Celebrate new millennium with forgiveness

Friday, November 6, 1998

Celebrate new millennium with forgiveness

RESPONSIBILITY: Year 2000 provides opportunity to aid Third
World, pardon debts

By Fr. Giles L. Asbury

There are hundreds of prognostications in the air concerning the
coming of the millennium. Most are based around some sort of
doomsday scenario or the other (check out the predictions about the
Year 2000 computer snafu). There is another rich tradition that
comes into play in regards to this turning of time ­ both
Jewish and Christian religious traditions call for the celebration
of a Jubilee Year. This is a yearlong period that is observed every
50 years. It is a time when the earth rests for a year, all debts
are forgiven, slaves are freed and reconciliation is sought by all.
Seen in this light, the millennium is less of a threat and more of
an opportunity to help create the sort of world that is more
livable for us all.

One of the most serious problems affecting developing countries
around the world is the burden of international debt and debt
service that many of them face. These debts have accumulated over
the decades and now threaten to crush any hopes of economic
development or future growth.

The scandal of international debt had its beginnings in the
1970s, when banks and governments lent lavishly at low interest
rates without careful consideration of how the debtor nations would
use the funds or repay the debt. About 20 percent of these loans
went to purchase weapons, while other loans supported showcase
development projects that made little impact upon the lives of the
people. Frequently, the money went to keep oppressive governments
in power. Few of these funds had an appreciable positive impact on
the lives of the citizens of these debtor nations.

In the mid ’70s, prices on commodities (which debtors used to
repay these loans) fell and interest rates began to increase.
Debtor nations earned less than ever on their exports and paid
increasingly large percentages of their gross national product
(GNP) to service their loans. Many nations had to borrow additional
funds just to make their interest payments.

Over the next years, nations tried to default on these loans and
were forced to seek the assistance of the International Monetary
Fund (IMF) to create plans to assist in rescheduling the payment of
their obligations.

The IMF created a scheme called "Structural Adjustment Programs"
that forced debtor countries to spend less on education, health and
social services. These programs also devalued national currencies,
cut back on food subsidies, cut wages and employment for workers in
government industries and services, privatized or sold public
industries (often to transnational corporations) and moved from
subsistence agriculture of staple foods to large-scale farms
growing export products.

All of these measures had a devastating effect on the poor of
the world.

Cuts in education and health services meant that campaigns
against illiteracy were curtailed; reduction of health service
meant the reappearance of diseases that were thought to have ended.
The devaluation of currency meant that each person’s income bought
less, access to government services was decreased, and cuts in
government employment and the privatization of industry meant fewer
available jobs for growing populations. Finally, the shift to
large-scale export agriculture drove many off their farms to the
cities or towards illegal emigration and reduced the food available
to feed families.

Each year, the Third World pays the West three times more in
debt repayments than it receives in aid.

It has been said that this debt burden is a scandal that, in
numerical terms, makes the international slave trade of earlier
centuries look like petty crime. In some African nations such as
Mozambique, debt obligation is equal to 50 percent of the national
budget (compare this to the United States’ 14 percent share of the
budget). In Mozambique, the annual average income is $80 and the
per capita share of the debt is $223 (almost three years of every
person’s total earnings).

When an individual or a local government cannot pay its debts,
they take refuge in bankruptcy. When Orange County was devastated
due to losses on poor investments, it declared bankruptcy and
slowly recovered its economic stability. There are no provisions
for such measures internationally and debtor nations will be
burdened with the effects of these unpayable debts.

The International Jubilee 2000 campaign calls for a case-by-case
process leading to a one-time cancellation of the backlog of
unpayable debts owed by the world’s poorest nations by the year
2000. Many people express reluctance at this ambitious goal.

They say it is overly idealistic and that the relief would be
squandered by corrupt dictators or remote bureaucrats. To prevent
this possibility, creditors will set conditions that must be met
before debt relief will ensue.

At the All Africa Conference of Churches, Archbishop Desmond
Tutu called upon debtor nations to meet four conditions to receive
debt relief: democratization, respect for human rights, military
reduction and a commitment to use the money from relief for the
needs of ordinary citizens.

Achievement of this goal would make an appreciable difference in
the lives of hundreds of millions of the world’s poorest citizens.
It would permit us to begin a new millennium on a more equal
footing and give the majority of the world’s inhabitants a chance
to join in a jubilee to celebrate the coming of a new century and a
new millennium.

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