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(1) Good article (actually a sidebar) from Christian Science Monitor with a great quote from Bruce Babbit (reproduced just below).

(2) A good opinion piece from the Nation

(3) A *terrible* article from the usually liberal Boston Globe. Please write an indignant but polite letter to letter@globe.com"letter@globe.com with a copy to ombud@globe.com"ombud@globe.com. 5) A hysterically biased "report" by Walter Rodgers, of CNN. He's more of a right-wing commentator than a reporter.

(4) Summary of today's electronic transcripts (1st few paras. of each only). For those of you who doubt whether the protests had much effect on the fat cats inside the Congress Center and their luxury hotels, read the last two transcripts, one from CTV and the other the transcript of what was said in the Center itself, where the head of the IMF says "I am quite surprised that so many showed up here this morning because yesterday evening I got the question: 'Are you rushing out of Prague?' "

(5) The Jeffrey Sachs commentary from the Financial Times. This will serve as very effective ammo for future use when they say we are a bunch of flat-earthers. He is one of the so-called "leading economists" among those who think credentials actually equal wisdom. "When thousands of young Americans and people around the world gather in the streets, it's an enormous mistake to dismiss them as a group of overindulgent, dissatisfied technological Luddites who ought to be disregarded. That cry is a voice of skepticism about the hubris of modern technology, about science, and other forms of globalization." --Bruce Babbitt, US Secretary of the Interior and a civil-rights activist

(6)"Their No. 1 enemy, the evil empire, as they see it, is corporate power in the world, the international corporations which, many of whom, are, of course, responsible for bringing the last 20 years of prosperity to at least the United States, Western Europe and Japan." --Walter Rodgers, CNN "Snr. Int'l Correspondent"

The Christian Science Publishing Society Christian Science Monitor

September 28, 2000, Thursday

HEADLINE: Looking for substance behind the protest

BYLINE: Laurent Belsie

DATELINE: ASPEN, COLO.

After nearly a year of protests, the signs and chants are familiar: "Dump the Debt." "Worker Rights, Not Corporate Rights." "World Bank, what are you for? You feed the rich and starve the poor."

Never mind that this isn't Seattle, Philadelphia, or San Francisco. The police here sport bicycles, not riot gear, and the biggest business around these parts is tourism. Nevertheless, at the gravel entrance to the Aspen Institute, a nonprofit ideas forum, some 75 men and women have come to protest a conference on globalization.

Not since the Vietnam era has an issue so galvanized people. Old-line hippies rub elbows with Gen-Xers. Women nearly outnumber the men. And the movement is gaining momentum.

If protesters can organize an alternative conference and a credible street protest in the middle of the Rocky Mountains, they can make their presence felt in any major American city. Just like the antiwar movement - except it's different.

"In the '60s, you still had a hierarchical structure," says Stan Wilson, a Vietnam era protester who saw the war end before he got drafted. "It was very male dominated. The women of the '60s never got the ink that the men did."

"Now the movement is more honest," he adds. "It's really a leaderless revolution."

He is seated with some 30 other anarchists (the more extreme part of the protest movement) in an apartment rented for the weekend. Over a lunch of vegetarian soup from Styrofoam trays, the group gets down to business. One woman serves as facilitator, handling the "stack" (the order of people who want to speak). The mood is upbeat because the Aspen Institute allowed the group to send four representatives to ask questions of the conferees.

"We have learned a lot from the '60s," explains Mark Cohen after the meeting. But "in a lot of ways, people are more sophisticated today. Sixties people were still trying to work through the Democratic Party."

The protest movement has its own internal divisions. Some want to reform the capitalist system; others, including these anarchists, want to replace it. But even these anarchists don't oppose globalization; they merely want to guide it in a new direction.

And because of that, they have made a big impact on the elite whom they criticize.

"When thousands of young Americans and people around the world gather in the streets, it's an enormous mistake to dismiss them as a group of overindulgent, dissatisfied technological Luddites who ought to be disregarded," Bruce Babbitt, US Secretary of the Interior and a civil-rights activist in his own day, warned conferees. "That cry is a voice of skepticism about the hubris of modern technology, about science, and other forms of globalization."

_______________________________________________

Published on Wednesday, September 27, 2000 in The Nation's Online Beat From Prague to Pennsylvania Avenue -

Bringing the IMF/World Bank Protests Back Home

by John Nichols

WASHINGTON -- "There's a divide between rich and poor that's becoming more and more global every day," said Nancy Harvin, as she allowed Washington, D.C, Police officers to wrap white plastic cuffs around her wrists.

Harvin, one of dozens of activists who blocked a busy Washington street during rush hour Tuesday, said she was willing to be arrested in order to raise awareness about the failure of the World Trade Organization, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund to address inequities in the global economy.

A 37-year-old Washington activist with a deep commitment to social and economic justice causes, Harvin joined hundreds of other American critics of corporate-driven globalization in a protest timed to parallel street actions in Prague, where the mandarins of the World Bank and the IMF are meeting this week.

The Washington protests -- which linked the actions of the global economic agencies to the plight of low-wage immigrant workers in the nation's capital city -- were more peaceful than demonstrations in Prague, where 8,000 activists clashed with police and paralyzed traffic around the meeting site in the Czech capital for more than six hours. But they were a reminder that, a little less than a year after protests in Seattle disrupted the WTO's Millennium Round talks, the challenge to corporate-dictated models of globalization is broader than ever.

That challenge resonates from the capitals of Europe to the capital of the United States, where demonstrations, rallies and educational events were set to coincide with the Prague protests.

Even as the movement matures -- a phenomenon examined in, of all places, The New York Times Week-in-Review section -- there remains an exhileration about this international campaign for economic justice. It's not because of the violence that is sometimes associated with the protests, not even because of the theatrical nature of the puppet-wielding challenges to corporate power. The excitement with this movement is rooted in the faith that it is bringing to the fore gentler sentiments -- like those expressed by Nancy Harvin, as she was arrested in Washington this week.

The notion that people of good will can no longer stand aside and watch as the gap between the world's rich and poor grows exponentially wider is difficult to deny. And the message of those who are protesting in the streets is being heard.

Indeed, on the same day that Nancy Harvin was being arrested in Washington, a distinguished gentleman addressed the World Bank/IMF gatheing in Prague. He told his elite audience, "We live in a world scarred by inequality. Something is wrong when the richest 20 percent of the global population receive more than 80 percent of the global income... and when 2.8 billion people still live on less than $2 a day."

