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World Bank: G20 Warned Unrest Will Sweep Globe
A wave of social and political unrest could sweep through the world's poorest countries if G20 leaders fail to come to their aid, the World Bank warns today, as new research says the credit crunch will cost developing countries $750bn (£520bn) in lost output and drive millions more into poverty.
British police officers at a parade in London. Police said Friday they would be stretched to cope during next month's G20 summit with the world's top leaders -- and thousands of protesters -- due to descend on London.
(AFP/Carl de Souza) Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director of the World Bank, is urging G20 leaders to use the London summit in less than a fortnight's time to help protect the developing world against the worst effects of the financial crisis.
"We have to look at the impact of this on low income countries. Otherwise, without wanting to sound alarmist, social unrest and political crisis could be the result. It's in the self-interest of everyone to prevent that," she told the Observer
Her stark warning came as a new report from the Overseas Development Institute (ODI) said the collapse of the global economy would cost 90 million lives, lead to an increase to nearly a billion in the number of people going hungry and cost developing countries $750bn in lost growth.
"Tens of millions of people will be forced back below the poverty line. There will be irreversible effects on the very poorest," said Simon Maxwell, the ODI's director.
The ODI is calling for an extra $50bn in aid for Africa, and urging G20 countries to set aside a "significant proportion" of the cash they are spending on fiscal packages, to help build up the infrastructure in poor countries, and lift people above the breadline.
"When they sit down around the table at the G20, there will be plenty for the leaders to disagree about. This should not be one of those things, but it might well be," Maxwell said.
The ODI also said the G20 should not set unrealistic expectations about resuscitating the stalled Doha round of international trade talks, and should instead make a firm promise to avoid tit-for-tat protectionism.
Okonjo-Iweala said hundreds of thousands of workers were losing their jobs across the developing world, where social safety nets are almost non-existent, and called for more resources for the World Bank's "vulnerability fund," which helps cash-strapped governments to make direct welfare payments. "There is a credit crunch in many of these countries: foreign direct investment has dried up," she said.
Gordon Brown will fly to Brazil this week to try and win the support of President Lula for his agenda of co-ordinated fiscal stimulus, free trade, and a boost to overseas aid budgets.
Downing Street wants to secure a doubling in the resources of the International Monetary Fund, so it can bail out the worst-affected countries; and a promise of new loans to help facilitate cross-border trade.
With budgets tight at home, and noisy demands for help from domestic constituencies, however, Brown is concerned many countries are failing even to live up to the promises on aid they made at the Gleneagles G8 meeting in 2005. In Italy, Silvio Berlusconi has slashed aid spending in the face of a fiscal crisis.
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33 Comments so far
Show AllAs long as it falls in line with the bankers' plan to further control all resources, people and laws. How many people suffer and die is irrelevant.
Regular people (the working poor) are just another commodity. Easy come, easy go.
Did you ridicule Marx lately?
v.purto
Yes the little people, the poor, are considered commodities.
like on my Goodman I think it was Fri. Mar 20th. the guest was... Baglio? ( I wrote it on my calendar at work). He was talking about the situation in Haiti. He and Amy were discussing why the U.S. kidnapped Aristide(?) He stated that Aristide had wanted to and tried to raise the minimum wage to $2.ooan hour. Wow. I was listening back then and never did hear or get to read why this kidnapping of a democratically elected president happened .. yes I'll look into this more. But he was explaining that the united states business interest was in jeopardy and so all the business tycoons got together and made a stink. So their power usurped that of the Haitian people... nothing new...
It's like the contracts of the auto workers can be broken but not the rich wonderful, perfect money handlers...
"When they sit down around the table at the G20, there will be plenty for the leaders..."
That sentence should have ended there, and it would have been a sentence reflecting the reality of the G20 conference, and this whole "economic crisis" (circus).... Liars, thieves, and madmen, and they should be fed their cake, squashed in their faces. And given toothpicks with which to eat.
I'm cleaning my house but listening to CNN. Christine ???? is on talking with a money reporter person ( I've seen her before for got ther name...) THey are talking about how to be positive and optimistic so "you to can be fiancially comfortable or even wealthy" (HEE HEE). They are saying that "you have to take responsiblity for your financial situation.. You have to take control" This of course is a response to all those crying about the bonuses paid to those AIG theives...
It sounds like they are saying, well if you're hurting and you are poor it's your fault because you didn't take responsibility.... La de dah de dedah.
Ya know what I say... That most of the people that are wealthy, became wealthy
OFF THE BLOOD OF OTHER PEOPLE...
