The "Invisible Hand" Guided by the Devil in "This Town" as the Ship Goes Down: Conclusion of Observations of a CSO Rep at IMF/WB Spring Mtgs – Part 52

During IMF/WB Spring Meetings 2016, the President of the World Bank Jim Yong Kim stated, “I’ve been in many countries where the only people who pay taxes, are the ones too weak to pay taxes. And, you see systems where the rich don’t pay, but the poor do. So this is a comprehensive problem that we have to tackle...”

In the past months in my blogs Observation of a CSO Rep at the IMF/WB Spring Meetings 2016, I have examined the snake-like corruption as it winds its way through the corridors of power in “This Town.” In my blogs not only have I examined elevated negligence, and lack of leadership by the likes of Hillary Clinton, Carolyn Maloney, Barbara Boxer, and Caroline Kennedy in their ostrich-playing within the American government, past and present—clearly demonstrating that just by placing women in positions of power, they will NOT by osmosis promote or defend the rights of other women. I additionally, explore the ostrich-playing of members of the press such as Walter Pincus and the Washington Post, Diane Sawyer and Abbie Boudreau at ABC and 20/20, Debbie Bruno of the Wall Street Journal expat section, and Anne Sinclair of the Huffington Post France, who it should be noted was the honorary Chair of the IMF Family Association (IMFFA) during my tenure and illegal, and wrongful termination—bringing another legal loop-hole into Ms. Keller’s manipulations in 2010-11, throwing Ms. Sinclair and the entire board of IMFFA into legal liabilities and damages that could ruin them all financially.

What is truly incredible in my story of, As the World Turns in the Fractured Fairytale Debutante, American Dream, is the more everyone tries to “protect their own backs” through their inaction, the deeper and deeper they throw themselves and the organizations in which they work into accessories to human rights violations of governments, as well as their own employees. While my own issues at present with the IMF high-light problems and issues under labor laws and human rights standards, these are just minor skirmishes in a much, much bigger problem.

The one universal truth I have learned about lawyers, whatever their nationality or gender; they are shark-like predators, lazy and slothful lying at the bottom of the ocean, but when they smell blood-money up their noses, they enter into a feeding-frenzy that nothing can stop. This is essentially why our courts are in such a mess. The legal profession in the past 4 decades has been inundated with idiots, smart enough to memorize enough facts to get through law school and pass bar exams, but have no idea how to examine facts or evidence, and even less argue their case in a court of law. On a few occasions I have found lawyers who are familiar with proper court procedure and the processing of documents, but an understanding of the content of what needs to be presented or the issues at hand is literally beyond most lawyers practicing at present.

Under French law a criminal offense committed by a French national against another French national on foreign soil has jurisdiction within French courts, and French law. It is my understanding that Ms. Keller is a French national, as am I, and as is Ms. Sinclair. Ms. Keller’s manipulations and conniving so she could schmooze with Anne Sinclair, and take all the glory and credit for my hard-work, while lawyers in Spain, and public authorities in the USA racked-up human rights after human rights violation against me trying to marginalize me into oblivion, has thrown everyone into a very interesting pot indeed! It is not just in the East that women are forced into publicly sacrificing themselves. In the West the “self-burning” is symbolic and results in homelessness and destitution as oppose to a dramatic death, of women lighting themselves on fire. Everyone who is allowing this type of behavior to go on right under their nose, must be challenges as much as the rampant bullying.

Ms. Keller’s conniving of so many years ago, on top of Mark Plant’s ostrich-playing at present, has even implicated all of the board members of the IMFFA, as well as Anne Sinclair for any negligence on the part of board members in their duty to oppose Ms. Keller’s illegal activity in my wrongful termination, and defamation of character within IMF HR.

My story with the IMF at present reads like a Laurel & Hardy episode with “this is another fine fix you have gotten us into” at every turn, with everyone sinking deeper and deeper into the icy waters and proverbial abyss, with each ostrich that gets added to the story—until the entire mess blows up in everyone’s face. Joseph Stiglitz and Robert Reich explain and explore what Stiglitz calls “American exceptionalism” which are the forces at work within the labor market, and the inertia amongst the NGOs in DC who are failing to oppose these forces, due to the fact they are staffed through nepotistic and socially conservative networks in DC, as opposed to the most qualified candidates for the jobs (as demonstrated in my cases against Carrie Bettinger-Lopez Advisor to the White House on Violence Against Women (VAW), Anne-Beatrix Keller and the IMFFA, Paula Lucas and AODVCC, Pam Perraud and FAWCO’s UN initiative, Judith Lichtman and Debra Ness of the National Partnership for Women & Families, Olivia Graham and the IMF’s Ethics Committee, Mark Plant and the IMF’s HR Dept., Sharmini Coorey and the Institute of Capacity Development (ICD) at the IMF, and even Presidential candidate Hillary Clinton. Civil servants within huge bureaucratic organizations, are in bed with the NGOs in order to maintain the dysfunctional status quo of social conservatism, which has reigned in Washington since Nancy and Ronald Reagan created “This Town.” And, all of the aforementioned are primary and secondary actors in the entire matrix, and paradigm that reigns globally at present.