The speaker was James D. Wolfensohn, the increasingly conscious president of the World Bank. Wolfensohn, who once dismissed potesters against the institution he heads, has come to recognize that the activists can no longer be denied. "Many of them are asking legitimate questions," he says, "and I embrace the commitment of a new generation to fight poverty."

Yes, of course, there is a heavy spin on that comment. Wolfensohn is trying to reposition his agency as a middle-ground force between rapacious free-market capitalism and the cries for justice that come from the streets outside World Bank/IMF meetings. Skepticism is entirely appropriate.

Yet, the willingness of Wolfensohn to admit the legitimacy of these protests begs the question: Why have we heard nothing from Al Gore and George W. Bush on these issues? If James Wolfensohn feels compelled to comment, surely, the men who would be president of the United States ought to have something to say.

Perhaps they could start talking about fundamental issues of wealth and poverty next Tuesday, when the Democratic and Republican presidential nominees meet for their first debate in Washington. That is, if they can take a break from their stimulating dialogue over how to pronounce "subliminal."

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The Boston Globe

September 27, 2000, Wednesday ,THIRD EDITION

HEADLINE: PROTESTS CREATE A SCENE CZECHS CAN DO WITHOUT

BYLINE: By Brian Whitmore, Globe Correspondent

PRAGUE - From the middle of their street, Martin Palan and Honza Novak stood stunned yesterday as black-clad demonstrators pelted police with rocks and firebombs, set barricades ablaze, and later trashed banks, two McDonald's restaurants, and a Mercedes-Benz dealership. The whirring of police helicopters and the wafting black smoke and tear gas were reminiscent of protests past in Prague, broken up by Soviet tanks or ending in triumph with the fall of the hated communist rulers.

But yesterday, as up to 9,000 people, most of them foreigners, sought to prolong the cry against global capitalism, Palan and Novak felt outrage and anger toward those who were stripping the cobblestones from Prague's historic streets and hurling them at police. By last night, scores of people were injured. "I respect everybody's right to express their opinions," said Palan, a 20-year-old student, "but people should not come here, to our country, to destroy things." Those protesting yesterday's opening of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank meeting included environmentalists, human rights activists, and labor groups. But also present - and much more visible - were radicals of various stripes, including anarchists, communists, and right-wing skinheads. "It is a paradox. A decade ago our people demonstrated peacefully and successfully against communism. Now there are foreigners coming here waving Communist flags demonstrating violently against capitalism," said Novak, 20. "They don't know what it means to live under communism."

The number of protesters was less than half the 20,000 that organizers had hoped to gather. Authorities, determined to prevent the violence that erupted at World Trade Organization talks in Seattle last year, kept hundreds of people with arrest records from entering the country.

In trying to storm the meetings yesterday, activists pelted police with bottles, rocks, and firebombs. Police fought back with tear gas and water cannons. Several stick-wielding protesters got within yards of the Prague Congress Center, where the meetings are being held, injuring a Japanese and a Russian delegate. They also stormed a hotel, pelting delegates with rocks until truncheon-wielding police repelled them.

Protesters had hoped to barricade IMF and World Bank officials inside their meetings. But at the end of the day, police herded the delegates into a subway station, where they boarded specially prepared trains.

The Czech Republic president, Vaclav Havel, a playwright who led a bloodless revolution that overthrew Czechoslovakia's Communist government in 1989, called on protesters to end the violence. IMF and World Bank officials said the annual meetings, which conclude tomorrow, would continue on schedule.

"We're really disappointed. We were really hoping for a nonviolent protest on the basic issues of the IMF and the World Bank. But instead now the focus has shifted," said Chelsea Mosen of the Initiative Against Economic Globalization.

Other demonstrators said the violence should show the world how angry people are about the policies of the IMF and the World Bank. The two organizations, they say, perpetuate poverty by forcing developing countries to cut social programs to receive loans.

"Today people trashed some sidewalks and broke some windows. The IMF destroys entire countries," said Genevieve Moore, 23, a Seattle native who also participated in the protests in that city.

But most locals were unimpressed by such logic. "I am so frustrated that I could just kill them," said Andrea Morava, 25, wiping tear gas from her eyes as she made her way home around police barricades. "They are a bunch of idiots and they should just leave our city."

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[A blatantly biased piece of reporting by Walter Rodgers, but it looks like it's top of the news - DL]

SHOW: CNN MORNING NEWS 09:00

September 26, 2000; Tuesday 11:01 AM Eastern Time

Transcript # 00092609V09

SHOW-TYPE: LIVE REPORT

SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: Protesters, Police Clash Near IMF/World Bank Meeting in Prague

BYLINE: Daryn Kagan, Walter Rodgers

HIGHLIGHT: Protesters have been clashing with police near the site of the joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in Prague. Earlier today, 20 police were injured by Molotov cocktails thrown by demonstrators; 10 demonstrators are also said to have been hurt.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to go ahead and start with world news and go to Prague where, today, protesters have been clashing with police near the site of the joint meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank.

Joining us now from the Czech Republic's capital, our senior Walter, has it been shades of Seattle where you are?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: It's been Seattle, but on a much smaller scale, Daryn. Right now, the demonstrators, there aren't enough of them to carry out their threat to barricade the building where the International Monetary Fund and World Bank officials are meeting, but they have been able to stage sit-ins and lie-ins on some of the streets, similar to the one behind me, so that some of these delegates who found it easy to get here to the IMF and World Bank meeting this morning may find it much more difficult to get home.

Czech news agencies are reporting 20 policemen were injured when Molotov cocktails burned some of the policemen, the Molotov cocktails thrown by the demonstrators; 10 demonstrators are also said to have been hurt. It was a very, very ugly scene. The police used tear gas, stun grenades, water cannon, and things have quieted down a little now, but they could pick up again in a few hours when some of these IMF and World Bank officials try to leave here in their automobiles -- Daryn.

KAGAN: And, of course, Walter, this story isn't just about what the protesters are doing but what's being said inside. And as I understand it, some of the World Bank leaders actually commending, in a way, the passion that these young people, the protesters, have for world poverty.

RODGERS: It is interesting that that has been the case. There are some who have been calling it pandering. They're praising the young people for their support of antipoverty campaigns in the world and the elimination of the debt for the developing countries. The problem with all of that is that many of the protesters, in particular the hard-core ones, are out-and-out, avowed Marxists. And their equal aim in all of this, if you read their placards and their banners, are to smash capitalism. Their No. 1 enemy, the evil empire, as they see it, is corporate power in the world, the international corporations which, many of whom, are, of course, responsible for bringing the last 20 years of prosperity to at least the United States, Western Europe and Japan.

