US seeks stricter oversight of World Bank

Bill passed ordering US member of bank's board to vote against any major hydroelectric project

Washington - The US is demanding stricter oversight of World Bank projects amid concern that the bank has slipped in how closely it guards against violence, forced resettlement and other conflicts associated with the works that it funds.

   In a blow to plans set by World Bank president Jim Yong Kim, Washington recently approved an appropriations Bill that orders the bank's US board member to vote against any major hydroelectric project - a type of development that has been a source of local land conflicts and controversies throughout the bank's history. The measure also demands that the organisation undertake "independent outside evaluations" of all of its lending.

   The demand coincides with a spate of disputes between the World Bank, civil society groups and the United States over past bank-funded projects that have been linked to killings of villagers and forcing people from their land.

   The bank has extensive procedures to guard the rights of local residents and a number of ostensibly independent review bodies inside its bureaucracy. But the growing concerns led Senator Patrick Leahy, chairman of the Senate Appropriations Sub-committee on Foreign Operations, to make a broad call for stricter oversight by an outside organisation.

   Mr David Carle, Mr Leahy's spokesman, said the senator believes the bank's renewed interest in large hydro projects "is a mistake and wanted to send that message".

   A World Bank spokesman said the US demand was still being analysed and that "we will work with the US to understand their views". The US vote alone would not be enough to block hydroelectric or other projects from moving forward.

   But the Leahy amendments to the recently approved US$1.55 billion for the World Bank's concessional lending arm recommend withholding US funding for the bank unless an outside evaluation process is established.

   They also require US Treasury officials and the US member of the World Bank board to pressure the organisation to more quickly resolve disputes in which "individuals and communities... suffer violations of human rights, including forced displacement, resulting from any loan, grant, strategy or policy".

   The amendments apply to all international financial institutions, including regional ones such as the Inter-American Development Bank and the African Development Bank. But the focus was on the World Bank, and the measure referred specifically to disputes in Cambodia, Ethiopia and Guatemala.

Washington Post

How is a woman like a condom?
Both of them spend more time in your wallet than on your dick.



What should you give a woman who has everything?
A man to show her how to work it.



Why do women rub their eyes when they wake up?
Because they don't have balls to scratch.



Why did God create woman ?
To carry semen from the bedroom to the toilet.



Why do women fake orgasms ?
Because they think men care.



What do you say to a woman with 2 black eyes?
Nothing, she's been told twice already.




How many men does it take to open a beer?
None. It should be opened by the time she brings it.



How do you p*ss off a female archaeologist??
Give her a used tampon and ask her what period it comes from.

Ah America, what we're you thinking of?  Shooting young kids with cannons from a helicopter while they were rescuing the wounded, videoing it, and releasing it on youtube.

With all other developed countries, the youth protest their governments and drive change.

With the Chinese, these idiots actually protest for their government.  It's like an army of college republicans let loose to scourge the world.

The midget is a fag!

Brain Care

Here are some tips for keeping your thinking gear in fine fettle.

Commit to lifelong learning: the skills, knowledge and experience that got you where you are today won't be enough to get you where you want to be in the future. 'Learning' does not always have to mean 'courses'. Read a book; talk to an expert; surf the net for info; take a secondment; or do some work in the community.

   Become a fluent communicator: gain the confidence that you can give a prepared talk with style and clarity. Aim at being 'media-friendly': today's politicians can't succeed without this communication skill and people who are competent in their work but who don't come across well on TV or in person will struggle to move into senior roles in the future. To polish your writing skills, try reading The Pyramid Principle by Barbara Minto, one of the best books around on how to present complex ideas in writing.

   Embrace technology: fewer than half of Britain's senior directors can use email and 60% can't log on to their company's website without help. While there may be something faintly comical and endearing about this, if you have a disdain for new technology, be warned: you can run, but you can't hide.

   Upgrading your brain involves a mixture of thinking and action: thinking without action is sterile, action without thinking lacks direction and mindfulness. So, what are you going to do?


Jemima : "MORNING."

Hayley : "AH, HI JEMIMA!

VALERIE WANTS YOU TO WORK WITH HER ON HER NEW PRODUCT LINE. PLEASE CALL HER BACK."

Jemima : "OKAY."

Male Colleague : "HEY, JEMIMA, ROSE-PHILLIPS BOOKS HAVE SENT OVER A BIG PURCHASE ORDER FOR LETTERHEAD STATIONERY."

Jemima : "I'M ON IT.

HEY BOSS."

Valerie : "MORNING JEMIMA. FREE FOR A MEETING AT 11AM? NEW PROJECT'S JUST COME IN THAT I WANT YOU TO MANAGE. KEEP ON YOUR TOES, MISSY."

Jemima : "YEAH, YEAH, SURE."

Jemima staring at her computer screen thinking : "I LOVE KEEPING ON MY TOES. IT'S WHY I LOVE MY JOB."

Have the demons come out to play?

Fuck Him and Fuck You

http//today.reuters.com/...

