Western rightists aren't the only ones rejecting the advice of transnational organizations:
Thousands of citizens and businessmen have been protesting on the streets of several Yemeni cities against a sales tax to be enforced in July 2005. It is part of economic reforms recommended by the World Bank, which locals say will severely affect the purchasing power of the poor. The demonstrations, which took place in various governorates simultaneously, were a public outcry at the 10 percent tax on basic commodities, leaving more than 50 percent of the population economically vulnerable, according to experts....An official at the Interior Ministry accused opposition parties of exploiting the situation. ...Opposition parties deny these accusations and said the tax would increase pressure on the poor, blaming corruption for Yemen's economic woes.
"Taxation is carried out to achieve social justice, but here it is not for this purpose," Jamal al-Mutarib, a member of the [Trade and Commerce Chambers union], told IRIN.
Spoken like true free-marketeers. Yemen, a country slowly advancing in parliamentary representation towards pluralist government by consent, is plagued by yet-congealed central powers and widespread legal-economic corruption. Its workers and entrepreneurs certainly don't need their earnings and capital slipping down another chute — least not by a hyper-governmental institution known for wiring cash to those few who least deserve it.
Should Paul Wolfowitz be confirmed as President of the World Bank, as an advocate of prosperity through self-efficacy and liberalism — learning to fish to eat for a lifetime — the Deputy Secretary of Defense will have himself a corporate mission statement to revise.