Ok that highlighted comment was very distasteful. we will leave it at that.
But true.
How can cancel them all not be an answer?
Because it is the foundation of civilized society. You are responsible for your debts; period. You can't just arbitrarily decide what is and isn't fair because you
feel that Haiti has been mistreated. The World Bank helps dozens of countries, the money that Haiti
agreed to pay back will go to help them when Haiti is done with it. If we just cancelled all these debts there would be no more money to lend. Money isn't just there. Especially not the billions we're talking about. BTW, the IMF is notorious for canceling part of loans if there has been more progress than expected.
On top of this if you just "cancel" all of Haiti's loans that would be the end of loans to Haiti. No money = no chance. The access to money has created more human progress than any single factor. If you want to understand this look at the micro loan program created by Muhammad Yunus. If they had just given that money to the recipients they would live off it and never improve their situation. Instead the loan money has strings attached. The simplest form of this is the carrot and the stick. The point isn't to throw the carrot on the ground and wait for it to be eaten.
The loans given to these countries are never fair.
Based on what? The IMF loans are made on terms more favorable then you or I will ever get. In many cases they give loans against projected tax surpluses or revenue; that way Haiti can build public project now instead of in 5 years. For instance the loan you speak of is a no interest loan until the end of 2011. If they just gave the money away you'd 1) have to find a new source of money, and 2) you'd have an endless string of corruption. The strings ensure that the money is spent the way Haiti promised to spend it.
The IMF have given $114M to Haiti, which the government have 5 and half years to pay back. Why should they pay it back?
Because they are honest people. If you don't make them pay it back then there is less incentive to be honest with the proceeds.
I'm reasonably certain that you don't understand that you can't just drop a bag of cash at the airport to stimulate the Haitian economy. It would cause more problems then it would would fix. When the IMF makes loans like this they require the government of Haiti to make changes or promises or prove that progress is happening in order for disbursement to happen. For instance they would ask for legislation criminalizing violence against women. Haiti's compliance with the agreement will determine the terms of the loan.
Look at the history of Haiti. It has been permanantly in Debt since it freed itself from France.
This simply isn't true.
The majority of loans in the 60's were stolen, by a known corrupt leader.
I believe Haiti ranks as one of the most corrupt nations on Earth. Your solution: give them money. Because money has historically fixed corruption.
As someone stated in this thread already,this is America's Sphere of influence, why did they not do anything.
Do anything? We invaded them once to prop up the government, and have had other diplomatic fall outs on their behalf on a regular basis. On top of that the United States has literally created their economy based on charity. Which is the problem, now isn't it.
lemon said:
the Duvalier Family, promised to stay Non-communist. Your Precious capitalist government was happy to let a nation starve and be crippled in debt, by giving money to a corrupt leader. Says a lot about you.
The fact that you know nothing of what goes on there yet puke your opinion out as though it should be respected says a lot about you.
Nobody was "happy" to let them starve. The United States is the largest donor of money to Haiti by a long shot; giving billions and subsidizing billions more in loans. You know who doesn't donate at all..... the communist countries. You're beloved followers of Marx. They don't give anything. I see the EU, France, the IMF and World Bank (financially supported by the US), the US, Canada....but not China. Well, not until the earthquake. Even then, Cuba (Haiti's communist neighbors) only sent 300 people to help out; and that was after the world community complained that they didn't send anything.
Further, Haiti isn't "crippled" by debt, they are crippled by 1) no jobs, and 2) corruption.
Check this out: (look at the date)
$1 Billion Is Pledged to Help Haiti Rebuild, Topping Request - NYTimes.com
lemon said:
If you want to know what debt should be cancelled, Ill mention the $500M debt from the IDB. A debt ive already mentioned. The loan forces the countries to pay back nations rather than the commercial banks who control the interest that they pay it back. Its not fair.
Most of these loans are interest free or way below market, that's the point of the IDB, IMF, or World Bank. The problem is you're mixing anti-capatilist/anti-corporation rhetoric with humanist rhetoric, and it is not mixing well. You see, when one is in power they cant spew extremist views that would never work. You can't take the risk. What if we gave them massive free money and they use it to start a war on their own people (Sub-Saharan Africa), or we "cancel" all their debts but then nobody will lend money to third world countries because they lost everything on the previous deals? Forcing cancellation would have a chilling effect of record proportions on world wide financial aid to third world countries. But, hey, who cares? It's fun to have extremist views, right? Well, to those of us who matter when we speak it doesn't work like that. We have real responsibilities. People
really starve to death if we're wrong. We
really have a conscious that won't let us take huge risks with peoples lives.
Dont say im spewing Communist filth
but you are.
( I had to go back to my International relations lecture notes for that. Thanks for the incentive to revise)
and you said you learn nothing from me calling you stupid.
Muhammad Yunus:
Nobel Peace Prize Goes to Micro-Loan Pioneers
. And I don't care if I get a warning because of this. But people like you are the most despicable creatures that excists! And you are a lawyer! Then obviously not an Equal Opportunities lawyer! You deserve to ***
