By Matthew Russell Lee
UNITED NATIONS, March 8 -- Two reported World Bank presidency candidates were at the UN Thursday morning. One, Susan Rice, denied candidacy. The other, Jeffrey Sachs, declined to comment beyond saying he has been nominated by a number of countries. Then he refused to answer questions about Senegal and Malawi.
As US Ambassador to the UN Susan Rice walked into the Security Council for a debate on Haiti, Inner City Press asked her, "World Bank bound?"
Rice slowed, smiled and replied, "C'mon, I've got a great job." She is also said to be a candidate to replace Hillary Clinton as Secretary of State, if Barack Obama wins a second term.
An hour later, Jeffrey Sachs held a press conference with UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. While Ban typically did not take any questions, Sachs stayed and waxed poetic about growth rates in Africa.
Inner City Press asked Sachs a question it put to the International Monetary Fund at that morning's briefing: why was Senegal's growth last year two percent, half of what the IMF predicted? And, Inner City Press continued, should Sachs be considered an "insider" or "inside the UN system" candidate?
Sachs replied, "I won't use this occasion to comment, except that I have been nominated by a number of governments to be World Bank President. [which] well led could make this progress faster."
He said, "I don't know about the Senegal situation." This was on the Security Council's agenda this week; Inner City Press then asked about Malawi, where Sachs has a Villages program. He replied, "I can't talk about individual countries, I'm not prepared for that." So would he be prepared for the World Bank? Watch this site.
