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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (April 1, 2005)
Wolfowitz to become new president of World Bank BY JEANNINE AVERSA THE ASSOCIATED PRESS WASHINGTON, D.C. — The World Bank approved Paul Wol fowitz as its new president Thursday, affirming the administration’s choice of a Bush loyalist to take the helm of the 184-nation development bank. Wolfowitz, the deputy defense secretary who helped plan the Iraq war, will begin his five-year term June 1. “Nothing is more gratifying than being able to help people in need and developing opportunities for all the people of the world to achieve their full potential,” Wol fowitz said after winning unani mous approval from the World Bank’s 24-member board. The bank’s stated mission is to fight poverty and improve the living standards of people in developing countries. It lends about $20 billion a year to developing countries for various projects, including roads, schools and fighting AIDS. The installation of Wolfowitz enables the Bush administration to put its imprint on the bank,which employs some 10,000 people world wide. That has raised the hackles of some international aid and other groups. They question Wol fowitz’s development credentials and worry he might try to use the bank to help America’s allies and punish its enemies. Wolfowitz, 61, said he believes deeply in the World Bank’s mission and would not pursue any political agenda. Some critics, including people from the Mobilization for Global Jus tice and ActionAid International USA, protested the choice outside the bank’s headquarters Thursday. “Now the developing world has to live with Paul Wolfowitz, a man with no relevant experience but for his oversight of the reconstruction of Iraq — a project beset by corruption, cronyism and incompetence,” said Robert Weissman, director of Essen tial Action, one of the protest groups. President Bush surprised the inter national community March 16 by recommending Wolfowitz for the job, given that his hard-line foreign policy stance made him a target of critics at home and abroad. To quell criticism, Wolfowitz has been reaching out. He has tele phoned Bono, the Irish rock star who is a vocal advocate for helping the world’s poor. He has met with many countries’ representatives to the World Bank and traveled to Europe, where he won the endorsement of European Union governments. Sup port from Europe was important be cause hostility still lingers there over the U.S.-led war in Iraq. Wolfowitz said he learned a lot from those soundings and plans to continue to meet and listen to people inside and outside the World Bank in the months ahead. “I have a new appreciation for the urgent need for debt relief,” he said. “My new colleagues have recom mended I review that right balance between loans and grants.” The administration has been pushing for major changes in how the bank operates and supports aid in the form of grants — which need not be repaid — rather than loans. By tradition, the World Bank has been led by an American. The United States is the bank’s largest shareholder. President Bush hailed the board’s approval of his pick, saying, “The mission of the World Bank is of vi tal importance to our country and the world as this year’s focus on de velopment and accelerating action in Africa by the G-8 and the U.N. highlights.” While critics question Wolfowitz’s development credentials, he has said his management experience at the Pentagon and diplomatic experience at the State Department prepared him for the job. At State, he was as sistant secretary for East Asia and U.S. ambassador to Indonesia. Members of Congress have criti cized Wolfowitz for underestimating the number of U.S. troops needed in Iraq and for understating, in testimo ny to a House panel, the number of troops killed in Iraq. They also took him to task for predicting before the Iraq invasion that Iraqi oil would generate $50 billion to $100 billion over two to three years, limiting U.S. war costs. Instead, Iraq generated just $17 billion in oil revenues in the Wolfowitz’s new job Paul Wolfowitz was approved as the World Bank’s new president Thursday by the board. Wolfowitz 2001- U.S. deputy secretary present of defense 1994-2001 Dean. School of Ad vanced International Studies at Johns Hopkins University 1989-93 Undersecretary of de fense for policy 1986-89 Ambassador to Indonesia 1982-86 Assistant secretary of state, East Asian and Pacific affairs 1981-82 Head of State Department’s policy planning staff 1977-80 Deputy assistant sec retary of defense for regional programs 1976-77 Special assistant, Stra tegic Arms Limitation Talks 1973-77 U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency SOURCE: Defense Department AP first 19 months after the invasion. James Wolfensohn, the bank’s current president, will step down at the end of May, when his sec ond, five-year term concludes. Wolfensohn helped engineer a number of changes in the bank’s philosophy and how it operates. He pushed for greater emphasis on “home grown” development planning, trying to connect the bank closer to the countries it seeks to help. He pressed for debt relief for the world’s poorest countries. His 1996 “cancer of corruption” speech focused a new light on corruption as an im pediment to development that must be addressed. “I will make every effort to en sure that our transition