I've written: > I have to admit that 'I have had it' with the international financial > institutions (WB, IMF, IADBs, etc.) Bill said: > so when were you ever enamoured with SAPs? Never! nooi! nunca! mai! jamais! What I meant was that I screened almost every relevant piece written by or about them (well, just a bit, which I used to count by kilos and not by pages, in any case...), to try 'understanding' what the reasons are of their success in the academia, while continous failure in the real world. But... I failed. The only thing I could 'understand' is that -more at the level of the political economy, at a 'global scale'- the interests IFIs are serving are so huge that it will not be easy to beat them down in the near future. My only 'hopes' are in two tracks: a) empowerment at the grass root level; b) strenghtening of alternative theoretical propositions. And it is in this respect that I am still amazed: I cannot (yet) cope with the fact that mainstream thinking has been so easily adopted everywhere (or almost) just 'for free'... Anyway, I think discussion lists as this one would help. I am, however, getting a bit more worried from yesterday's Wolfensohn's speech at the ISS: they are putting lots of energies (and resources!) into building an 'universal classroom + database'. This looks like anticipanting the apocalyptic view of Paul Davidson on the future of economic theory... I hope folks in Pen-L and elsewhere are becoming fully aware of this *very possible* scenario. > > Beste Alex Bill: > hoe gaat het u? ik hoop dat je zijn wel. am sure you have a Ducht novel somewhere there, this is not possible! (btw, it should say: hoe gaat Met u (jou) ) Bill again: > how could they ever do the world any good when the US President > gets to appoint the WB President and the US dominates both > institutions? Hold on!, one thing you may not know is that Wolfensohn, just appointed a year and a half ago as president of the WB, has been, and still is, a member of the board of the Bilderber Group, which is , as you may know, the main designer of the actual world 'order'. The board includes the most influential political and economic elites of the Northen countries. This is a very serious concern... You can check this out in "Nexus Magazine", Vol.3, #1, Dec.95-Jan.96 (which is reproduced in a subdirectory of http://www.peg.apc.org ). I wonder why Australia does not have any 'representative' in the board... Now, have a nice evening, and a nice weekend. We will have to 'resist' a long time still... BTW, do not get enthusiastic about my spelling! It is just a 'colonized mixed'... Salud, A. Alex Izurieta E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Institute of Social Studies P.O. Box 29776 2502 LT The Hague Tel. 31-70-4260480 Fax. 31-70-4260.755 4260.799