But they are carrying and renewing some of the old Marxist slogans: workers of the world unite, and smash the International Monetary Fund, smash NATO, smash the European Union. That seems to be the message of the more hard-core protesters -- Daryn.

KAGAN: So does this seem like it's going to be a standoff where the protesters don't get what they want and World Bank officials can't get their work done, or will something actually happen at these meetings, unlike in Seattle, Walter?

RODGERS: Well, the -- there is a standoff right now, Daryn, and it's far from over, because, as I say, the streets to the conference hall,many of them, are blocked by the demonstrators who are just sitting down, lying down in the road. And for the more than 10,000 IMF officials and World Bank officials to get home tonight, the police are going to have to start clearing those protesters. That could get very, very ugly.

Statements have been made here, that is the political statements in the streets, as I say, ranging from the Marxist to some environmental and some religious statements. But this isn't over. And while it hasn't been on the scale of Seattle in November of last year, it has not been a very pleasant scene -- Daryn.

KAGAN: OK, Walter, you stay safe there in Prague. Thank you for that report. Walter Rodgers in the Czech Republic in Prague, thank you very much.

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TRANSCRIPTS SHOW: CNN AHEAD OF THE CURVE 05:00

September 25, 2000; Monday Transcript # 00092510V62

TYPE: LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: Another Seattle Seen as Unlikely at IMF/World Bank Meetings in Prague

BYLINE: David Haffenreffer, Deborah Marchini, Walter Rodgers

HIGHLIGHT: The International Monetary Fund and its sister organization, the World Bank, are holding their annual meetings in Prague starting tomorrow. Protesters opposed to their policies have threatened to shut down the meeting.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, the streets are quiet here in Prague, David, this morning. The U.S. treasury secretary, Larry Summers, spoke to the Development Committee of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank today. He pronounced the global economic climate stronger than it has been in many years.

Nonetheless, Secretary Summers said the over-arching imperative must be to fight global poverty. He noted that half of the world's population, that is over five billion people, half of that population lives on less that $2 a day per individual. He noted that the HIV/AIDS pandemic, especially in Africa, has set back economic development, hard-fought economic development many years. And he noted that the life expectancy in Africa -- many African countries is now below what it was in 1950 because of the HIV/AIDS pandemic.

dditionally, he said another threat to the global economic strength is money laundering and corruption in many of the developing countries.

Still the U.S. treasury secretary hung firm to the United States' position vis-a-vis debt relief for the developing countries. He said the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund must not relinquish its authority over the rules by which it lends money to the developing countries. Perhaps our viewers know that there has been a massive movement, particularly in Europe, to cancel the debt of the developing countries, particularly in Africa, but also some in Latin America, 100 percent cancellation.

ARCHINI: Walter, since the meeting in Seattle, anti- globalization protesters have been much feared in these kinds of environments. Tell us about the security presence and the likelihood of mass demonstrations?

RODGERS: Well, the security presence is massive on the building behind me. If you could see over the roof, you would see snipers with masks there. These are, of course, the Czech SWAT forces. The Czech police is very much in evidence throughout the city. And there have been complaints even of some -- what you would call low-grade harassment, that is to say, Czechs checking almost anyone on the streets who fits the profile of a possible Seattle-type demonstrator and asking for their identification.

But the Czechs seem to have kept demonstrations peaceful so far. We've had a number of them, several which I covered yesterday, one which was essentially a mainstream religious organization campaigning for debt relief. There was absolutely no problem there, and the Czech police kept a low-profile.

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SHOW: CNN MORNING NEWS 09:00 September 25, 2000; Monday

Transcript # 00092517V09 TYPE:

LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: World Finance Ministers Address Problem of Third World Poverty

BYLINE: Daryn Kagan, Walter Rodgers

HIGHLIGHT: In a preliminary round of meetings in the Czech Republic, the world's finance ministers have adopted increased consciousness and sensitivity toward potential protesters, addressing the needs of the Third World, where half the people on the planet live on less than $2 a day.

DARYN KAGAN, CNN ANCHOR: Another world issue we want to get to, the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the Czech Republic. Joining us from Prague is CNN senior international correspondent Walter Rodgers.Walter, we've heard the threat of protesters taking over there. What's the situation with that?

WALTER RODGERS, CNN ST. INTERNATIONAL CORRESPONDENT: Daryn, there have been no protesters anywhere near the congress hall, today at least, where the IMF and World Bank officials are meeting What's been amusing to watch in this preliminary round of meetings here is what you might call the increased consciousness- raising and sensitivity lessons that the world's finance ministers and World Bank officials seem to have undergone since Seattle when there were some rather serious riots on the American West Coast. What we're watching here is an attempt on the part of the finance ministers and World Bank officials to more keenly address the needs of the Third World and the poverty stricken Third World, where half the people on this planet now live on less than $2 a day. The U.S. Treasury secretary, Lawrence Summers, earlier today addressed the Development Committee of the IMF and the World Bank. And he said that while the current economic climate, the global economic climate, is stronger than it's been in many years, the overarching concern has to be the poverty in the world; that is to say, the poverty in the Third World. And he's again trying to redirect the attention of the ministers in that direction. And then just more recently, the president of the World Bank, James Wolfensohn, was keen to announce that, in fact, the debt of some of the worst and poorest countries, debt of countries in Africa that have borrowed from the World Bank -- at least 20 of the countries in Africa and Latin America will probably have debt relief by the end of the year. That's not total debt forgiveness, but it means those countries can now begin devoting some of their budgets, which they would have used to service their debt, pay their interest to the World Bank -- use their budgets to build better health care systems, schools, water, pollution control, that soft of thing. Again, there's an overall effort on the part of everyone here, and particularly the bankers in their pinstriped suits, to show that they have learned the lessons of Seattle and that world poverty does need to be addressed -- Daryn.
Copyright 2000 CNBC, Inc. CNBC News Transcripts

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SHOW: BUSINESS CENTER (6:30 PM ET) September 25, 2000, Monday

HEADLINE: U2'S BONO IS IN PRAGUE, CALLING FOR RELIEF OF DEBTS OF WORLD'S POOREST NATIONS

ANCHORS: SUE HERERA SUE HERERA, co-anchor: U2 singer--lead singer Bono is in Prague, calling on the IMF and World Bank to agree on what he calls an 'historic act' to mark the new millennium. He's among those demanding the cancellation of the debts of the world's poorest nations. He argues that at a time of unimaginable prosperity in the world, it is an obscenity that poor nations are paying far more in debt payments than they receive in aid.

