Africa Shouldn't Pay Its Debt, Says Annan's Adviser

[ChavezSpeakstheTruth]

http://allafrica.com/stories/200407070280.html

Snip
A SPECIAL adviser to the United Nations Secretary-General Kofi Annan has said African countries should refuse to repay their foreign debts. Mr Annan's economic adviser Jeffrey Sachs first called on developed countries to cancel Africa's debts. But failing that, he said Africa should ignore its $201 billion (£109 billion) debt burden.

Economic analysis, he said, had shown that it was impossible for Africa to achieve its development goal of halving poverty if it had to repay the loans. "The time has come to end this charade," he said at the annual summit of the heads of state of the African Union in Addis Ababa, Ethiopia. "The debts are unaffordable. If they won't cancel the debts, I would suggest obstruction; you do it yourselves."

"Africa should stay: 'thank you very much but we need this money to meet the needs of children who are dying right now so we will put the debt servicing payments into urgent social investment in health, education, drinking water, control of AIDS and other needs,'" he told the BBC's World Business Report.

Mr Sachs insisted that such a response was serious and responsible, providing that the money was used transparently and channelled only into urgent social needs. And he denied that it would bar African countries from accessing money from the capital markets in the future. "They won't be able to access those markets anyway until the debt is forgiven," he explained, adding that there is no reason why they shouldn't be able to borrow again provided the forgiveness was negotiated in a cooperative manner.

snip

[AP]

1. Can you imagine the shit neoliberals would pull if it looked like Banks...

...would loose those easy profits?

I hope this happens, but I hope Africa gets their ducks in a row before they do it.

There would be so many attempted coups and assassinations and so much crap to try to keep government in power who will protect the interests fo the banks. And who's more powerful than Wall St? Yikes.

[JayS]

2. Annan is not being very smart here. Advising someone, be it...

...a country or an individual, to not pay the debts they have agreed to is not the best idea.

[htuttle]

4. Who says they agreed to the debts?

Something that is seldom understood about the developing world's debts is that the parties that take out the loans are never the ones who have to repay them.

Here's how it has worked for the last 50 years:
1) Install a puppet regime in the developing nation.
2) The puppet dictator takes out loans to build 'infrastructure'. This infrastructure is almost always roads, dams, powerplants and harbors that are intended to be used by Western corporations that wish to exploit the nation in question.
3) Puppet dictator is finally deposed, new regime gets stuck with the massive debts the dictator incurred on behalf of Western corporations.

People seem to think Iraq shouldn't have to pay back debts incurred by Saddam Hussein. If that is the case, then why should Angola have to pay back debts incurred by the former governnment? Why should Argentina have to pay back Peron's debts?

[JayS]

7. I am sure that the notion of changing regimes is fairly common...

...knowledge but the debts are seen as the debts of the country, not the government. Some are written off as uncollectable all too soon though...and the debts are all too often poorly collateralized, serviced, and documented to begin with.

Iraq should not be given a pass on their debt as they do have some assets, notably oil, with which to repay the money at some point in the future.

[DulceDecorum]

9. How the hell did Africa acquire those "debts" in the first place?

At the end of the 18th century colonialism seemed to have become a thing of the past. Britain had lost its Thirteen Colonies in America, Spain and Portugal had lost most of South America and Holland was having difficulties holding onto the East Indies.
A hundred years later, however, a second wave of colonisation took place. Within twenty years, from 1880 to 1900, every corner of the Earth, from the highest mountains in the Himalayas to the most remote Pacific island and Antarctica, came to be claimed by one or other European power. Africa saw the most dramatic colonisation. It was divided up as if it had been a cake split between greedy European leaders. This was called the "Scramble for Africa".
http://www.saburchill.com/history/chapters/empires/0048.html

When the bastards got kicked back out of Africa, they insisted on being paid for the land they had "lost." Rather like the snivelling white farmers in Zimbabwe are doing as we speak.

The West is very good at playing the role of the global thug.
When they refer to themselves as the "free world" why do you think that is? And just WHo do you think that it is that is hell-bent on keeping the rest of of population of this planet in chains, bondange and "debt?"
Read this account of the Opium Wars from the American perspective.

At the end of the nineteenth century the anti-foreign feeling in China was strong. This attitude stemmed from many causes. The dividing of China’s best ports and cities into "spheres of Influence" controlled by Great Britain, France, Russia, Germany, and Japan were an element to the rebellion. Secretary of State, John Hays Open Door policy that took all the economic privileges from China and shared them among the great powers also caused the hatred of any foreign power. The multiplying efforts of the missionaries in China, who were open in their disgust for the Chinese customs, caused much anger and violence. China was being suffocated by stronger imperialistic nations. Thus as 1900 dawned China was swept by a terrorist movement known as the Boxer Rebellion.
<snip>
The revolt would not last. An international relief force of some nine thousand men, under the direction of the United States and all the major European powers fought its way inland from the coast. On August 14, 1900, after Tz’u-his fled the capital the siege was lifted. The world cheered as civilization was restored, but it was hardly an enlightened ending. The foreign troops began widespread looting of Peking and the surrounding territories in pursuit of the Boxers. Many more Chinese civilians died due to the fire of both sides. While the number of European and American loses were not small the number of Chinese Christian converts was more than 30,000.

