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Hiding behind Africa
Andrew Young, an op-ed in Monday's Washington Post leading to a penultimate paragraph that looks as if Bob Bennett, Paul Wolfowitz's spokesman, was busy over the weekend pushing the "it's a small matter, really, nothing to get upset about" argument, speaks about the distinguished American's travels with Paul Wolfowitz in Africa. The facts are somewhat less flattering. Why? So he could re-label himself as "Mr. I Help Africa" instead of "Mr. Blood on My Hands Iraq". Thousands of dollars have been spent on this utterly deliberate "24/7"'media campaign, under the direction of Kevin Kellems. The World Bank website was forced to carry story after story about him, far out of proportion to what was newsworthy. Photographers and video cameras accompanied PW everywhere while he learned the simple basics about Africa that every other development expert already knew. Preparation for these trips took up so much time that country directors were left trying to figure out how to avoid his self-centered visits so that their entire operation would not be tied up and hijacked for weeks on end. Their work programs literally stopped to accommodate his imperial needs, his security detail, his videographer, his entourage (Robin Cleveland often tagged along when maybe she should have been working on the budget and strategy, three times rejected by the Board.) And when "President Wolfowitz" arrived, he never even asked what he could do to help them with the government, as Jim Wolfensohn always did ("What do you want me to say or do? What do you need? Use me"). He made fatuous statements on arrival, as if he was a head of state. Journalists complained of "Arrival Statement Spam". The smaller client states that depend on World Bank loans for their stability (think of all the bunched up African loans now pending at the Board before end of year) were been forced and manuevered into compromising statements during the Spring Meetings, and any diplomatic nuance they may have tried to use in them has been stripped out in the stories posted on the World Bank website. (External Affairs professional staff complained bitterly about being ordered to post an article on the Bank's official website during the Spring Meetings with the headline, ""African Leaders Support Wolfowitz". ) The small states are hostages. And the states with corrupt leaders are leaning back, enjoying the spectacle, knowing that the next time the World Bank country director walks in to say that they have to deal with nepotism, favouritism, public sector reform, ghost workers or corruption, well, they will just be able to say, "Clean your own house first." This has been much commented on in the African press and by civil society, and in a stinging editorial in the newspaper of record in Kenya. In fact, the future of IDA depends on it. There is no way to raise $30 billion from the US Congress and other parliaments with Paul Wolfowitz at the helm of the World Bank. Deep Insider ~ April 30, 2007
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May 2007 
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