Debt relief
Lozada, Carlos
governments have done an obvious justified. They would be required by the contrast, the question now posed about electoral service to Haider by impos- obligations that link...
...Religion Division...
...This rein- complain that their sovereignty is abused dom of EU members, and restrictions on forced the sense of frustration with do- when they are told that membership in political debate on sensitive subjects...
...Mozambique, and Uganda-had fulfilled these requirements The fallout was immediate and unmerciful...
...One need only recall the reselves introduced modifications to the HIPC initiative, both cent multibillion-dollar bailouts in Mexico and Asia to know reducing the debt sustainability threshold and making debt that rich nations can quickly mobilize massive financing forgiveness conditional on antipoverty programs in debtor when their own short-term financial interests appear threatcountries...
...Rox 88008, Indianapolis, Indiana 40208 or send an e-mail to clergyrenewvalQIyahoo.com or call 317!910-7302...
...main issues at stake are essentially do- acts can be proscribed and punished, One can sensibly argue that what Aus- mestic ones, concerning immigration and but the expression of opinion should be trian voters need is a dose of reality...
...Their pro- debt through traditional methods...
...One is tempted to conclude that a flawed debt-relief proPeru would seem a prime candidate for debt relief...
...First, Carlos Lozada the country in question must qualify for special World Bank loans targeted for extremely poor nations, usually with perDEBT RELIEF capita incomes of about $800 or less a year...
...ened...
...Y and social services...
...There "average" Peruvian-a statistical myth-might earn more is so much more to be done...
...Five percent of the region's population amass onegovernmental organizations...
...The program's goal is not to eliminate poor countries' debts altogether, but simply to reduce the payment burden to "sustainable" levels, such that governments can continue servicing their debts, yet still finance antipoverty programs Commonweal 9 February 25, 2000 al countries-Ethiopia, Guinea-Bissau, Nicaragua, Mauri- elites control vast proportions of the wealth-producing assets...
...But arguing that a highposals included reducing the level of what is considered a ly indebted and poverty-stricken country should not receive "sustainable" debt load, thus offering more relief for quali- relief simply because it can still take on even greater debt fying countries, and revising the standard economic poli- is a bit like refusing to help a drowning man because he has cies required for nations to obtain debt relief, with a greater not yet hit the bottom of the ocean...
...D proposed that his country renegotiate its mas- Although more than three dozen nations are technically sive external debt, and even went so far as to request an au- considered HIPCs, through January 2000 only seven coundience with Pope John Paul lI to discuss debt forgiveness tries-Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cote d'Ivoire, Guyana, Mali, for Argentina as part of the jubilee 2000 movement...
...They would be required by the contrast, the question now posed about electoral service to Haider by impos- obligations that link European Union Europe's political values is whether Euing sanctions on Austria as punishment members to one another...
...Five additionmoratorium, while local pundits seized upon the issue to argue that Duhalde would mismanage Argentina's newly privatized market economy...
...Close to a third of Brazilians ernment spending on social services...
...k1 Three main criteria for eligibility were established...
...Despite copious retractions and clarifications, Duhalde fell further in the polls and eventually lost in a t ti landslide...
...Commonweal 1 0 February 25, 2000 Lilly Endowment ion...
...C WeMIC In 1996, the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) created the Highly Indebted Poor Countries i (HIPC) initiative, the largest official debt-relief effort to date...
...And in this age of astounding than $2,000 per year, but in reality 60 percent of Peru's rural prosperity, there is no excuse not to do it...
...The ingful inroads against poverty...
...In season and out, a pastor is called upon to lead communities to the life-giving waters of God...
...In mestic political blockage, and the per- the European Union limits how they can that case, how is it decided what is and is ception of international persecution, legitimately express their opinions and not fit for expression...
...compared to those of most highly indebted poor countries...
...come patterns in the world, even worse than sub-Saharan The HIPC program has received mixed reviews from non- Africa's...
...Last June, the finance ministers from the G-7 countries A typical argument against expanding eligibility to coun(an association of the world's most advanced economies) tries like Peru and Brazil is that they can still issue bonds supported calls for "deeper, broader, and faster debt relief in global financial markets and can therefore refinance their through major changes to the HIPC framework...
...Expanding relief eligibility implemented painful market-oriented reforms to its econo- would only aggravate funding shortfalls, and would require my for nearly a decade now-a vastly superior track record more than token gestures on the part of advanced economies...
...Award announcement by December '000 For information: Write Lilly Endowment inc...
...0 God...
...Which countries are-or should be-eligible for relief...
...Let citizenship...
...Latin American and agreed to debt-reduction packages, qualifying for up financial markets took a nosedive at the prospect of a debt to a combined $6.8 billion in relief over time...
...In the World Bank's joint statement, UNICEF and the relief agency Oxfam cau"Global Development Finance Report for 1998," Peru is clas- tioned that the HIPC program's financing uncertainty "raissified as a severely indebted "middle-income" country, based es the prospect of a diversion of development assistance on its annual per-capita income of about $2,100...
...It owes some $30 billion to its foreign cred- ly $1 billion in bilateral relief for the world's poorest counitors, only slightly less than the combined debts of the seven tries...
...It would be tragic if imPeru, the richest 20 percent of households accumulate more plementation of the HIPC initiative even an upgraded verthan half the country's annual income, whereas the poor- sion-somehow left the international community with the est 20 percent earn a scant 4.4 percent...
