DJ Kim and Lawrence Summers

DJ Kim has anecdotally revealed the episode to the reporters in which he had encountered with US envoy, the then-deputy-treasury secretary, Mr. Lawrence Summers after he was elected President in late 1997.

Mr. Summers asked Kim with a stern face whether Kim is committed to pursue the capitalistic market economy and to agree to lay off thousands of workers for the restructuring of economy, and Mr. Summers has loosened up with a smile when Kim assured that Korean government would follow whatever his master would dictate in the execution of economic policy.

When Mr. Summers returned home, Kim said, Americans has rallied the support of international lending organizations, including IMF, World Bank and ADB, to bail out credits to South Korea.

It is bizarre why Kim has mentioned about this humiliating episode at this time (I gather that he has become nonsensical in the definition of the sovereign issues), I would like to introduce Mr. Lawrence Summer whose reputation is any thing but admirable to the developing countries.

In a 1991 internal memorandum, then-World Bank economist and current US Treasury Secretary, Lawrence Summers argued for the transfer of waste and dirty industries form industrialized to developing countries. “Just between you and me, shouldn’t the World Bank be encouraging more migration of the dirty industries to the LCDs (lesser developed countries)? Summers wrote.

“I think economic logic dumping a load of toxic waste in the lowest wage country is impeccable and we should face up to that…I’ve always thought that underpopulated countries in Africa are vastly under polluted; their air quality is vastly inefficiently low (sic) compared to Los Angeles or Mexico City.”

In another word, Mr. Summers wants to share his toxic shits from his backyard that are produced to maintain his posh life style with his neighbors who are barely surviving with sweat and hunger, while he adamantly refuses to share his food and luxury with them.

Though he said later the memo was meant to be ironic, Mr. Summers would have a gall to ask, as a master, his toady factotum, DJ Kim, to surrender anything that would help to advance Mr. Summers’ happiness.