Bruce Rich - The Initial Findings of the Jury

Bruce Rich's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007

Sulak Sivaraska's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007.

Rawaswamy Iyer - The Initial Findings of the Jury

Rawaswamy Iyer's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007.

Alejandro Nadal - The Initial Findings of the Jury

Alejandro Nadal's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007.

Aruna Roy - The Initial Findings of the Jury

Aruna Roy's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007. (In progress)

Arundhati Roy - The Initial Findings of the Jury

Arundhati Roy's initial findings of the Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank Group in India that took place in Delhi at the end of September 2007. (in progress)

Fraud In Five of World Bank Sponsored Health Projects In India

Serious incidents of Fraud and Corruption found in five health projects funded by the Bank worth $570 million
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A detailed internal review, launched in 2006 by the bank's Department of Institutional Integrity, with support from the Indian government, found illegal activity in projects, including those focused on curbing malaria, HIV/AIDS and tuberculosis, which dates as far back as 1997 (Wall Street Journal [1], 1/14). The projects under investigation were the Second National HIV/AIDS Control Project, the Malaria Control Project, the Tuberculosis Control Project, Food and Drug Capacity Building Project and the Orissa Health Systems Development Project, according to the bank.
According to the Journal, the review found that some of the HIV test kits for the $194 million HIV/AIDS Control Project "often performed poorly by producing erroneous or invalid results, potentially resulting in the further spread of disease." The report also found "numerous indicators of poor product quality in the bed nets supplied by the firms" in the $114 million Malaria Control Project. In the $125 million Tuberculosis Control Project, the review found "bidders sharing the same address and telephone numbers, unit prices showing a common formula and indicators of intent to split contract awards among several bidders."

The report also found inadequate facilities and evidence that the bank repeatedly ignored that the corruption was occurring, according to the Journal. In the AIDS Control Project, "the bank appeared to pay scant attention to the performance and quality of the goods supplied to the blood banks and testing centers, instead focusing on the number of such facilities being erected," the review said.

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Amit Bhaduri responds to the World Bank

Choosing not to accept the Secretariat's invitation to attend the Tribunal, the World Bank instead posted a response to the Tribunal proceedings as well as a "Question and Answer" document on India's World Bank homepage.

Amit Bhaduri, a member of the jury, responds to what the World Bank published on its website on the final day of the Tribunal (24 September, 2007).

An economist and social activist, Professor Bhaduri is the author of many books, a small sample of which includes Development with Dignity: A Case for Full Employment, (2005), On the Border of Economic Theory and History (1999), The Intelligent Person’s Guide to Liberalization (1996) and The Economic Structure of Backward Agriculture (1983). He has been Professor Emeritus at Jawaharlal Nehru University, Delhi, has been appointed Professor of Political Economy at the University of Pavia and has been a visiting Professor at various academic institutions (Colegio de Mexico, Universities of Stanford, Vienna, Linz, Bologna, Bremen, and Trondheim).

Book Review: Seeds of Destruction

The Independent People's Tribunal on the World Bank in India provided a great deal of testimony on the links between the World Bank and the large GE firms. That information will soon be posted on the Tribunal's web site (www.worldbanktribunal.com). The following review of William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" by Stephen Lendman will be interesting to anyone following this industry. I also recommend the newsletter at Global Research for insights into many different aspects of the power of global capital.

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Today, we're all lab rats in an uncontrolled, unregulated mass human experiment the results of which are unknown. Once GM seeds are introduced to an area, the genie is out of the bottle for keeps.


Reviewing F. William Engdahl's "Seeds of Destruction" - by Stephen Lendman (Part I)

Bill Engdahl is a leading researcher, economist and analyst of the New World Order who's written on issues of energy, politics and economics for over 30 years. He contributes regularly to publications like Japan's Nihon Keizai Shimbun, Foresight magazine, Grant's Investor.com, European Banker and Business Banker International. He's also a frequent speaker at geopolitical, economic and energy related international conferences and is a distinguished Research Associate of the Centre for Research on Globalization where he's a regular contributor.

Engdahl also wrote two important books - "A Century of War: Anglo-American Oil Politics and the New World Order" in 2004. It's an essential history of geopolitics and the importance of oil. Engdahl explains that America's post-WW II dominance rests on two pillars and one commodity - unchallengeable military power and the dollar as the world's reserve currency combined with the quest to control global oil and other energy resources.

Engdahl's newest book is just out from Global Research: "Seeds of Destruction: The Hidden Agenda of Genetic Manipulation" and subject of this review. It's the diabolical story of how Washington and four Anglo-American agribusiness giants plan world domination by patenting life forms to gain worldwide control of our food supply and why that prospect is chilling. The book's compelling contents are reviewed below in-depth so readers will know the type future Henry Kissinger had in mind in 1970 when he said: "Control oil and you control nations; control food and you control the people."

Remember also, this cabal is one of many interconnected ones with fearsome power and ruthless intent to use it - Big Banks controlling the Federal Reserve and our money, Big Oil our world energy resources, Big Media our information, Big Pharma our health, Big Technology our state-of-the-art everything and watching us, Big Defense our wars, Big Pentagon waging them, and other corporate predators exploiting our lives for profit. Engdahl's book focuses brilliantly on one of them. To fully cover its vital contents, this review will be in three parts for more detail and to make it easily digestible.

URL of this article: www.globalresearch.ca/index.php?context=va&aid=7716

Global Research, January 2, 2008

Delhi Water Privatisation Plan

When the Delhi government decided to privatize the water infrastructure in the Indian capital in 2000, a strong resistance movement emerged. These activists, which include Arvind Kejriwal, have played a critical role of maintaining access to water for Delhiites and have shown the power of collective action.

Due to the successful campaign which exposed the corruption of this potential World Bank project, the project was halted. This process of privatizing the management of municipal water has happened across many cities and its important for people to understand how this happens, why and under what conditions. Arvind Kejriwal explains the influence of the World Bank Group in the bidding procedure to predetermine which corporation (Price Waterhouse Coopers) would profit from the management of such an important public resource in the city of Delhi.

"Do we need the World Bank in India?", asks Kejriwal.

Activist and resident of Delhi, Arvind Kejriwal is an activist for governmental transparency. He has received awards for his involvement with grassroots organisations in India, prominent one being the "Indian of the Year in Public Service" in 2006. He also founded the grassroots organisation Parivartan, devoted to the cause of ensuring a just and accountable governance in India.