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· Who
Pays Who?
Every
day in 1999 $128 million was transferred from the poorest countries
to the richest in debt repayments. Of this, $53 million was from
East Asia and the Pacific, $38 million from South Asia and $23
million from Africa.
·
The
Human Cost of Debt
After
much publicized debt relief, debt service in Mali
was $88 million in 2000. This is greater than the level of government
spending on health ($54 million in 1998), in a country where one
in four children do not live to see their fifth birthday, and where per
capita spending on health is $5 as compared to the World Bank's
recommended level for basic health care of $12.
· Looting
Through Trade
Farmers
in developing countries captured
only 35% of world agricultural exports in 2001 -down from 40%
in 1961- as a result of falling commodity prices and high trade
barriers. Without considering inflation, non-fuel commodities
exported by Africa in 2001 were at one half of the value for 1980.
Many tariffs in the North on agricultural exports of the South
are prohibitively high (200% to 300%). Domestic subsidies in rich countries
rose from $275 billion in 1987 to $326 billion in 1999. Instead
of reducing them, as promised, the US increased subsidies
under the Farm Bill, and the European Union leaders decided to
continue them for at least 12 more years. Protectionism by the
rich prevents the poor from fully exploiting their competitive
advantages. In low-technology industries alone, developing countries
are missing out on an additional $700 billion in annual export
earnings as a result of trade barriers. This represents at least
four times the private foreign capital inflows.
·
Guess
How Many Children Could Have Been
Saved (If Debt Had Been Cancelled)
If
debt had been cancelled in 1997 for twenty of the poorest countries,
the money released for basic health care could have saved the
lives of about 21 million children by the year 2000, the equivalent
of 19,000 children a day.
How much would debt cancellation cost? Spread over 20 years,
the cost of cancelling the debts of 52 countries is less than
$4 a month for each person in the industrialised world.
·
US
Aid & George H.W. Bush Aircraft Carrier
In 2002
the US announced a gradual
increase in future aid up to $5 billion additional a year. This
will still leave the US as one of the smallest donors in relation
to its economy. The USS George H.W. Bush aircraft carrier, launched
in December 2002 by the Navy, cost $4.5 billion.
·
How
I Wish I Was A European Cow
The subsidy
per cow in the European Union is $2.20
a day. Half the world's population lives on less than $2 a day.
Three billion people, in other words, would be better off bovine.
·
The Uprising of the Tariff Wall
Many tariffs
in the North on agricultural exports of the South are prohibitively
high (200%
to 300%).
Domestic subsidies in rich countries rose from $275 billion in
1987 to $326 billion in 1999. Instead of reducing them, as promised,
the US increased subsidies under the Farm Bill, and the European
Union leaders decided to continue them for at least 12 more years.
Protectionism
by the rich prevents the poor from fully exploiting their competitive
advantages.
In low-technology industries alone, developing countries are missing
out on an additional $700 billion in annual export earnings as
a result of trade barriers. This represents at least four times
the private foreign capital inflows.
·
The
Bottomless Swamp of Debt
Developing
countries often end up paying much more back than they originally
borrowed. Costa Rica borrowed less than £4 million from
Britain in 1973. By 1999 it had paid Britain more than £7
million of that loan but still owed more than £1 million.
· Fly, fly, fly,
my dear hot capital
The very
wealthy in both North and South are likely to win from financial
volatility
thanks to their access to sophisticated financial instruments
and highly skilled managers. For example, hedge funds, which are
only accessible to the very wealthy, have beaten the Standard
& Poor's stock market index over the turbulent 1996-2001 period,
unlike mutual funds that cater to the middle class in the North.
Over the longer period of 1983 to 1998, the net worth of the richest
1% American households, including both real estate and financial
assets and liabilities, increased by 42%, while that of the poorest
40% remained close to zero.
·
The
Dark Mortgage of the Financial Crisis
During the
financial crisis of 1997 in Indonesia, real wages in the urban
formal sector were almost halved and 15 million people were pushed
under the poverty line. The headcount poverty rate
has not yet recovered its pre-crisis level.
* Based on
the Chart
"The Hood Robin Economy" in the
Social
Watch Report 2003 on "The
Poor and the Market" done by the Social Watch Network.
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