<div class="gmail_quote"><div class="gmail_quote"><h1 style="font-weight:normal"><font size="2">Patrick Bond & William Moomaw Debate South Africa, the World Bank, and Climate Justice<br>
Friday, April 9, 2010, 12 noon - 2:00 p.m.<br>33 Harrison Ave, 5th floor, Boston (Chinatown), MA 02111 <br></font></h1><h1>Debate: Climate Justice, South Africa & the World Bank</h1>
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<p><b>Friday, April 9, 2010, 12 noon - 2:00 p.m. </b>South
Africa now has its 4th post-Apartheid president... But the country is
more unequal than ever! It is also under consideration for a World Bank
loan to “modernize” it ailing electrical power infrastructure.
Revamping its grid would normally be a rare opportunity to set a new
course, redress inequalities and implement a green strategy. But
activist-intellectual Patrick Bond warns that the opposite seems likely
with the Bank loan. It will strengthen the private sector and increase
the gap between rich and poor: urban residents prepay their electricity
at 4 times the discounted rate available to large corporations.
Further, the proposed loan will finance the world's 4th largest
coal-fired plant—just the opposite of what is required by our climate
crisis—and raise rates on working people. <br></p>
<p>On
April 8, 2010, the World Bank will make its decision. Patrick Bond will
reflect on the outcome on Friday, April 9, 2010, from noon to 2:00 p.m.
at encuentro 5 (in Boston's Chinatown, see below for more information).</p>
<p>Also invited to the conversation is Tufts University
professor, William Moomaw who consulted with the World Bank and who is
in support of the loan.</p>
<p>This Bank critic meets Bank supporter discussion allows for a reasoned engagement of ideas.</p>
<p>For Patrick Bond's biography, see t he <a href="http://www.nu.ac.za/ccs/default.asp?10,24,8,55" target="_blank">Center for Civil Society</a> at the University of Kwazulu Natal. William Moomaw's biography can be found at <a href="http://fletcher.tufts.edu/faculty/Moomaw/" target="_blank">Tufts University</a>.</p>
<p>This event is co-sponsored by <a href="http://www.massglobalaction.org" target="_blank">Mass. Global Action</a> and <a href="http://grassrootsonline.org" target="_blank">Grassroots International</a><br></p></div><br>
</div>See: <a href="http://www.encuentro5.org">http://www.encuentro5.org</a> for directions.