PHA-Exchange> In preparation of PHA II - part4 (2)

[Claudio]

Just a note on part 4.  

 

Much appreciate the PHM preparatory pieces. One disagreement today though! 

 

1) Re debt, I think it is critically important not to use the term "forgiveness" in relation to debt. If justice were done, reparations would be being paid by the North to all the indebted countries for this illegal, immoral, irresponsible and impossible financial mechanism which in addition to serving as a nice regular source of income for the North from the South, allows the North to dictate policies to the South to further continue and deepen exploitation of their obscenely cheap human and material resources.

 

I know you all know this but language is so persuasive and the very idea that the rich are "forgiving" the poor for this criminal policy must be revealed for what it is - pure propaganda and revolting bad faith. 

 

2) Re reform of the Intl Financial Instits. There is a legitimate debate about reform OR REMOVAL of the international financial institutions. Whilst the UN is reformable, there are very strong arguments showing that the IFIs are not. The very basis of their existence can be questioned. This must be allowed to be debated in our fora. We cannot have that option closed off. 

 

One example: the WTO makes trade THE sacred priority whereas any social justice and ecologically fair and responsible policy insists that local and national production to meet people's needs is the priority. Trade is something you engage in when the basics are met.  Given that half of humanity does not have its needs met, trade is a luxury (belonging to the rich) that the poor cannot usually afford.  We need to remind ourselves that so far in history, trade has always been used as a tool of exploitation to obtain very cheap raw materials in exchange for expensive manufactured products. It thereby exacerbates and perpetuates the very problem that the "development industry" claims to try to solve.

 

Many thanks,

 Alison



VERY MUCH AGREE WITH YOU. Should have said abolition of debt or debt relief.

Claudio  

-------------- next part --------------
An HTML attachment was scrubbed...
URL: <http://phm.phmovement.org/pipermail/phm-exchange-phmovement.org/attachments/20040917/38061bf2/attachment-0001.html>