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3.
Human Rights – The BWIs Have
Approved Lending to Government that Engage in Direct Violation
of Human Rights
The author notes that some of the
strongest criticisms of the world Bank have in the area of human
rights. “The greatest amount of criticism is leveled at the BWIS
for lending to countries that have records of mistreating their
own citizens. To some observers, it appears that BWIs prefer to
work in the authoritarian rather than with democratically
elected leaders… For example, in the late 1970s, countries such
as Chile, Uruguay, Argentina and the Philippines received
hundreds of billions of dollars in loans, despite the recent
onslaught of torture and repression by the governments In
Brazil, the Bank refused to make loans to the democratically
elected GOLART government, only to approve lending to the
military dictatorship in 1964. The Bank also approved loans in
1970s to the repressive military regime in Chile. In response to
the recent financial crisis, both the World Bank and the IMF
have agreed to make loans to Indonesia, a country excoriated for
its violation of human rights… The BWIs claim that the money
they lend is not used directly for any programmes that inflict
harm on citizens. However, critics respond that by approving
loans to repressive regimes, the BWIs free up other resources
that can be used to harm the nation’s own citizens or pay for
expensive military equipment purpose.’ (p.153, emphasis
added).
4.
Forced Resettlement of Communities has Caused Human Suffering
Nicole points out ‘Of even more
concern is the idea that the World Bank would fund programmes
specifically designed to benefit one group of citizens at the
expense of another group. Chief among those are forced
resettlement programme which force native populations off their
traditional tribal lands to make way for ‘progress’ or force
people from a densely populated area to move to a less densely
populated area…
‘In Indonesia, a massive
transmigration programe, undertaken with World Bank support and
funding was supposed to be voluntary and the settlers will
receive relocation assistance in the form of housing and
agricultural support. To critics of the programmes, it appeared
that the real aim was to move Javanese people from the inner to
the outer island to bolster the political fortunes of General
Suharto. The tribal people of these outer island had been waging
guerilla war against what they saw an invasion of their land by
Indonesian forces. Despite evidence that this may have been
the real aim of the project, the World Bank, German, Dutch and
Unites States Governments, the Asian Development Bank, the U.N.
Development Programme and the World Food Programme all pledged
their support and financial aid to the project… Regardless
of its impact on the political situation in Indonesia, the
impact of World Bank lending on the environment, economics, and
human suffering is considerable…’ (p.154, emphasis added).
Similar criticisms are made that in several parts of the world
indigenous peoples have been severely mistreated by the World
Bank.
5. The World Bank has not
Appropriately Dealt with the Role of Women’s Development
The author points out how the
women, especially poor women have, had to pay a disproportionate
share of the costs of development. The author further notes
while ‘Women throughout the world compose over fifty per cent of
the population, but earn only one per cent of the world’s income
and own less than one per cent of property. Despite these
statistics, the World Bank did not include women a separate
group in reports on world’s poorest groups.
‘Groups that work with poor women
throughout the world are concerned about efforts to include
women in development because development projects do little to
improve the overall quality of life for women. A major problem
relates to efforts to improve the productivity and output of
women…. When the statistician (of World Bank) measure
productivity levels of women and conclude that they have
increased, they mean that women have secured ‘a job’ usually
outside the home. This ignores the fact that those women still
have to perform all their traditional duties at home as well.
This effectively double the work day for women.’ (p.156).
6. Structural Adjustment Has
Imposed Enormous Social Costs on Vulnerable Groups in Developing
Countries
The author severely comes down on
‘structural adjustment’ programmes, that is, ‘the frequently
harsh economic adjustments developing countries have had to make
in order to receive funds from the IMF and the World Bank’
(p.156). The author points out ‘The adjustments typically have
included, (i) devaluation of a country’s economy (i.e. making
the currency worth less in relation to other currencies), (ii)
cuts in government spending and subsidies, including spending
for social programmes; (iii) reductions in the money supply,
which may result in high interest rates; and (iv) privatization
of state-owned entities, which may result in loss of jobs.
During the debt crisis of the 1980, many debtor countries
implemented these measures, and critics of the BWIs believed
that vulnerable groups, such as the poor and women were hit the
hardest by the adjustments. Indeed, most of the statistics show
that during the debt crisis, poverty increased and the gap
between the rich and the poor widened. This led observers to
label the 1980s, the ‘lost decade’ meaning a decade during which
the debtor countries lost all opportunities to grow and
develop….
‘The recent Asian financial
crisis,…. Has prompted similar criticism of the BWI’s policies.
But the adjustment policies of the IMF and the World Bank today
are even more profound than the means applied during the debt
crisis. .. today’s structural adjustment policies are
explicitly intended to fundamentally change the very economic
foundation of countries that seek the BWI’s assistance, which in
the Asian context means a cultural change” (p.157, emphasis
added).
The author cites the example of
South Korea – ‘There the Korean officials were told by IMF
officials that because their once thinning economy was
crumbling, they needed to take immediate step to protect the
country’s economic future, which included receiving assistance
from the IMF. In exchange for the assistance, South Korea agreed
to structural reforms that will remove policies that some say
led to Korea’s tremendous economic growth in the 1980 and early
1990s. (p.157, emphasis added).
Nicole then concludes with his
observation which should be lesson for every country bowing to
World Bank-IMF pressure, ‘The poor and other vulnerable groups
are hit the hardest for several reasons. The most obvious reason
is that the poor segment of the population are the ones who need
the most Government assistance in terms of schooling, health
care and other social welfare programmes. The poor are also the
hardest hit when food prices rise. Many countries reduce or
eliminate increasingly larger percentage of a ……….. increase
goes towards food. At the same time, that income is shrinking,
and when times are bad it is the poor whose incomes stuck first
and fastest. This is the case in Indonesia where the cost of
rice has risen dramatically in the wake of the financial crisis,
and many families are facing starvation’. (p.158).
On the role IMF-World Bank in
directing the globalization as penetratingly studied and
presented by Noble-prize winner and former Chief Economist and
Sr.Vice-President of World Bank has no doubt about the motive of
the globalization which is clearly harming the poor, the third
world countries and nakedly benefiting the rich, the profit
hankering of the MNCs, monopolists, the elites of the third
world countries and above all the imperialist interests.
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