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SHOW: CNN WORLDVIEW 18:00 September 24, 2000; Transcript# 00092402V18 TYPE: PACKAGE/INTERVIEW SECTION: News; International HEADLINE: World Bank and IMF Officials Get Set to Meet in Prague GUESTS: John Donaldson

BYLINE: Andria Hall,

WalterRodgers HALL: Sir, I want to start with a comment that one of the protesters said in our tape piece, she basically accused the World Bank and the IMF of being responsible for the deaths of 19,000 children. How do you respond to that?

OHN DONALDSON, SPOKESMAN, WORLD BANK: Well, I think it's certainly a dramatic statement. The World Bank is focused on poverty and on equity, and I think that's the main message that we re trying to discuss this week in Prague.This is the first -- the annual occasion of a meeting of all 182 member countries who basically own the World Bank and the IMF and -- to discuss issues of literally life and death, as Ms. Pettifor said in her comment, because it's true that children are dying every day, thousands of children. It's not, I would suggest, due to debt alone, but due to the effects of poverty in the world today. So we are very much focused on the same issues that many of the people who have concerns in -- outside the building are focused on. In fact... HALL: And yet those poor countries that you are talking about are basically having to choose between paying their debt to the World Bank, and education and health care, so inadvertently, if you will, they are having to redirect their resources, however meager they are.

DONALDSON: Well, I don't agree with that statement. I think that bt repayments are an issue in and of themselves, and insupportable debt payments are an issue. But, in fact, the World Bank lends enormous amounts of resources and in conjunction with other donors for exactly the things that they are concerned about, education and health. Almost half of our lending portfolio is directed for these areas, so while the debt burden is an issue that we all share -- and we are at the forefront of hoping that the debt issue can be addressed more forthrightly and rapidly -- I think that you can't really put the two issues together, because we are also, at the same time, investing in education and health care, and maternal health care, among other things like AIDS and HIV prevention in Africa and other parts where this is a major developmental issue.

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SHOW: CNN WORLDVIEW 18:00 September 25, 2000;

Monday Transcript # 00092502V18

TYPE: PACKAGE SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: IMF/World Bank Protesters Receive Scant Support in Prague

BYLINE: Bernard Shaw, Walter Rodgers HIGHLIGHT: Protesters are threatening to disrupt the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank opening Tuesday in the Czech Republic capital, Prague. But the protesters ranks are thin, and the Prague police might outnumber the protesters by a margin of two to one.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): After violent clashes paralyzed Seattle a year ago, finance ministers and World Bank officials are clearly paying more attention to global poverty in the third world and specifically debt relief for the world's poorest countries.

JAMES WOLFENSHON, WORLD BANK PRESIDENT: We will have 20 countries through to decision point by the end of the year. The average debt relief that we'll have for these countries is 65 percent of their total debts.

RODGERS: Religious activists are demanding 100 percent forgiveness on third-world debt, forcing debt repayment on the poorest countries impoverishes them and leaves them nothing left to spend for health care, education or infrastructure. Debt relief advocates, like U2's Bono, claim red tape and bureaucracy in lending institution, like the World Back and the International Monetary Fund, are so vexing the world's poor have no hope.

BONO, ENTERTAINER: We're not making it easy for people to rip off the money here. In fact, we're making it so hard that we're -- you know, that the patient is dying on the street while we're, you know, questioning the ambulance man. RODGERS: Global poverty is universally acknowledged as severe, and there appears a consensus that much of the world has missed out on the benefits of economic globalization enjoyed by the United States, Europe and Japan.

LAWRENCE SUMMERS, TREASURY SECRETARY: There's no higher moral priority than doing something about countries where more than a billion people live on less than a dollar a day. RODGERS: So farm, the threatened anti-globalization demonstrations in Prague have been scant, the most dramatic being these men dangling off a bridge at least 100 meters above the ground. (on camera): Prague police say there are now about 5,000 protesters in the city. Some of the demonstrators are threatening to form a human chain around this building, where lending officials are meeting. But the protesters ranks are thin, and the Prague police might outnumber the protesters by a margin of two to one.

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SHOW: CNN AHEAD OF THE CURVE 05:00 September 26, 2000; Tuesday

Transcript # 00092602V62

TYPE: LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: Protesters Gathering Around IMF/World Bank Meeting in Prague

BYLINE: David Haffenreffer, Charles Hodson

HIGHLIGHT: Demonstrators are gathering in the streets to Prague this morning. They are protesting the annual meeting of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank. But, at the moment, their numbers are far less than the 20,000 predicted.

Charles Hodson joins us now live from Prague with more on this. And good morning, Charles. What's the latest here?

CHARLES HODSON, CNN CORRESPONDENT: OK, well, David, the latest is actually going on right behind us. There are a couple of helicopters in the sky over Prague. What you're seeing there, that long line is the bridge, which is essentially a bridge which spans a deep ravine, which cuts off this congress center from the center of the city.

What you can see lined up there is probably a couple of a dozen police vehicles. Now, what we do understand it is that there have been some protesters, that things are hotting up in the center of the city, the old center of the city, on the other side of that bridge. But very clearly, in order to come here to the congress center, they will either have to go across some other way, across this deep ravine, or they will have to come across that bridge. So it looks as if the police, who would be about 12,000 in number, have the demonstrators fairly closely in hand. But, of course, what always happens on these occasions is that a small and perhaps imaginative group of protesters can always undermine all the best efforts to keep the situation under control. Three o'clock, which is roughly 3 1/2 hours from now, 3:00 p.m. local time, will be the time when the protesters say that they will surround this building, that they will make a lot of noise, and that the meetings, which really get down to talking business, will go on against a background of really being besieged. Back to you, David.

HAFFENREFFER: Is there any expectation that they'll prevent any of the -- what's on the agenda from proceeding here? HODSON: No. I mean, I think the agenda here has been proceeding as smoothly as one could possibly imagine. The -- as you mentioned briefly earlier, the Czech president, Vaclav Havel, has been holding his speech, a speech in which he very much set the tone, saying that, for security, as well as moral reasons, richer nations should help poorer nations.

