On Our Own

MORE THAN ONE BILLION PEOPLE live on less than one dollar a day. Another couple of billion live on two dollars a day. In all, forty five percent of humanity lives on two dollars a day or less. In the aftermath of the horrible devastation of World War Two, institutions were formed which were designed to create political stability and keep the peace, and to create economic stability and reduce or eliminate poverty around the world. Enter the United nations, the World Bank, the International Monetary fund, and the World Trade Organization. The WTO, though mandated in 1946 at Bretton woods, New Jersey, like the others, nonetheless did not actually come into existence until fifty years later, in the nineteen nineties. The bad news is that none of the above does its job, or ever has. The good news is that it still isn't too late for them to begin. All of them are dominated, indeed controlled by, you guessed it, the United States of America. The World Bank is always chaired by an American, the IMF is always chaired by a European, and the United States, believe it or not, has exclusive veto power over both. Both the IMF and the World Bank are headquartered in Washington D.C., over on nineteenth and K streets. The United Nations is a tad less undemocratic; there are five permanent members of the Security Council, all of whom have veto power; the victorious nations of World War Two. To the victors of World War Two went the spoils. The "developing" countries, those nations which are dirt poor and always have been, in Latin America, Africa, and Asia, were the intended beneficiaries of the economic policies of both the IMF and the World Bank, but they have only grown more poor during the post world war period. Its almost as if the policies of these two lenders are intended not to elevate the impoverished, but rather, to further enrich the rich. They loan money to countries in crisis, then demand that it be paid back, with interest. They make sure that the developed countries have unlimited access to the natural resources of the developing countries,and that their markets are open to American and European exports. If the day ever comes when the people who need help from these organizations are allowed to have a voice in their policy, the world might begin to make progress towards a better, more prosperous, more humane world. Until then, we're all on our own.