The ostrich-playing of FAWCO and IMFFA board members is only coupled by the ostrich-playing of those within the IMF, World Bank and United Nations running all the way to the top Management of these organizations, with one of the most insidious instances; that of David Lipton, 1st Deputy Managing Director of the IMF, who in addition to claiming that “corruption is not everywhere,” claims to have “fixed” the financial markets in the ‘90s. Mr. Lipton may have “fixed” the financial markets even more than the game was “fixed and rigged” in the past to favor the 1%ers, willing to “play” the high-risk/high-yield games in financial markets for decades. But, he did not “fix” those markets under democratic norms and human rights standards. To “fix” those markets, the major corrupt players in those markets need to be removed and held accountable for decades of rampant unethical behavior, illegalities, and negligence. The crash-n-burn games of the financiers and bankers must cease and desist immediately if the markets are to be "fixed."

As John Kay, states in Others People’s Money: The Real Business of Finance,

Economics is not a technique in search of problems but a set of problems in need of solution. Such problems are varied and the solutions will inevitably be eclectic. Such pragmatic thinking requires not just deductive logic but an understanding of the processes of belief formation, of anthropology, psychology and organisational behaviour, and meticulous observation of what people, businesses and governments do. 

It is imperative that those in power, in Washington, as well as Wall Street, Silicon Valley, and their counterparts on the other side of the Pond, remove their heads from the sand, and stop toadying around in round-table talks and window-dressing meetings, which accomplishes little other than propagation of mis-information and faulty rhetoric. It is also producing “knowledge gaps” the size of the Grand Canyon, necessitating Evil Knievel efforts at Enlightening the ostriches, toads and bellowing-cows that permeate Washington and the IMF, World Bank, United Nations, as well as the White House, State Department, and US Congress, where slothers and slackers are destroying any semblance of democratic procedure left in “This Town,” as well as the entire world for that matter. All of these people within these organizations work FOR THE PEOPLE, and with very generous salaries paid for by the sweat-n-brow of the poor and down-trodden everywhere. It is time that everyone in government and pseudo-government agencies (as well as non-profit orgs) realize that it is their JOB TO SERVE THE PEOPLE! And, that under democratic rule the PEOPLE DO NOT EXIST TO SERVE THE RICH & PRIVILEGED! All the nouveau riche in power at the moment fail to understand their legal obligation to be producing accountability, transparency, and governance of, and by, governments.

David Lipton in the Spring Meetings continually contended that “corruption is not everywhere,” even though 2 smoking-gun cases in the IMF are going on at present, right under his very nose. The reality of the situation is provided in a synopsis of Kay’s book Other People’s Money, which I strongly encourage Lipton, and ALL economists in the IMF to read, and to read with diligence. 

The finance sector of Western economies is too large and attracts too many of the smartest college graduates. Financialization over the past three decades has created a structure that lacks resilience and supports absurd volumes of trading. The finance sector devotes too little attention to the search for new investment opportunities and the stewardship of existing ones, and far too much to secondary-market dealing in existing assets. Regulation has contributed more to the problems than the solutions.

Why? What is finance for? John Kay, with wide practical and academic experience in the world of finance, understands the operation of the financial sector better than most. He believes in good banks and effective asset managers, but good banks and effective asset managers are not what he sees.

In a dazzling and revelatory tour of the financial world as it has emerged from the wreckage of the 2008 crisis, Kay does not flinch in his criticism: we do need some of the things that Citigroup and Goldman Sachs do, but we do not need Citigroup and Goldman to do them. And many of the things done by Citigroup and Goldman do not need to be done at all. The finance sector needs to be reminded of its primary purpose: to manage other people’s money for the benefit of businesses and households. It is an aberration when the some of the finest mathematical and scientific minds are tasked with devising algorithms for the sole purpose of exploiting the weakness of other algorithms for computerized trading in securities. To travel further down that road leads to ruin.  

The elevated level of unethical and immoral behavior by those in power by their simple lack of diligence and inability to implement theory and rhetoric into reality is what is preventing them from providing the leadership, the USA, and world, so desperately needs. One of the better classes I attended at GWU was Personnel Management. The professor noted that the car manufacturing industry in the USA lost its competitive edge in the ‘70s because of its failure to innovate, with Lee Iacocca, “saving the day” for Chrysler in the late ‘70s. In fact, much of the “mergers and acquisitions” and “government bail-outs” crazes that have dominated the markets since then, probably got their genesis from Iacocca’s “house-cleaning” and “lobbying Congress for hand-outs” techniques, and is still going on by the grey-haired men, now joined by the grey-haired women, in power today.

