In an Op-Ed article published this morning by the International Herald Tribune; Ngozi Okonjo Iweala, former Finance and Foreign Minister of Nigeria, writes in defense of the Bank and its staff. more…
New York Post claims that Wolfowitz has split up with partner Shaha Ali Riza. They also say that “a World Bank source” told them that Riza may be returning to the Bank after Wolfowitz officially steps down end June. Which gets wbp.org to thinking - who else of the Wolfowitz coterie is going to hang around and for how long? more…
Spotted in Private Eye, the uncanny likeness between former head of the World Bank Paul Wolfowitz and number-loving puppet Count von Count from Sesame Street.
Columnist Charles Onyango-Obbo, writing in The EastAfrican, concludes that, at least for Africa, his scandal may have been his biggest reform success. more…
Newsweek’s humor columnist Andy Borowitz envisions another unilateral move by President Bush: naming Wolfowitz the head of al-Qaeda. more…
The Government Accountability Project has been able to obtain a board report suggesting that the newly appointed Country Manager to Iraq, Simon Stolp may not be the best candidate. more…
The Dutch executive director at the World Bank, who led the committee that completed the report on the Wolfowitz Fiasco, and the Dutch Development Minister, who has been one of the more outspoken officials calling for an open process to select the next WB president, spoke to the Dutch media, as reported in English in an article from South African Press Agency (SAPA). more…
Although Paul Wolfowitz is sorting his papers and waiting for an invitation to Africa, work remains to be done below the tip of the iceberg. The Board has dealt with him, but there is more to clean up. There’s new news, and it involves Robin Cleveland (again), this time with Anwar Ibrahim, former PM of Malaysia and now Chairman of the Foundation for the Future. more…
You could see it as stating the obvious. Or as helping to make it less likely that he’ll have to continue working with his rival and soon-to-be-former boss. Either way UK Chancellor Gordon Brown has briefed Reuters that the next World Bank is likely to be an American (i.e. not Tony Blair). Also ‘peppered’ with questions at the G8 finance minsters’ get-together was US Deputy Treasury Secretary Robert Kimmitt, one of the rumoured candidates. more…
Moisés Naím, editor in chief of Foreign Policy magazine, served as Venezuela’s minister of trade and industry and as executive director of the World Bank in the early 1990s, and has has published a very thoughful opinion piece about the qualifications a WBG president should bring to the job. Posted yesterday in the Dallas News, presumably an outlet that is well-read in and near the White House.