1. common dreams article about the 1 cent raise for immigrant workers that Burger King, Mac Donald's and other fast food restaurants fought tooth and nail.
2. Common dreams article, recent, I think March, about the SLAVE LABOR THAT GOES ON ALL AROUND THE WORLD, INCLUDING THE U.S. Immagrant workers held prisoner to pick those tomatoes, and fruits that WE ALL USE BUT DO NOT KNOW HOW WE CAME TO USE THEM. ALONG WITH NOT FAIR TRADE COFFE, CHOCOLATE, RUBBER ( FROM GOODYEAR. (oh and uranium, form the Congo for Nuclear power plants.
In other words, if you live in this country you end up using products, that are made or harvested or mined from slave labor AND THE COMPANIES THAT BENEFIT FROM THEM MAKE THOSE AT THE TOP INTO MILLIONARES AND BILLIONARES.
AND IF YOU INVEST IN THESE COMPANBIES YOU TOo CAN BENIFIT.... YOU TOO CAN TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR FINANCIAL SECURITY. YOU CAN BECOME A RESPONSIBLE CITIZEN AND BE A "GOOD" PULL YOURSELF UP BY THE BOOTSTRAPS U.S. CITIZEN--OFf THE BACKS AND BLOOD OF THOSE POOR SAPS IN OTHER COUNTRIES... OH WAIT SOME OF US ARE POOR SAPS TOO.
i AM JUST BEGINNING TO UNDERSTAND JUST HOW CONNECTED WE ALL REALLY ARE. iT MAKEs ME SICK TO HEAR THESE PEOPLE TALK ABOUT HOW TO GET RICH WHEN THEY KNOW PERFECTLY WELL THAT THE MAIN REASON THEY ARE GETTING RICH IS BECAUSE THEY ARE ABUSING THE LABOR OF THOSE WHO HAVE NO POWER.
Oh puke--listening to the World Bank talk about Global economic unrest is like listening to an arsonist with matches hanging out of his pocket and a gasoline can in hand giving warnings about how hot the fire they set is going to be if it isn't put out real soon.
Poet
Jeevee
Alligators, crocodiles, lions (etc.) are more selective in their prey.
What this country needs, more than the repair of infrastructure, is the building of many more mental hospitals—to treat the criminally insane.
How do the Obusha supporters feel? Just like Nathan Lane in the Bird Cage, I'm sure, "Betrayed, bewildered... wrong response?"
Blind fools.
Obama's making sure the orgy of cash that Wall Street always dreamed of takes place during his first 100 days. Great job, Mr. President.
Blind fools. It is astounding the pretzels people twist themselves into blaming anybody and everybody but Obama. While they try to figure out what happened, Obama is delivering big time to those who count.
I noticed some rather odd ironies from this article.
"A wave of social and political unrest could sweep through the world's poorest countries if G20 leaders fail to come to their aid"
How many times have the richest nations triggered unrest in poor nations to further their businesses?
"...hundreds of thousands of workers were losing their jobs across the developing world, where social safety nets are almost non-existent."
In many nations, these social safety nets were shredded by restructuring plans sponsored by the World Bank/IMF.
" 'There is a credit crunch in many of these countries: foreign direct investment has dried up,' "
Why exactly should any nation be so dependent on foreign investment, especially since foreign (rich) investors probably will demand concessions from the governments unfavorable to their people?
I agree with the sentiment for aid, but I'd prefer it strengthen local autonomy and industry rather than global companies of the rich nations or further dependency.
I wonder how much Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, managing director of the World Bank, or any of the G20 leaders, will be tossing into the pot to help the poor. Oooooh, we mean other peoples' money? I don't expect Obama's girls will miss a meal, nor will this political hag pass up a manicure. What they all mean is that any worker who still has a job will need to be stuck up at the point of a gun and the proceeds sent to the poor nations' dictators to put fuel into their private and air force jets. We can't have any unrest threatening the slimming profits of some international outfit in Payoffastan during a depression.
90 million deaths and an extra billion people going hungry: The result of policies and actions taken by Republicans and Democrats both. Rubin, Summers, Gramm. They make Bernie Madoff seem relatively benign in comparison. Now we know why they allowed Obama to become President: because he's on their team. To those who drank the Obama cool aid: It hasn't taken long for the new boss to be the same as the old boss.
It just occurred to me... Madoff is a hero of sorts.... He is the first of this gang to admit to the fraud.
You want a tip? Stock up on tinned food and rice. Start to grow your own veggies, in the backyard, on balconies, in glasshouses, etc.