period is successful, so Paul can hit the ground running on June 1,” Wolfensohn said. Now Leasing for next year! University Commons Apartments Furnished 1, % & 4 bedroom apartments Reduced rental rates for 2005-061 Come see us and find out more! 021754 • Fully furnished • Individual leases • Full size washers and dryers in every apartment • 24 Hour Fitness Center • Heated pool • Security alarm system • Water, trash, sewer included Warn w CAL. • on bus route • Roommate matching • 1, % & 4 bedroom apartments • 3 bedroom with a den • Game room • Caged basketball court • sand volleyball court • Uniformed security on-site universiTY COMMONS apartments 338-4000 90 Commons Drive, Eugene, OR 97401 Hours: M-F 9am-6pm, Sat 10am-4pm Sun 12pm~5pm Digital photography has led to decrease in retail film prints BY BEN DOBBIN THE ASSOCIATED PRESS ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Jesse Eisen berg came within a technological whisker of losing all her honey moon snapshots. The 31-year-old lawyer’s digital im ages, stored on an online photogra phy site, vanished while she was in the hospital this winter having her first child. She had given up all hope of retrieving them when they sudden ly reappeared on her computer more than a month later. “I can’t believe we got them back! ” she exclaimed. “Oh my God, I’m go ing to be printing all day today.” It’s a refrain that sets the photo in dustry’s heart racing. As the digital revolution sidelines film, the photo industry is having to rely more heavily on high-margin services and supplies — inks, chemicals, paper — that go into making prints. Yet the picture is not quite as it seems. While there’s no hint of a falloff in the desire of Americans to freeze frame the world around them, the overall number of images converted into prints has been slipping since the dawn of the 21st century. The drop-off coincided with the lightning transition to a world with out film. A few years ago, there wasn’t a framework in place to help digital shutterbugs print easily or cheaply. Digital cameras are now in about 43 million homes in America, and that 40 percent penetration could reach 70 percent by 2007. The more mainstream they become, some an alysts argue, the more likely that old printing habits will re-establish themselves. “Everybody treasures memories, and what makes memories more vivid than a photograph, a print?” said Ulysses Yannas of Buckman, Buckman & Reid in New York. That impulse, he thinks, “will not fade; it’s human nature.” Bolstering Yannas’ belief is a recent frenzy of acquisitions of online photo startups, which are projected to churn out 700 million prints this year, up from 400 million in 2004. Others dismiss the notion of shoe boxes filling up to the brim again as wishful thinking. “The pie isn’t necessarily going to get any bigger,” said Frank Bail largeon, an industry consultant in Eagle, Idaho. “But the pie is going to be sliced up in many, many differ ent ways. “In the digital era, you can see your pictures immediately, share them instantaneously, store them in a variety of arguably safe ways and print them selectively. My children’s generation is so comfortable with technology that the need to just have a print in your hand or in a shoe box doesn’t sound like a very compelling proposition.” Manufacturers like Eastman Kodak Co., however, think the meteoric rise Photo albums grow thinner The number of photos converted into prints has declined due to an increased popularity of digital photography and a younger generation’s lack of emotional attachment or need for prints. Number of prints made HU Digital [ | Traditional 35 billion 30.3 Camera sales 20 million 18.2 Note: Data for 2004 is estimated. Camera sales figures exclude single-use cameras. SOURCE: Photo Marketing AP Association International of camera phones could turn the lu crative print business into a growth market again, possibly within two years. Aside from rushing higher-resolu tion cameras, speedier printers, fanci er software and all-purpose kiosks into the marketplace, they’re employ ing all their marketing tricks to mold consumer habits and transform elec tronically stored images into prints of all varieties. Their campaigns run from scare mongering about the perils of letting pictures languish on computers that might crash to behavior-reinforcing TV ads by Rochester, N.Y.,-based Ko dak in which new digital patrons shout out, “Where are my pictures?” In the United States, prints ordered from retailers and Web sites or made at home fell from a peak of 30.3 bil lion in 2000 to 27.4 billion in 2004 and could dip to 25.9 billion this year, according to Photo Marketing Associ ation International, a trade group in Jackson, Mich. IN BRIEF Knitting group to give free lessons at first meeting The University Student Fibers Guild will have free knitting lessons at its first meeting of the term Sunday from 2 p.m. to 4 p.m. in EMU 318. The USFG will also restart its com munity service programs in which they knit hats for premature babies for the March of Dimes and an afghan for Womenspace. A spring term schedule of events for the group will be available at the event. This year, the USFG will have a variety of events, including spin ning one’s own yarn and dyeing wool with Kool-Aid. For more information about the group’s volunteer programs, visit www.geocities.com/uo hand weavers/Volunteer_Work. html. — Jared Paben
