Date: 2005-01-12
To: Lucky to Work Here
Miles today: 0.0

I¢ve always been lucky. Whether I¢ve recognized that fact at the time is another matter, but in all of the big things in life, I¢ve clearly been blessed. Today I was reminded of just how lucky I am to have spent my career with an organization like the World Bank. I¢ve been here 34 years and 7 months, all but the last four as a regular staff member. I retired at the end of August, but have stayed on as a full time consultant since then, and will probably continue to do so through the end of February ¢ a matter of days before I leave for Springer Mountain to start my journey. What happened today was simply a briefing by the boss ¢ Jim Wolfensohn, President of the Bank. He was just back from a trip to Indonesia, Sri Lanka and the Maldives where he participated with senior officials of donor countries and donor agencies in a tour of the areas devastated by the recent earth quakes and tsunami. He described flying in helicopters over areas that were laid bare by the force of the incoming and outgoing waves ¢ buildings, trees, people, everything gone, swept out to sea in a matter of minutes. [For before and after photos of the damage, see: http://homepage.mac.com/demark/tsunami/2.html]Jim spoke of the toll in financial terms, briefly, and noted that the Bank had offered an immediate $250 million in loans and credits to the countries affected. The final level of our support is yet to be determined, but could well exceed a billion dollars. Coming early in the process, others have credited the Bank¢s offer of support with ¢upping the ante¢ for other donors, with a salutary effect on the total level of commitments. He mentioned also the financial response of individual Bank staff to the crises. Since the disaster, staff members in Washington and in our field offices have contributed more than $500,000 to the tsunami relief effort. Not too shabby. He then turned to the human side of the tragedy, and described some of the stories he had heard first hand from the survivors. You¢ve probably all heard these stories yourself on the news, but each one is still heart-breaking in and of itself. The ones that trouble me the most are the ones involving children ¢ probably because of how I feel about my own four kids. I frankly don¢t know who I empathize with more ¢ the children who have lost their parents or the parents who must now live without their kids. Much of the relief effort will be led by the U.N. but reconstruction will be led by the World Bank together with the Asian Development Bank. There is a lot to do, and the work has already started. Jim spoke of the Bank¢s teams in our field offices and said how proud he was of their efforts. Their initial responses began within 24 hours of the crisis and have continued almost around the clock since then. Having worked in the East Asia and Pacific Region myself for much of my Bank career, I know many of the people who are out there, especially in our Jakarta office, and the Bank¢s work could not be in better hands.This is a pretty big place, with over 10,000 staff and consultants, so moving quickly is not, generally speaking, our forte. But when a crisis hits, and we have to move quickly, we can. I¢m happy to note that we are. If ever there was a time when that was important, it¢s now, and it is happening. It makes me proud to be associated with this place. But like I said, I¢ve always been lucky.Stay tuned!