Re: Strange Bedfellows (NDC)


Seth Kulick wrote:
> SilkUpholsteredChair (treadle99@xxxxxxx) wrote:
> [...[
> : settlements, to Mubarak, and lots of other people and things.
> : Suicide-bombing children, civilians, and men training to be cops by the
> : hundreds is immoral and evil. Promoting representative govt,
> : attempting to repair infrastructure, suspending foreign debt, promoting
> : a free press, fighting al-Qaeda & Sunni thugs is not.
>
> "suspending foreign debt"
> http://www.jubileeiraq.org/files/Paris%20Club%20problems%20article.htm
>
> Problems with the Paris Club deal
> (Justin Alexander, 24th November 2004)
>
> On
> Sunday, 21st November, after almost two years of wrangling, the Paris Club of
> creditors finalised their joint position on Iraq's Saddam era debt. Newspapers
> around the world praised the Paris Club for their generosity and good will,
> announcing this debt forgiveness as the first bit of good news for Iraq for
> many dark months. However when, on the following morning, Saad Salih Jabr, the
> Chairman of the Iraqi National Assembly's Economic Committee, took the podium
> in the Assembly his words were less effluent: "You heard yesterday's news. The
> world media is marketing this as the deal of a lifetime. It is not. This is yet
> another crime committed against the Iraqi people." To explain this apparently
> strange response to an offer of debt relief, which one might expect Iraqis to
> welcome, it is necessary to look beyond the headline figure of 80% debt relief
> to the detail of the Paris Club's proposal and the assumptions which underlie
> it.
> [...]

The article Seth cites includes the following passage:

Thirdly, the debt relief is very bluntly conditional on Iraq obeying
the dictates of the IMF on economic policies such as privatisation and
foreign ownership, ending food rations and fuel subsidies and
restricting salaries and pensions. These policies could further
exacerbate the poverty and instability in Iraq. Iraqi economist Dr.
Saleh Yasir says: "IMF conditions neglect the social consequences of
economic policies. An IMF structural adjustment program would create
more social tension and which might destroy the transition to
democracy." Another Iraqi economist, working as an advisor to a Western
government, says anonymously: "When I look at past IMF policy errors I
get frightened. Iraq stands no chance of success if the IMF makes
policies like those it made in the past." Furthermore, irrespective of
the correctness of IMF policies, the very fact that control is being
taken from Iraqi hands mere weeks before elections will certainly
increase Iraqi cynicism about the degree of sovereignty they will
really be allowed to exercise. The NGO World Development Movement,
which has examined the role of the IMF in many developing countries,
writes in the Financial Times "Now from the very first day that the new
Iraqi parliament sits it will find virtually every important economic
decision predetermined by the coterie of rich countries that runs the
IMF". Former Oil Minister Ibrahim Bahr Al-Uloum, himself a proponent of
IMF-style policies, nevertheless declared: "Iraq was the cradle of
civilisation and I don't want to see anyone controlling our economy by
any means."

END CITATION

IMF-imposed monetary policies have been responsible for the destruction
of numerous third world economies around the world. It was responsible
for the rampant inflation that destroyed the Argentine economy. They
siphon wealth into first world corporations and institutions, leaving a
wreck behind.

.

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