Insight Myanmar

Crime and Disbursement


Listen Later

Episode #360: “To have my daughter summarily decide that I was complicit in genocide, I really had to think through again my logic for taking the position that we should stay. It sent me on a lot of soul searching,” confesses Ellen Goldstein, a former World Bank Country Director for Myanmar. This revelation, a central theme to her book “Damned If You Do”, encapsulates the dilemmas she faced during Myanmar's tumultuous democratic transition and the Rohingya crisis.

Goldstein's decades-long career, dedicated to poverty reduction, led her to Myanmar in 2017. Initially, the World Bank’s aid program brought economic reforms and growth. Yet, she quickly recognized that this prosperity masked deeper systemic issues, not reaching ethnic minorities in remote regions facing “exclusion, discrimination and abuse of civil liberties and human rights.” This exposed a fundamental flaw in the traditional development model, which often overlooked the political and systemic dimensions of poverty. 

A critical juncture arrived in 2017 when the military's atrocities against the Rohingya escalated. Despite a pre-approved $200 million grant to the civilian government, Goldstein faced an agonizing moral choice: disburse the funds and risk complicity, or withhold them. She chose the latter. This controversial decision, though ultimately costing her job, became a catalyst for change. And so instead of withdrawing, as some advocated for at the time, the World Bank “stayed engaged but focused on other things, such as social inclusion in conflict areas, specifically for deprived ethnic minorities.”

This strategic pivot influenced a new World Bank approach for fragile states: “to never disengage but to try to engage in ways that could drive forward the right values.” Considering this shift, Goldstein advocates for moving beyond state-centric foreign aid and supporting non-state and resistance actors in Myanmar, showing how dedicated individuals can continue to create new pathways for justice and human well-being amidst tragedy.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

Insight MyanmarBy Insight Myanmar Podcast

  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7
  • 4.7

4.7

51 ratings


More shows like Insight Myanmar

View all
The New Yorker Radio Hour by WNYC Studios and The New Yorker

The New Yorker Radio Hour

6,696 Listeners

The NPR Politics Podcast by NPR

The NPR Politics Podcast

25,883 Listeners

Fareed Zakaria GPS by CNN Podcasts

Fareed Zakaria GPS

3,423 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,047 Listeners

The Wisdom Podcast by The Wisdom Podcast

The Wisdom Podcast

326 Listeners

Insight Hour with Joseph Goldstein by Be Here Now Network

Insight Hour with Joseph Goldstein

944 Listeners

NBC Meet the Press by NBC News

NBC Meet the Press

4,077 Listeners

The Paris Review by The Paris Review

The Paris Review

807 Listeners

Post Reports by The Washington Post

Post Reports

5,435 Listeners

The Ezra Klein Show by New York Times Opinion

The Ezra Klein Show

16,151 Listeners

State of the World from NPR by NPR

State of the World from NPR

412 Listeners

Letters from an American by Heather Cox Richardson

Letters from an American

5,697 Listeners

Ajahn Brahm Podcast by Everyday Dhamma Network

Ajahn Brahm Podcast

58 Listeners

DVB English News by Democratic Voice of Burma

DVB English News

0 Listeners

Myanmar Revolutionary Tales (တော်လှန်ခြင်းများနှင့်ခေတ်သစ်မြန်မာပြည်) by Insight Myanmar

Myanmar Revolutionary Tales (တော်လှန်ခြင်းများနှင့်ခေတ်သစ်မြန်မာပြည်)

4 Listeners

What's Happening in Myanmar by Frontier Myanmar

What's Happening in Myanmar

2 Listeners