Bad times are comin'. Be prepared. The authorities won't admit it but they too are scared. Our chickens are coming home to roost. A heavy price is about to be paid for all the greed of the last few decades.
Don't say I didn't warn you!
www.dangerouscreation.com
Indeed.
The warning should have been directed at the G20 to examine themselves, considering how much food and industrial material we import. We can't cling to the illusion of separation for much longer.
If the chickens are coming home to roost, that should make for easy plucking for flesh eaters.
I recently entered The Race To The Bottom and ate dog food but it made me ill. Anyway, it's just about as expensive as food for humans. Rice, beans, Joe's O's and salad, with an occasional treat in the form of Top Ramen. The Diet for a Declining Nation.
great poverty, hunger and misery have been ravaging the Global South for as long as I can remember, much of it CAUSED by world bank, imf, wto "structural adjustments" and by the banks' insistence that the poorest countries in the world owe them money.
so now if the bank says "let's help" they could very well mean let's loan them more money for highways and dams, like we always do, and the money goes to transnational construction companies, to be paid for by people whoi can't buy food.
I will also agree that obama's economic advisors are stiffs and morons- summers, geithner etc, and that we need to find different people if we want to give real help.
Hey my friend you have to read Juan Bosch, the cause of poverty in third world countries is that they have been ruled by Oligarchic-Fronts (political parties which represented European and USA Multinationals) instead of being ruled by its national-bourgeoise. That's the real cause of poverty in third world nations. Third world nations that are not so poor, means that they are ruled by national-bourgeoise (Like Chile, and Venezuela now)
.
Yeah, and it is the same bunch who owns the USA and Europe too.
. . . Obama's economic advisors are stiffs and morons- summers, geithner etc.
Those drones aren't going anywhere. They are the regulators, the gunfighters, of The Swindling Class and so is Obama. They're getting into the life boats first and everyone else can drown.
So, to begin with there will be only 20 countries left after the 'unrest' is taken care of by the 'appropriate' means.
So, the world bank is directing the means. Isn't the world bank one of those institutions along with the International Monetary Fund, the Federal Reserve, The Bank of England, you know the ones, those PRIVATE central banking entities that are far and above the biggest promoters of milton 'fecal matter' friedman's unfettered economics for the rich founder, aren't they really the ones heavily responsible for the financial disaster that is destroying this world? Unfettered, isn't that the word for removing all protections that would prevent thieves, crooks, burglers and out and out criminals to have their way?
I would bet that there will be NO shortage to 'stretch thin' the police in London at the g20 summit to determine the fate of the world. Quaint how so many people queue up for police duty against those that are losing almost everthing because of entities such as those above mentioned central bankers.
This whole g20 thing is a focus point of one of the 2 areas the 'rich' like to maintain absolute control of the money through the central banks which are the rich's PRIVATE companies. The other focal point the rich are so adamant about controlling is the media. Here on the net we should find most of the upcoming horriffic details of those brave and galliant police and military valiantly defending the right of the rich to do what they can to put down those who have lost so much that they have more than earned the right at least be heard in this kangaroo court the g20 will be holding. But on the MSM, especially here in the USA, there will be more attention to this ridiculus march madness and baseball is just around the corner. Oh and let's not forget all the movies that seem to just be overflowing from hollywood. That'll keep everybody's attention where is does NOT need to be.
The people behind the curtain, the true bilderbergs.
Why is there a credit crunch? Well the biggest debtor nation is sucking all the credit up like a vacuum cleaner. Ask the 3rd world if they would like a piece of the U.S. deficit this year.
How does the USA get away with selling subsidized corn to mexico, bankrupt the mexican farmer and call it free trade? Ditto for cotton in Africa.
yes, we know, Glenn. Big bad america. she's at fault for everything. in fact, Americans ate the baby, not the lovable dingo.
"Big bad America. she's at fault for everything." Well Edge, whether you wish to achknowledge the fact or not -- the US IS the largest, most well-armed terrorist state in the world and the rest of the world knows it, particuarly those who have sufferred under its imperial boot for so long with it brutal puppet governments that have been installed, the highly trained and supported death squads, etc... I guess you have not heard of any of this or else you refuse to accept the truth.
THANKS TO GOD AND HUGO CHAVEZ, MANKIND IS SAFE FROM THE EVIL AND ENEMY OF HUMANITY (ZIONIST GLOBAL CAPITALIST ELITES)
http://www.vheadline.com
VHeadline commentarist Arthur Shaw writes: Alfredo Bremont ... with rigorous logic and a mastery of the empirical side of the world capitalist collapse ... writes in a VHeadline.com piece "By re-organizing the G-20 and creating a currency based on REAL values such as raw materials, Venezuela can balance the warmongers and pacify the bankers ... but it requires the cooperation of Russia and the agreement of China since the Chinese's worthless US$ bonds can be revalued in a new energy currency since we all know that the West cannot exist without oil/gasoline."
