Cool heads can make a difference in bank meeting

By Dave Polhemus
Advertiser Editorial Writer

And so it begins tomorrow: the long-awaited annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank. Should we expect a peaceful and productive meeting of opposing viewpoints? Or will we see the tear gas and shattered glass of Seattle, Davos and Quebec?

It doesn't have to be a train wreck, if all parties involved can muster a modicum of respect for one other. And they really should, because they have far more in common than they realize.

Some of the protesters, those hoping to stop the forces of globalization, have hopelessly missed the boat. Globalization has already happened. The challenge is to make it work for everyone, and not just multinational corporations.

Some of the protesters are protectionists, hoping to keep the low-tech jobs that have been migrating to cheaper labor in developing countries as a result of freer trading rules — and an end to protective tariffs — under international groupings such as the World Trade Organization and the North American Free Trade Association.

What these folks have missed is that corporations have taken the money saved from moving factories to less developed countries and invested in more modern industries. Instead of wasting time trying to stop the movement of low-tech jobs, the unions should be retraining their people for the new high-tech jobs.

Because the unions are failing to do this, American companies are forced to import hundreds of thousands of high-tech workers from places like India.

Other demonstrators make a valid point: many ADB projects in the past have done more harm than good, and seemingly were undertaken simply to provide

lucrative business for Japanese and American contractors. There's a list of such projects on Page B4.

But those folks realize that financial aid for Third World countries must come from somewhere, and the world and regional banks such as ADB are a logical source. The cure here isn't to shut ADB down, but to reform its activities in underdeveloped countries.

And this point is readily conceded by ADB officials. If the anti-ADB forces can refrain from shouts and shoving and rely on civil discourse, they will find the ADB folks are all ears.

If cool heads prevail, this kind of interchange of ideas is entirely possible. The city and the American Civil Liberties Union have hammered out an agreement that is stunningly different from the preparations undertaken by authorities in Quebec, where rioting shook a meeting on North American free trade.

The Canadian government got off to a terrible start by building a three-mile chain-link fence to seal off the center of town. The fence became the focus of violent protest.

Compare that to the Honolulu agreement, which allows a protest march Wednesday from Magic Island to Kapi'olani Park, with an hourlong demonstration in front of the convention center.

Call me a hopeless optimist, but what if the delegates shed their coats and ties and emerged to shake hands with the protesters?

Just think: That might make us the Geneva of the Pacific.