>Enzo writes:
>
>>What about letting people choose what they prefer? Six million Chinese
have
>>moved to Hong Kong from PRC, and many more from the pristine,
unpolluted,
>>arcadic, socialist countryside to the "dark satanic mills" of
Guangdong. Are
>>they all crazy? No, Henry: they are rational individuals who, like
their
>>peers in other lands and other times, know very well where their best
>>interest lies.
>
>Shoot. We started with poison or poverty; now it's rural idiocy or
satanic
>mills. I hat multiple choice tests.
Not to thicken the plot or anything, but I was wondering what the World Bank's role is in the MAI (or the IMF's role for that matter--all I know on this is what N Chomsky writes in New Left Review 230, that the "MAI is now shifting to the IMF, which is suitably secretive and unaccountable").
A discouraging section of the Ministerial Statement on the MAI 28 April 98 says: "Ministers note the increased convergence of views on the need for the MAI to address environmental protection and labour issues, and the broad support for including a strong commitment by governments *not to lower* environmental or labour standards in order to attract or retain an investment" (my emphasis)
This, and the MAI in general, doesn't gibe with Stiglitz' remarks on expanding the social safety net, restricting capital inflows and such. Does anyone know how the World Bank is in on the MAI, shrouded in secrecy as it is? And why did France back out of the global NAFTA?
-Alec
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