Monday, Dr. Jim Yong Kim was formally elected to be the next president of the World Bank. He will take office in June.
Now in recent years, the World Bank has become a wee bit politicized. And that was even before Paul Wolfowitz became president 10 years ago. But the mission, the real mission of the World Bank is to reduce poverty and help the people in the less developed world develop. Dr. Kim is the first president of the World Bank who has worked towards ending illness and its impact on world poverty. And as our own debates here in the US have shown us, an enormous factor in perpetuating poverty is “mortality and morbidity” — sickness and the toll it takes on society.
Jim Kim is a doctor and anthropologist who has spent his life helping fight poverty and disease. He co-founded Harvard’s Partners in Health to help get healthcare to folks in developing countries. He was the head of the World Health Organization’s HIV/AIDS Program, President of Dartmouth University and now President of the World Bank.
Not to mention, a seriously cool rapper:
FiftyFourandAHalf 
It’s pretty funny. Just look up Jim Yong Kim — there were a couple of versions of it.
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I could not get this to play on youtube. I have to see this.
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And somewhere, 73 neo-con heads exploded….
Nice to see a guy with a sense of humor in a position of poser.
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Power. A position of power.
Sigh…
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I saw the first version while at work and I though, hmm, (1) that doesn’t sound like Guap; (2) Jim Kim isn’t a poser; and (3) why don’t they give us a “wait, wait” button so that when we see that we’ve just said something that we didn’t necessarily mean to say everybody doesn’t have to see it.
Jim Kim really has done good things — I’m excited. Plus I love the video! So much better than John Ashcroft singing “Let the Eagle Soar.”
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I am honestly touched that you didn’t think that was what I meant!
And as far as the typos, there’s absolutely no reason I shouldn’t hang from the yard arm for those. Maybe it’ll get me to type more carefully.
(no, probably not.)
(but a guy can hope!)
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I have made a practice of assuming the best in everyone I know and like. I balance it by assuming the worst in folks I have already decided are assholes. It saves SO much time.
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To avoid staying off the asshole list, I’m going to just borrow that philosophy instead of just outright stealing it!
And thanks for the laugh!
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Smart thinking!
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I’m pretty sure Mitt doesn’t taste like casserole, though. He’s got that goin’ for him.
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Is this made up? This sounds made up. Remember, I consider you a news source.
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It is NOT made up. Jim Kim is not only a doctor, not only spent decades helping poor with diseases nobody cared about at the time (he — and several friends of mine — was interested in TB before TB was cool). He is a seriously cool robot. And I think that there is a movie in that. Or at least a Disney show…
Seriously, this is cool news, and insightful on President Obama’s part.
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Fascinating! Wow. Thank you, Walter Cronkite. I couldn’t navigate this crazy world without you and your blog.
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Don’t mention it Angie. I’ll let you know which boxes to fill in come November, too!
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Phew. That’ll make things so much easier.
(Pssst. Mitt, right?)
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OH, and I’m more of a Harry Reasoner sort. The pressure you put on me to be Cronkite is too great.
And, ummm, you can wear gloves, but as an animal lover, I think you’re going to want to vote for Obama. Did you hear about Romney’s staffer who once ROASTED A DOG on a spit. Makes Seamus’s journey to Canada sound like a picnic. Ooh, bad word choice there.
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Dogs enjoy riding on cars so much that they projectile poop themselves.
I will vote for Obama for many reasons, one of the most intelligent being that I had an awesome pregnancy-induced dream back in 2009 that I was making out with him in the Oval Office. Mitt? Not so much. He probably tastes like vinyl siding.
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Let’s hope he can change the bureaucracy …..seems like a good person to head the World bank.
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Bureaucracies are tough, but he has managed to work in and around them. I knew him slightly when I worked at the World Health Organization. My sense was that he can get things done. And Partners in Health is a model program.
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Wonderful entry! I did a project for World Bank years ago. Interesting client, interesting project.
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Jim Kim is a seriously cool guy. I knew him very slightly when I worked in Geneva. Nice, pleasant, brilliant. Good combination!
I’d love to know what you do for a living!
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I am an IT / OCM (Organizational Change Management) Project Manager mostly working with a project called SAP. I design and manage large IT transformation projects, Business Process Transformation projects; I also design Project Management Offices and the methodology that supports them. I train project managers and do audits on failing projects. I have a reputation for project turn around (which means I have a reputation for being tough). That is what I do.
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What a cool job. You clearly are tough, at least based on your no nonsense writing —
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Hi,
Fantastic video, I love how it started off with “the time of my life”, and then started into rap, and you just had to love the t-shirt he was wearing shinning through when the lights went out. Very well done. 😀
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Glad you liked it Mags. Any video approval coming from you, the queen of video, is high praise indeed!
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I miss Paul Wolfowitz and the way he would nosh on his comb before running it through his luxurious locks.
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I miss Paulie, too. We haven’t had a new war in ages.
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