The latest scandal involving a do-gooding international body:
Corrupt use of World Bank funds may exceed $100 billion and while the institution has moved to combat the problem, more must be done, the chairman of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on Thursday.
Sen. Richard Lugar, an Indiana Republican, charged that "in its starkest terms, corruption has cost the lives of uncounted individuals contending with poverty and disease."
He commended World Bank President James Wolfensohn for bringing greater attention to the issue, but said, "Corruption remains a serious problem."
Corrupt Enron went broke, allowing reputable firms to have their markets and workers. That's how capitalism functions. The World Bank, of course, has no such restraints on its behavior.
If Enron had the power to send forth paramilitary bodies to incarcerate people at gunpoint for failing to fork over the moohlah, then Enron would have been comparable, in terms of danger and evil, to the World Bank, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, or countless other bodies which exist through tax revenues.
Can this be in any way tied to Haliburton, Dick Cheney, Bush or Rumsfeld? No? Than why would anybody waste valuble newsprint on this, or any other so called "scandal"?
/sarcasm off/
Stephen,
I'm glad you posted this. I saw it earlier today, but had forgotten. I'm glad it wasn't lost amidst all the other horrible news...
Just another reminder that whereever there is big money (i.e., UN oil for food), there is big corruption.
Wow, who would have thought the Argentinians were right about the World Bank all this time? I thought they were just trying to get out of their debt payments. Surprise, surprise: another corrupt and unaccountable international agency revealed for what it is! Bureau-scum!
If Enron had had that power to "send parliamentary..." then Enron wouldn't have been in court, they'd have been applauded, just like the UN and the World Bank.