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Copyright 2000 Canadian Broadcasting Corporation CBC TV SHOW: THENATIONAL ( 9:00 PM ET ) September 26, 2000, Tuesday HEADLINE: Clashes in Prague. GUEST: PAUL WORKMAN, Reporter; ANCHORS: PETER MANSBRIDGE

PETER MANSBRIDGE: Thousands of police and protesters turned the streets of Prague into a battlefield today. It was a clash of both people and ideologies as demonstrators opposed to globalization tried to shutdown a summit of the IMF and World Bank. The CBCs Paul Workman was there. PAUL WORKMAN: The protestors threw cobblestones and Molotov cocktails. The Czech Police fired water cannon and teargas. Opening day of the World Bank International Monetary Fund summit -- welcome to Prague.

There was little chance of the marchers ever breaching police security here. That would have been a major embarrassment to the Czech Republic. They were blocked by thousands of riot police who surrounded the city's congress centre, site of the economic summit, with the protestors forcefully kept away.

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SHOW: CBS EVENING NEWS (6:30 PM ET)

September 26, 2000, Tuesday

TYPE: Newscast

HEADLINE: VIOLENT PROTESTS AT A MEETING OF THE WORLD BANK AND IMF IN PRAGUE

ANCHORS:DAN RATHER

DAN RATHER, anchor: A meeting of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank in the Czech capital of Prague drew violent protests today. Thousands of anarchists and others opposing what they call expansion and manipulation of the global economy without democratic process took on riot police. That turned the picturesque city into a battleground. Vandals especially targeted US fast-food franchises.

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SHOW: CNN TODAY 13:00 September 26, 2000; Tuesday Transcript # 00092606V13 TYPE: LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: Protests Turn Violent Outside IMF/World Bank Meeting in Prague

BYLINE: Natalie Allen, Walter Rodgers

HIGHLIGHT: Protesters who were violent outside the IMF/World Bank meeting in Prague today have another pass tomorrow at trying to besiege the delegates there. Throughout the day today, demonstrators charged police lines and threw cobblestones from the streets, thrashed police with big sticks, and burned some of them with Molotov cocktails.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Those who were violent here this afternoon have another pass tomorrow at trying to besiege the meeting of the world monetary fund -- or the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank. At this hour, they're in downtown Prague. They've left this area because most of the delegates have gone and they're reportedly trashing McDonald's. These are people who have tried to break repeatedly through police lines this afternoon. They have a message.

Their message is they are the champions of the world's poor, and they carried that message out today here in Prague by declaring war on the Prague police force. Repeatedly, they charged police lines here and they threw cobblestones that they dug out of the streets, they thrashed the police with big sticks, and some police were even burned with Molotov cocktails that the demonstrators had thrown at the police here in the -- at the Congress Hall. At times, they were within 50 meters of the building itself .

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CNN EARLY EDITION 07:00 September 26, 2000; Tuesday

Transcript # 00092604V08 T

TYPE: LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: Protesters Vow to Disrupt IMF-World Bank Meeting in Prague

BYLINE: Leon Harris, Walter Rodgers W

WALTER RODGERS, CNN SR. INTL. CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Leon. The protesters had promised to try to disrupt the World Bank and International Monetary Fund meeting about half of a mile from here, but so far they haven't been successful. Their goal was to paralyzed Prague the way they paralyzed the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle nearly a year ago. They have failed to this point. About 5,000 demonstrators marched out of Prague's East Square about an hour ago shouting, revolution, revolution. But their's was an orderly march through streets of Prague.

This lovely old baroque town has been shut down merely to avoid violence, which has not occurred on any large scale at this point. There is a confrontation line formed just behind me in front of the Newselski (ph) Bridge, which is the bridge leading out of this part of the city and across to the Congress Hall where the World Bank and IMF meetings are being held. It's most unlikely the demonstrators could reach that police confrontation line. The police are out-decked in combat gear, riot gear. They have bulletproof vests on, very heavy plastic helmets with visors. Each helmet has a gas mask built into it. And behind that initial police shock line there are armored cars, water cannons, which, by the way, have not been used at this point.

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SHOW: CNN TODAY 13:00 September 26, 2000; Tuesday

Transcript # 00092603V13 TYPE: LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: Anti-IMF/World Bank Demonstrations Become Violent BYLINE: Lou Waters, Walter Rodgers HIGHLIGHT: A minority of the Marxists and anarchists protesting the IMF and World Bank meeting today in Prague caused the demonstrations to become violent when they attacked police, which resulted in tear gas and concussion grenades being used against them and other protesters.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Well, it's dusk here and dusk seems to have brought some quiet to the city. But it has been an afternoon of pitched battles between protesters and the Prague police. Pitched battles, perhaps not as bloody as Seattle a year ago, but nonetheless bad enough to send dozens of people to hospital.

The protesters, claiming to champion the poor, declared war on the Prague police. They tore cobblestones out of the streets and assaulted the police lines with cobblestones. Eventually, the police had to respond with tear gas and concussion grenades and the police waded in. But, at times, the perimeters of the police lines were actually breached and some of the demonstrators got within 75 meters, even 50 meters, of the Congress Hall, here in Prague, where the International Monetary Fund officials and World Bank officials are meeting. The protesters see these officials, these capitalists, as the root of all evil in the world. They have declared war on capitalism.

They carried many placards that said smash capitalism, smash the International Monetary Fund. They are vehemently opposed to the economic system which exists in the world today and want to bring down the large corporations, which they see as stepping on the poor and destroying the environment -- Lou. WATERS: Walter, who are these demonstrators? Do we know? RODGERS: Yes, I walked through the crowds more than a few times today and they are young Marxists, young anarchists. Some of these people are, very clearly, legitimate protesters championing the environment, but the vast majority of people who were out today and those who were violent are clearly Marxists.

These are young Communists, neo-Communists, and they want to smash the existing world order. Many of their placards revealed their agenda. It said, smash NATO, smash capitalism, smash the International Monetary Fund, smash the European Union. And that's what they tried to do. But we should point out very clearly that, while there were some 5,000 demonstrators today, the vast majority of them were peaceful. Still, there was a hard core of 200-300. They are the ones who have repeatedly assaulted the police lines here, again, thrashing police with staves and throwing cobblestones at the police, which, then, in turn, brought the police response, which was tear gas.

