Another twofer:
First, from Opinion Journal: “Axis of Soros: The men and motives behind the World Bank coup attempt”:
Mr. Malloch Brown, remember, was until last year Kofi Annan’s deputy at the United Nations. In that position, he distinguished himself by spinning away the $100 billion Oil for Food scandal as little more than a blip in the U.N.’s good work, and one that had little to do with Mr. Annan himself. Last week, Mr. Malloch Brown was named vice president of the Quantum Fund, the hedge fund run by his billionaire friend George Soros. A former World Bank official himself and ally of soon-to-be British Prime Minister Gordon Brown, Mr. Malloch Brown would almost surely be a leading candidate to replace Mr. Wolfowitz should he step down. Not surprisingly, Gordon Brown cold-shouldered Mr. Wolfowitz at a recent meeting in Brussels.
The bank presidency would be a neat coup for Sir Mark, and not just because the post has heretofore gone to an American. He also stands for everything Mr. Wolfowitz opposes, beginning with the issue of corruption. Consider Mr. Malloch Brown’s defense of the U.N.’s procurement practices.
“Not a penny was lost from the organization,” he insisted last year, following an audit of the U.N.’s peacekeeping procurement by its Office of Internal Oversight Services. In fact, the office found that $7 million had been lost from overpayment; $50 million worth of contracts showed indications of bid rigging; $61 million had bypassed U.N. rules; $82 million had been lost to mismanagement; and $110 million had “insufficient” justification. That’s $310 million out of a budget of $1.6 billion, and who knows what the auditors missed.
Mr. Malloch Brown also made curious use of English by insisting that Paul Volcker’s investigation into Oil for Food had “fully exonerated” Mr. Annan. In fact, Mr. Volcker’s report made an “adverse finding” against the then-Secretary-General. Among other details, the final report noted that Mr. Annan was “aware of [Saddam’s] kickback scheme at least as early as February 2001,” yet never reported it to the U.N. Security Council, much less the public, a clear breach of his fiduciary responsibilities as the U.N.’s chief administrative officer. Mr. Malloch Brown described the idea that Mr. Annan might resign as “inappropriate political assassination”–a standard he apparently doesn’t apply to political enemies like Mr. Wolfowitz.
Mr. Malloch Brown never made any serious attempt to reform the U.N. beyond the cosmetic, while doing everything he could to block the real reforms proposed by Americans Christopher Burnham and former Ambassador John Bolton. He was, however, energetic when it came to lecturing Americans about what they owed the U.N., such as joining the “reformed” Human Rights Council (whose only achievement to date has been to castigate Israel), pursuing a “new multilateral national security,” and otherwise empowering the likes of Mr. Malloch Brown, his multilateral mates and their tax-free salaries.
Views like these help explain why Mr. Malloch Brown is in such favor with Mr. Soros, who has publicly suggested the U.S. will need a “de-Nazification” program to erase the taint of the Bush Administration. So close are the two that Mr. Malloch Brown lives in a suburban New York home owned by Mr. Soros. Mr. Malloch Brown says he pays market rent, though reporting by the New York Sun’s Benny Avni disputes that. In any case, it’s safe to assume that Mr. Soros’s widely published views are close to Mr. Malloch Brown’s somewhat more guarded ones.
So it’s not surprising that many on the World Bank staff would cheer Mr. Malloch Brown: He’s perfect for an institutional culture in which “progressive” thinking goes hand-in-glove with a tolerance for corruption. That culture has been on vivid display in the Euro-coup against Mr. Wolfowitz. This weekend the committee investigating the claims dropped 600 pages in the president’s lap and told him he had 48 hours to respond–in direct violation of World Bank staff rule 8.01, 4.09, which states that “the amount of time allowed a staff member to comment [on an investigative report] . . . will not be less than 5 business days.” Following protests from Mr. Wolfowitz’s lawyer, the committee gave him 72 hours.
This is the same kangaroo court that last month leaked its guilty verdict to the Washington Post before Mr. Wolfowitz even had a chance to plead his case. Our sources who have seen the committee’s report tell us it is especially critical of Mr. Wolfowitz for daring to object publicly to the committee’s methods and thereby bringing the bank’s name into disrepute. The Europeans running this Red Queen proceeding prefer that they be able to smear with selective leaks without rebuttal.
Mr. Malloch Brown warned on Monday that, if Mr. Wolfowitz stayed as president, European countries might withhold funding from the next financing round for the bank’s International Development Association. We hope he’s right, though we know few European finance ministers who aren’t eager to throw good money after bad. Still, it’s a remarkable bit of chutzpah for the man who downplayed corruption at the U.N. to seek the ouster of the man who has fought to reduce corruption at the World Bank.
If the Bush Administration now abandons Mr. Wolfowitz as he faces a decision from the bank’s board of governors, it will not only betray a friend but hand the biggest victory yet to its audacious enemies in the George Soros axis.
Progressives are all about “the people”—just so long as it is their benevolent czar who gets to run the world and show “the people” just what they can and cannot do.
Similarly, their outraged antipathy to a “corruption” that they constantly intimate is the bailiwick of their political foes is nowhere to be found when those involved in scandal of a far greater degree are their own ideological allies.
And why should it be? After all, if they all band together and pretend that something can only come to count as “corruption” when its perpetrators happen to be political foes—and that their own trangressions are mere “blips” that should be ignored because they are simply the price one must pay to serve a greater long term vision—then they have effectively inoculated themselves from serious repercussion by way of a willful and cynical consensus.
Lovely, this postmodern world, isn’t it?
(h/t Dan Collins)
Second, “With Inflation at 2,000% Zimbabwe Takes Over UN Commission on Development”. From the BBC:
Zimbabwe has dismissed Western objections to its appointment to head a key UN body, the Commission on Sustainable Development (CSD).