Additionally, the professor of the class also pointed out that manufacturing jobs were on the decline with service industry jobs rising since the ‘70s and ‘80s. Unfortunately, he was correct about the service industry which now dominates the workforce, but which is filled with EMOTIONALLY UNINTELLIGENT and HIGHLY UNETHICAL AND IMMORAL PhDs and MBAs, with these men and women espousing and promoting extremely dangerous gobbledygook and discriminatory rhetoric throughout the workplace, as well as societies in general. (The idea that just because someone has obtained a diploma, they know what they are talking about, is an extremely faulty and dangerous assumption), and one which needs DRAMATIC DEBUNKING!  

It is within this dichotomy of backdrops that my series of blogs, Observations of a CSO Rep and the IMF/WB Spring Meeting 2016, examines the FAULTY RHETORIC vs. the REALITY, and the grave dangers of enabling governments to increase tax revenue collection, particularly consumer taxes, as opposed to income taxes. It is imperative that governments 1st assure good governance, coupled with transparency and accountability in courts systems and government agencies. Government agencies, at all levels (national, regional, and local) are nothing but ‘window-dressings’ and are riffed with inertia, clock-punching, and highly unethical behavior. The attitude de jour in these agencies is “ignore the constituency until they go away” with everyone producing a flurry of seminars, conferences, speeches, etc. producing no effective change or results. One of the essential problems is the international focus on poor and middle income countries, with all too many within international organizations and NGOs “buying into” the fractured fairytale American Dream—thereby pushing these countries towards the same disastrous results as in the West. Man is the only animal stupid enough to trip over the same stone twice, and thrice...

The root of the problem lay within the courts. The courts are so riffed with greed and corruption, that negligence is at rates of 70-95%, with lawyers, judges, psychologist, and other “experts” and their “cottage industries” milking citizenry of their hard-earned earnings and savings—often to the point of destitution. This is also having a severe detrimental effect on entrepreneurial and small businesses who cannot defend themselves effectively in the courts, where the strategy du jour is “death by litigation” in that the one with the most money to spend is the “winner,” who takes it all with no qualms—leaving populations of women and children destitute, homeless, and broken. This has given rise to widespread reliance on the mediation process further degrading rights and creating a vicious circle for victims of legal abuse, and abuses of power by employees, colleagues and landlords. The lack of due process and erosion of rights of workers, as well as the citizenry in general has been creating a pressure cooker within the USA; and is ripe for explosion. This is why it is absolutely vital that policy-makers remove their heads from the sand, and start investigating allegations of wrong-doing and restituting citizenry for crimes against them.  

As Mario Puzo, states in The Godfather, “lawyers can steal more money with a briefcase than a thousand men with guns and masks." Lawyers everywhere, are unscrupulously, laughing all the way to the bank, while democracies and their courts lay in ruins from all of the unethical and illegal behavior; which are “OK” because “everyone” is “doing it.” Lawyers are in bed with politicians who are drafting up more and more complex legislation, in order to funnel more and more money and jobs into what Julian Assange calls “high-tech liberalism” which dominates Silicon Valley (as well as the entire CV industry)—with corporations, governments, and international organizations “jumping on the band wagon.”

It should be noted that the start-up industry has a failure rates of 70-90%, for the simple reason that the marketing function is not appreciated, or even recognized, amongst CVs as well as the business community. As seen in other industries there is a total dearth of due diligence by financiers and why I take such exception at Mike Milken being involved in the current distribution of monies which should be directed towards SDGs and MDGs. The Internet is literally flooded with web platforms and bogus websites, which in the best case scenarios are like most of the expat websites, slightly helpful, but regurgitating the ‘smoke-screen’ rhetoric of the social conservatists, so relatively useless. The Global Mobility Matters 2016 report states,

Technology seems to be gaining momentum, but leaves much to be desired

For the last few years, there has been a significant push to adopt more technology driven solutions and analytics in HR and global mobility programs. Is it resulting in improved and expected outcomes? How important is the role of technology and to what extent can it replace the judgement that is critical in managing human capital?..

Will technology play a greater role in your mobility programs in 2016? Unsurprisingly, 83% of respondents rated technology as being “very important” or “important” in managing assignments and their programs. was the case. But despite the interest, the findings show only a small improvement in the technology driven talent programs, software analytics platforms and new tools to design processes.

Focus areas for most likely use of technology adaptation in 2016

Technology has taken on a pervasive presence. In the age of hyper-connectedness and transparency driven by social media, coupled with a shift in demographics with millennials becoming a major component of the workforce, our focus was bringing forth areas where technology initiatives seem most compelling to HR and mobility leaders of today. Key areas we were interested in were Immigration, Relocation Management, Assignment Management, Security and Cultural. The findings shine the broadest lens on Assignment Management with close of one half of the respondents stating that is their biggest focal point for use of technology driven initiatives. Relocation Management was a close second with new tools being available for better management and insights into the relocation life cycle.

