what are your views on the world bank?

[kensuguro]

I'm looking for a job where I can get first hand experience with dealing with social capital, especially ones that deal with the government. Australia's census bureau of statistics has a team that's trying to come up with a way to measure social capital, and also in australia, the institute of family studies has a project researching the relationship between social capital and family function. (health) Then the big one is World Bank, who's been researching social capital for a while, and seems to be linking it to practical use to a great degree.

Only thing is that the world bank has quite a lot of criticism.. to the point that I knew about it without even researching into it.. But I'm not really sure what the problem is. I googled it, and got a bunch of "conspiracy"-ish theories.. some more plausible than others, but still over all, not very credible.

Basically, I'm trying to get a hold on the situation of Japan's social capital, and basically create an organization that systematically monitors, and maintains social capital. I know it sounds absurd and vague. That's just the basic idea. It's still quite vague to me too, but I guess that's why I want to get my feet wet in actual field work.

I also know Italy and London, and most of scandinavia are the EU hub of social capital research, particularly Italy. I'm not really looking for academic research groups, but more independent research groups as a part of a government owned organization or some other organization of the same scale. I want to be able to go back to Japan and work with the government, so the organization has to be of considerable size.

[garyb]

i see that you have never been poor...

the world bank is not for the poor's benefit. that much is clear and obvious.

[siriusbliss]

Ultimate control of world populations and nation states.
Once you look past the so-called 'conspiracies', you'll start seeing what's really going on, and probably won't like it.

Greg

[garyb]

"social capital" has a great sound to it though, doesn't it? i want some!

[garyb]

who owns the world bank?

is it REALLY a good idea to make one central organization in charge of everyone's money and economies?

WHO is this paragon of virtue and goodness who is fit for such a job? me? maybe. the guys in charge right now? well, they've been capos a long time. it seems that their forebearers got into position through treachery and violence and the current crop seems similar. to hell with conspiracy THEORIES! my brain still functions. there is no cognative dissonace. doublethink only operates at a minimal functional level...

look, i'm not advocating fighting gangsters. that's a losing proposition, besides, they're likely to do themselves in. i just wanna keep out of the way. do what you must to make a living, but respectfully, i don't think you get the real oraganization. it's not some "natural order". it's the strong taking from the weak. that's all i'm saying. let's not sugar coat things. these bankers and those that they serve are "as wolves in the sheepfold". maybe the superior man is that because he crushes he who is unworthy. stamp out the bad genes!

[braincell]

Hello Kensuguro,

I think it would be a great place to work. Don't buy the conspiracy theories. The internet has been a breeding ground for them. I'm sure you have heard of the "birthers". They think Obama wasn't born in the United States. The conspiracy people are everywhere.

[kensuguro]

well, only problem being that the criticism revolves around the world bank (and IMF) prying open third world country's markets and then "freeing" them to industrialized, more developed countries. And not surprisingly, the main countries that dictate the policies are G8 countries. So is that a conspiracy? Maybe not in a literal sense.. but it's darn dirty for an organization that says they're trying to rid the world of poverty.

But it's a tough call. There are criticisms against any group of people. UN, US military, the communists, you name it. And under the such scrutiny, you're bound to find some inconsistencies that lead people to piece together some elaborate theories. Which could be true, but probably inaccurate in most cases to say the least.

Oh, and besides, I checked the job listings at the world bank and the way they hire is like a jumbo corporation.. They want "Senior Financial Manager" and stuff like that, so it's impossible to apply directly to a specific project they've got jammed deep into their beaurocracy. I'm actually not too concerned with their actions as a whole though, since I just want to breath and learn the practical workflows of using social capital through their research team. But it does seem like I can't really get to it.

As for Australia, they need people who are already citizens or permanent residents, so I guess getting a work permit through the job is out of the question. But even for them, there really is no way I can directly get to their social capital project. Actually for Institute of Family Research, they were looking for a person to go into a very specific project. So I guess it's the industry is sort of tough.. you can't really pick and choose what you do.

At the end of the day, it's the same with any industry.. I probably just need to make a bunch of connections.. and connect my way into the right circle of people. And that task is daunting! There seems to be a good group of people in the US who are interested in social capital surrounding the Saguaro Seminar, so I've tried e-mailing them. I guess the key is persistence.

[Fluxpod]

I say do it.The conspiracy theories are mostly wacko uninformed crap that like most of these theories has 0 substance.Be persistant and make connections.Dont believe in anything else then your goal and imo you are good to go.Good luck!

[siriusbliss]

Hello Kensuguro,

I think it would be a great place to work. Don't buy the conspiracy theories. The internet has been a breeding ground for them. I'm sure you have heard of the "birthers". They think Obama wasn't born in the United States. The conspiracy people are everywhere.