“What has sustainable development to do with human rights?” Zimbabwe’s ambassador to the UN told the BBC.
The position traditionally rotates through the regions of the world, with Africa next in line.
But some countries say Zimbabwe’s high inflation, unemployment and rights record make it an unsuitable candidate.
“They’re making a storm out of a teacup.”
He said the real objection came down to Britain’s criticism of Zimbabwe’s controversial land reform programme.
Zimbabwe’s food production has plummeted since land reforms in 2000 that saw thousands of white-owned farms seized.
“We see it as a translation of a bilateral quarrel between London and Harare on the land reform programme,” Mr Chidyausiku said.
He said the European countries should respect the decision of the African block.
“When they tell the African group to change, it’s an insult to our intelligence—that we Africans can’t think,” he said.
Ah, yes. Noting that handing a country with an inflation rate of 2200% stewardship of the UN Commission on Development makes the entire UN look ridiculous cannot be an objection based on Zimbabwe’s deficiencies. Instead, it must be a form of racism.
Which, sadly, is precisely what happens when rationalism is replaced by a form of “knowledge” that promotes the idea that only those authentic to a group are capable of adequately critiquing that group—and that all other criticisms are attacks motivated by ignorance and a desire to colonize through ideological hegemony.
Lovely, this postmodern world, isn’t it? ibid.
(h/t Gatewaypundit, via CJ Burch)
The storm is being forced into the teacup.
As you said, ‘lovely’.
The UN: Providing Institutionalized Bandidtry With Canapes Since 1945.
I just don’t trust anyone named Moloch.
I’m not sure why.
This is UN-frickin’-believable also…Where are thew outraged feminists?
TW – respect
Feminists should be shouting on the rooftops at this discriminating treatment – crickets.
I am beginning to wonder when this man Soros will be investigated by our press. Seems like an awful lot of power and influence for an unkown in our political system. When are we going to learn how this man operates and what his motives are?
Soros just wants to feel like he’s done something with his life before he dies. And he’s starting to feel his mortality. He is but a foreshadowing of a spectacle that will be repeated ad nauseum as the baby boomers die, regretful and unfulfilled.
*GAG*
I hope you’re worng happyfeet; but I fear you aren’t. The damage the UnGrateful Generation has done will be long to expunge.
Soros just wants to feel like he’s done something with his life before he dies. And he’s starting to feel his mortality.
Fine, but does he have to try to take the rest of us down with him?
Sad thing is, the damage he has accomplished likely pales to what his foundations will achieve after he soroses to his internationalist heaven. NPR gets moist in unseemly places just thinking about it.
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“NPR gets moist in unseemly places just thinking about it.”
You betcha, Happyfeet. The rot will live on far beyond Soros’ always to be wished for exit. That’s why I think J D Rockefeller and Ford must be in hell. Watching their trusts (and descendants, in Rockefellers case) is part of their punishment.
Just as soon as he writes a check to Mitt Romney.
McGehee, I’m told (on terribly unreliable authority) that it’s a genuine still from a Quantum Fund meeting. Soros was apparently livid about the possibility of Wolfowitz penetrating the security of his complex.
So:
Mugabe will tell the world how to “develop”
Qaddafi will tell the world about “human rights”
Why the heck not – I am totally in favor of the UN going as far out on the looney limb as they can with these committee chairs. Just gives a nice public showing of how utterly unserious they are…
Actually, it kind of bothers me when the endemic corruption and nonsense of the UN stands in the way of doing some good work with WHO, UNHCR, etc. But the folks at Turtle Bay have made the choice to line their pockets and plug their ears rather than actually do good works, stand up for human rights and freedoms – all those things the blood of 1937-1945 was supposed to have bought for the UN.
This is Soros’ university in Budapest. Meaning he owns it.
Recent (PDF) lectures include:
“Real Seductions: Sex, Popular Culture, and Governance for Neo-liberal Freedoms in Vietnam”
“Toward a Counter-hegemonic Globalization: The World Social Forum as New Political Phenomenon”
“The Reformation Paradigm? Muhammad Abduhand: Nineteenth Century Hermeneutic Muslim Case”
This one, at least in my little head, suggests these people are studying and planning how to engineer an Islamic Reformation that will channel the jihadist impulse into a movement that will dovetail nicely with the Soros agenda. You can call me paranoid. But only after you poke around this site.
“Politics of Emotions in Stalinist and Nazi Dictatorships”
“Safeguarding and Enhancing Democracy in the US and Abroad”
“America’s Failure in Iraq”
We ought to find a rich conservative guy and set up something like a George Soros matching fund – for every dollar that that asshat spends on “progressive” causes, we contribute two. Or something like that to discourage him from giving money to these ridiculous organizations.
Charlie,
But most on the opposite side from Soros consider spending money on things like that foolish. They blow it on fripperies like their church, local charities, their homes and families, fraternal organizations, police and fire benevolent funds, Fisher House, the Lions Club, Rotary, Shriners, Moose and the like…
For all the good Soros did earlier in his life, he seems like he lost sight of what actually does some good for people. For every little bit he makes me angry, he also makes me sad.
This is more of that “black is white, up is down” stuff isn’t it.
We’re through the looking glass, that’s for sure.
Maybe Soros should have a baby with Pia Zadora, or at least a dep meaningful interpersonal relationship. Pia made Meshulam Riklis happy for years. Pia’s getting a little old, 54 I think, but she might be up for some more billionaire snuggle time. Anyone know if Soros rolls that way?
Isn’t Soros a wanted man in France?
Well, all he wanted were some frickin’ sharks with frickin’ laser beams coming out of their heads. Somebody could’ve thrown him a bone, y’know.