Yesterday it was Norm Abram that would have been impressed, today was the day that Alex P Keaton would be extremely envious.
Yet *another* early start as we had to navigate DC during peakhour traffic. Our day would consist of a visit to the World Bank, a lunch break and then a visit to the International Monetary Fund.
The World Bank was just so interesting – we had David Tyse (sp?) who is a senior in their Integrity branch speak to us. His background is in Public Relations and you could tell. He was such a great speaker and had all of our attention for the whole time. He gave us a complete overview of World Bank projects, how they do what they do and especially his branch which investigates cases where loans are being fraudulently used or are being utilised as part of corruption. I found all of their work so interesting and the whole idea of a basically a group of privileged nations putting money into a fund for the use of others and getting an explanation into the whole process and how these loans are used was really interesting. For example, if there is to be a road project to be started, it isn’t as if the World Bank loans the country $5 million in one loan. It is a gradual process where they pay at each stage. Little things like that, that I personally had no idea about. In the second half we actually had an ex-RMIT grad speak to us about opportunities with the World Bank. He started as a social worker, got a job with DFAT and ended up at the World Bank. The programs available for interns and new graduates is amazing – and not just within DC, but all over the world. They are very competitive but it seems to be one place that would just be so rewarding to work for. And it was nice when he pointed out he still wears RM WIlliams to work!
The International Monetary Fund was a bit out of my interest level but I did pick up some interestesting information. For example, who would’ve thought that even the IMF get restructured? Basically, as pointed out, they can’t tell others how to tow the line if they aren’t doing it themselves and because they have had less funding recently, they are cutting 20% of their jobs over the next year! They have to lead the example and sometimes this has to happen and they are doing just that. The IMF building reminded me of many of the buildings in DC – very corporate but the best aspect I thought was their bookshop which had some great (free!) publications and their display of international currency.
I got rudely interrupted by my phone vibrating during the IMF presentation. It was Connex informing me that the 7.53 was cancelled. Ha! Do I miss that? Not at all!