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World Bank pledges $1.2 billion to battle food crisis

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posted on May, 29 2008 @ 09:51 PM
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World Bank pledges $1.2 billion to battle food crisis


www.cnn.com

(CNN) -- The World Bank is making $1.2 billion available in grants and loans to combat the global food crisis, including $200 million for those most at risk in the world's poorest countries.

"These initiatives will help address the immediate danger of hunger and malnutrition for the 2 billion people struggling to survive in the face of rising food prices," World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said in a statement.
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on May, 29 2008 @ 09:51 PM
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Well, at least someone has some money they can lend. :-)

www.cnn.com
(visit the link for the full news article)



posted on May, 29 2008 @ 10:14 PM
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Grants and loans eh? What was the rate was on these loans? Did they create only the principle? We must be wary of these "good deeds", they can quickly turn into land grabs.



posted on May, 29 2008 @ 10:36 PM
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LOL.

You can't eat money.

The people have been conned into believing money has value. Nope.

The value is in the food.


We just need to GROW it, and DISTRIBUTE it. The "need" for money is an artificial creation of society. Also artificial is the scarcity that results when the system doesn't have money to pay workers to grow and distribute food.

Money is a con. There's plenty of food to go around, and the potential for much more. The system of commerce and distribution has evolved to a program to promote inequity, poverty, scarcity, desperation, debt, economic enslavement, war, and starvation.


When the world bank or IMF makes a "loan", what they do is walk over to a computer, and type in digits into an account with your name. Takes a few minutes at most. Then the people who "owe" them work to pay it back for years....




[edit on 29-5-2008 by ianr5741]



posted on May, 29 2008 @ 11:31 PM
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I've been very skeptical of the World Bank ever since I read the book Perpetuating Poverty.

Here's the news release and 'background notes' from the World Bank site:

World Bank Launches $1.2 Billion Fast-Track Facility for Food Crisis
Food Crisis: Background Note


The $1.2 billion facility, which is designed to address immediate needs, supports safety net programs such as food for work, conditional cash transfers, and school feeding programs for the most vulnerable. It provides support for food production – this year and beyond - by supplying seeds and fertilizer, improving irrigation for small-scale farmers, and providing budget support to offset tariff reductions for food and other unexpected costs.

As part of the new facility the World Bank is also establishing a Multi-Donor Trust Fund to facilitate policy and operational co-ordination among donors, and leverage financial support for the rapid delivery of seeds and fertilizer to small farmers for the upcoming planting season.


Besides scary-sounding programs like "food for work" and "conditional cash transfers", the notes indicate (in an obfuscated way) that the support for actual food production ($10M maximum per country in seeds, fertilizers, etc.) is in the form of grants and credits from another World Bank project:


To facilitate other development partners to support country efforts to address the crisis, a Multi Donor Trust Fund (MDTF) is being created. The Trust Fund is designed to complement the emergency food assistance activities of the WFP, FAO, and IFAD by providing immediate support for production such as seeds and fertilizers for the upcoming harvests, particularly for small farmers. The MDTF will also facilitate policy and operational coordination among development partners [my emphasis] and help ensure that support to countries is comprehensive and country specific.


So, the World Bank establishes the MDTF to enable not-quite-so-poor countries to sell some excess resources to poorer countries, as long as both play within the market, trade, and policy rules the World Bank mandates. Nice.



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 11:23 AM
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Here's some more background info on the current 'food crisis' situation. It's a well-referenced editorial that offers quite a contrasting perspective.

New from GRAIN: Getting out of the food crisis


A few months have now passed since the global food crisis was put on the world agenda. The causes of the problem have been identified and more or less understood. Yet the food crisis is still unfolding.
...
Everyone agrees that something needs to be done but there is vast disagreement as to what this implies. The policy priests at the World Bank, the World Trade Organisation and the International Monetary Fund, the corporate boards of directors and, indeed, most governments and their teams of advisers want us to continue on the course of industrialising agriculture and liberalising trade and investment, even though this recipe just promises more of the same in the future.
...
More disturbing, the political and business elites don't want to face the fact that, whether you are a working-class homeowner in the US or a mother queuing for rice in the Philippines, confidence in the market has been shattered.
...
One of the more obscene aspects of the food crisis is the spectacular profits that the market has allowed big agribusiness and speculators to make from it. Contrary to the impression conveyed by some media, few farmers are seeing any benefits from the price hikes.



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 11:40 AM
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Good to see that the World Banks and I guess IMF are feeling so generous with money that they collected of the same 'poorer countries' through 3rd world protection loans that they can never default on.

So how does it actually work these banks type in a figure say 12000000.... etc into a computer and hey presto 1.2 Billion of generous funds!

Then this money ends up in........ a bank...... owned by...... world banks...... and what , they can then loan on the strength of money they created and moved from bank to bank?

Brilliant!



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 11:52 AM
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Don't kid yourselves. This is not a spontaneous gesture of kindness taken on their part after deliberation regarding world hunger! This is another situation in which governments will be coerced to become signatories of the IMF/World Bank programs obliging them to play ball when it comes to future initiatives.

This are the most disingenuous of all 'assistance' offered. First - the loaners will determine where the 'food' comes from (i.e. who actually makes the profit), second, the assistance will be provisional - you will have to subscribe to certain 'guidelines' set forth by initiatives such as the infamous codex alimentaria, etc.

Thirdly, the 'loans' will be restricted for repayment. Only money borrowed from your country's national central bank (of which they are part owners) to repay them (thus compounding your debt ad infinitum).

This is no humanitarian gesture! This is one element of a multi-part plan to ensure that eventually all nations are beholden to the IMF/World Bank system of wealth control.



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 12:28 PM
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reply to post by ianr5741
 


I have tried to say this same thing before, but your wording is much better


I mean, I still want to know, who the HELL is keeping vegetable seeds from these poor people all over the world?? These governments don't control their population, and they don't produce their own food or hand out some garden seeds, just so they can collect 1.2billion to the bank account when their overpopulations get rowdy? Bah



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 12:32 PM
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reply to post by Maxmars
 


Thanks for laying it all out like that. Some of us(me) don't understand much about world economics. Being outside looking in, the entire system seems to be a complete fraud based on livestock(people), and the manipulation of other governments.

But to be honest I am surprised Prez Bush didn't shove the World Bank aside and offer to let the American taxpayers take another 'for the team'.



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 01:38 PM
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reply to post by LostNemesis
 


Believe me, I wish I were wrong! I learned a few years back that almost every action undertaken by nearly ANY banking authority will be (NO MATTER HOW THEY COUCH IT) laced with 'plans within plans' as Frank Herbert wrote in DUNE.

I suppose it is to be expected when there are so many 'hidden' agendas in our systems of 'wealth' management (I mean globally)



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 05:43 PM
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Originally posted by Maxmars
when there are so many 'hidden' agendas


They call themselves 'The World Bank'.

The World Bank.

I guess they think that people will just assume they don't really mean it.



posted on May, 30 2008 @ 05:53 PM
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Originally posted by Ian McLean

Originally posted by Maxmars
when there are so many 'hidden' agendas


They call themselves 'The World Bank'.

The World Bank.

I guess they think that people will just assume they don't really mean it.


I think you are correct! Sort of like "Federal Reserve Bank" - most think it's part of the 'federal' government, their partly right - it IS the government in charge, but it's not 'federal' at all is it! ?
'Deviously named' seems a true understatement!




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