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SHOW: CNN MORNING NEWS 09:00 September 26, 2000; Tuesday

Transcript # 00092606V09

TYPE: LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: IMF/World Bank Meeting Protests Relatively Peaceful BYLINE: Kyra Phillips, Walter Rodgers

HIGHLIGHT: Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets in Prague, as the IMF and World Bank hold their annual joint meetings. So far, the protests have been relatively peaceful, with only a few clashes between protesters and police.

KYRA PHILLIPS, CNN ANCHOR: Thousands of protesters have taken to the streets, as the IMF and World Bank hold their annual joint meetings in the Czech Republic. CNN's Walter Rodgers joins us now, live, from the capital, Prague, with the latest -- Walter.

WALTER RODGERS, CNN CORRESPONDENT: Hello, Kyra. There is something of a confrontation line here at the Nurselski (ph) Bridge in Prague. About 2,500 demonstrators still remain in this area. They are squared off against a police line. This is relatively peaceful here. Some missiles have been thrown at the police. No tear gas, however, and no one appears to have been hurt in this immediate area. .
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SHOW: CNN MORNING NEWS 09:00 September 26, 2000; Tuesday

Transcript # 00092609V09 TYPE: LIVE REPORT SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: Protesters, Police Clash Near IMF/World Bank Meeting in Prague

BYLINE: Daryn Kagan, Walter Rodgers

Things got very violent about an hour or two ago, although the police were successful in turning away and keeping most of the protesters a mile or so away from the conference center, the Congress Hall. Some managed to traverse a ravine, a deep gorge, and then climb up and charge the police lines in some very severe clashes. Czech news agencies are reporting 20 policemen were injured when Molotov cocktails burned some of the policemen, the Molotov cocktails thrown by the demonstrators; 10 demonstrators are also said to have been hurt. It was a very, very ugly scene.

The police used tear gas, stun grenades, water cannon, and things have quieted down a little now, but they could pick up again in a few hours when some of these IMF and World Bank officials try to leave here in their automobiles -- Daryn.

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CBC TV SHOW: THE NATIONAL ( 9:00 PM ET ) September 27, 2000, Wednesday LENGTH: 64 words

HEADLINE: Prague meeting wraps up.

ANCHORS: PETER MANSBRIDGE

PETER MANSBRIDGE: The IMF and World Bank wrapped things up early today, ending their meeting in Prague a day sooner than scheduled. But denying it was because of yesterday's violent protests. On the streets most of the demonstrators were also calling it quits. There was a small march against capitalism and globalization. But nothing like the battles from the day before.

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Channel NewsAsia September 27, 2000 Wednesday

SECTION: WORLD LENGTH: 396 words

HEADLINE: Thousands stage anti-IMF protests in Prague

About 5,000 anti-globalisation activists have marched on the IMF and World Bank summit in Prague, throwing fire bombs and rocks at riot police who responded with tear gas, water cannons and concussion grenades. Protesters, mostly foreign youths, waved banners and demanded the cancellation of debt to poor countries and a shutdown of the IMF. Police say 30 people were injured including 20 police officers and 10 protesters while an undetermined number of people have been arrested. Chanting "Stop the economic terror now," the activists erected barricades in the streets and set them ablaze filling the skies with black smoke. Their aim is to abolish the two giant lending institutions they call a menace to humanity.

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CNN View Related Topics SHOW: CNN AHEAD OF THE CURVE 05:00 September 27, 2000; Wednesday

Transcript # 00092709V62

TYPE: ANALYSIS SECTION: News; International

HEADLINE: 'Financial Times': World Bank/IMF Leaders Expressing Similar Concerns to Protesters

GUESTS: Lionel Barber

BYLINE: Deborah Marchini, David Haffenreffer

HIGHLIGHT: Lionel Barber, of the "Financial Times," discusses the impact of the Prague protesters on what is going on inside the IMF and World Bank meetings.

DEBORAH MARCHINI, CNN ANCHOR: We're going to take a focus now for a few minutes on what's going on inside those IMF and World Bank meetings.

HAFFENREFFER: What is going on? BARBER: You know, it's really interesting -- yes, it's very interesting that, in fact, despite all the protests, inside the buildings, the leaders of the international financial institutions, the likes of Jim Wolfensohn of the World Bank and also Horst Kohler, IMF, and their colleagues, are, I believe, showing some of the -- showing the same concerns, trying to deal with the problems of globalization, trying to explain what their agencies are actually doing to meet the needs. And I think, if you look at the speeches for example, the World Bank is trying to project itself, really, as a over-arching development agency, not just someone who is lending billions to build dams that nobody wants, or that are environmentally destructive. So I think that the authorities are taking this on board.

MARCHINI: Lionel, we knew pretty much going into this meeting that there was not likely to be any debt relief for poorer nations. What, if anything, will emerge from these meetings?

BARBER: I think that on debt relief they're going to tread very carefully. We know that the British, for example, Gordon Brown, the chancellor of the Exchequer, the finance minister, has produced a high-level initiative trying to push the process along. Americans are somewhat more reluctant, and it's very difficult to get a consensus there. And there are also some ideological divisions over, you know, how far this is actually -- it makes a lot of economic sense. Having said that, I think the real importance of the concrete results of this meeting were on two fronts: one was the currency intervention, the coordinated currency intervention involving Americans, Japanese and Europeans in support of the euro, which I think has had some positive impact, the euro has stabilized after a considerable fall; and second, a clear statement on the risk to the world economy on rising oil prices, and the intervention from the Americans on the strategic petroleum reserve, and that's had a dampening effect. So those are two very important, concrete results, which have had an impact, and I think a good impact for the future of the world economy.

MARCHINI: All right, Lionel Barber, of the "FT," thanks.

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SHOW: CTV NEWS September 27, 2000 23:00:00 - 23:30:00 Eastern Time

HEADLINE: Riot police in Prague arrested more than 600 protestors

ANCHOR: LLOYD ROBERTSON

LLOYD ROBERTSON: And briefly in other news tonight. Riot police in Prague arrested more than 600 protestors at a summit of the International Monetary Fund. The IMF ended its conference a day early, though organizers denied it was due to street demonstrations.

