Word: ghali
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...storied surname sits lightly on Youssef Boutros-Ghali's shoulders. "People recognize it, and my family is used to that because we've been in politics and government since the 1800s," says Egypt's urbane Finance Minister. The family name acquired international renown in 1991, when his uncle was elected Secretary-General of the United Nations. Then came ignominy. Denounced as divisive and incompetent by the U.S. and other Western nations, Boutros Boutros-Ghali became the first Secretary-General not to be re-elected for a second term...
...fall, some of those same Western nations helped elect Youssef chairman of the International Monetary Fund's policymaking committee, giving him a powerful voice in determining the IMF's role in the global economic crisis. It's the first time a non-Westerner has held the job, and Boutros-Ghali knows he carries the developing world's expectations. His main task, he says, is to get the IMF to better understand its borrowers. "[I've] experienced the pointy end of IMF policies," he says. "I bring a view different from a G-7 Finance Minister. I am sensitive to different...
...will require diplomatic skills that often eluded his uncle, a dour and sometimes acerbic figure who clashed publicly with the U.S. over the Balkan wars, the genocide in Rwanda and Washington's unpaid U.N. dues. "My uncle tends to more public display, he tends to be more blunt," Boutros-Ghali says. "[At the IMF] different things are at stake. I will pound my fists in a closed room; there's nothing to be gained from doing it in public...
That prudence was one of several qualities that won Boutros-Ghali the IMF job. His track record as Egypt's Finance Minister was another: under him, the notoriously sclerotic Arab nation has grown at an annual rate of 7%. "He's seen as a facilitator, somebody who can generate progress," says Eswar Prasad, professor of trade policy at Cornell University and former head of the IMF's China division. "In Egypt, he's been able to operate under significant institutional and political constraints - that's valuable experience when you're dealing with...
...tact, however, Boutros-Ghali is not averse to holding up a mirror to the rich nations every once in a while. On the eve of last month's G-20 summit in London, he warned that giant stimulus plans like those announced by the U.S. and the U.K. could lead to a humanitarian catastrophe in the developing world, because borrowing by rich countries would divert funds from the poor. "People are going to die, babies are not going to get the proper nourishment," Boutros-Ghali said. "Poverty is at the doorstep, something needs to be done." (See pictures of poverty...