UNGA President d’Escoto Brockmann bashes West on global finance

According to a May 12, 2009 entry on the UN Watch blog:

UNGA President d’Escoto Brockmann bashes West on global finance
Published by UN Watch - at May 12, 2009 in general assembly.
By Marissa Cramer

The president of the U.N. General Assembly, Father Miguel d’Escoto Brockmann, held a meeting with NGO representatives in Geneva today to discuss his latest plans for a summit on the financial crisis and its impact on development to take place the first week of June. Most of his talk was devoted to criticizing the “greed” and “underlying moral and ethical crisis” of the West that he claimed is the root cause of most of the world’s social and economic problems.

D’Escoto Brockmann was joined by his senior advisor, former Nicaraguan Minister Paul Oquist. Evidently the brains behind the initiative, Oquist explained that its goal is to make a new “Breton Woods” agreement to address the entire financial system and architecture and promote a global stimulus.

In the Nicaraguan fashion of populist politics, d’Escoto Brockmann promised the audience that the grand master plan he is concocting will help solve issues of poverty, inequality, the environment, and the financial, food, and energy crises. He proudly declared that he is shaking things up–addressing fiscal, monetary and trade issues that had been considered off-limits for the General Assembly.

Arguing that the current global finance structure forces the poor to enrich further the wealthy, he argued that developed countries are indebted to the developing world. “We have to recognize that the Third World cannot continue to subsidize the First World,” he said. “They have always depicted us as if we are the beggars and they are the donors. But who is paying for these atrocious wars?”

But d’Escoto Brockmann did not just provide criticism; he also suggested a solution to the world’s most complex and challenging questions. Oquist presented this plan, requiring 5% of world GDP and involving various international taxes, including on pollution, cyberspace, the seas, and financial transactions.

While there may be one or two good ideas here, they could also be like communism–better in theory than in practice. Not to mention the question of what kind of giant bureaucracy could implement such a scheme and who would administer it.

D’Escoto Brockmann bemoaned the negative reaction to the meeting’s draft document from member states of the European Union, as well as its lack of support in the U.S. Congress. Rather than acknowledging legitimate criticism regarding the feasibility and practicality of his grandiose designs, Brockmann attributed criticism of his plans entirely to the West’s greed and hunger for power. To be fair, he said, their reaction is only human: “We should all be patient and understand that for those who have wielded power for so long, it is difficult to give it up.”

The intentions underlying d’Escoto Brockmann’s criticism of the West obviously need serious questioning. Focus on the “unfair trade regime” at the U.N. has traditionally provided many corrupt rulers in the developing world with a means to point the finger of blame at the West. When confronted with Western criticism of their violations of civil and political rights, they try to change the subject by accusing the West of violating economic and social rights, usually with a demand for more aid money to prop-up their abusive regimes.

One of d’Escoto Brockmann’s revealing comments in this regard, was his warm recollection of meeting with his “friend” Ramsey Clark, known for defending an impressive list of war criminals: Saddam Hussein, butcher of the Kurds; Slobodan Milosevic, ethnic cleanser of Kosovo; Sheikh Omar Abdel Rahman, terrorist mastermind of the 1993 World Trade Center attack; Karl Linnas, ex-Nazi guard supervisor of mass murder; Elizaphan Ntakirutimana, perpetrator of genocide in Rwanda; etc. Beyond serving as their legal counsel, Clark publicly endorsed a number of these guys, celebrating them as anti-imperialist heroes. For example, he praised Milosevic as “brave, objective, and moral,” and told him, “It will be a great struggle, but a glorious victory-you can be victorious.”

And why take economic advice from these Nicaraguans, anyways? Consider that Nicaragua’s GDP ranks in the bottom half of countries, second in poverty only to Haiti within the Western hemisphere. D’Escoto Brockmann and his colleagues would likely explain that developed countries are to blame, but then why are neighboring Costa Rica and Panama leagues ahead (3-4 times Nicaragua’s GDP, according to International Monetary Fund data)? Perhaps these Nicaraguans would better serve their country by addressing its real obstacles to economic progress–the lacking rule of law and surging corruption, which turn away foreign investors. President Daniel Ortega’s slide towards authoritarianism is no help either.

It is also a politically infeasible pipedream to demand 5% of world GDP for this project. Even the most generous of foreign aid donors provide less than 1% of their national GDPs.

To be sure, d’Escoto Brockmann did succeed in finding a respectable guru to promote his plans: Nobel laureate economist Joseph Stiglitz, known in recent years for his criticism–maybe accurate–of the IMF. Still, it’s hard to see much good coming out of d’Escoto Brockmann’s politically charged schemes.