The historic deal to write off the debts of the world’s poorest 30 countries totalling a potential $55 billion (£30 billion) has now become the subject of sharp debate. On one hand the inspirer of Live8 – Bob Geldof, welcomes it. On the other, some voluntary groups are wondering whether this will involve new money or existing money redirected from aid. George Monbiot is even more sceptical in the Guardian today where he states,
To qualify for debt relief, developing countries must "tackle corruption, boost private-sector development" and eliminate "impediments to private investment, both domestic and foreign".
These are called conditionalities. Conditionalities are the policies governments must follow before they receive aid and loans and debt relief
They do not stop at pretending to prevent corruption, but intrude into every aspect of sovereign government. When the finance ministers say "good governance" and "eliminating impediments to private investment", what they mean is commercialisation, privatisation and the liberalisation of trade and capital flows. And what this means is new opportunities for western money.
The G8 governments claim they want to help poor countries develop and compete successfully. But they have a powerful commercial incentive to ensure that they compete unsuccessfully, and that our companies can grab their public services and obtain their commodities at rock-bottom prices. The conditionalities we impose on the poor nations keep them on a short leash.
It is this debate that makes it important that we should question our government and elected members of parliament to ensure that debt relief is not used to spread the ideology of American liberalisation across the globe when so many peoples around the world are opposed to it because of the impact it has on their life and the loss it delivers to democracy and local self sufficiency.
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