Cancel Haiti's Debt

[RoyGBiv]

Posted By Annie Lowrey Wednesday, January 13, 2010 - 7:04 PM

This September, Haiti qualified for the cancellation of $1.2 billion of its $1.9 billion in external debt. To ensure the recovery of the nation and the livelihoods of its 9 million citizens, the IDB and any other lenders should fully cancel any remaining debt obligations.

http://blog.foreignpolicy.com/posts/2010/01/13/cancel_haitis_debt

[Warpy]

1. Might as well

They will not have the resources to pay it for a very long time, if ever.

Let those poor people start fresh.

[Romulox]

2. This sounds like good policy, compassion notwithstanding. k/r. nt

[Subdivisions]

3. +1,000.000... n/t

[Starry Messenger]

4. Absolutely.

Thank you for the link.

[Electric Monk]

5. Leave the super rich exploitative investment banksters alone!

k&r

[leftstreet]

6. K&R

[DailyGrind51]

7. Where are the French? They took enough in Haitian "reparations" for the loss of plantations.

[RoyGBiv]

10. The French are on the ground in Haiti as we type n/t

[Odin2005]

8. K&R

[AspenRose]

9. Yes.

[inna]

11. +1,000. Please see this thread:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=389x7465353

[itsrobert]

12. Give the land to the banks

Pass laws that require property owners to maintain property to California building codes.

[Land Shark]

13. K&R n/t

[anonymous171]

14. I AGREE

[blondeatlast]

15. +1/k/r/nt

[napi21]

16. Would it matter? They can't pay it anyway! Does it matter if it

appears on some countries books as a receivable? I'm really not sure.

[RoyGBiv]

18. Yes, it matters ...

The debt is a barrier that prevents the use of any funds they do have from being used for things like development of sources and distribution of clean water supplies, which is especially important in the case of Haiti.

Rather than attempt to reinvent the wheel, here's a discussion of the proposed Jubilee Act at Common Dreams that gives a general overview.

http://www.commondreams.org/headline/2010/01/05-7

What's not directly stated is that the debit itself is structure in such a way that these impoverished nations have no choice in whether to route funds to, for example, infrastructure improvements or repayment of the debt. Canceling the debt removes the ability of various international financial institutions from laying claim to these funds, thus freeing it for use in needed areas.

Of course, this isn't the only thing Haiti needs by any stretch of the imagination, but canceling the debt would at the very least lay a plank in the necessary groundwork.

OnEdit: Helps if I actually put the link in there ...

[napi21]

19. Sorry. I didn't know they were restricto where they put their $$.

Guess I lived in the US for too long!

[donheld]

17. No, Make Pat Robber$son and Rush Limpballs pay it.

[BrightKnight]

20. Fix the phones and hire debt collectors to call them. n/t

[Recursion]

21. We need a worldwide jubilee year NT

[RoyGBiv]

22. I agree ...

I would like to see the Jubilee Act taken up by the Senate. IIRC, it's already passed the House.

[TornadoTN]

23. I saw a report earlier that France has officially requested this

Here's the link:

http://online.wsj.com/article/BT-CO-20100115-705825.html?mod=WSJ_World_MIDDLEHeadlinesEurope

[RoyGBiv]

24. Excellent news ...

Thank you.

[polly7]

25. Yes, cancel their debt.

If Bush could twist arms to get Iraq's cancelled post-invasion, the least the world can do is cancel it for Haiti.

[Canuckistanian]

26. Cancel their debt and let them raise tariffs for sugar and rice, cancel "free trade"

Western neoliberal policies forced on Haiti is what caused it's massive poverty in the first place.

Hands off Haiti.