What is worrisome within the global mobility industry trends of concentrating on Millennium workers and high-tech solutions, is that not even those with decades of life and work experiences are producing the leadership and integrity needed—and why there is such inertia in Washington, and other capitals around the world. And, the Millennium workers I am encountering in DC through-out agencies and in my daily dealings are EXTREMELY lacking in their ability to think and reason, as well as read with even the minimum of diligence, so it is sure that this group of people will NOT be providing any kind of leadership—much less the leadership needed in “This Town” at present. As Einstein points out “there is no difference between those who cannot read, and those who do not.”

All the techies in the Internet “networking craze” industry (looking to start the next facebook) are creating some interesting technological products. However, most are unable to properly monetize them as the market becomes flooded with platforms. What these techies and start-up gurus fail to understand is that networking is not just about building networks. It is most importantly about knowing what everyone in the networks are doing, and how to utilize those networks. If all of the superfluous jobs being produced by accountants, lawyers, financiers, psychologists, coaches, and counselors, etc. by high-tech liberalism, designed to disenfranchise the American people, were re-directed towards care-giving jobs (K-12 education, as well as early childhood, eco-friendly innovations, healthcare systems designed to build healthy societies, as well as care for the sick, noting that if everyone lives a healthy lifestyle and are given basic healthcare services during their lives, healthcare costs would be very manageable) the SDGs so espoused by the World Bank would perhaps be achievable. However, within the present mind-set amongst those in power neither SDGs nor MDGs are attainable. If societies would concentrate their efforts on building constructive forces, instead of destructive forces, then SDGs would be attainable, but this necessitates a change in mind-set, and prioritization of people and governments everywhere.

What is needed is not more rhetoric, but rather national and international tribunals that will start investing allegation of rampant civil and human rights violations in courts around the world. My own story started with family courts. But, since then my research and personal experience shows that the problems found in family courts, are the same in all of the courts. The crux of the matter is a total lack of due process (corruption with perjury and court-tampering rampant), along with an elevate level of overt misogyny and discrimination, designed to belittle, berate, and even nullify rights of women and children; rendering them, stateless, right-less people in Western “democratic” courts. Accountability and transparency will never occur until and unless regulatory agencies stop playing ostrich, and start examining evidence with a minimum of logic and intelligence, instead of Wonderland of Alice goobleygook such as “it is the right of lawyers to violate the rights of their clients under the principle of judicial independence,” or “sovereignty rights” exonerates or protects courts, and court actors from judicial review, or regulation.  

Workers in the public sector are doing nothing but playing games of musical chairs, with them back-stabbing and back-scratching their way to the last rung up the proverbial ladder, with everyone in middle management, and administrative functions trying to look busy by attending as many meetings and conferences as possible; as well as filling quotas on working and discussion papers to justify their generous five and six-figure salaries. All the while the world is falling apart under their noses. For almost a decade I have been telling civil servants in the American and French Consulates in Madrid, the US State Department in DC, and the Instituto de Mujer, Consejo General del Poder Judicial, Defensor del Pueblo, Colegio de Abogados de Madrid, exactly what to do in order to fulfill their legal obligations towards their citizens. But, all of these agencies are replete with ostriches turning a blind-eye to rampant corruption under their nose.

Finding solutions to the fundamentals of the problems in the world, must start with a very serious over-haul in personnel management and HR departments of ALL the US federal agencies, as well as international pseudo-government agencies, as well as the NGOs that permeate DC, but which are also playing ostrich to the world’s problems. My case against the IMF for bullying in the workplace, and Director of HR at the IMF, Mark Plant’s on-the-fence reaction to said complaint, is a perfect example, and case study, of how and why there is such a dire crisis in human resource management within large bureaucratic organizations—in the public sector as much as the private sector. The HR function is the “police,” or rather “mother,” of the organization that if well executed brings cohesion and harmony, but if poorly executed brings chaos and dysfunctionality to the entire process. There is a serious problem of bullying in the workplace at present, as much in the public sector, as private sector, on top of in our schools, communities and the Internet, with this being a global problem and crisis. There is also a high-level of a failure of large international organizations to meet their mandates, because of the failure to comply with their own internal rules, as well as meet international human rights standards in the management of their employees (as my case against the IMF so dramatically demonstrates).

It is imperative that courts within national systems at all level be properly governed, as well as assure that international actors be placed under scrutiny for unethical, immoral and/or illegal, behavior by the press and public. It is equally important that the dangerous socially conservative forces (with American corporate greed at the helm), who time and time again when they get “their hands caught in the cookie jar,” get nothing more than a slap on the hand by the courts, a stint in a luxury prison, only to be welcomed back by all the Ostriches, Toads, and Bellowing-cows still in the business, when they get out. Then, they turn around and help all the “paroled” Ostriches, Toads, and Bellowing-cows back to the game of milking the citizenry of their hard-earned money, as well as their sanity, due to the chaos produced by economic crisis after economic crisis, which is spurned by narcissism and excessive consumerism in the USA, and now globally. To add insult to injury the poor minorities parolees arrested for petty crimes and drug-related offenses, for the life of them cannot get a job, because of criminal records. The 1%er criminals are welcomed back with open arms after their stint in jail, while the poor schmuck at the bottom of the food-chain is marginalized, and exploited in the cess-pool communities’ and courts, which governments are contending are “not their responsibility” to govern; nullifying leur rason d’etre.  

