Political Quotes

“I think what America just heard from the last two speakers on the other side of the aisle was that, literally, the Democrats wanted the money to the World Bank but not the reforms. That is why they voted for the $3 million-plus to go into that account, that IDA account. How cynical. I mean, funding of IDA is about as good as putting a Band-Aid on a car accident victim; right? It is not doing anything, ultimately, if there is such woeful inadequacy in trying to provide the true issues that need to be addressed. So, the sexual abuse of underage Ugandans, not really interested in talking to you about that; harassment of female project staff, not really interested in talking about that on the other side of the aisle; deficient project safety that may have resulted in five fatalities, not interested in talking about that. So, when they rise, talking about how much they care about the poor and those who are underserved--forgive me if I am cynical, Mr. Chairman--it rings a bit hollow. For the Bank, it got even worse. After sending this letter with Ms. Moore, we received a response that the Bank was undertaking cosmetic steps to improve their projects and their actions, such as creating a task force. Again, forgive me for being a little cynical about the task force, but not only was the country manager associated with the Ugandan project not held accountable, he was promoted to country director for the Congo. It still gets worse.…”