HONOLULU, May 6 -- The annual meeting of the Asian Development Bank begins Monday and will delve into topics relating to cracking the cycle of poverty in the region, however the week-long event is also expected to attract hundreds of uninvited guests protesting the concept of globalization.
Honolulu police were standing by Sunday to prevent the kind of trouble that has become a regular occurrence at meetings of other major international financial organizations such as the International Monetary Fund and the World Trade Organization.
"A lot of businesses are worried that there's going to be a riot because of what happened in Seattle," Patrick Canonigo, senior vice president of Freeman Guards, a private security company, told the Honolulu Advertiser. "It's been an alarming thing."
While the number of protesters who will be on hand is hard to judge due to the cost of getting from the mainland to Hawaii, local authorities have decided not to take any chances. Honolulu police are on full alert as are hospitals and courthouses where mass arraignments would take place in the event of a large number of arrests.
Cononigo told the Advertiser that many businesses in the Waikiki tourist district were not taking chance either because of insurance concerns.
"Nobody wants to be sued for negligence," he said. "In this world today, you've got to be careful."
The largest scheduled protest was scheduled for Wednesday when around 2,000 people are expected to march in a parade organized by a group called ADBWatch.
Based at the University of Hawaii-Manoa, ADBWatch calls itself a coalition of students, union members, human rights advocates and champions of the rights of native Hawaiian people. Their Web site accused the ADB of being a "sister of the World Bank that funds projects which create poverty and undermine local control and cultural rights throughout Asia and the Pacific."
"Show the world that there is no aloha for the ADB," the group said, citing the familiar Hawaiian word for welcome.
About 3,000-3,500 people were expected to attend the annual meeting, including 600 delegates from 60 nations.
The agenda included topics related to improving living standards in Asian nations, such as encouraging private investment in infrastructure, strengthening financial institutions, promoting tourism, and developing fresh water resources. There are also sessions on social issues such as child labor, HIV and AIDS, and international money laundering.
While the topics of discussion appear altruistic, the image of the ADB and similar organizations has been undergoing some changes in recent years, according to Barbara Upton, project director of The United State and the Multilateral Development Bank Project at the Center for Strategic and International Studies in Washington.
Upton spoke last week at the East-West Center, a Hawaii think tank specializing in Asian affairs. She said key questions revolved around whether such organizations should accelerate or cut back on loans to the private sector for major projects.
Still, international lending organizations remain the most cost-effective means of aiding development in the world, Upton said.
"How they evolve is important," she said.
