G8: How the rich world short-changes Africa
Norm Dixon, Green Left Weekly | 04.07.2005 16:45 | G8 2005 | Analysis | Globalisation | Social Struggles
The mass media hype about “a new deal between rich and poor”, in response to the powerful Group of Eight industrialised countries’ plan to cancel multilateral debts owed by 18 mainly African countries, has led many people to believe that a new era of international social justice has dawned. [.. reinforced by] uncritical endorsement [.. by Bob Geldof, Bono, and] Oxfam, the driving force behind the Make Poverty History (MPH) coalition [..].
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The deal is expected to be ratified by G8 leaders in Scotland on July 6-8.
The uncritical endorsement of the plan by large international aid agencies like Oxfam, the driving force behind the Make Poverty History (MPH) coalition of non-government organisations, and big-name celebrities like Bob Geldof and Bono, has reinforced this hope.
Across the globe, there has been a genuine outpouring of popular solidarity and sympathy with the people of Africa, symbolised by the tens of thousands who attended, and the millions who watched, the Live 8 concerts.
Unfortunately, celebrations to mark what British deputy PM Gordon Brown described as “the intention of world leaders to forge a new and better relationship between the rich and poor countries of the world” are premature.
The G8's promises fall far short, and contradict important aspects, of MPH’s demands as detailed on its web site () — “Trade justice”, “Drop the debt” and “More and better aid”.
MPH demands that “the unpayable debts of the world’s poorest countries should be cancelled in full” and “poor countries should no longer have to privatise basic services or liberalise economies as a condition for getting the debt relief they so desperately need”. Yet, the much publicised British government-brokered deal only cancels the multilateral component of the debt of 18 of the world’s poorest countries (with another 20 that may become eligible in the future). But this “relief” comes with the very strings that MPH opposes — strings that will ensure that poor countries remain trapped in dire poverty.
As the grassroots anti-debt coalition African Jubilee South explained on June 14, eligibility “involves the implementation of stringent free market reforms such as [health and education] budget cuts, financial and trade liberalisation, privatisation” and, as the G8 states explicitly, “the elimination of impedients to private investment, both domestic and foreign”.
( For a detailed critique of the G8 debt and aid scam, visit
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/631/631p28.htm )
Trade justice?
[..]
Rest copylefted @ Green Left Weekly, July 6, 2005 @
http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2005/632/
The uncritical endorsement of the plan by large international aid agencies like Oxfam, the driving force behind the Make Poverty History (MPH) coalition of non-government organisations, and big-name celebrities like Bob Geldof and Bono, has reinforced this hope.
Across the globe, there has been a genuine outpouring of popular solidarity and sympathy with the people of Africa, symbolised by the tens of thousands who attended, and the millions who watched, the Live 8 concerts.
Unfortunately, celebrations to mark what British deputy PM Gordon Brown described as “the intention of world leaders to forge a new and better relationship between the rich and poor countries of the world” are premature.
The G8's promises fall far short, and contradict important aspects, of MPH’s demands as detailed on its web site () — “Trade justice”, “Drop the debt” and “More and better aid”.
MPH demands that “the unpayable debts of the world’s poorest countries should be cancelled in full” and “poor countries should no longer have to privatise basic services or liberalise economies as a condition for getting the debt relief they so desperately need”. Yet, the much publicised British government-brokered deal only cancels the multilateral component of the debt of 18 of the world’s poorest countries (with another 20 that may become eligible in the future). But this “relief” comes with the very strings that MPH opposes — strings that will ensure that poor countries remain trapped in dire poverty.
As the grassroots anti-debt coalition African Jubilee South explained on June 14, eligibility “involves the implementation of stringent free market reforms such as [health and education] budget cuts, financial and trade liberalisation, privatisation” and, as the G8 states explicitly, “the elimination of impedients to private investment, both domestic and foreign”.
( For a detailed critique of the G8 debt and aid scam, visit
http://www.greenleft.org.au/back/2005/631/631p28.htm ) Trade justice?
[..]
Rest copylefted @ Green Left Weekly, July 6, 2005 @
http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/back/2005/632/
Norm Dixon, Green Left Weekly
e-mail:
GLW@greenleft.org.au
Homepage:
http://www.GreenLeft.org.au/