Hiss and his traitorous buddies made sure that the Soviet Union played a prominent role. This is similar to erecting a building on quick sand.

- thomsondavid

September 14, 2006 at 7:41pm

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How did the World Bank sink to this level? Was it dominated from the beginning with fundamentally corrupt officials who care little or nothing about the poor and justice? Why is Wolfowitz, and his genuine concern for the poor, so unusual at thw World Bank? Does human nature make it impossible to construct international institutions that will truly help people, rather than line the pockets of corrupt and greedy men, men like Kofi Annan's son? Pamela Proietti, University of Memphis

- pwproietti

September 14, 2006 at 9:14pm

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Note that the private sector investment bankers involved in the third w-, er emerging markets depend on corrupt officials for their bond deals and market access. Funny that none of Wolfowitz's critics would speak on record, which tells you most of you need to know. One of the more amusing anecdotes from the article is the one about all the harrumphing over poverty reduction taking precedence over fighting corruption. As should be obvious to everyone on the planet by now, the biggest root cause of poverty in most of the developing nations is of course official corruption. Fortunately Steven Weisman ends the article with a telling, pro-Wolfowitz quote from a Kenyan who's been exiled from his homeland for his courageous efforts against his own country's kleptocracy. Not even Pinch could spin the facts of this story against Wolfowitz.

- teplukhin

September 14, 2006 at 9:53pm

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Mr. Peretz, I thought this was an excellent short comment, right on the money and saying something that should be said. That aside, a few things I don't get: 1 Whither all the animus against you? Why can't people disagree with you if they choose to, but not be so ad hominem? 2 What's with the knock about your "terrible" prose style? I think you write pretty well--and by training I'm in a pretty reasonable position to judge that. 3 What's so objectionable about a really smart, really knowledgeable guy, telling us the way it is, as he sees it, passionately, and without pulling any punches?

- basman

September 14, 2006 at 9:57pm

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The World Bank like the UN are merely there to bribe the unholy dictators of underdevoled countries. I am glad Wolfowitz is trying to do something about corruption, however like the UN the corrupt are in charge and the last thing they wish is to be made whole or uncorrupt.

- jacksondyer

September 14, 2006 at 11:56pm

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Hey, I happen to agree with him on this one. (Even though we all know the only reason he posted it is because of the perverse joy he gets out of rankling some liberals by any mention of Wolfowitz that isn't completely critical.) But doesn't anyone else think it's a tad fishy how positive and supportive of Marty EVERY comment to this post is? Perhaps Marty is pulling a Lee Siegel. (I kid, I kid. Please don't take away my subscription.)

- achester99

September 15, 2006 at 12:02am

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Naw, I don't think any Sprezzatura fabulation is going on. I think The Spine is a spineful echo chamber. I think that the people who like Marty - yes, the few, the mightly few - read and post on the Spine

- MrCookie1

September 15, 2006 at 10:58am

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Look I'm all for anti-coruption but if the World Bank isn't going to give money to developing countries that have corrupt governments, what is it going to do? Ireland and Portugal can only use so much.

- jacksonsher

September 15, 2006 at 11:53am

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Me, I'm not a champion of Israel and don't particularly care, to be blunt, about the Isr-Pal conflict that will probably go on, and trigger interminable pissing matches on the internet (or brian-net or whatever replaces it) thirty years from now. I like Marty's stuff for the same reason I love reading Christopher Hitchens, a writer whose views on Israel are probably opposed to Marty's on nearly every point: their writings are always erudite and never tainted by cant or groupthink. Nearly impossible to find, even in this vast ocean of choice we readers/surfers now have.

- teplukhin

September 15, 2006 at 12:12pm

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"achester99 posted by MrCookie1 on 2006-09-15 10:58:10 [warn tnr] [respond] Naw, I don't think any Sprezzatura fabulation is going on. I think The Spine is a spineful echo chamber. I think that the people who like Marty - yes, the few, the mightly few - read and post on the Spine." You claim you don't like, don't read, avoid, Peretz like the Dickens. But this is the 9,000th time I have read this by you, here, on his blog.

- basman

September 15, 2006 at 2:35pm

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Nothing could be further from the truth. I have been cutting Marty Peretz a lot of slack. He and I, for instance, strongly disagree about Al Gore and global warming. Sooner or later, we will come to verbal blows.

- thomsondavid

September 15, 2006 at 4:54pm

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who cares, david? no one is forcing you to read the Spine.

- jacksondyer

September 15, 2006 at 10:50pm

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Why don't y'all and Peretz get a room?

- porkido

September 16, 2006 at 9:39am

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- MrCookie1

September 16, 2006 at 4:43pm

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I answered this on another thread. I enjoy reading the posts on The Spine, though I do browse the topic covered by El Vato de Vertebrae. If you look closely, you'll notice that most - not all - of my posts on The Spine are response to another poster, not necessarily to VdV. Basman, I sense you have a hard on for me...sorry but I can't help you anymore. And, I don't attacke El Vato de Vertebrae, in fact, as I mentioned on another post, so far, I have been the only poster to congratulate El Vato de Vertebrae on the birth of his grandchild... So, basman, I realize these are dog days for conservatives such as yourself, I know that facing the dreaded countdown to a good solid ass kicking on Nov 7th is like the Sword of Damocles, hanging over your heads just ready to cleave. To paraphrase Bush, it must be hard work bein' a Republican this day of September 16th in the year of our Lord 2006. My heart bleeds baby, it really does..

- MrCookie1

September 16, 2006 at 4:50pm

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"Basman, I sense you have a hard on for me..." Nah, not at all, but you do make my heart go pit-a-pat.

- basman

September 18, 2006 at 1:40pm

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that's better I suppose... hey, some other critic called me the 'village idiot". I suppose I'll take hypocrite over village idiot if forced to choose...

- MrCookie1

September 18, 2006 at 4:39pm

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