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MARKETPLACE MORNING REPORT

SHOW: MARKETPLACE MORNING REPORT (5:50 AM ET) September 27, 2000, Wednesday

HEADLINE: DEMONSTRATIONS SURROUND THE ANNUAL MEETINGS OF THE IMF AND THE WORLD BANK IN PRAGUE

ANCHORS: CHERYL GLASER REPORTERS: KATE CONNOLLY

CHERYL GLASER, anchor: Good morning. I'm Cheryl Glaser in Los Angeles. Today is getting off to a quieter start in Prague. That's giving police and residents in the eastern European city an opportunity to pick up the pieces after demonstrations surrounding the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank turned violent yesterday. Anti-globalization critics were protesting against the two agencies, which they say do more harm than good in their work with developing countries. Reporter Kate Connolly has more. KATE CONNOLLY reporting:

The Czech interior ministry has reported that 400 people were arrested, half of them foreigners. During Tuesday's riots, 54 police officers were injured, along with 18 protesters and one Japanese delegate who got caught in the fray. INPEG, the initiative against globalization had planned a peaceful non-violent direct protest. But, say organizers, hard-core anarchist groups infiltrated the protest ranks causing riot police to be brought in. Tear gas, water cannons, pepper spray and percussion grenades were used to disperse activists. Yet some 200 did manage to gain entry to the Congress Center, causing the police to block all entry points and trapping many delegates and journalists inside until late evening. Protests continued throughout the night and on into Wednesday. And INPEG said it would continue to try and disrupt the meeting. In Prague, I'm Kate Connolly for MARKETPLACE.

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HEADLINE: IMF AND WORLD BANK CUT SHORT THEIR MEETING DUE TO VIOLENT CONFRONATATIONS BETWEEN POLICE AND ANTI-GLOBALIZATION PROTESTERS ANCHORS: DAVID BRANCACCIO

DAVID BRANCACCIO, anchor: Following violent confrontations between police and anti-globalization protesters, the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank today decided to beat a retreat from the capital of the Czech Republic, cutting short their three-day meeting by a day. World Bank Vice President Mats Carlsson confirmed that the demonstrations did play a part in that decision. We spoke to Kate Connolly with London's Guardian newspaper earlier today from Prague.

Ms. KATE CONNOLLY (The Guardian, London): When the announcement was made, there were even very few delegates there to listen to it. There have been hundreds of police outside hotels all through Prague today trying to protect delegates. But word on the ground is that actually lots of them have been very, very scared. Thirty-one of the delegates were injured, one of them fairly seriously. The direct experience of the delegates has really influenced this decision. Obviously, the question being asked at the moment is whether this decision will--under protest yesterday, will--whether this will actually affect the way that future conferences are held. One idea is being put forward that possibly in the future the meetings would be held in one place, i.e. in Washington, where one would have a police force that knew exactly how to deal with it and knew very well the lay of the land.

BRANCACCIO: Kate Connolly, Prague correspondent for Britain's Guardian Newspaper.

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SECTION: PRESS CONFERENCE OR SPEECH

HEADLINE: INTERNATIONAL MONETARY FUND PRESS CONFERENCE WITH IMF MANAGING-DIRECTOR HORST KHLER, WORLD BANK PRESIDENT JAMES WOLFENSOHN AND SOUTH AFRICAN FINANCE MINISTER TREVOR MANUEL (AS RELEASED BY THE IMF)

LOCATION: PRAGUE

MR. MANUEL: Good morning. My name is Trevor Manuel. I am the Finance Minister of South Africa. I am the Chair of the Board of Governors for these meetings. Welcome to all of you to this concluding press conference. You will know that it is traditional that the press conference be held at about this time on the Thursday of the Annual Meetings each year to conclude and to share the observations of the Managing Director of the International Monetary Fund and the President of the World Bank Group. This year is no different. The plenary meetings concluded a bit early yesterday, and they concluded in the same spirit as has prevailed at Annual Meetings anywhere, the two years in the United States or the one year rotating elsewhere.

We have checked that there is no country that asked for permission to speak that didn't have the opportunity to speak. And the numbers of speeches was the same as they have been over many, many years. Those records would speak for themselves. I would like to invite Mr. Kohler to address you and share with you his observations of the meetings. Thereafter, Mr. Wolfensohn will be asked to do the same. I will chair the conference and ask the Managing Director and the President to take the questions. Mr. Kohler. MR. KoHLER: Thank you, Mr. Chairman. I am quite surprised that so many showed up here this morning because yesterday evening I got the question: "Are you rushing out of Prague?" I wondered why, because we still have a lot to do in bilateral meetings, but I also see that the journalists remained in Prague. That is a good sign for Prague and also for the Annual Meetings.

Let me begin by saying first that I want to sincerely thank the Czech authorities for the excellent organization of these Annual Meetings. Everything worked. Everything worked very well, and the delegates, the delegations, staff, and all who contributed felt the Czech authorities took care in the best sense. And I would also like to particularly thank the police and security forces of the Czech authorities who showed such composed restraint in their operations. All of this together demonstrates strongly the process that has taken place here in the Czech Republic to create a democratic and humane society. Prague and the Czech Republic can be proud about this meeting, how it was conducted, about the outcome. And I have no doubt that at the end it will strengthen the stature and the reputation of this city.

Second, I would like to express my conviction that we should strongly deplore the acts of violence of a small group of people who have not come to Prague for dialogue but for destruction. And you have seen that Jim Wolfensohn and I are really open to dialogue and discussion. But we reject violence, pressure in this way, because this will not contribute to an improvement of the policy of the operations and improvement for a better world.

Third -- and this is the fortunate thing -- these violent forces did not distract us from our work, and that is to find ways to make globalization work for the benefit of all. I am, of course, happy that this global theme came out of these Annual Meetings. It is really the decisive theme for the next decades. And we are starting here from Prague to make globalization work for the benefit of all, and we are looking for ways and means that allow us to give this objective concrete meaning.

Fourth, in my view, the IMF -- and I include in this also the World Bank -- leaves Prague clearly strengthened. We got the strongest support from the entire membership and, in the case of the Fund, these are 182 members for the mandate and the work of the Fund. Our membership urged us to continue our work, to continue the process of reforms in the IMF, but they urged us to do our job and they particularly also urged us, the Fund, to stay strongly engaged in the poor countries.

Fifth, the IMF received strong guidance from its members. It has to be focused; that was the main guidance from its membership. And this focus of the IMF should, in particular, be to strive to promote strong economic growth that benefits all people of the world. The benefit of all people of the world means particularly to open markets in order to get products and services from the developing world to the industrial countries. Then, the membership urged us that the Fund should be the center of competence for the stability of the international financial system, and this stability is a global public good. I think if we are making progress, further progress to stabilize and to work for a stable international financial system, this will be also the most important contribution for strong growth and creating an environment where the huge pool of savings in the world will also be available at the end for poor countries, emerging market countries.