...In this context, per- sense of a job well done, the feeling that it had discharged a capita (or average) income is virtually meaningless...
...tion must face an "unsustainable" debt (its total debt must exceed 200 to 250 percent of the country's annual export earnings, or its yearly debt payments must exceed 20 to 25 uring Argentina's presidential campaign last percent of export earnings...
...which caused many Austrians to vote cast their votes-particularly when the The American choice has been that for him...
...How poor and indebted must a nation be to qualify...
...THE NATIONAL CLERGY RENEWAL PROGRAM offered by Lilly Endowment Inc., is intended to strengthen Christian congregations by providing an opportunity for pastors to stop away briefly from the demands of daily parish life and to engage in a period of renewal and reflection...
...In a is a problem: Peru is too rich to qualify...
...And finally, the government fall, the trailing candidate, Eduardo Duhalde, must show a three-to-six-year track record of implementfloated an audacious trial balloon: He brazenly ing orthodox, IMF-approved macroeconomic reforms...
...But this is not the case...
...focus on long-term measures that will reduce poverty and Ultimately, debt relief may be more a matter of politics protect the environment...
...Despite the flawed what happens...
...proposed enhancements to the HIPC program would be Yet one question remains largely unasked: Rather than simply funded...
...But there gram is better than none at all...
...But how meaningful are these sums when the countries qualified HIPCs...
...Such an approach would be inUnfortunately, per capita income is hardly a sophisticat- equitable because it would deprive non-HIPC countries of ed yardstick with which to assess a country's poverty...
...NATIONAL LFRY C en o w n I PROGRAM "As a deer longs for flowing streams, so my soul longs for you...
...live in poverty...
...In desperately needed assistance...
...2801 North iLleridian Street...
...And the Clinton administration recently earmarked roughConsider Peru...
...And Peru has owe more than $550 billion...
...Applications arc now being accepted ENDGW IE%T Applications duo August I. 2000...
...Opponents claim that gov- quarter of the annual income...
...Rather than seek divinely inspired debt forgiveness, r Argentina clearly opted to keep faith with its creditors...
...Others chastise the multi- top 10 percent of Brazilian households account for nearly lateral agencies for requiring strict fiscal discipline as a half the national income, while the bottom tenth of houseprecondition for debt relief, thus indirectly restricting gov- holds earn a meager 0.8 percent...
...11-0...
...Clearly, the funds for more comprehensive ington, D.C., last September, the World Bank and IMF them- debt forgiveness are available...
...And Brazil-another severeernments must wait too long to obtain debt relief, and that ly indebted nation that is "too wealthy" for debt relief-has this relief is not deep enough for countries to make mean- the most unequal income distribution in Latin America...
...Indiana clergy should apply only to the Lilly t=ndowment Clergy Renewal Program for Indiana Congregations...
...free, and the choices put before electhem try out a rightist coalition and see One might say that the United States is torate without limit...
...By © 2000, Los Angeles Times Syndicate...
...In its original form, the HIPC debt-relief program deepen the level of relief and modify the policy framework cost approximately $12 billion (in present value), whereas the for existing HIPC nations, why not also broaden the program enhanced version could increase this amount to $27 billion...
...The once-in-a-millennium obligation to the world's poor...
...Second, the naHow poor is poor enough...
...How poor is poor enough...
...And perhaps most important, who sets the standard...
...At their annual meetings in Wash- than economics...
...The Endowment will provide as many as 100 grants of up to $30,000 each directly to congregations for support of a renewal program for their pastor...
...If human-rights abuses an old and secure democracy that can af- American record on civil liberties and follow, despite the solemn assurances de- ford to take a complacent view of dema- the undeniably repressive force of conmanded by Austria's president, Thomas gogues, of whom America has seen many, formist opinion in the United States, this Klestil, and provided by the coalition par- and to practice wide tolerance concerning is a principle that has proven itself...
...to encompass additional highly indebted countries...
...tania, and Tanzania-have completed their preliminary re- Indeed, Latin America as a whole shows the most skewed inviews and may eventually qualify for relief...
...rope's experience of nazism justifies infor the Freedom party's participation But Austrian voters can reasonably ternational constraint on the political freein a coalition government...
...0 households struggle under the poverty line...
...Psalm 42:1 AT THE CENTER OF THE CONGREGAI ION IS THE PASTOR...
...D ties, foreign sanctions would clearly be the expression of political opinion...
...Spiritual guide, scholar, counselor, preacher, administrator, confidant, teacher, pastoral visitor, and friend, a pastor has a privileged position and performs many roles...
...Carlos Lozada is an associate editor of Foreign Policy magazine Peru is one of many developing countries where small in Washington, D.C...
...The G-7 was vague as to how its and will no doubt begin to improve the debt-relief program...
...into HIPC debt reduction...
...Peru's annual payments are equivalent to of sub-Saharan Africa alone owe $176 billion to external more than one-third of its export earnings-far surpassing creditors, or when Latin American and Caribbean nations the required threshold for debt forgiveness...
...Though his proposal was likely no more than a desperate blunder during a faltering campaign, Duhalde unwittingly hit upon a critical set of questions in the debt-relief debate...
...Despite much lofty rhetoric, significant debt-relief fiThese changes are important steps in the right direction, nancing remains elusive...
Vol. 127 • February 2000 • No. 4
