dsmith2904
ONE love, blood, life
Argentina Defends Debt Offer with Help from Friends Bono, Garcia Marquez
NEW YORK (AFP) - Rock star Bono and Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez were among celebrities who signed a statement defending Argentina's debt restructuring offer that appeared in US papers.
"Argentina, a responsible country, a responsible proposal" proclaimed the quarter-page advertisement appearing in the North American editions of The New York Times and the Financial Times, and signed by U2 frontman Bono, Garcia Marquez, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov, among others.
"Any increase in the fiscal effort would ignore the Argentine social reality" of 50 percent of the population living in poverty and 15 percent unemployed, it said.
"Argentina's sincere and realistic proposal to creditors should be understood within this context, taking into account the historic perspective of a developing country and its inhabitants' social reality."
Other signers include ex-presidents of Ireland, Mary Robinson; of Uruguay, Julio Sanguinetti; Nicaragua, Violetta Barrios de Chamorro; and Turkey, Suleyman Demirel; actors Emma Thompson and Viggo Mortensen; Nobel prize winning South African writer Nadine Gordimer; and world chess champion Anatoly Karpov.
The announcement appeared as Argentina negotiated a third review of a "stand-by" agreement with with the IMF, under pressure from the financial community to resolve the defaulted debt worth more than 100 billion dollars.
One condition of the IMF program is that Argentina engage in negotiations with holders of its defaulted bonds. Creditors have rejected Argentina's offer to pay one quarter of the face value.
NEW YORK (AFP) - Rock star Bono and Nobel literature laureate Gabriel Garcia Marquez were among celebrities who signed a statement defending Argentina's debt restructuring offer that appeared in US papers.
"Argentina, a responsible country, a responsible proposal" proclaimed the quarter-page advertisement appearing in the North American editions of The New York Times and the Financial Times, and signed by U2 frontman Bono, Garcia Marquez, and former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachov, among others.
"Any increase in the fiscal effort would ignore the Argentine social reality" of 50 percent of the population living in poverty and 15 percent unemployed, it said.
"Argentina's sincere and realistic proposal to creditors should be understood within this context, taking into account the historic perspective of a developing country and its inhabitants' social reality."
Other signers include ex-presidents of Ireland, Mary Robinson; of Uruguay, Julio Sanguinetti; Nicaragua, Violetta Barrios de Chamorro; and Turkey, Suleyman Demirel; actors Emma Thompson and Viggo Mortensen; Nobel prize winning South African writer Nadine Gordimer; and world chess champion Anatoly Karpov.
The announcement appeared as Argentina negotiated a third review of a "stand-by" agreement with with the IMF, under pressure from the financial community to resolve the defaulted debt worth more than 100 billion dollars.
One condition of the IMF program is that Argentina engage in negotiations with holders of its defaulted bonds. Creditors have rejected Argentina's offer to pay one quarter of the face value.