I can tell Kensuguro can think for himself, so I think he knows better than to take everything heard in the media at face value as well. MUCH of what is on the internet is direct from whistleblowers and highly-researched data as well (including friends of mine currently blowing the whistle on the insurance companies), so go ahead and live in a bubble if that works for you.

People discount how the world operates by backing away from the word conspiracy. It's a good cop-out to not see the truth. Orgs like IMF are ENTIRELY run on CONSPIRING to control populations under the guise of redistribution of 'labor' (borderline enslavement) in such industries as diamonds, oil, logging, food, etc.

Kensuguro, I think you should look into micro-banking such as what's happening in India, etc. where the poor are given micro-loans to get business started within their own communities rather than waiting for some big foreign-controlled bureaucratic bloated, mismanaged, greedy organization to come in in one fell swoop and muck up everything. Ask Argentina how well the IMF worked out for them.

****
And Obama's own grandmother was interviewed saying he was born in Kenya prior to moving to Hawaii, and McCain was born in Panama, so I guess you're right - the Constitution doesn't matter anymore, and so now Schwarzenegger can be the next President.

Greg

[kensuguro]

"social capital" has a great sound to it though, doesn't it? i want some!

Social capital in the academic sense, and in the practical sense is a little different. In academia people are mostly concerned with how to conceptual understand it (is it transferable?), and then measuring it.

For practical applications, there are several different genres. One is boosting economy in poor countries / localities, which is what the world bank is looking into. Then there's civil activity related ones like the Institute of Family Research in Australia, and the Saguaro Seminar in the US. There's also developing rural communities (and economy), which I've read of in Nepal.. which is somewhat close to what I want to in Japan. I also want to focus on juvenile crime in metropolitan areas that arise from the lack of social capital.. which strangely is not the topic of existing projects.

It's not very clear how world bank deals with social capital, or what they've learned (haven't read their papers yet), but because social capital development is so engrained and embedded, it's freaky to imagine what sort of "back door" infrastructure they've left behind for later exploitation. Which seems is that world bank and IMF do for most places they've "developed". But who knows, it would have been a simple "research" project, and they didn't do anything shady.

But the bottom line is, social capital is a study of trust, and how it brings people together in a mutually cooperative way. It is a part of society that is degrading at an astounding pace, because issues like this were left to religion, tradition, or personal beliefs.. With modernization and the proliferation of liberal ways of thinking, religion and tradition have taken the back seen in the name of innovation and modernizing. The only side effect being, that many developed societies had lost the conceptual framework and knowhow to deal with social capital. Now, in the light of the ill effects of the lack of social capital, a very limited few have started to think about it again, this time not in the context of religion and tradition, but in the context of sociology and implementable policies.

[garyb]

WHO is the bank and WHAT have they ever done to show their loving kindness?

when the World Bank speaks of the elimination of poverty, what they speak of is really the elimination of the poor(the people themselves).

i'm not saying not to work there, but be clear. the Bank's purpose is to extend the wealth and power of those who own it. period.

society is degrading because the shepherds prefer it that way, make no mistake.

[FrancisHarmany]

I found this one very informative:

The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid ... 0256183936

[braincell]

Deleted from wikipedia. From wikipedia on "The Money Masters":

This film fails our notability guidelines for films. There are no reliable sources asserting, or supporting notability — the sole "claim" of notability is that the producer asserts that 50,000 copies were sold, which is a diminutive number and does not meet the "widely distributed" requirement in the guidelines. The only sources I can find which cover the subject are either promotional, trivial, or both — complicating the assessment is that there are literally dozens of unrelated products with the same title. I urge deletion of this topic.

[FrancisHarmany]

braincell you mean this documentary doesnt belong in the movie section ? thats hardly worth posting imho.

[dawman]

http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl= ... 0%26um%3D1

Play the video just below the subtitle in the right column.

[valis]

braincell you mean this documentary doesnt belong in the movie section ? thats hardly worth posting imho.

Indeed, Page deletion is becoming a common challenge in the discussion section at wikipedia. I wonder for instance to add PlanetZ as more than a footnote to SonicCore and their platform (or perhaps even SonicCore as more than a footnote for an audio/dsp page, and so on).

[braincell]

It was deleted by a senior editor. I've seen bands taken down because they weren't popular enough.

[valis]

What is your point?

[Mr Arkadin]

i think his point is that he believes everything that appears on Wiki. If Wiki says it doesn't exist, then it doesn't exist.

[FrancisHarmany]

maybe the point is that the World Bank doesnt like the documentary so bribed a senior editor to delete it.