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Why
debt matters
The
world's 52 poorest countries owe $300 billion in unpayable debt. Much of
this is due to reckless lensding and the corruption and waste of previous
regimes. Governments and rich elites ran up these debts but it is their
peoples, a billion of whom survive on less than $1 a day, who are paying
the price. The United Nations estimate that 19,000 children die every day
because of money spent on debt payment is not spent on meeting basic needs
- like water, healthcare and education. It
is immoral to continue taking payments
Poor countries
receiving debt relief spend more on debt than on healthcare, even as HIV/Aids
wipes out a generation in Africa and beyond
Debt means
the poor subsidise the rich - Nigerians will pay back £5 for every
£1 borrowed
Much of
the debt is the result of corrupt and unethical lending - to dictators,
Apartheid regimes, and to wasteful projects that benefited Western firms
but not the poor
A consequence
of the debt crisis is that poor countries are experiencing a modern form
of slavery, in which they are forced to satisfy the desires of the richest
states regardless of the consequences for their people.
They
can never be paid anyway
Unlike individuals,
there is no international law of bankruptcy to draw a line under poor
countries' debts.
Interest
rates and currency devaluation mean that debts are growing faster than
poor countries' ability to pay.
Unfair conditions
in the global economy, such as trade barriers and collapsing prices for
poor country exports, have meant that even as countries work harder to
pay their debts they are able to earn much less. The International Monetary
Fund and World Bank, bodies which police the international finance system,
have forced debtor nations to accept advice which makes these problem
worse.
These
debts are bad for us
Countries
facing destitution today cannot give priority to safeguarding the environment.
Deforestation adds to global warming, and heavily indebted countries are
chopping down their forests the fastest.
Countries with heavy
debts have little money to buy goods produced in Western countries.
Debt
drives down wages and removes safeguards for workers in poor countries.
Jobs in rich countries are lost as a result.
Debt
can make it impossible for people in poor countries to survive by legal
means, making production of illegal narcotics for export to the West a necessity.
Commercial banks
have suffered little from the debt crisis. This is partly because Western
taxpayers have helped to bail them out.
Debt
creates poverty which in turn creates resentment against the rich. Post
September 11th 2001, cancelling debts and ending poverty are vital to
our security.
We
can afford to cancel them
If the G8 countries (the elite of the richest states) were to fund the
write off of the World Bank and IMF's debts from HIPC countries, it
would effectively cost each of their citizens one dollar per year.
The
story so far...
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