Christopher Lord is the editor in chief of Perspectives - the Central European Review of International Affairs, published by the Institute of International Relations in Prague. His recent books include "Politics" (1999) and "Family Values" (2000), a collection of fiction published in the United States.

So all parties got what they wanted. The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) held their meetings exactly according to plan. In fact, it all went so smoothly that the international financial officials were able to finish a day early and do some sightseeing.

The demonstrators held their demonstrations with enough excitement and violence to show they meant business but without their efforts turning too nasty in the end. A few policemen were injured but none too seriously. The little damaged property consisted mostly of just broken windows and graffiti.

Czech President Vaclav Havel scored a statesmanlike performance as a moral tightrope artist. He praised the forces of global capitalism and police repression out of one side of his mouth while calling for world moral regeneration and universal brotherhood out of the other.

World Bank President James Wolfensohn got to sit next to Bono in front of the world's TV cameras and even managed a few seconds of an Elvis impersonation for good measure. Bono got to sit next to James Wolfensohn and preach debt relief -- even if time is running out for his idea (and that of the international Jubilee 2000 movement) that poor country debt has to be forgiven to mark this magical date of 2000 AD.

Satisfaction for the police and the press

Even the police did well, especially in the eyes of the Czech public. Despite having earned a reputation as dangerous fascist thugs during previous, domestic actions against demonstrators, no one could complain of unprovoked attacks or unnecessary violence this time. Even faced with Molotov cocktails and flying cobblestones, they held their ground and, no doubt aware indeed of the assembled cameras waiting for them to go wild, looked disciplined and professional.

Now that the foreign journalists have gone home, nasty stories are beginning to emerge. It seems that what the police did was to wait until the day after the main demonstrations to go on a spree of arrests, basically picking up people who looked as if they might have been involved in violence.

One arrested woman seems to have fallen out of a third floor window during interrogation and broken her spine, and many foreign protestors -- especially black and Jewish people, for some reason -- have stories of beatings and near-torture from the Czech police to tell. The main independent media group, INPEG, also reports police intimidation and random arrests at its successful independent journalism center.

But this is all rather popular with the Czech public, at least if the national press is an accurate measure of the mood. There seems to be some resentment that these foreigners should have been allowed to come and behave in such a disrespectful manner towards authority.

And so it has all been a local political triumph for Stanislav Gross, the Social Democrat minister who had been given the unpopular task of supervising the security operation. Some thought this was a poison chalice slipped to him by ambitious rivals, but he managed to ride out the storm. No one was killed, and if anything, the quiet brutality of the police after the publicity machine had vanished have now made him look like a tough guy, too.

The hundreds of journalists all got what they came for. The people from the financial press got a little excitement about the euro to enliven what otherwise would have been an entirely predictable event. And the people from the mainstream media -- at the beginning of the week reduced to forlorn visits to Strahov stadium, where they found only 30 lonely protestors to interview repeatedly -- took nice pictures of water cannons and teenagers being arrested and everything.

Just what their editors wanted. And the less disciplined forces of the independent media action group, with their Internet cafes and Web sites and links to exciting-sounding European fringe groups, have enough evidence of police action against them, and an alleged one million hits on their Web site, to give them significant kudos in the protest movement, plus valuable experience to take with them the next time.

Capitalism triumphant!

The big winners, though, will have headed out of Prague with something more substantial than a satisfied smile to show for it. Mingling with the politicians and the bank and IMF officials has been a brave little band of the people the protestors actually were protesting about.

They shunned the glory and gave no interviews or photo opportunities or Elvis impersonations. But there they were: the forces of international capitalism. You could spot the monogrammed shirts and Hermes ties and hand-made shoes. The smiles of gentle toleration at all this talk of helping the poor and "making globalization work for everyone," as the conference theme laughably suggested was the purpose of the event.

Yes, this expensive assembly of the world's finance ministers and their staff just would not have been complete without this elite team of ultra-rich financiers, there not to help the poor or the euro or the global moral consciousness or anything like that, but driven by purer motives: personal enrichment. What a dream of a chance for megabuck back-room deals!

So as the barriers come down and the helicopters stop flying above Prague, as the police scrub the blood off the walls where they have been enjoying some quality time with Jewish prisoners, as the Italian anarchists and the Greek communists head back to their pasta and their retsina, let us salute the men who made it all worthwhile -- the ones who, in the end, truly will profit from all the energy and excitement of this marvelous occasion.

We did it all for you.