The World Bank - Robbery With Violence

  • “at the end of the day, what actually happens is not decided by us but by the likes of those who run and staff the World Bank and the IMF.” ⤴️
  • “Because of capitalism the World Bank creates poverty and destitution in most countries that it involves itself with:” ⤴️
  • “just a messenger for decisions that are taken about Mozambique in Washington, London and Geneva.” ⤴️
  • “great riches under the ground — diamonds, coal and precious minerals — it is an very poor country.” ⤴️
  • “These two institutions — set up during World War 2 — decide on the main features of our economies today. They decide on whether money should be put into the economy (increased public spending) or whether money should be taken out (cutbacks). They have one main consideration in mind when they make these decisions. They consider ‘what is the best thing for business’” ⤴️
  • “The World Bank and IMF obtained the power that they now have largely as result of the unequal balance in wealth that was created in the world by colonialism.” ⤴️
  • “The proper name for the World Bank is actually the International Bank for Reconstruction and Development.” ⤴️
  • “countries such as England, France, Italy and the United States emerged in much better condition. It was these countries, the main beneficiaries of colonialism, that set up the World Bank and the IMF in 1944.” ⤴️
  • “From this name, one can get some idea of what the actual purpose of the WB is meant to be: “to loan money at a favourable rate to developing countries for the purposes of economic development and progress.”” ⤴️
  • “Rather than helping to alleviate inequality they began, very quickly, to make it worse.” ⤴️
  • “borrowing was an accepted economic practice. However, with the onset of massive oil price rises in the early seventies, prices sky-rocketed. So did the interest rates that were payable on borrowed money.” ⤴️
  • “One of the major problems with SAPs, as they are applied, is that ‘non-essential services’ are often defined as the very services that the most people need in the first place — for instance hospitals, schools and the public services in general.” ⤴️
  • “All countries were hit by the oil crisis and by the recession. But poorer countries were hit severely. Because their economies were weak and vulnerable they had to continue borrowing despite the high costs involved.” ⤴️
  • “the World Bank underwrote a lot of the world’s debt (much of which was owed to private banks).” ⤴️
  • “As the ‘Debt Mountain’ began to grow, economic thinking (if one could call it that) also began to shift towards what we now call ‘Thatcherism’ or ‘Reaganomics’. This meant, that if there were bills to be paid, then it was better to get poor people to pay them.” ⤴️
  • “In general, their thrust was to cut funding to all non-essential services as a means of ‘saving money’ in the debtor countries” ⤴️
  • “it tends to blame forces outside its control, like ‘Africa’ or ‘corruption’ or ‘famine’. The fact is is that the SAPs, more than any other single policy strategy in the last twenty years, have impoverished millions.” ⤴️
  • “the Soviet Union tended to financially support countries that took a friendly attitude to it; it also tended to trade with these countries. This, at least, gave some countries an alternative source of credit and food (which allowed them some bargaining room with the IMF/WB).” ⤴️
  • “However, with the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1989, this fallback position was removed. Many countries, from that point on, had no choice but to deal with and accept the commands of the World Bank and the IMF” ⤴️
  • “The real beneficiaries are the people who depend on the Third World for its enormous mineral resources and for its cheap labour pool. Coal, diamonds, alumina, coffee, tea, grain, nickel, tin (to name but a few) are all purchased at prices that are far, far below their real worth.” ⤴️
  • “it is the merchants in the middle that make the real profit. Ultimately they control the price of many commodities — and in this way they also obtain an important say over the wages and conditions of the workers in these countries.” ⤴️
  • “The USA has always dominated the Bank.” ⤴️
  • “Hydroelectric dams, ports and highways are favoured by the WB. Projects like these eat up 50% of all money ‘loaned’. Often the ports are located ‘conveniently close’ to a some Multinational company that is doing business in the country at the same time.” ⤴️
  • “‘heavy industry’ construction is often contracted back to companies in the ‘donor countries’.” ⤴️
  • “‘heavy industry’ construction is often the wrong thing for poorer countries. Their requirements are often much more basic: housing, water pipes, irrigation, etc.” ⤴️
  • “WB bank planners don’t tend to consider ‘the other side’ of development: community disruption, environmental degradation, etc.” ⤴️
  • “The WB regularly does business with dictatorships.” ⤴️
  • “companies are much more prepared to travel anywhere to rip-off workers. The World Bank encourages this by “encouraging developing countries to adopt favourable wage polices”. In return the World Bank gives these countries a good ‘credit rating’.” ⤴️