At
IMF,
Of Muslim
Brotherhood,
Asian Homers,
No Sri Lanka
or Myanmar,
Ban Hype?
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
IMF,
April
20, updated
with video
link --
There is a lot
of hot air at
the
International
Monetary
Fund during
its Spring
Meeting, but
every once in
a while a
question
actually gets
answered. On
Friday Inner
City Press
asked IMF
official
Masood Ahmed
about Egypt,
whether a
military
government in
what
should be its
declining days
should be able
to bind future
Egyptians
to the tune of
$3.2 billion.
He
replied that
"to be
successful,
[an IMF
program] has
to enjoy broad
support
in the
country.
Because the
program is
going to be
implemented
over a
couple of
years."
He said that
the current
government has
a
"self defined
limited
duration" --
let's hope so
-- and so
the IMF has
consulted
"those likely
to be in the
incoming
government
need to be
saying broadly
supportive of
program."
There,
was that so
hard?
Inner City
Press had
asked Masood
Ahmed to
explain Managing
Director
Christine
Lagarde's
statement the
previous day
that "If
we hear solid
partners on
the ground
say, aah, I am
not too sure
about this
program, not
too sure about
the IMF, not
too sure about
borrowing, it
is a bit of an
issue."
Now
can we say,
Lagarde's
"solid
partners" are
Masood Ahmed's
"those
likely to be
in the
incoming
government"?
Can you say,
Muslim
Brotherhood?
But
elsewhere in
the IMF's
Spring Meeting
there was
stonewalling
and conflicts
of
interest, hype
photo-ops and
needless
security.
After
Masood
Ahmed's press
conference, a
similar one
was held about
Asia and the
Pacific. But
in this,
India's Anoop
Singh jumped
in to say that
his
own country's
growth is
"robust," even
as
contradicted
by
his less
conflicted
deputy
Masahiko
Takeda.
In the UN
system,
generally one
is not
supposed to
act or speak
on one's own
country.
Does Anoop
Singh have an
exemption?
During
the Asia
and Pacific
press
conference,
IMF
spokesperson
Keiko
Utsunomiya was
selective in
how she
allowed
questions, and
the questions
asked were
parochial, for
example about
banks in
Cambodia (to
which Anoop
Singh
replied that
he'd gone to
Ankor Wat).
No
question at
all
was allowed
about Myanmar,
and no
question about
military
spending in
Sri Lanka.
The
Latin America
and Caribbean
press
conference by
Nicolas
Eyzaguirre was
better run,
but still
nothing was
said about for
example Haiti.
At
the higher
profile G20
press
conference, it
was mostly
Christine
Lagarde
bragging about
the $430
billion
pledged --
without
details -- and
nothing about,
for example,
the G20's
opposition to
the Volcker
Rule
in the US.
There
was event
after event.
On the IMF
schedule
screen came a
notice of a
meeting of
Guinea Bissau
official (pre
or post coup,
one wondered)
and then of
the
"Macedonia
Team Meeting."
One wondered,
and asked via
Twitter,
wasn't FYROM
the term used
in UN system?
UN
Secretary
General Ban
Ki-moon came
to the World
Bank Friday
morning; there
was
a photo op
before his
meeting with
Lagarde,
Robert
Zoellick and
finance
minister about
Rio +20. Inner
City Press
there, as was
Bob
Orr, as Bank
watchers said
how Zoellick
always has a
Diet Coke
(like
Ban and his
covered glass
of water).
Making-of
video on
Inner City
Press YouTube,
click
here.
Later
Inner City
Press heard
that Ban had
urged another
DC audience to
Tweet at
Barack
Obama urging
his to go to
Rio +20. Inner
City Press
asked the
question at
the State
Department
briefing,
including why
Tim Geithner
hadn't
bothered to
attend the Rio
meeting of
finance
minister, but
was referred
to the White
House.
At
5 pm on Friday
a
protest march
came by the
IMF, just as a
Syria meeting
began up in
the UN
Security
Council. Watch
this site.
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