It's really a portal through which structured aid is channeled. If it were a bank it would not be terribly large, it would be terribly overstaffed and it's balance sheet performance would not be that good. It's operations have a lot less to do with economic policies and a lot more to do with foreign relations. If you were a bank you would not be in the business of giving out development loans to the government of Uganda for example, given the years long civil war with the LRA chewing up the most valueable resource rich areas in the country. It's a sucker bet. Especially so at the fire sale interest rates they stipulate. And according to the Club of Roma, Uganda is an upper tier country in terms of risk vs. macroeconomic development. It's far better than most.

The point being, the WB is a strange beast. You have to disavow yourself of what you think of an American running it because it doesn't operate like an extension of the White House. It never has. In fact it probably does align itself more with the State Dept. in opposition to the White House for development projects in high risk areas that are not on the White House's list of places to control. Organizationally it works with the State Dept to target those areas that actually need the help.

So he's going to put quaint hippy save the earf messages on Myspace. Given that according to soccermom.com, ~eleventry trillion % of all people on MySpace are child rapists maybe that's not a bad idea.

And he's going to include recycling challenges on some of his 18-25 hotties drunk and screaming reality shows.

And he's going to replace all the lightbulbs at Legion of Doom HQ with CFL's.

While letting the windbags yell all day about how it's all hoax and how science itself is really a commie queer liberal plot to rape your viginal daughters in the name of Islam etc.

Seems to me that the Monkey King is still the King. They're still in Iraq and a spineless Congress seems inclined to go along. They're still working outlaw the social contract that's worked well for the last 200 years. They're still stealing everything that's not nailed down.

Sure he's the biggest failure since Nero, be he's still standing there fiddling, isn't he?

The hottest thing since nitromethane to hit the F1 circuit had zero problems with cheesecake shots by the thousand. Did it help her career? Yeah probably it did. No harm no foul I see.

Like those of ZA and Zimbabwe who officially and categorically deny that AIDS exists, for years and years that has something to do with it. I mean the President of ZA, Mbeki,denied that AIDS was real until his own son died of it. Which is probably why 40% of the adult population is HIV+ today. I can fully appreciate the hippies and revisionists here who either want to blame all men or, make some weird comment about circumsiscion but that really doesn't get to the heart of it. For instance, in West Africa one quaint sexual practice, even among people who know each other is where men prefer to penetrate a woman who's completely 'dry' as it were. Thereby creating microtears in the tissue walls. One would think that public health officials would try to dissuede people from doing this. But they don't.

BTW this article is misnamed. Nothing here is a cure. It's a preventive measure.

English language Lebanese newpaper, an interesting review of the inner machinations of WB (possibly agendized - see footer of author's credentials and sponsorship) and failures going back to at least before Wolfowitz.

http://english.daralhayat.com/business/05-2007/Article-20070507-666738d2-c0a8-10ed-01b2-ede8070565f9/story.html

Though I'm not sure precisely what the objection to Wolfensohn is, I can see that organizationally WB functions is way that is pretty much un-bank-like. One can see that applying basic milestones to debtor nations seems, to the author, to be on its face, wrong. Which only reinforces the notion that WB is more of an NGO in direct competition with other NGOs.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YkAPaEMwyKU

Chris Hitchens world book tour 2007 lashing out at Falwell, Jews, Bush and the usual suspects. I wonder though what we'll be saying at Drunky McStalin's own funeral? I love angry lynchmobs.

Yeah I'm THAT mercenary. Go to the Board member and lay it out. Your kid is a work-in-progress, I don't want to have to spend any political capital in the community to defend him, he was clearly foisted on the minions in order to collect some promotion points and since he'll clearly and in the long run be promoted far in excess of his abilities, then what is in it for me? Work out a deal.

If Board member takes umbrage and lordy lordy there are few people as selfaffective and prickly as philanthropists, then just drop it and make a form letter kind of bland reference.

They're tired of being tied to Bush's political anchor. But the next psychotic retarded demagogue they can find, these 'rebels' will be kissing his boots. I guess no one remembers rule #1 for revolutions: Shoot all your enemies' turncoats first. If they can't be trusted to support their friends then they can't be trusted to support you.

Accuse Ashcroft of murdering his opponent in the 2000 Misouri election? Seems that the only virtue you can hang on him is that he was royally pissed off at being disturbed in his hospital bed and being told what his job is. Hero? I don't think so.

You DO understand that the next pan continental wars in Africa will be fought not over oil or diamonds or COLTAN but over healthcare. In many African nations, after years of employing rape as a weapon, the armies are more than 70% HIV+. This means the sickest most desperate segments of the population are also the most heavily armed and ruthless. The catastrophe will be spectactular.