Why debt relief will not benefit poor
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The main reason why unconditional debt relief to the world’s over-borrowed nations will not help their poorest citizens, is that those citizens will never experience the benefits of such relief. Most over-borrowed nations are dominated by ruling elites; familial, tribal or military, whose first priority is to feed their offshore bank accounts and provide sustenance and support to the military or police forces that maintain them in power. Indeed, some of the world’s “poorest” over- borrowed countries include Nigeria, Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire), Zimbabwe, Tanzania and Zambia, inherently wealthy countries. A recent hurricane placed Nicaragua and Honduras on the list of troubled borrowers. These nations, and most of the others on the current World Bank list of unsustainably indebted nations, have corruption as a recurrent theme in their political and economic management. In most cases, the total debt owed by the nation’s could be repaid immediately if monies, stolen by rulers and their cronies and nestled into offshore tax havens, were returned to the nations from which they had been exported illegally. The highly visible and “successful” Jubilee 2000 campaign has attracted support from the majority of religious groups, aid charities and some leading religious, sports and entertainment personalities. This well funded effort has essentially attracted well meaning supporters based on intellectually dishonest arguments. Debt, per se, does not starve children in Africa or elsewhere, but corruption does have that effect. In recent months some of the leading well funded charities have begun to realise that the essentially unfunded arguments of our Centre for Accountability and Debt Relief can do more to help the poor in many of these over borrowed and criminally exploited nations. More : news.bbc.co.uk |