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Jubilee Relay article #2: Time to abandon the watchtowers

Say, "Dominican Republic": think, paradise… golden sands… spectacular waves… maybe some scuba diving… definitely some Pina Colada … machine gun towers flanking the beach… No? Well, yes actually. Because valuable foreign visitors expect to be protected from intrusions from the less idyllic poorer world next door.

The Jubilee Baton arrives here from Jamaica on 22 March. Jamaica is not considered poor enough to be a Heavily Indebted Poor Country (HIPC) so her massive debts are regarded as payable. Every year a staggering 66% of Government revenue goes to service them. Street riots have ensued in the recent past as fuel taxes were raised in an effort to meet the bill. At what point, Jamaicans must wonder, does the merely "impossible" become "unpayable"?

The problem is that a country's ability to service its debt is calculated only on its ability to produce revenue. The fact that health services, education, water and roads also need to be financed from the same source is hardly taken into account. A conveniently effective oversight which protects the interests of rich creditors. Another instance of watchtower mentality?

The baton's tour of the Caribbean this week coincides with the UN's ground breaking Financing For Development Conference in Monterrey, Mexico, which many debt campaigners had be awaiting with cautious excitement and hope. Seen as the start of an ongoing process rather than a "one off " meeting, the conference has been asked to look for ways to make International Development Targets achievable. These targets aim, amongst other things, to halve absolute poverty by 2015.

Poor countries have wanted debt difficulties high on the agenda alongside related items such as how to finance development (water, health and education), and how to achieve fair global trading practices. All inextricably linked, and all matters which are usually left to the rich and powerful countries to deliberate. On the eve of the Summit, however, there is growing concern that action plans arising from the conference will be vague and worthless to avoid upsetting President George W Bush who plans to attend.

We can only hope that another opportunity to save the world's poor is not wasted.

Next week we follow the baton into Africa. As it reaches Ghana, we'll stop to watch some women fetching water.

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Hester Ross is a writer who lived and worked in Malawi from 1988-1998.

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