Drop the Debt and Jubilee 2000 by Simon Owen

I wanted to share with the whole Dharma Yoga Centre some thoughts and facts about the crippling effects of world debt and how over 1 billion people in the world today suffer from it.
Most of the information has been gathered from three sources.
The New Internationalist magazine NI (May 1999)
World Development Movement (WDM) literature.
Jubilee 2000 web site http://www.jubilee2000uk.org

Firstly a few words about the organisation Jubilee 2000.
A truly unique phenomena is occurring in the run up to the third millennium, people ALL over the world are gathering together with a common goal- to end unpayable debts and the misery that accompany them. By spreading the word to family, friends, work colleges, yoga classes you too can join this world movement.

This next passage has been lifted from the Jubilee 2000 coalition web site
[Jubilee 2000 is an international movement in over 40 countries
advocating a debt-free start to the Millennium for a billion people.
Jubilee 2000 in the UK is a coalition of over 80 organisations, including
Action Aid, Christian Aid, CAFOD, Comic Relief, One World Week, Oxfam, Tearfund, Third World First, VSO, World Development Movement
We are calling for:
a one-off cancellation of the unpayable debts of the world's poorest countries by the year 2000, under a fair and transparent process.

Unpayable Debts of the World's poorest countries - Over 50 countries in the world have debts that will never be paid back but continue to be paid daily with people's lives. The debt burden of the poorest countries is 93% of their income. In Zambia, every citizen now owes the country's creditors $790 - more than twice the average annual income. Every year resources are being diverted from health, education and sanitation towards unproductive debt service. The United Nations Development Programme in 1997 stated that 21 million children's lives could be saved if the money used for debt service was put into health and education.
Jubilee 2000 calls for the cancellation of unpayable debt - it will never be paid economically or will be paid only by exacting unacceptable costs in diverting resources from health, education and sanitation. ]
These ideas are from the NI.
[The word Jubilee is central to the whole movement for debt cancellation, it is derived from the Hebrew word jobel, the curved ram's horn that was sounded to mark the year of Jubilee (the passing of 7 times 7 years). In Leviticus 25 the text includes a call for slaves to be set free, debts forgiven, wealth restored to the poor and animals and the land given a period of rest. Even all those years ago it was recognised that periodically the slate had to be wiped clean, humans are only tenants on this Earth, it belongs to God and we honour creation by giving it, and those who work it, periodic rest.]

So these ideas of restoration are nothing new, 3000yrs ago it was common practise, but in the last 40 yrs the balance of debt has become unjust. Churches of the south have been calling for debt cancellation for the last ten years, but have largely gone unheeded. Now is the time to add your voice, your energy to the snowballing momentum of this international movement.

Back to the Jubilee 200 web-site
[The current lending and debt relief process is fundamentally unjust. International loans are negotiated in secret between local elites and powerful creditors like the IMF, the World Bank and government export credit agencies. Loans are often made for political reasons or to promote exports. Mobutu, a dictator in Zaire, received $8.5 billion dollars in loans despite widespread knowledge of his corruption and abuses of power.

NI quote
Surely something is wrong here. If a compulsive gambler goes to the bank to borrow money, and the bank is stupid enough to lend it, who is liable? The bank or the gambler's children?

In Britain, 96% of the debts owed to Britain by the poorest countries are owed to the DTI's Export Credit Guarantee Dept., as inducements to buy British exports. Yet it is ordinary people who pay the costs as funds are diverted from water, health, education and sanitation into debt repayment. There is no international bankruptcy law so no line is drawn under unpayable debts. Instead any debt relief negotiations are always driven by creditors, who are naturally unwilling to write off debts.]

Change is coming and even the IMF and the World Bank realise the present situation can not go on. Bill Clinton and Tony Blair have spoken out in favour of debt reduction, as political leaders fight for the limelight, we must not lose sight of the purpose of debt cancellation. That is to help the poorest people of the world.
The current proposal is debt relief which is conditional on Governments implementing six years of IMF Structural Adjustment Programmes (SAP's) which are designed to stabilise the economies of developing countries. Time and time again the evidence shows that these SAP's only push the poor further into poverty.
For example, SAP's often concentrate on maximising exports of raw materials (coffee, logs, copper, tea, cocoa, cotton, sugar etc) to earn foreign exchange to help service debt. When a number of indebted countries are all advised to maximise their exports at the same time, there is a glut on the world markets and the prices go down. The consequences are the indebted country earns less even though it is producing more and the rich countries benefit from cheaper raw materials. How can this be fair? The odds are always stacked in favour of the rich countries.

The year 2000 will be the Year of Jubilee, a time of taking stock, a time of cancelling debts and a time to remember that man owns nothing, man only borrows from God whilst on this earth.

I shall finish with a rousing quote from the Bhagavad Gita v42

Kill therefore with the sword of wisdom the doubt born of ignorance that lies in thy heart. Be one in self harmony in Yoga and arise, great warrior, arise.

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