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TechnoratiIn June of 2006, world leaders stood with British Prime Minister Tony Blair and pledged their support for debt relief for impoverished African nations. The intent of their principled gesture was to help a select number of countries pull themselves out of the quagmire of debt which prevents them from building infrastructure, schools and hospitals. But, it was also a pragmatic gesture. Poverty breeds insecurity, and as President Bush noted in his State of the Union address, poverty alleviation must be a cornerstone of our foreign policy to create a secure world. For the most part, the world applauded the efforts of the G-8 leaders, and the slow process to full debt relief began. But in the shadows stands a financial creature that threatens the resolve of the G-8 on African debt relief and threatens U.S. foreign policy related to development assistance for Africa and this administration's so-called war on terror.
A vulture is a creature that lurks around waiting for another animal to be near death before it swoops in. The vulture is a cagey bird that hovers over the weak waiting for an opportunity to finish it off. Vulture funds are a group of financial institutions that buy African and Latin American debt from the lending country for a reduced amount and then press the struggling nations into courts as they demand payment of the full loan and interest several times the original value of the debt. This practice is crippling countries that welcomed international debt relief but are now facing the possibility of debt relief from the G-8 being meaningless. They will now have to pay the new owners of their loan.
In the African country of Zambia, over 70 percent of people live in poverty. The average wage is just over a dollar a day, one in five people are infected with HIV/AIDS and life expectancy is merely 37.7 years. Yet, in the midst of qualifying for debt cancellation by G-8 nations, the Donegal Corporation, owned by American businessman Michael Sheehan, bought Zambian debt from Romania. In April, British courts awarded Donegal 15 million dollars, almost five times the value Donegal paid for the debt.
The morally bankrupt actions of vulture funds render the commitments to debt relief made by the U.S. and other wealthy nations meaningless. U.S. taxpayer money, pledged to provided relief and assistance through debt relief, will fall into the hands of these greedy corporations. At the upcoming G-8 Summit President Bush should call for a commitment by world leaders to address debt relief and vulture funds. The U.S. Treasury should follow the lead of U.K. Chancellor Gordon Brown and limit the awards vulture funds can claim for these debts. Congress must examine this practice and its impact on our overall foreign policy interests. The international community must employ effective means to protect countries like Zambia who have fallen prey to these vulture funds, including implementing fair and transparent international mechanisms to resolve these matters.
Vulture funds are aptly named. They present a threat to the end of world hunger. They undermine U.S. foreign policy and increase the possibility of a rise in terrorist organizations in sub-Saharan Africa and Latin America. People of good will and good intentions must join with international civil society and call for the end of this treacherous practice.
Danny Glover is chairman of the board of and Nicole Lee is executive director of TransAfrica Forum.
© 2007 TomPaine.com
10 Comments so far
Show AllTalking about vultures and scavengers, mr. Glover has just received 18 million dollars from his patron Hugo Chavez with whom he visits often when he needs a donation. The impoverished and imprisoned venezuelan people will one day, when freedom comes, demand of Glover the return of what he has unlawfully taken........
"...U.S. taxpayer money, pledged to provided relief and assistance through debt relief, will fall into the hands of these greedy corporations."
Did you think that was an accident?
I'm pretty sure they bought these debts knowing they could never be recovered, and then they go off and sue some government to give them what they 'lost' on their investment. Just another day in the corporate welfare state..
Good God, just cancel their debt already, give Africa reparations and get the hell out of there. Leave them alone and let them heal.
Oh wait, we'll have another concert so a bunch of pop and rock stars can feed their egos and gain publicity. We'll raise a bunch of money which will be a mere drop in the bucket. Let's all coo when Simon Cowell hugs some little African kids, like that's gonna do anything.
"I wonder if they know it's Christmas." Sing it people! Let's sing the world's problems away.
Sometimes I wish that Galactus was real and would devour our planet.
ezeflyer: Suggestion: Try it as song lyrics first, and when you get to the end of your rhapsody, see if the IDEA still "works." In case you are not jesting, that could be cathartic!
I'm thinking of switching from liberal to conservative. The cons are right. Life isn't fair. Throughout history, the bad guys usually win. As a secular humanist, waiting until I die to get my reward, or that karma or some other wishful thinking will set things straight goes against my scientific outlook. The only healthy Africans are the ones carrying guns so maybe I'll go out get some guns and into survival mode right here. It's nature's way. Nothing turns us conservative like too many people, resource scarcity and extreme wealth and power concentration.
If US Federal RICO statutes were applied to the G-8 the leaders of these nations would be in prison right now. It's a great racket, good PR for "helping" the poor, all the while pocketing $$millions AND stealing the natural resources out from under the noses of the people who rightfully own them. It is this behavior which is now rampant in most of the Western institutions and corporations that causes some to believe that the chicken came home to roost on 9-11. Before you go blaming me for saying that think about how this type of predatory lending is viewed in the US today. We would call it terrorism if the tables were turned.
The families who rule the world for centuries ever hidden and now 'in your face' have all used the satanic signals and grips to recognize each other.
They will eventually succeed, but for only an hour, but the terrors they bring ... be hopeful you are not alive then, even now.
It is no coincidence that literal minded bible thumpers are the first to transgress the spirit of Christianity. When religion degenerates into superstition it can be and always has been used to justify the most egregious disregard for human life---- War, slavery, capital punishment.
On a sane planet where justice meant anything this could only be sci-fi! I wish these excuses for human beings (behind these scams) would be forced to learn the law of karma. How many more generations must kill or maim one another on the sacrificial altar of mammon/$ before we all realize that it's an inviolate axiom, "Whatsoever you do unto the least of these you do unto me." That is SPIRIT by whatever "god" name we give it. LIFE is sacred; but often it's the rightwing types who savage others but protect the unborn fetus. How convenient as Dana Carvey's SNL "church lady" would say. Indeed.
Gotta make a buck, why shouldn't it be at the expense of human life? It's a dog eat dog world. Woe to those wearing milk bone underwear.
(Norm was always my fave)