Everyone is accepting and embracing the insanity of the fractured fairytale American Dream, spiraling the world down to complete and total chaos and insanity. Instead of complicating things, everyone needs to concentrate on getting back to basics and logic. Never has the fable of the Emperor is Wearing No Clothes, and the Pied Piper been more true, than it is today in This Town—the “ohhing and ahhing” is not only going on amongst the American government officials, who along with GWU, nestled between the State Department and White House, are seducing those in the IMF, World Bank, and IFC with their partying and “awareness” campaigns which in reality are nothing but propaganda campaigns designed to deceive economist, public-policy makers, public authorities, as well as the public into believing lies and deceits.

Within the international arena there is much debate on the role of international tribunals, and the erosion of sovereignty rights. However, the problem really only becomes a problem if corporate interests are given a priority over People. If people’s rights are prioritized, at the national and international level, the international tribunals, become a watch-dog over national courts, adding to transparency and accountability; as opposed to oppressive regimes, spurned by corporate greed. This is where policy-makers and the business community need to start concentrating their efforts. Building legal systems, and economies which focus on the People and their needs, rather than supporting corporate and government interests.

This is the first step in working towards an effective solution. However, in order for these large bureaucratic organizations to effectively do this (and fulfill mandates) they need to be staffed by people at all levels who have skills in reading comprehension, as well as emotional intelligence; as opposed to the rigid-hierarchical structures filled with ostriches, toads and bellowing-cows.  These antiquated workforces are not properly trained, or emotionally equipped, to effectively function within progressive norms and guidelines, and why bullying is rampant.           

And, for this to happen everyone in the IMF, World Bank, UN, IFC, and the international human rights community MUST, WITHOUT DELAY pull their heads out of the sand, stop being toads and profiting from the demise of democracy in the USA, as well as around the world, along with their counter-parts, the bellowing-cows. It is up to everyone to de-mask the ostriches, toads, and bellowing-cows amongst their midst in order to transform the Wonderland of Alice in which we are all trapped; into a sane workplace where civil servants are not only conducting themselves correctly under human rights standards, in their jobs and official capacities, but also in assuring global governance at a macro level.

The list of recipients of the Ostrich, Toad, and Bellowing-cow Awards are numerous, and growing. But, the most worrisome of the ostrich-n-toads in the IMF is David Lipton, whose ostrich playing is dangerous given his position as 1st Deputy Director, particularly given the internal management problems throughout, not only the IMF, but all of the large bureaucratic organization, in Washington. The second most worrisome Ostrich in the IMF is Jose Vi?als, Director of the Finance Department, and a Spanish national and who has a very long and fruitful past with the Spanish banking system, quoting the following from his IMF bio,

Financial Counsellor and Director of the Monetary and Capital Markets Department of the International Monetary Fund (IMF). He is a member of the Financial Stability Board, representing the IMF.

His professional career has been closely tied to the Central Bank of Spain, where he served as the Deputy Governor after holding successive positions.

He has also held the positions of Chairman of the European Central Bank International Relations Committee; and Chairman of Spain’s Deposit Guarantee Funds.

He has been a member of: the Bank for International Settlements (BIS) Committee on the Global Financial System; the European Central Bank Monetary Policy Committee; and the high-level group appointed by the President of the European Commission to examine economic challenges in the European Union. He was also a member of the European Union Economic and Financial Committee and a Board Member of the Spanish Securities Authority, the Comisión Nacional del Mercado de Valores.

Jose Vi?als close ties to, and fruitful career with, one of the European banking systems most riffed with corruption and mis-management, the Spanish banking system, is worrisome, particularly given the fact that Spain is the “gate-way keeper” to drug and human-trafficking in Europe. Corruption in court systems in Spain is unbridled and rampant, with “Sheriffs” like that of Coslada getting slapped on the hand by the justice system for their “hanky-panky.” And, since Europe is embracing the fractured fairytale American Dream drug-consumption, violence, obesity, with corporate greed promoting high-tech liberalism and magic wand-solutions from Millennium leaders who are so riffed with ADHD, a lack of common sense, and/or emotional intelligence, that they do not know how to direct their own lives, much less assist constituency. The millennials in DC, along with the "old guard" are not only NOT providing the leadership the world needs at present, they are promoting dependency skills of societies, as opposed to independency skills that the modern force needs. And, here it is important to distinguish between independency skills and narcissism, which are being confused at present. Independency is self-reliance in one’s ability to navigate the social world and inter-act with others; while narcissism is hedonistic pursuit of one’s interests and desires, with no regard for others. The number of narcissistic workers in DC is of crisis proportions and needs of action from HR function within.

