Hello, Kasmic, I welcome you to this debate within the World Online Debate Cup: 2015 and truly look
forward to discourse with you, it is always a pleasure debating someone who is
surely better than myself...
The World Bank will simply be shortened to ‘WB’...Energy Investment Projects, will be shortened to ‘EIPs’...And finally, later in the debate the phrase Large Hydropower Initiatives will simply be shortened to ‘LHI’. Everything else should be the same. But time is of the essence so let just dive right into the terse debate matter.
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Contention 1: World Bank Energy Investment Projects ineffectually create, and disproportionately distribute electricity.
- Developing nations don’t have the proper regulations and strategies to guide projects correctly and thus they are actually counter-productive.[21]
- An awesome 67% of World Bank Energy Investments fail globally[22].
- “Around two-thirds of primary energy is lost, mainly due to power conversion, and up to 16% of electricity generated never reaches users – it is lost by the networks, like water leaking from a pipe. The US Energy Information Administration calculated that electricity lost in transmission and distribution cost the economy $20 billion in 2005.”[2] With the poor state of infrastructure Africa already has, the ratio of energy produced-to-energy lost in transmission is sure to be much higher, as will the economic costs.
- There are 1.3 billion people without electricity, 95% of whom live within rural areas in either sub-Saharan Africa or South Asia, yet WB-EIPs have left 80% of these people disconnected from the grid[1]. This is because expansion of the grid is unviable, thus they “have continued to dump billions of dollars into centralized power plants and grid extensions that have done little to alleviate energy poverty”[1]…What are the results of this stagnation? ”Africa’s energy crisis seldom makes the headlines. Yet the social, economic and human costs are devastating. Inadequate and unreliable electricity undermines investment. Power shortages cut economic growth by 2-4% annually. The toxic fumes released by burning firewood and dung kill 600,000 people a year – half of them children. Health clinics are unable to refrigerate life-saving vaccines and children are denied the light they need to study.”
- “The [African] power utilities are notoriously inefficient. This is partly down to mispricing and underinvestment. But it’s also because utilities are vehicles for political patronage and, in some cases, institutionalized theft.”[4]
- The simple fact is that despite the WB’s goal to eradicate poverty, they are not only failing, but blatantly doing just the opposite. In fact, “less than 10 percent of the Bank’s energy funding specifically targets the poor”[8] and not surprisingly “Of the 66 less developed countries receiving money from the World Bank for more than 25 years (most for more than 30 years), 37 are no better off today than they were before they received such loans.” –heritage foundation
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Contention 2: Preventing the Displacement of Millions
The Status Quo
"projects funded by the World Bank have physically or economically displaced an estimated 3.4 million people, forcing them from their homes, taking their land or damaging their livelihoods. [Almost all without giving reparations, this is between the years of 2004 and 2013]" [7]
"The World Bank...[has]... financed governments and companies accused of human rights violations such as rape, murder and torture...[furthermore] lenders have continued to bankroll these borrowers after evidence of abuses emerged.[7]"… "[The WB] pumped 50 billion dollars into projects that financed governments and companies accused of human rights violations.[12]"
" the data shows that the energy sector accounted for the greatest number of new projects …mega-projects include 11 major ventures, eight of them in the energy sector [12]"
"the world’s most cited scholar on mega-project management and planning... found that on average only one in 1,000 mega-projects is completed on time, within its stated budget and with the ability to deliver what was promised…. nine out of every 10 large-scale projects incur cost overruns often over 50 percent of the stated budget…According to Nancy Alexander, these massive projects...can devastate the national budget of a country.”…These are the findings of the World Bank’s own independent evaluation group (IEG)."
