Oh right, they can't afford that either but the Marie Antoinette free marketers don't really care any way. They helped create a new bubble for their corporate lobbyist friends in the middle of a global food shortage and as long as their friends are making good money everyone else can drop dead...literally. In our world where we expect to have three meals a day, this increase is painful but nothing like what the poor are experiencing. From the World Bank:
He said the price of wheat had risen by 120% in the past year, more than doubling the cost of a loaf of bread. Rice prices were up by 75% in just two months. On average, the Bank calculates that food prices have risen by 83% in the past three years.
"In Bangladesh a 2kg bag of rice now consumes almost half of the daily income of a poor family. With little margin for survival, rising prices too often means fewer meals," he said. Poor people in Yemen were now spending more than a quarter of their income on bread. "This is not just about meals forgone today, or about increasing social unrest, it is about lost learning potential for children and adults in the future, stunted intellectual and physical growth. Even more, we estimate that the effect of this food crisis on poverty reduction worldwide is in the order of seven lost years."
From one pro-war supporter to another. Doubtful, but how else is Blair going to find a job like this, since he is so widely disliked in international circles?
World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz has resigned his post, effective June 30.
An internal panel tasked with investigating the lucrative pay and promotion package Wolfowitz arranged in 2005 for girlfriend Shaha Riza found him guilty of breaking bank rules.
The committee also found that he tried to hide the salary and promotion package from top ethics and legal officials within the bank. The report added that there is a "crisis in the leadership" at the World Bank.
Wolfowitz is the first World Bank president to ever leave the bank under a cloud of scandal.
ABC News is reporting in breaking news that "PAUL WOLFOWITZ WILL NOT RESIGN 'UNDER THIS CLOUD' AND WOULD RATHER PUSH THE ISSUE OF HIS TENURE TO A VOTE BY THE WORLD BANK BOARD, HIS LAWYER SAYS." (No link, there's no story up yet.)Here's the link.
Dear World Bank, welcome to our world. Bushies who have screwed up, who have you screwed YOU, don't quit until you give them a medal. It's time for the rest of the world to show the US who's boss. Bushies don't negotiate with you, they won't leave without a fight - so give him one. I'd start by taking away his furniture. Though what the Germans just did - telling him he's not welcome in their country - was a hell of a first step. I think he's positioning for a massive monetary settlement. The World Bank had better not give it to him. We don't reward incompetence. Well, WE do here in Republican America, but the World Bank is supposed to set the standard for competence and ethics. Start uninviting Wolfie to every event and every meeting in existence. And like I said, start removing his furniture.
What a total embarrassment. Though the fact of George Bush defending a guy who gave his unmarried sex partner* a cushy job at the people's expense is priceless.
(* "Sex partner" is a phrase the religious right likes to use for committed gay couples, so what's good for the goose...)
The appropriate end for a very bad man. From ABC News:
World Bank officials say the bank's board is completing an "exit strategy" that will allow World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz to resign this afternoon and "still save some face" over the issue of his efforts to seek a promotion and pay raise for his girlfriend at the bank.
The officials say the bank's board will accept Wolfowitz's resignation but will also acknowledge that the World Bank's Ethics Committee bears "some responsibility" for giving him bad advice on the issue of his girlfriend.
The decision is likely today, officials say, because Wolfowitz had been scheduled to leave tonight for a European trip.
German Development Minister Heidemarie Wieczorek-Zeul said yesterday, "He would do the bank and himself a great service if he resigned." The German said Wolfowitz would not be welcome at an Africa forum the bank is holding next week in Berlin should he refuse to resign.
Wolfowitz made an impassioned plea to the board last night to clear his name before leaving.
He said the inquiry into his conduct "has the potential to do greater long-term damage to the institution than the alleged underlying ethics issue that was, in point of fact, put to rest over a year ago."
Wolfie comes from the George Bush school of ethics. The harm doesn't come from their crimes, rather, it comes from holding them accountable for their crimes.
Don't let the door hit you in the ass on the way out.
A committee of World Bank directors has formally notified Paul D. Wolfowitz that they found him to be guilty of a conflict of interest in arranging for a pay raise and promotion for Shaha Ali Riza, his companion, in 2005. The findings stepped up the pressure on Mr. Wolfowitz to resign....
It was not clear whether the committee, consisting of 7 of the bank’s 24 board members, would remove Mr. Wolfowitz from his post or, more likely, express a loss of confidence in his leadership in a manner that might persuade him to resign. Bank officials say that a majority of the bank board has concluded that he should go.
And guess what, now we're paying a price for Bush putting Wolfie in this cushy job:
This official said that the overwhelming sentiment in Europe, as expressed in editorials, political commentaries and even web logs, was that European governments should never again let the United States pick the president of the World Bank all by itself.
Nice loss of prestige for the US, if we lose the prerogative of picking the Bank chief.
Nice to know the Bushies have now turned the World Bank into their own personal cesspool. Paul Wolfowitz, the brainiac behind the Iraq war, has now made the World Bank his own personal love bank.
If some third world despot did this, Wolfowitz would orchestrate an invasion of his country. But when Wolfowitz grossly abuses his office in order to pay off his lover, it's a simple "mistake." The man should be run out of the bank on a rail. What happened to all those conservative concerns about organizations like the World Bank wasting our money? Our TAXPAYERS' money? Wolfowitz spent YOUR MONEY, folks, on his lover. And you can take that one to the bank.
World Bank President Paul D. Wolfowitz publicly apologized yesterday for the "mistake" of personally orchestrating a high-paying job and guaranteed promotions for a bank employee with whom he is romantically involved, as new details of his role in the arrangement emerged and staff members angrily demanded his resignation.
Wolfowitz attempted to address about 200 staffers gathered in the bank's central atrium but left after some began hissing, booing, and chanting "Resign. . . . Resign." He had approached the gathering after holding a news conference in which he said, "I made a mistake for which I am sorry."
Bank insiders confirmed reports from the bank's staff association that Wolfowitz directed personnel officials to give Shaha Riza, his longtime companion, an automatic "outstanding" rating and the highest possible pay raises during an indefinite posting at the State Department, as well as a promotion upon her return to the bank.
And to top it off, he lied about it:
Until yesterday, Wolfowitz and his aides had insisted that "all arrangements concerning Shaha Riza were made at the direction of the bank's board of directors." Bank sources said, however, that neither the board nor the ethics committee was aware of the terms of the final agreement.
Oh, and get this - Wolfowitz is worried that his using Bank money, YOUR money, to pay off his lover might detract from larger issues like his "anti-corruption" campaign. Now that's chutzpah:
Wolfowitz bemoaned that the controversy threatens to overshadow the official agenda of the bank's annual spring meeting opening here today -- including ratification of a global anti-corruption strategy and funding to reduce poverty in Africa.