Another, key player in Ostrich-n-Toad playing at the IMF is Director of the Institute for Capacity Development (ICD), Sharmini Coorey. The prioritization of demand driven products by donors at the IMF, creates a conflict of interest situation for countries, and opens the door to oppressive practices and policies of governments. This issue is exacerbated by the low level of morale in the department, and high level of apathy amongst the employees in ICD—due to rampant and unbridled bullying, and mis-management. As I explained to the IMF Ethic Committee, bullying comes in many forms, it can be overt insults and degrading remarks; and may even go on unperceived by most (particularly men) who rarely understand the jibes and insults from sharp-tongue women who can sugar-coat even the most disgusting digs.

This is why the alpha-linear male work-place cannot properly and effectively deal with bullying. Alpha-male men just can’t follow the viperous minds of the Evil Step Mothers, and Evil Step-sisters of the world!!! And, women who have entered the work-force have embrace the dysfunctional linear alpha construct, rather than challenging it, as is desperately needed. The fairytale construct of the fairy godmother with her magic wand that the feminists have been selling to the public, a construct Betty Friedan so vehemently denounced, is being embrace not only by professionals in the global mobility industry, but by the HR departments of all of the large bureaucratic organizations. It is imperative that those in the global mobility industry and HR departments of these orgs, pull their heads out of the sand and stop toadying around. As seen in the case study of ICD, not only are organizations not effectively combatting bullying, but they are promoting and encouraging it, wreaking havoc and chaos everywhere.

Bullies will almost always look for allies; this is why this dynamic is so dysfunctional. Everyone is narcissistic, and they constantly have to be making alliances in order not to be “toppled.” So they are continually looking to make alliances with those who can further their individual interests, as opposed to the goals of the organization. They then, gang-up on anyone who challenges the status quo of laziness, slothfulness, and partying that permeate these organizations, creating chaos for all the “professionals” to whom they are supposed to be providing support and admin assistance. (some very competent, but some just as lazy and slothful as the bullies below them on the totem pole).

These “professionals” are in turn more concentrated in grappling up the ladder, than fulfilling the objectives or mandates of the organization for whom they work. And, any middle or upper management who does not wish to play the “grappling” game, and might even be frustrated with the whole situation, gets pushed and prodded by HR personnel onto the proverbial ladder, whether they want to be pushed or not. The problem in turn is that HR managers, whatever the management level, definitely do not want to get off the Merry-go-round of Parties and Jet-Set lifestyle they are able to maintain, at the expense of taxpayers everywhere, as well as economies and societies everywhere. Washington at present, is truly in a state of Sodom and Gomora, a state which is rendering efforts in international organization ineffective and counter-productive! to their mandates and a smooth functioning of the world!

This creates the perpetual back-stabbing, back-scratching environment that permeates large bureaucratic organizations in DC, as well as their brethren NGOs—and why “failure” rates within the private and public sector of industries across the board are around 70-90%. Ostriches have their heads so far in the sand, they cannot see the light of day, for the life of them. And, the toads are too busy bowing-n-scraping, and counting their money to notice, the extent to which their actions are contributing to the demise of the planet.

The HR function within organizations is not being given appropriate attention. It is also being internally riffed with social conservatism forces which are actively promoting bullying in the workplace (as my complaint to the IMF for workplace bullying in ICD and their Respectful Workplace workshop offered by the Winters Group shows). As this case study demonstrates many “anti-bullying” initiatives of HR and global mobility personnel actually promote and encourage bullying, ostrichism, toadyism, and bellowing-cowism in the organizations in which they work. The West criticizes “extremist” cells in the East, but the same forces are at work in the West, under the noses of the Ostriches, and Toads in DC, today.  

The winding of the “snake of corruption” in “This Town” brings me to Mark Plant, Director of the HR department within the IMF, whose ostrich-playing and “asleep at the wheel management-style” is setting the IMF up for another corruption scandal in the press. My complaints to Mr. Plant, complaints to which I have not even received the courtesy of a reply in the past months, is further aggravating the IMF’s tort against me by the IMFFA in 2010-11, as well as ICD’s in 2015, as well as demonstrating to the entire world a total lack of dedication and commitment by upper Management at the IMF in fulfilling their mandate. If the IMF (and World Bank, UN, etc. and their counter-parts on the other side of the Pond), do not address the very, very serious problems of tunnel vision inertia, apathy, and unbridled bullying, at all levels of their organizations, they will never be able to assure proper governance of their own employees, much less those to whom they provide technical assistance and training, as well as regulate and sanction.

These issues, and the problems they create are further highlighted by the ostrich-n-toady playing by managers within ICD, such as Sharmini Coorey, Gerd Schwartz, Gina Paone, Ana Daie, of the ICDIO (Immediate Office), Robert Powell of ICDSE (Strategy Evaluation), and Mark Lewis of ICDGP (Global Partnership). The lack of diligence by these managers in understanding the complexities of the world at a macro and micro level is creating not only havoc within ICD and its daily functioning, but also in its ability to effectively understand the challenges countries, and their bureaucratic agencies are facing on a daily basis, as well as in order to promote SDGs and MDGs.

