where's me country?

G8 debt relief

6.12.2005

Does it strike anyone else as obscene that it is within the power of seven middle-aged western men to write off more than $50 BILLION in the debts of other countries? I cannot stomach the fact that such bloated and disproportionate power lies in the hands of so few people. This is not an article intend to bash the West for hundreds of years of oppression and exploitation of Africa and other empirical toys, but it is indefensible in our day and age to allow such a legacy of colonial power and global dominance to exist. Having said all this I broadly welcome the moderate use of such power for good, though doubtless the whole package was fought for tooth and nail in the face of American opposition. It goes to prove that life at the top of a greasy pole is a paranoid place and can stop the most sensible of people from doing the right thing.
there is more to this problem than simply debt relief and IM sure many of us are simply sick of hearing about these other factors. The work it takes to keep Africa poor is only matched by the effort required to comprehend the solution. The G8 have moved along the right track but it is without doubt that the hardest steps for any industrialised western state to take is open up its borders and markets to another potential competitor which can exploit cheap labour AND massive amounts of natural resources which it owns. Compared to this solution the G8 step of simply writing off debt is small change. It side-steps the broader problem of corporate access and exploitation of a weak and fragmented African political system. Any call for democratisation would spell the end of corporate profiteering as neo-colonial occupiers of the South.
I wont bore you all with ranting or details its Sunday after all, but needless to say the hard work is still to do. Canada is a genuinely left leaning country and should support such efforts as eradicating African poverty, the reason they haven't gotten behind such a deal is because the Canadian corporations of not are mostly major players in resources and currencies. These are the two industries that stand to lose the most from equalising Africa. The vested interests that face any concerted effort to make Africa equal are myriad and far more powerful than the governments supporting the cause.
to borrow a phrase, A lot done more to do.
Red Rover

This entry was posted on 6.12.2005 at 6/12/2005 07:01:00 p.m.. There are . If you want, you can leave your own response by clicking here. You may also send this post to a friend of yours via email, or bookmark it for yourself by using icons below;