(March 1, 1989) In yet another sign that China has lost control over its intellectuals, a group of journalists banded together, yesterday to launch a campaign against a major government project: the massive dam proposed at the Three Gorges of the Yangtze River.
(February 16, 1989) IBRD Articles of Agreement require the bank to “make arrangements to ensure that the proceeds of any loan are used only for the purposes for which the loan was granted.” World Bank
Petro-Canada is threatening rainforest species – and native communities – with extinction.
(December 6, 1988) The FCPA prohibits corrupt payments to foreign officials for the purpose of obtaining or keeping business. The Department of Justice is the chief enforcement agency, with a coordinate role played by the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
(October 18, 1988) Held: (a) In respect of the Banking Transactions: That the Costa Rican Law of Nullities, which in effect relieved Costa Rica of any obligations in respect of these transactions, did not constitute an international wrong. The transactions in question, which in themselves did not constitute transactions of an ordinary nature and which were ” full of irregularities,” were made at a time when the popularity of the Tinoco Government had disappeared, and when the political and military movement aiming at the overthrow of that Government was gaining strength.
(September 27, 1988) Wilson began by saying that the Bank should make more information available about the environmental impacts of its activities. Specifically, he wants it to prepare “a comprohensive annual report on the environmental aspects of its operations…”
(July 20, 1988) Wei Guangming sat in a third – class cabin of a boat passing through the Yangtze River’s famous Three Gorges and reflected on the possibility that the may be flooded forever.
Canada’s engineering giants are vying to flood 1,000,000 Chinese off their land. With Canadian foreign aid, they may succeed.
(July 31, 1987) One of the advanatges the World Bank has over most of us is that it is so huge and so complicated – some would say byzantine – that most eyes simply glaze over at the mention of it.
Too many foreign aid projects have been making life worse for the Third World’s poor. Now the poor are asking us to stop.
Hooker Chemical, Union Carbicide, Babcock & Wilcox, Inco, MacMillian Bloedel — the world, tragically, is not short of companies that bring us Love Canals, Bhopals, and Three Mile Islands, or whose activities poison the atmosphere. plunder birgin forests. and scar the country side.
The “clouds” in the panorama on the back, taken from space by the Space Shuttle, are actually smoke plumes. They show the Amazon rainforest being burned, in the name of progress.
As Canada’s enormous response to Ethiopian famine showed, we Canadians are a generous people. Probe International is determined to make this generosity effective, to have our foreign aid spent true to the spirit in which it is given, because when aid is dispensed irresponsibly, with little or no scrutiny of any kind, the result is not just waste and corruption but projects that all-too-often become environmental and human nightmares.
(July 14, 1984) Globe and Mail
Patricia Adams
Brady Yauch
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Lisa Peryman
Other News Sources