The naiveté of the managers within ICD as to the realities of the world, and the “Big Bad Wolf” standing behind every door, is not only disquieting it is dangerous.  Their fairytale construct of fairy godmothers and prince charmings who live happily ever after is sending the world to the brink of disaster, and “state of no return.”  If economist wish to avoid egg-throwing, or more ominous weapons in the future, as seen in the video below; it behooves everyone at the IMF, WB and UN to start examining issues from a holistic perspective as opposed to their peace-meal approach with “gaps of knowledge” the size of the Grand Canyon.

This brings me to my final “Ostrich” of great concern within the IMF/WB Spring Meeting participants, Caren Grown, the Senior Director of Gender at the World Bank, noting that in the CSO breakfast with Ms. Grown during the Spring Meetings, I did have the impression that she would like to become an Enlightened Ostrich, and hope my reports and blogs will help in that regard.

Ms. Grown may be a world expert on gender issues under the faulty construct of the feminist movement of the past 50 years, propagated by right-wing, misogynistic rhetoric and mis-information in the western press and media for decades. Unfortunately, this construct focused exclusively on moving women into the work-force, making them economically productive, with no regards for the consequences created by the “second-shift.” Further it focused its efforts on advancing the interest of the elite1%ers leaving populations exposed to political attacks from social conservative forces, and extremism.

This is one of the reason workers’ rights have been so grossly eroded in the past decades, the moral authority that women of upper and upper-middle class homemakers used to inject into society, (along with religious leaders in the community) has lost its cohesion and direction in modern societies. In antiquated societies the morality was based on abstinence of sex and “substance abuse” (ie. alcohol or drugs), with “dissenters” discarded as “crazy” or “possessed.” But, with the advent of the birth-control pill and the sexual revolution attitudes towards extra-marital sex have changed; as have attitudes towards drug with the advent of pharmaceutical drugs and the drug-pushing of the FDA in collusion with the pharmaceutical companies.

These forces have encrusted themselves in societies around the world, (in part due to the disempowerment of the three major religions in the past century), and the fact that upper and upper-middle class women have joined the ranks of “working women,” in societies and workforces. (I say “join”, because the poor minority women at the bottom of the social scale have always had to “work” outside the home. The reality is that when the “poor-rich white women” started feeling the double-burden of working outside the home, as well as inside, they “woke-up to the reality” of the down-trodden “poor” women in “society.” What these “rich folks” are experiencing is what the working-class have always known, and are so desperately trying to grapple their way out of.)  

It is time to start examining the plight of women of all classes, and socio-economic scales, in both the East and the West, with the same concern and diligence as is being done for the male population (actually more because the diligence for men under human rights standards is nothing to “write home about”).  It also means recognizing women as biologically different from men (duh!), therefore with different needs, as important, if not more important, than men, due to the prolonged reproductive function of women in society, compared to the short-lived reproductive function of men.

Additionally, what policy-makers need to consider is not just the gestation period of the fetus, but also the maternal instincts of mothers, and the socialization process of children, particularly younger children. Not only is it extremely important that young populations are properly socialized and educated under modern, scientific, and progressive norms (ie. Dr. Benjamin Spock and Dr. Daniel Goleman), and not some pedophiliac junk-science of Dr. Gardner, Baskerville, and the like. It is ludicrous to contend that a government does not have a responsibility to assure that their populations are producing productive, fruitful, and contented work-forces and citizens. For that is exactly their primary raison d’être under democratic principles! Common sense revolts the idea! (USA vs. Causby. 1946) to think that a government would not be “responsible” for its courts—and why I vehemently denounce the American government’s stance in Gonzales (Lenahan) vs. USA.  

And, finally an area of concern which came as somewhat of a surprise to me—and appeared somewhat “out of the blue” in preparing my bullying in the workplace complaint in March 2016—was the extent to which FAWCO, FAWCO’s UN initiative, and AODVCC, are being ‘window-dressing’ and ‘smoke-screens’ for the American corporate greed, as well as the social conservatists, to propagate la vie en Rose construct of the fractured fairytale American Dream amongst expats around the world. These women are pulling a “Nancy Reagan” with her Phyllis Schlaflies and CZ Guests helping her to propagate the fairytale world the socialite and socialite wanna-bes so desperately wish to preserve.

However, instead of preserving the fractured fairytale American Dream, which has been maintained for the past 4 decades at the expense of millions of lives lost in useless wars in the Middle East and elsewhere; economies and societies in shambles with widespread physical and mental health problems, and medical care systems bursting at the seams with unsustainable costs; prison systems bursting at the seams with inmates of non-violent and drug-related crimes; court systems so riffed with greed and corruption by lawyers that they have destroyed not only the rule of law, but also democratic process within their respective countries; and finally educational systems which are riffed with antiquated teaching, under-funding, and under-appreciation of the important work teachers (along with concerned parents) do in raising, socializing, and education future work-forces and citizens. THIS is the “Dream” all these ladies (and gentlemen) wish to propagate and “protect”?

