Vatican Report: More of the same old story

A recent report commissioned by the previous Pope, Francis, has just reported its finding. It has urged the rich world to cancel the debts of the poorest countries, noting that some of them are forced to repay more in debts repayments than on health or education for their own people, some time more than the two together.

This is not the first time that a similar call has been made. In 1996, civil society in the rich world campaigned for exactly this.

The campaign resulted in the cancellation of about $100 billion worth of aid to the poorest countries.

In addition to the official creditors, such as the various International Financial Institutions, there are a large number of private lenders to poor countries.

Under present regulations, the IMF does not prevent the private lenders, many of them literally vulture investors who take the countries that owe the money to court, from being repaid out of the public lending.

What some people, including the leader of the present report, Joe Stiglitz, seem to have failed to do is to ask why there has been no serious challenges to the very system that keeps poor countries in poverty. They are not allowed to process their exports, they have to keep their borders open to imports of countries that members of the World Trade Organisation, and they have to carry paying their debts.

Surely it is time to start attacking the very causes, not the symptoms of that poverty. I have explained such issues in some detail in my book THE GLOBAL FAMINE GAMES; TOXIC AID, WEAPON OF WAR, PERVERSE ECONOMICS.

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