The World Bank has held its Annual Bank Conferences on Development Economics (ABCDE) first in Washington in April and then the European edition in Oslo in June. Up to 1,000 police were on duty in Oslo to monitor the actions of the 10,000 protesters who were demonstrating against the institution. A counter forum was organised which featured Kenneth Kaunda, former President of Zambia, an outspoken critic of World Bank and IMF policies.
Flouting the notion that the conferences should be a forum for the exchange of dissenting opinions, a study at Princeton University by Alan Krueger and Jitka Maleckova, called “Education, Poverty, Political Violence and Terrorism: Is There a Causal Connection?”, which was scheduled for presentation at the Washington conference, was pulled from presentation in response to complaints initiated by a Kuwaiti Executive Director (see Business Week, 10 June).