IT’S MORE OF A NIGHTMARE THAN A DREAM!! AND, ALL THESE EMPTY- HEADED TRAILING, TROPHY-WIVES AND SOCIALITE WANNA-BES WISH TO PROMOTE THIS PARADIGM GLOBALLY!!!

What FAWCO, IMFFA, and others are doing in covering-up for corruption in family courts as well as promoting a fairytale construct within government agencies and international organizations, such as the IMF, WB and UN, is unconscionable, immoral, and a human rights violation in and of itself! In the case of IMFFA, the manipulations of Ms. Keller in 2010-11 came under the purview of Anne Sinclair as Honorary Chair of IMFFA. However, at present the on-going manipulation of the “truth” as well as IMFFA (& the WB) DV initiatives come under the purview of Christine Lagarde’s partner, and Honorary Chair of IMFFA, Xavier Giocanti. While ‘Expat Wives Clubs’ are often denigrated amongst expats (with reason) these structures, given proper managers and management, do have the potential of not only assisting expat families, but provide a political catalyst to implementing many of the progressive ideas and laws “on the books” at present. The role non-bread winning wives and mothers play in society has been thoroughly denigrated by the extremists for decades, if not centuries. These women (and increasingly men), do play an extremely important role in society, and any government or society which does not recognize her efforts and contribution has broken their social contract with those women, and thereby their right to govern.      

In closing, I quote W. Arthur Lewis, in The Theory of Economic Growth (1955), “It is open to men to debate whether economic progress is good for men or not, but for women to debate the desirability of economic growth is to debate whether women should have the chance to cease to be beasts of burden, and to join the human race.”

Man is the only animal stupid enough to trip over the same stone twice. And the alpha-linear thinking that dominates in the IMF, World Bank, UN, IFC, as well as the State Department, White House, and Capitol Hill and elsewhere in “This Town” and the rest of the world is assuring the demise of democracy as well as the planet! The question remains at present if the little boys-n-girls in these organizations can grow-up, lift their heads out of the sand, and start looking at the world as it really is rather than the la vie en Rose idiocies of the past.

A little over 3 decades ago, I took international economics with Robert Dunn at GWU. For the final exam, I had to “teach” the class to my peers, because Professor Dunn was complicating his subject so much that even the econ majors apparently could not follow (I was told that “even the econ majors would usually flunk his class at least once.”) I feel in déjà vu mode at present with the economists and other “experts” at the IMF and World Bank, and hope that my explanations and insight into the consequences of rampant abuse of power, gender inequality and erosion of rights at micro and macro levels throughout just about every industry under the sun will allow managers and policy-makers within these organizations to effectively bridge their Grand Canyon “knowledge gaps,” pull their heads out of the sand and see the world, and all its corruption for what it truly is!!

What all the nouveau riche and socialite wannabes are failing to understand is that with privilege comes responsibility. And, that by NOT utilizing their networks to uphold directives and mandates of an organization implicates them in corruption scandals as much as when they USE their networks to break laws and violate the rights of others through their power, influence and networks, and which is what these actors are doing at present. These are the two (good vs. evil) forces which have been at odds with each other in western history for the past 4 millenniums, which under Catholicism took the form of the God vs. the Devil; and under Adam Smith the “invisible hand”—with the “invisible hand” being guided by the Devil at present, by the inaction of a few good men and women amongst a cess-pool of immorality, unethics and criminality within their ranks.

In 2008, Fernanda Guerrero Guerrero told me I had to “appear to be a lady,” (and when I realized the misogynistic, viperous women I was up against in the Spanish courts, and started documenting all my lawyers back-stabbing and criminality), and I bit my lip on my retort, “I am a lady, and it is not for the car I drive, the house in which I live, nor the clothes I wear, it is for who I am what I have done with my life, and for everything for which I stand and believe in—which is more than I can say for the viperous war-mongering, greedy lawyers I am encountering at present. And, who if they had an inkling of how to do their job, my "ladyship" and "honor" would have never been questioned to begin with!!” The lack of emotional intelligence, as well as lack of integrity and morality amongst lawyers everywhere, is only equaled by their partners in crime, the bankers and politicians, supported by the economists and other “experts.” (See my letters of "recommendation" from Dr. Rojas Gil, psychiatrist and long-time friend, Astrid Betancourt, and psych testing which found me "with higher than average intelligence, with great sensibility and great awareness for the "realities" in life as well as how all the "pieces" fit together in complex matrices.)

Human rights standards within government agencies and international organizations will never be implemented until and unless those working within these agencies understand what human rights are, and how it applies to them in their daily interaction with colleagues as well as constituents. This is why my complaint, and case against the IMF for workplace bullying and wrongful termination, is AS IMPORTANT AS MY CEDAW case against the Spanish, French and American government, and the negligence of their civil servants. It is high time government and pseudo-government agencies are held accountable for their negligence, stupidity and getting fat-n-rich off the hard-work of taxpayers everywhere.