The official punishment of China came in 1901; it was forced into virtual disarmament and fined 333 million in reparations, which over the next forty years would double with interest. The cost of the Boxer rebellion was more than just money, it was thousands of innocent lives.
http://www.farmington.k12.mn.us/intrview/ldboxreb.htm

Aha!!! So that is how China aquired its foreign debt!!!
As punishment for attempting to protect their citizens from the worlds biggest drug cartel.
Darn Chinese better pay that money back, huh?
So what if that means the virtual enslavement
of over one fifth of the WORLDS ENTIRE POPULATION!!!
JayS has spoken and so it must be.

The United States was able to play a significant role in suppressing the Boxer Rebellion because of the large number of American ships and troops deployed in the Philippines as a result of the US conquest of the islands during the Spanish American War (1898) and subsequent Philippine insurgent activity. In the minds of many American leaders, the Boxer Rebellion reinforced the need to retain control of the Philippines and to maintain a strong presence in the Far East.
http://www.history.navy.mil/faqs/faq86-1.htm

The Phillipines will remain unuder US control till Kingdom come. And why should they not PAY for that honor?
They have an everlasting DEBT to the US military.
Do you see ANY mention WHATSOEVER of opium?
Well here is what really happened.

Tea, grown in China, had become a very popular drink in Great Britain. China would have rather not traded with the British at all, but they were willing to sell the British tea only if they used the port in Canton. They were willing not allow western ideas in their society.
The British decided they needed to "balance their trade." That means that they must buy and sell to China, not just buy. They decided to sell Opium.
Opium is a drug grown in India. Opium is used to make morphine and heroin. The Chinese government outlawed the import of Opium because of the debilitating effects of the drug and because of the silver leaving China to pay for it.
In 1838, China ruled that anyone dealing in Opium would be put to death. Shortly after that, government officials began to destroy any opium coming into their land.
http://www.mrdowling.com/613-opiumwars.html

HOW DARE THEY!!
They are going to have to pay for that!!!
Sam Walton and all those hoity toity designers are going to set up sweatshops there and those stupid fools better work until they die at their workstations.
And that Afghanistan better increase their opium production
now that the US and UK military got rid of the Taliban
who were screwing up the works by halting poppy growing in that country.
Got it down to ZERO, the damn fools.
Those Afghans will be paying reparations for that crime for the next two hundred years. And they will be bombed every September 11, just to remind them who is boss.

[zemman]

12. Sniveling White Farmers?

Most of the white farmers dispossessed by Mugabi are foreigners who were invited in by Mugabi. (see The Atlantic Monthly)

Zimbabwe desired skilled talent, much as Zambia does not for farmers, or the US does with its H1B program.

There are white farmers in Zimbabwe who are the descendents of colonists. But they are a minority.

[cprise]

3. A drop in the bucket to us

They should just do it. Retreating from globalization somewhat will only do Africa good at this point.

[struggle4progress]

5. US pushed to forgive Iraq debts. Why not Africa's?

The total cost is less than Bush's little war adventure ...

[Redhead488]

6. Agree

The West should forgive all of Africa's debts. And then let the African people run their own countries starting from a clean slate.

[Sindawe]

8. African Debt.

Sounds fine to me of the African nations want to default on their loans and the like. Maybe it would help them out of the mess they are in. Of course, defaulting means no more loans or credit in the future. Everything just cash and carry.

[DulceDecorum]

11. What damn loans?

Have you heard about those mercenaries in Zimbabwe that were caught trying to overthrow a governemnt or two?
Their leaders were Simon Mann from Executive Outcomes and Nick du Twat
from Sandhurst -- sorry Sandline.
They were backed by US and UK and even SPANISH intelligence and were trying to loot the mineral wealth of Africa.
Face it folks, Africa has OIL, DIAMONDS, GOLD, URANIUM and just about every single thing the West craves including beautiful women.
WHAT frigging debt are you talking about????

GW Bush's uncle Jonathan of the Riggs Bank is about to commit suicide or something because that bank is being forced to come up with the money it STOLE from Equatorial Guinea. Which is probably why those mercenaries were sent to overthrow the president of Equatorial Guinea.

What frigging debt??
How much does the US owe?
And who on earth do you think it owes it to?
That money is owed to Kenya which grows the coffee that you wake up and smell every morning.
And to Nigeria for the gasoline in your SUV that you drive to work.
And many many other African nations that provide you with the mans to live so high on the hog that you have forgotten that you produce NOTHING other than wars.
It is the US that CANNOT pay its debts.
It is the US that calls its payments to its debtors "aid."
It is the US that is facing being cut off from its lines of credit that it so fondly refers to as "foreign debt."
And that is what this is all about.
Africa is about to assert its economic independence and stop paying protection money to the West.
And thanks to the long suffering Iraqi people, there ain't a damn thing the West can do about it.
Even THEY are incapable of eating radioactive produce.

All hail the Golden Dinar.
Free at last, Free at last, thank God Almightly we will be free at last.

[TO Kid]

10. Debt relief solves nothing

The debts are not overwhelming, the root of the problem is that the economies in Africa make it impossible to repay. Africa will remain poor until they can lay out the essentials for development- protection of property rights, enforceable contracts and reliable transportation. The first two are political issues that are not addressed by debt relief. Refusing to pay will actually harm their prospects because investors will be even more reluctant to go there.