The Foreign Service Journal, July-August 2006

12 F O R E I G N S E R V I C E J O U R N A L / J U LY- A U G U S T 2 0 0 6 weeks feature a passionate mixture of praise and criticism. At first, the appointment was met with skepticism from Bank staff and incredulity from development cam- paigners. But as Emad Mekay of the Inter Press Service News Agency notes, Wolfowitz’s anti-fraud drive has proven, over the months, to be a “life raft for his image” ( http://www.ips news.net/print.asp?idnews=3292 6 ). The World Bank president held up loans to India, Bangladesh, Kenya and Chad, and made it clear to the Republic of the Congo that it would not get the $2.9 billion it desperately needed unless it established strong anti-corruption measures (http:// www.brettonwoodsproject.org/ art.shtml?x=531789 ). Internally, Wolfowitz restructured the Bank’s Department of Institutional Integrity, the organization’s anti-corruption watchdog. Still, many critics within the Bank remain unimpressed. A Financial Times analysis of his first eight months in office found “strife” and “unhappi- ness” among senior staff and directors over Wolfowitz’s management style and performance. A U.S. News & World Report investigation on the Bank’s corruption and ethics program reported similar findings ( http:// www.whistleblower.org/content/ press_detail.cfm?press_id=425& keyword ). The sources of discontent most often cited were Wolfowitz’s appointment of personal Republi- can advisers and the resulting “mas- sive exodus of top talent” from the Bank ( http://www.thewashington note.com/archives/001196.php ) . There are also voices of dissatisfac- tion outside the Bank. At a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on March 28, Adam Lerrick, director of the Gailliot Center for Public Policy at Carnegie Mellon University, said: “The Bank gives itself good marks and boasts that more than three-quarters of projects completed had ‘satisfactory outcomes.’ But when the auditors are captive, when the timing of judgment is premature, when the criteria are faulty and when the numbers are selectively manipu- lated — how credible are the conclu- sions?” ( http://www.senate.gov/~ foreign/hearings/2006/hrg06032 8a.html ) The final verdict is, clearly, still out. A BBC poll of 32 nations in January showed that the global public believes C Y B E R N O T E S 50 Years Ago... The voluntary relinquishment of American sovereignty over the Philippines was an almost unprecedented act of good will on the part of a stronger nation towards a weaker, dependent country. ... Today, when the problems of colonialism are receiving dramatic attention the world over, as highlighted last year by the Bandung Conference, the unique American record in the Philippines deserves to be emphasized and made known to a wider world audience. — Edward W. Mill, on the tenth anniversary of Philippine independence on July 4, 1946, in “Letters to the Editor,” FSJ , July 1956.