The membership also urged that the IMF should be an open institution and work with other institutions in a complementary fashion to provide global public goods. I was, of course, personally heartened by the strong endorsement of my vision of the future role of the Fund by the membership, and I must say all members. I didn't see a lot of differences here. And this is, of course, encouraging. I have now to cope with the problem of managing expectations, but that is part of our life. I also want to include in this endorsement -- and to express my own gratitude to -- particularly my management colleagues and the staff of the Fund, because they have worked with me on structuring a concept for the future role of the Fund, which in my view will contribute to a better world and particularly also to make a difference in the poor countries. This is the commitment of the institution as a whole.

In this context, I want also to underline from my side that I feel a new spirit of cooperation between the World Bank and the IMF, and this is not just rhetoric. I said -- and this is my honest position -- that I was grateful for Jim Wolfensohn's openness, for his cooperation with me, for his ideas, for his creativity. The close cooperation between the World Bank and the IMF based on its respective focus in my view should be a strong asset in this continuous work to make globalization work for the benefit of all.

My last remark is that we also had a very intensive and important discussion, particularly in the IMFC, but also in the plenary meetings, about the outlook for the global economy. Of course, we are concerned about the oil prices. Of course, we know about the risks, about global imbalances between exchange rates and the growth cycle of the economies. But clearly, it also came out of this meeting that there is a broadly shared conviction that the outlook is positive, and will remain positive if there is a good policy management behind it. And this meeting, particularly the IMFC meeting, where multilateral surveillance was in the foreground of our discussions, will help us to secure this good policy management. So I am optimistic that the world economy will stay on track with growth and job creation. Thank you very much.

MR. MANUEL: Thank you, Mr. Kohler. We will now invite Mr. Wolfensohn to speak.

MR. WOLFENSOHN: Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. Let me thank you for your chairmanship, and let me at the outset say that I reciprocate the warm feelings which Horst has expressed about the dialogue that he and I have had and the ever-growing partnership between the Fund and the Bank. I think all our shareholders were delighted with the progress that we have made, about the clarity with which we have set forth the respective roles of the institutions. Certainly I believe this is a remarkable start, and I want to congratulate Horst on an absolutely first class first meeting. Let me also express my thanks to the Czech authorities for what has been a remarkable event, under very difficult circumstances.

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HEADLINE: COMMENT ANALYSIS:

The charade of debt sustainability: The World Bank and IMF fail the world's poorest people by siding with western donor governments, says Jeffrey S: BYLINE: By JEFFREY SACHS BODY: Many of the protesters in Prague may not have mastered the economics of globalisation, but they certainly understand the politics. Their complaints about the International Monetary Fund and World Bank destroy any pretence that these are global institutions with more than 180 member countries. The truth, of course, is that they are the instruments of a few rich governments, which hold a majority of the dollar-based votes and would rather pretend that all is well in the world than ask their taxpayers to address the urgent problems of the poor. The US is the most egregious of the lot.

A country that has an annual income of Dollars 10,000bn (Pounds 6,850bn) scrapes together about Dollars 1bn of development assistance for sub-Saharan Africa - 100th of 1 per cent of its national income. In Nigeria last month, US President Bill Clinton had the temerity to trumpet the US's token support of Dollars 9.4m - 3 cents per American - for the estimated 2.5m sufferers of HIV/ Aids in Nigeria. If he had stayed at home and spared the expense of the trip, he probably could have doubled the amount. The IMF and World Bank have been mouthpieces of this deceit, with their charade of analysing the "debt sustainability" of the poorest countries.

These analyses have nothing to do with debt sustainability in any real sense, since they ignore the needless deaths of millions of people for want of access to basic medicines and nutrition. Money that could be directed towards public health is instead siphoned off to pay debts owed to western governments and to the IMF and World Bank themselves. When push comes to shove, the IMF and World Bank side with the creditor interests of the rich countries, even when such policies violate the most basic precepts of market economics. Take the "success" of the Korean bail-out operation.

Under the IMF deal, the creditor governments forced Korea to guarantee the repayment of bad debts owed by private Korean banks to private US, European, and Japanese banks. The Korean people are paying billions of dollars in taxes so that their government can make good bad private loans. The truth is that we need the Bretton Woods institutions - but as truly global institutions representing all of their members, not as creditor collection agencies designed to shield taxpayers in rich countries from bad news about world poverty.

The IMF has a very important role to play in monitoring global financial markets. It even performs the vital function of providing short-term emergency funds to maintain liquidity in international markets and to member countries facing financial panics. It has absolutely no business trying to run dozens of impoverished countries, mainly in Africa, from 19th Street in Washington. The IMF knows very little about economic development challenges, from disease to tropical agriculture to environmental degradation. Advocates for the poor accept that export-led growth raises incomes of the needy, when based on a steady shift to higher technology goods (as in China and elsewhere in Asia). But the IMF's policy recommendations have left Africa every bit as dependent on primary commodities as that impoverished continent was 20 years ago.

The World Bank is equally ineffectual. To shield US taxpayers, it pretended for 20 years that public health disasters in Africa could be solved by "cost recovery" measures imposing higher fees on the poor. It stood by paralysed as HIV/Aids became the greatest pandemic in history and as malaria swept across the continent. The Bank says poverty alleviation is its main business but directs most of its lending to creditworthy countries not in need of public-sector support. It preaches good governance to the poor countries, but has itself been unable to set meaningful priorities.

The simple truth is that we do not need a public-sector bank at all for the problems of the poorest countries. We need a World Development Agency that would use grant funding to help spur technological solutions to the problems of the poor, and would provide grants to deliver urgently needed healthcare and education. The World Bank has about Dollars 30bn of capital, generating about Dollars 2bn in income each year, which could be used to support programmes in technology, disease control, and related areas.

This money should be supplemented by substantial new grants and capital contributions by donor governments. Increased funding is also urgently needed by specialist agencies such as the World Health Organisation. The bank lending operations of the Bank could be spun off, indeed privatised. Globalisation underpinned by global ethics is the best hope for the poor. An IMF focused on global financial markets and a World Development Agency devoted to the poorest peoples could yet make a valuable contribution to the world. Neither is yet on offer in Prague.

The writer is director of the centre for international development at Harvard university _