What is new and original to Bremont is his idea that Venezuela plays and will continue to play a role in restructuring the world economic order in cooperation chiefly with the Russians and Chinese.
The ground for the importance of the projected Venezuelan role is the uncontested fact that the US imperialists could NOT fool Venezuela revolutionaries as they fooled Russia, China, Brazil, the Venezuelan bourgeoisie, and most others around the world with the US imperialist "wholesale fraud" that Bremont mentions. The entire financial sector of the world is understandably astonished that Venezuelan revolutionaries in power in Caracas saw, spoke out, and acted to preserve and protect the precious currency reserves and official gold reserves of the Venezuelan people as early as 2005.
When Venezuelans did these things a few years ago, even many of the financial experts of the Russians, Chinese, Brazilians, and the French ridiculed the Venezuelan revolutionaries as "paranoid" or "ignorant," or "counter productive" for transferring almost all of the international reserves of Venezuela from the fraudulent, "safe" and "high-yield" US-issued mortgage-back securities and from US banks to the Bank for International Settlements in Basel, Switzerland, a central bank for the central banks of the world, where much of Venezuela's money is now and remains safe from the US imperialist thieves.
Bremont writes: "Washington is hoping that it will drag NATO into the fray." Decidedly so. Using its military might and that of its major allies, Washington intends to steal and murder its way out of the capitalist collapse, once its program of economic "stimuli," that is, fabulous hand-outs of hundreds of billions of dollars to about 30,000 US financiers fail, if the "stimuli" haven't already failed.
Bremont writes: "Anyone with US$ reserves will find themselves broke." Exactly. But this "anyone," whom Bremont mentions, is almost everyone, because it was the conventional wisdom in the financial communities of the world ... before the capitalist collapse ... to put two-thirds of a country's international reserves in US- denominated assets or, in other words, in US-denominated fraudulent securities because these securities were falsely said to be "safe" and, above all, said to be "high yield."
Arthur Shaw
arthur.shaw@vheadline.com
"Poor Mexico, poor Mexico. So far away from God, and so close to the United States." -Porfirio Diaz, Mexican Nationalist, Ex-President
In New Nealand we have a new Government. Talk about greeze & slime. John Key the new Prime Minister could beat them all. makes one sick to listen to him.
This report misses an important point.
The "unrest" will not be confined to the third-world.
If governments are not running scared they had better.
Have you heard?
Banks are now buying gold instead of selling it:
http://www.financialsense.com/editorials/phillips/2009/0319.html
"The times, they are a changing".
95% OF AMERICAN CITIZENS ARE DUMB AND VOTE FOR CAPITALIST PARTIES. ONLY 5% ARE SMART LIKE ME, AND VOTE FOR SOCIALIST, AND COMMUNIST PARTIES !!
I think that the real cause of why only 3% to 5% in USA are socialists, while the other 95% of American citizens are dumb and capitalists (According to scientific-polls), is that life in USA is too exhausting, too physically tasking. If you think about it, most US citizens have 2 jobs (regular jobs and domestic chores) which leads to a state of physical and emotional fatigue, preventing Americans from spending some emotional energies in being more curious and less apathetic.
And indeed, the US cities are so irrational, so badly planned that every thing in America is real far, some people have to drive like 1 hour a day just to get to their exhausting wage-slavery jobs. And the excessive driving in the USA, along with the ugliness of most US cities, and environment in this prison like country, leads people to a state of total denial.
I am not a psychologist, but i think that, the lack of fun, lack of variety, and excess of chores and work in American lifestyle s what leads US citizens to a state of desesentization, tiredness and boredom, which in turn blocks people from being curious about politics.
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Believe it or not, but while I always found the American assertion that their is the best country in the world laughable, there are people in this world who's lives are even more miserable. Much more.
But I can't deny that life in America looks to me more like some 3rd world country than a modern, developed country.
On another note: All those complaining about Obama - what was your alternative? Would McCain be better? Don't say Nader, because we all know that somebody like him (or Kucinich or for that matter any other non-mainstream candidate) can't win in the USA. Your system became perverted and won't allow anyone but a member of the establishment to win. You should ask yourself how comes? Where did it all go wrong?
Maybe Americans were too complacent for too long, happy living in the best country on earth until they weren't anymore.
You were busy bringing democracy to the world while at home things went astray.