[stop-imf] Seattle PI: Global Debt: Poverty's guarantee

[robert weissman]

*SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER
* http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/opinion/221266_debted.asp

*Global Debt: Poverty's guarantee*

/Sunday, April 24, 2005

/*SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER EDITORIAL BOARD

*Americans sometimes worry about the effects of a globalized economy on
themselves and their children. As legitimate as those uncertainties can
be, the fears are much stronger in the poorer nations of the world.

In Africa, Latin America and Asia, the harm is overwhelming -- and the
results are poverty for millions of people.

Repaying these mountains of debt has crushed development efforts,
stripping many countries of budget resources for health care, job
creation and even education. International financial institutions
frequently have imposed loan conditions that force poverty-stricken
populations to pay more for electricity, water and other necessities.

In Seattle, a group of international experts and activists is here to
talk about the need for large-scale relief. They came here at the
invitation of Jubilee Northwest Coalition, which includes churches,
labor organizations and others.

The concerns around debt have also begun to make an impression among
policy-makers in richer countries. Last weekend, World Bank and
International Monetary Fund representatives talked about eliminating or
reducing some of the debt burden.

The meeting ended unsatisfactorily, without any agreement among the
wealthiest nations. The Bush administration's treasury secretary, John
Snow, and Britain's Gordon Brown, chancellor of the exchequer for Prime
Minister Tony Blair, seem to have talked past each other. U.S. and
British officials tried to portray the conference as having enlarged
support for their own competing versions of debt relief. The conflict
throws into some doubt the hope that an upcoming meeting of the G-7
nations will lead to an agreement on helping African and other
poverty-stricken countries, as Blair desperately wants.

There are advantages to both Bush and Blair proposals. Our plan offers a
complete write-off of debt for some countries, but without a guarantee
of continuing aid. The British proposals do better on sustaining
assistance but come up shorter on the extent of debt relief.

Neil Watkins, a Jubilee USA official, says there is no excuse for
delaying on relief. Indeed, it is hard to see how anyone can consider
many of the debts as legitimate.

Magda Lanuza of Nicaragua, one of those making the Jubilee visit here,
says her country's cycle of debt extends back to the dictatorship of
Anastasio Somosa. His regime, which she rightly calls one of the worst
ever in the Americas, specialized in siphoning development money and
evading efforts to assure that the money was used as agreed. In one
case, trees were planted along a highway to conceal devastating clear-cuts.

Ana Maria Nemenzo of the Philippines talks of similar abuses under the
U.S.-supported Marcos dictatorship. Zimbabwe's Jonah Gokova says that
civic activists in his country want to find out where loans have gone
under the increasingly arbitrary and brutal regime of Robert Mugabe.

The biggest obstacle to a stronger commitment to future U.S. aid and
erasing the debts of more countries is the Bush administration's own
obsession with making its irresponsible tax cuts permanent. But the
administration has made real progress in the way this country treats the
poorest countries, especially in Africa.

With the administration's inclination to help, a push by Congress to
support the proposed Jubilee debt relief act would be valuable.
Activists will meet with several local congressional offices tomorrow to
seek support.

Debt relief won't solve poverty by itself. A freer, fairer international
trading system would also offer hope to hard-pressed farmers, workers
and families in poor lands. That's why U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan
is pushing for a new international trade treaty next year.

First, though, wealthy lenders should stop burdening struggling nations
with the costs of debts that impoverish the world's ability to bring
about better conditions for everyone. The Bush administration and other
governments owe that much to salve the world's conscience.

*/=A9 1998-2005 Seattle Post-Intelligencer