So called "debt Relief"

Patrick Bond pbond at wn.apc.org
Wed Apr 11 08:36:27 PDT 2001



> Date: Wed, 11 Apr 2001 06:25:24 +0100
> From: Chris Burford <cburford at gn.apc.org>
> This item (below) illustrates concisely that a system of redistributing
> money as if it were charity will always fail...

This part of your argument is ok, Chris. Chuck out the rest of it, ok? No foreign loans for basic-needs development (esp. water/sanitation infrastructure), since such a tiny proportion requires imports.

And for corroboration that it's good to cancel all debt AND cancel North-South aid, see Opa Kapijimpanga's article in *Reality of Aid 2001* (Opa is leader of African Debt and Development Network based in Harare.)


> There should be campaigning to move debt repayments to a global development
> fund to which debtor countries can apply for their infrastructure.

No comrade, repudiate (not "move") debt repayments, that's the programme.


> Fantastic? Just look at this report. The leaders of the world economy
> simply do not know what to do in the case of Niger and Mali. The danger is
> they will just dismiss them as basket cases, or sadly deserving poor, and
> concentrate on what they think are bigger questions. Once more the problem
> will have been successfully projected onto the scapegoats.

Solidarity means siding with the scapegoats, right? Check Jubilee South at http://aidc.org.za and do solidarity, not strange new international institutions, ok?!



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