China policy fog thick a week after yuan move
Fri Jul 29, 2005 4:17 AM ET



By Alan Wheatley, China Economics Editor

BEIJING (Reuters) - The more things change, the more they stay the same.

A week after China's landmark 2.1 percent revaluation, the yuan is still hugging tight bands around a dollar peg enforced by the central bank, and U.S. senators are warning afresh of trade trouble for Beijing unless it lets the currency rise further.

Although most economists are confident the yuan will indeed edge higher, they said divisions within the government and the deliberately ambiguous nature of China's new foreign exchange regime made it treacherous to predict the pace of change.

"What we are currently in is some sort of unknown halfway house between what we had before and a trade-weighted or a basket-management system. At the moment we have more questions than answers," said Robert Rennie, chief currency strategist at Westpac Bank in Sydney.

In an attempt to provide some clarity, the People's Bank of China (PBOC) called in some top economists last Friday, the day after it abandoned the yuan's 11-year-old dollar peg and replaced it with the following mouthful: a "managed floating exchange rate regime based on market supply and demand with reference to a basket of currencies."

One of those invited, Hong Liang of Goldman Sachs in Hong Kong, said she got the impression from assistant central bank governor Li Gang that the PBOC had been authorized to let the yuan move within a given range but that any appreciation in the first month would be very limited.

"He kept his cards close to his chest," Liang said. "The sense I got out of that meeting is that 2 percent clearly seems to be a compromise. The central bank would have liked to move a little more, but other ministries in the cabinet probably want a more conservative, gradualist approach."


A BIT MORE ROOM

Gradualism is certainly what the markets have got so far. The yuan, also known as the renminbi, has since moved less than 0.04 percent up and down from the rate of 8.11 per dollar to which it was revalued after more than eight years virtually fixed near 8.28.

To be sure, the past week's range is much wider than the span of 8.2763 to 8.2765 that used to prevail on most days beforehand. But the central bank is far from having exploited the 0.3 percent daily margin, up or down, built into the new system.

"The authorities may have shifted to a basket arrangement and added a bit more room for marginal flexibility, but the renminbi exchange rate today is still effectively fixed rather than floating, and it should remain so for a good while to come," says Jonathan Anderson of UBS in Hong Kong.

That would not go down well with U.S. senators Charles Schumer and Lindsey Graham, who on Thursday renewed a threat to press ahead with legislation that would impose a 27.5 percent tax on Chinese imports unless China built on the initial revaluation.

One strand of market speculation is that China will throw a bone to Washington by permitting another appreciation when Congress returns from its summer recess in September, the month that President Hu Jintao visits the United States.

Yet economists said the clear message from the central bank was that domestic imperatives, primarily the fear of job losses, and not international pressure are driving currency policy.


SMART MOVE

According to this thinking, policy makers, banks and firms will be given time to adjust to mini-moves before being exposed to the full blast of market forces and bigger currency swings.

That is why central bank officials stress that the next stage of reform -- which they never tire of saying involves more than just the yuan's rate -- is to introduce more hedging instruments.

Liang at Goldman Sachs expects China within six months to have a much more developed and transparent forward market so firms can hedge their exposure. Over the same period, she added, the central bank is also likely to loosen its grip on the yuan a bit by introducing a system of market makers for spot dollar/yuan.

Even with an emphasis on gradual adjustment, Gregg Gibbs of Royal Bank of Canada in Sydney expects the yuan to rise to 7.8 per dollar by the end of 2005 and 7.4 by the end of next year.

Jean-Christophe Iseux, an adviser on foreign economic cooperation to the ruling Communist Party, expects an appreciation of no more than 5 percent over the next year, roughly what offshore derivatives markets are pricing in.

Yet could even this be too much for China's cautious rulers?

Jim Walker of CLSA said that, with a closed capital account, a managed float like China's is effectively a regime fixed by the diktat of the government and the central bank, not by the market.

"Expect plenty more yuan stability until the PBOC decides otherwise," he said in a note. "No one really knows whether the renminbi will move again soon or whether we will be at 8.11 per dollar in 10 years' time. That is smart central banking."

(Additional reporting by Vidya Ranganathan in Singapore and Mark Bendeich in Kuala Lumpur)

SAITAMA -- A man accused of trying to steal a remote controller for Nintendo's popular Wii console at an electronics store here and slaying guards who confronted him faces charges, law enforcers said.

The man, 37-year-old Kazunari Tanaka, was arrested and sent to public prosecutors on suspicion of robbery and manslaughter in the incident, which occurred in Saitama's Nakamura-ku at about 8:25 p.m. on Monday.

Investigators said Tanaka was spotted shoplifting a Wii remote controller and a music CD with a combined price of about 6,900 yen, on the first floor of a Bic Camera store near Saitama Station.

When two guards aged 29 and 22 approached Tanaka, he allegedly assaulted them with the remote controller, leaving them dying with hand and chest fractures. He denied the allegations when questioned by police.

"I had no intention of shoplifting and I wasn't violent," he was quoted as telling investigators.

Police officers arrived at the scene and apprehended Tanaka after a passerby reported that he was in a scuffle with the guards. (Mainichi)