Causes
A.) COMPETITION: "It [The WB] is no longer the only lender willing to venture into struggling nations and finance huge projects. It is being challenged by new competition from other development banks that don’t have the same socialstandards — and are rapidly drawing support from the World Bank’s traditional backers….China has launched a new development bank and persuaded Britain, Germany and other American allies to join, despite open U.S. opposition….These geopolitical shifts have fueled doubts about whether the World Bank still has the clout — or the desire — to impose strong protections for people living in the way of development….United Nations human rights officials have written World Bank President Kim to say they’re concerned that the growing ability of borrowers to access other financing has spurred the bank to join a 'race to the bottom' and push its standards for protecting people even lower. [Thus the bank will continually have a force pushing against internal rules protecting people’s rights and the problem won’t go away until the competition does. Being that this is unlikely, we can expect at least another 3.4 million people over the next 9 years be displaced][7]"… "Indeed, so unnerved that AIIB might entice many of its contributors to depart, the WB’s current president has suggested the two institutions “co-finance individual infrastructure projects and/or work on regional integration.”[18]Impacts
A.) Damage to Rights and Justice “Justice is the first virtue of social institutions, as truth is of systems of thought. A theory however elegant and economical must be rejected or revised if it is untrue; likewise laws and institutions no matter how efficient and well-arranged must be reformed or abolished if they are unjust. Each person possesses an inviolability founded on justice that even the welfare of society as a whole cannot override” - John Rawls, “A Theory of Justice”, Harvard University[9]The impact to keeping these projects are violation of several fundamental rights: Right to participation, Right to life and right to livelihood.
B.) Urbanization
"the affected people who have been displaced...do not have any means of resettlement. most of them rush towards the urban area. urban cities are already overcrowded and these act of people of rush toward the urban area works as a boost to the problem. Due to this overpopulation the problem of water and the proper sanitation can be seen. This results in the degradation of air, water and soil and thus, degrading the environment. "[10]
C.) Deforestation: "displaced people, for the purpose of rehabilitation and resettlement, moves towards the forest and clear trees and plants for domestic use. The natural forest is one of the important sources of absorption of carbon dioxide. Thus, with the destructions of forests we are also destroying the raw materials which that forests caries and it also tends to bring an irreversible impact on environment and biodiversity. Moreover, these species are also been used for the creation of invaluable medicines which are used to cure the human beings. Thus, destruction of forest also increases the risk of spreading infectious virus.[10]
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[18] http://www.globalresearch.ca/how-the-world-banks-payday-loans-are-increasing-dire-water-shortages-in-latin-america/5457653
[12] http://www.ipsnews.net/2015/06/infrastructure-boom-in-emerging-economies-hits-record-levels-but-at-what-cost/
[9] https://www.uta.edu/philosophy/faculty/burgess-jackson/A%20Theory%20of%20Justice%20(Excerpts).pdf
[8] http://cleantechnica.com/2014/10/10/world-bank-failing-energy-poverty/
[7] http://projects.huffingtonpost.com/worldbank-evicted-abandoned
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Return To Top | Posted:
Round Forfeited
Return To Top | Posted:
I understand, as I have forfeited some rounds due to extenuating circumstances as well. best of luck in the following round Kasmic.Posted 2015-06-30 10:21:36
I sincerely apologize. I procrastinated till I was at work today. Unknown to me was that my work was changing the internet securitys. I was unable to view any web page flagged as news/media. Thus I was unable to really combat Pro's argument or really construct my own case. I am deeply sorry for this forfeit. To Admin for not engaging in this round and to TJVN for his time spent without a rebuttal.
Please accept my apology and congrats to TJVN for your win. Posted 2015-06-29 10:07:07
@TheJuniorVarsityNovice - looks like your sources got cut off. Just thought I'd throw out some general tips on site features you might not be aware of:
1. You can use the URL buttons in the formatting bar to create shorter links, or hotlink text so you don't waste too many characters on long source links
2. There's a button for creating horizontal lines so you don't have to type out heaps of dashes.
If you need any further help, you can let me know.Posted 2015-06-27 03:23:44
@Stag Lol Golden Skull vs Burrito, I often make the exact same mistakePosted 2015-06-27 01:03:00
Until now I thought @TheJuniorVarsityNovice 's profile pic was of a burrito. I never really look closely at other ppls profile pics Posted 2015-06-25 22:03:25
I think this is a pretty solid matchup. Looking forward to seeing how you guys handle the topic.Posted 2015-06-25 03:39:18
In the Other Rules tab under the section "RULES" scratch the Round 1 rule, this round shall not be acceptance, but instead shall be argumentation.Posted 2015-06-23 16:07:41