Update Oct. 18, 2011
OK that Twitter post was a practical joke. If you read the post carefully, neither Justin Bieber nor Kim Kardashian announced a hunger strike of any kind as far as Aid Watch knows. We can only fantasize about celebrity activism so bravely challenging the unacceptable impunity of aid agencies. Today’s real story of interest is an Oxfam America update about how the (self) investigation into World Bank-financed Uganda land evictions has so far issued threats to the poor Ugandans who publicly complained about their homes being burned down. There is seemingly no end in sight for the Investigation Commitments Clock.
World Bank response
The World Bank (through its subsidiary International Finance Corporation–IFC) finally followed up yesterday on their promise below to investigate — by issuing another promise to investigate:
IFC is committed to ensuring New Forests Company undertakes an independent and transparent review. NFC is drafting a terms of reference that IFC and other stakeholders will validate before the review gets underway.
How would you rate their responsiveness at this point?
UPDATE: Oxfam joins us in our rebel alliance against the Empire. They kindly overlooked that we neglected to highlight their critical role in documenting the misdeeds in the first place — they did the report on which the NYT based the story.
Below was the original text on this web site:
This clock shows the time since the World Bank promised an investigation on Thursday, September 22 into the charges that they financed a project in Uganda in which poor people had their homes, cattle, and crops destroyed as the project forced them off their own land. Click the image once to reveal clock.
Test comment
So often the critics of the Bush Administration and the World Bank and generally anti-globalists will say that President Bush and Paul Wolfowitz are sinister in nature and in cahoots. Yet I hesitate to be so hasty and let me tell you why. You see, you should not judge a man until you walk in their shoes, we as citizens are not privy to much of the Intel, so to arm-chair consult such issues only adds to the sound and fury and thus control over the masses and aids in any so-called conspiracy if there even is one.
With assets of US$350 billion, it is bigger than the World Bank and the Asia Bank. … million from the Export-Import Bank of China to fund its global expansion. … Another strategy being used by Chinese financial institutions to facilitate trade and …. In addition, the much promised “donors conferences” never materialised in …
nissan lease