Well, this isn’t the end of Africa’s suffering, but it is a start.
“British Finance Minister Gordon Brown said the deal would provide 100 percent write-offs immediately for 18 countries and that more countries would qualify for relief later.” The debt deal is very good news for people in the 18 countries that will immediately benefit,” Romilly Greenhill of ActionAid said. “But it will do little to immediately help millions in at least 40 other countries that also need 100 percent debt relief.” Among those in line for rapid relief are countries such as Rwanda, Ethiopia, Mauritania and Zambia as well as, beyond Africa, Honduras and Bolivia.”
OK, the thread is open if anyone wants to express an opinion.
Not the best week for Ethiopia to appear on a list of debt relief beneficiaries given the shootings in Addis. Also, the media coverage of the whole debt-aid process in the last few weeks has been atrocious — careless tossing around of seemingly large numbers without years or purposes attached. One has to go to the blogs for more careful analysis of the issues.
My quick sense is that the aid portion of Blair’s plan is much more important, because for most countries (except maybe Zambia) the amount of debt being forgiven is small relative to the needs of the countries. There remains some very expensive debt burden cases that presumably are not covered by this agreement — Liberia, Sudan, Nigeria.
But cheers to Brown & Blair anyway, being as opportunistic as they can.
100% of some of their debts may be about to be written off, but if you think that anything like 100% of the benefit is headed towards the poor and oppressed in those 18 countries then you have a lot to learn about how those countries work. Think more like 10%, if the poor majority are lucky.
In fact, since the rest of the proceeds will go immediately towards empowering their oppressors, large and small, they may well end up substantially worse off.
Such is the fate of pious good intentions in what remains the ‘dark continent’.
There certainly are other ways to spend that money with almost 100% of benefit for the people
Its always interesting how easy it is to forgive someone else’s debt and let some other countries taxpayers foot the bill. Like the EU Constitution debt relief will probably never get voted on by the people that actually have to pay for it.
“In fact, since the rest of the proceeds will go immediately towards empowering their oppressors, large and small, they may well end up substantially worse off.”
I don’t really disagree with this. Obviously the ‘proceeds’ do go to those with power and influence in the form of the interest payments and capital repayments saved, money which can now be used for other purposes.
Many people are not happy with institutions like the IMF and the World Bank, but in the end ‘tying’ relief to something someone else has to do can be a better way to use money. OTOH, the impact of aids is so enormous, we really have to do things, more things than this initial gesture.
“by the people that actually have to pay for it.”
BTW: pardoning debt that is never going to be paid isn’t a straight gift. This is partly a banking decision. The real cost is a lot less than the ‘advertised’ one. (Plus of course, you expect to do some business with the ‘potential new customers’). Not everything here is altruistic, not by a long way. You may be right about the ‘voters’. Shame on them!
Let’s get a sharper focus on this. From my reading, the G8 deal is reported to be worth up to ?2bn a year to the eligible countries in terms of debt service payments they will no longer have to meet because of the debt write-off. According to news clips of plugs from Bob Geldof, the combined population of those countries is 280 millions, which makes the aid worth up to ?7 per person a year, always assuming the budgetary savings in debt service payments of the eligible poor countries don’t get diverted into corrupt payments.
According to Patricia Hewitt, until the election, Britain’s minister for trade and industry:
“[The EU Common Agricultural Policy] currently pays out $2 a day for every cow in Europe. Yet more than a billion people around the world live on half that amount.”
http://www.dti.gov.uk/ministers/speeches/hewitt050903.html
“A rise in the value of British arms exports last year has prompted anger from leading charities. New government figures show ?992.4m worth of military equipment was sold, with Saudi Arabia the biggest buyer. Oxfam raised concerns the number of small arms exports had doubled. . . ”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/3784965.stm
But then as Tony Blair said: ” . . you could cut the British arms industry, but someone else would supply them.”
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/media/story/0,12123,762931,00.html
In today’s news:
“British arms sales to Africa have risen to record levels over the last four years and have reached the ?1 billion mark . . Analysis of official figures shows annual weapons sales almost quadrupled between 1999 and 2004. . . ”
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/foreignaffairs/story/0,11538,1504866,00.html
A rise in the value of British arms exports last year has prompted anger from leading charities.
The savages can’t have real defense needs, or what? Either these are independent countries or they are not.
Bankers are celebrating all over Switzerland!
Oliver – We have to admire the sales technique and the spin. It’s a superlative example of bait and switch. And the G8 finance ministers fell for it – but then aid amounting to ?7 a head a year hardly compares with EU cows getting their regular $2 a day in subsidy. Perhaps the unions and their members in Britain will finally tip their caps to Tony for all those high-paying jobs in Britain’s flourishing arms industry.
“As Europe’s biggest arms fair opens in London [September 2003], BBC News Online takes a look at the importance of the UK defence industry. With annual sales of about ?17bn, the industry likes to see itself as a key plank of the UK economy. The industry’s biggest customer is the British government, which last year placed orders worth about ?13bn. But the UK is also the world’s second biggest arms exporter, behind the United States, with a market share of about 20%.”
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3084718.stm
Oh the joys of New Labour’s ethical foreign policy.
Here’s a list of the countries:
Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia.
As taxpayer, i hate to see tax wasted like that.
As taxpayer, i hate to see tax wasted like that.
It isn’t wasted. They couldn’t have paid anyway.
There are many complaints that at ?1 trillion, consumer debt in Britain is too high so why doesn’t the government just write off some of it?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/3935671.stm
As they say, charity starts at home. I should be very content to have my mortgage and credit card debts wiped off – but then most folks would be too, especially if every EU cow gets $2 a day in subsidy.
Visit http://satire.myblogsite.com/blog for more satire
(June 12, 2005) Irish Bono, the leader of U.2., and his English counterpart, Tony Blair, the leader of U.K., plan to co-host July G-8 summit at Bono’s humble palace in Scotland. Bono, a rocker turned politician, has a plan to solve the poverty and the AIDS epidemic in Africa.
“We should eliminate all trade barriers with Africa. In 17th and 18th centuries, Africa exported jazz music to the U.S.A, which at the time was a musical dump. The free flow of music modernized America, and now it is leading the world in pop culture and music. Its time to export rock music and rap crap to Africa. While in Tibet, I studied the healing aspects of classical music on HIV/AIDS patients. However, in this post-modern age, exporting the decadent and decayed music of the dead white Christian European males will not be sensitive to the black Africa, with its large animistic and Muslim population,” explained Bono, who holds a Ph.D. in economics and Masters in the history of music.
“Moreover, my colleague Dr. Dean will address the side effects of such quack medicine in the upcoming meeting of the Democratic National Committee,” continued Bono. Dr. Howard Dean, the chairman of the D.N.C., is well known for his recent diagnosis of the Republican Party as a white Christian party.
In addition, my good friend Sean “P. Diddy” Combs, a respected musician, talented lyricist, generous philantropist and a non-partisan Democratic party operative, volunteered to turn ‘Rock the Vote”‘ organization into the ‘Africa Corp’ of 21st century,” said Bono.
“After ‘Rock the Vote’ and the gay rights movement successfully got Bush’s ass during the 2004 election, its time to go home – Africa,” stated P. Diddy, who is a black Muslim. “However, to be successful, we must adopt our methods of intercouse with the local population with its narrow minded traditions of strictly heterosexuality.