PLEBAns thread about Africa...

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If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
What really frustrates me is that no major politician dare speak a hard truth - because it is unpalatable and ploughs through the middle of a very sensitive issue - that Africans are experiencing (in terms of bodycount) two 9/11s every day. And America has spent $150bn in Iraq on the back of 9/11.

Of course this makes a mockery of our ideals about equality. I absolutely agree with Bono that the best way to serve an age can be to betray and I just wish that a big time politician would have the balls to betray our age and tell it like it is.

:heart:
 
Y'all, check out the thread running in EYKIW about the Nobel Peace Prize award to be given to Wangari Maathai, a lifelong fighter for women's rights, environmental justice and political democracy in Kenya and how this award can only but HELP BONO in his fight for Africa's Future and my thread in FYM about Bono and the Global Fund to fight AIDS, TB and Malaria. :wink:

They complement our discussion here. :yes:

THE GOAL IS SOUL....:bono: :heart: :heart: ;) :hug:
 
How did I miss this thread? :hmm:

I'm currently writing a paper on US Foreign Policy on Third World Debt in Africa for my Historical Roots of US Law class. It's not finished yet, due in a couple of weeks. :crazy:

If anyone's interested, I'll post it here when I'm done. Or attach it, rather. It's 10+ pages. :crack:
 
Right on, MrsSpringsteen. Maybe I can e-mail it to you once I'm finished.

And digsy, about wanting some volunteer work... I do some lobby work for DATA. On the DATA website we have a section about volunteering and getting involved with DATA in your community. I hope you can find some information there.
 
U.S. Foreign Policy
Third World Debt: Africa

Africa is the globe’s second largest continent—a landmass that holds the history of human kind’s first steps. Africa is also home to an unacceptable combination of lasting effects from colonialism, the Cold War, and slavery. Crippling the continent even more is the deadly pandemic of fatal disease and poverty that is irrepressible due to African countries’ crippling debt. The United States of America, the world’s richest and most powerful country is the sole creditor of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, holding the ability to write off third world debt and provide life-saving medicines to the thousands dying every day from AIDS. America has the means to fix this emergency but Africa is still going up in flames.
African countries spend $14.5 billion a year on debt relief. This is almost double the amount of how much is allotted for healthcare and triple that for education. For every dollar African countries receive in aid $1.51 is owed to debt service. Third World Debt is traditionally owed to creditors under two terms, bilateral and multilateral. The IMF’s Pamphlet Series regarding the HIPC Initiative defines bilateral creditors as:

Government creditors, whose claims are loans extended, or guaranteed, by governments or official agencies, such as export credit agencies. Certain official creditors participate in debt reschedulings under the aegis of the Paris Club.

The definition of bilateral debt is usually diluted to simply government-to-government payments. Much of Africa’s debt is owed to rich countries like the United States and Britain and to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund, both of which the United States happens to be the sole creditor. The World Bank and the IMF are essentially large lending firms for global and economic purposes, often helping countries in times of natural disaster and other financial hardships. These countries and organizations are considered multilateral creditors.
The IMF saw Africa knocking on its doors in the Cold War era. Loans were taken out in the name of Africa by dictatorships and unrepresentative regimes needing funds to stabilize their regimes or for their own personal bank accounts. The apartheid regime is an example of a corrupt system. In South Africa, members of the apartheid regime took out more than $18 billion in aid. Now, the victims and survivors of apartheid are forced to pay back the money previous generations took out. The original amount of money has been repaid many times over, however, due to high interest rates and creditor conditions, the amount still owed is staggering.
The debts are restricting much more than economic growth for these countries. Today in Africa, 42 million school-age children are not enrolled in school. In 1999, Tanzania’s education expenditure was 2.5% of GDP. By 2000, it had increased to 2.6%. Tanzania has since used the $80 million a year it saved from debt relief to improve education spending. Uganda put most of its relief savings into funding primary education, doubling its enrollment rate to 94%. This has also sparked a profound decline in HIV rates. Mozambique has used its savings, around $70 million a year, for vaccinations against tetanus, whooping cough, and diphtheria as well as for the building of and the electricity for schools.
Africa’s importance to the United States cannot be denied. The United States imports twenty percent of its crude oil from West Africa. The National Intelligence Council has projected this to increase to twenty-five percent over the next ten years, exceeding imports from the Persian Gulf. Thirty million people, equaling to 13% of Americans, trace their ancestry to Africa. Over 100,000 American jobs depend directly on our exports to Africa. The health and economic status of Africa is a devastating emergency requiring immediate attention and stabilization in order for America to function properly.
The leaders of the most powerful countries have great influence over the creditors of debt. Unfortunately, most leaders do not recognize Africa’s debt as an immediate emergency. During his presidency from 1992-2000, Bill Clinton was a strong supporter of the reduction of African debt. In a speech given on March 16, 1999, President Clinton addresses the issue of debt in Africa:

One of the most serious issues we must deal with together, and one of truly global importance is debt relief. Today, I ask the international community to take actions which could result in forgiving $70 billion in global debt relief. Our goal is to ensure that no country committed to fundamental reform is left with a debt burden that keeps it from meeting its people’s basic human needs and spurring growth.

Out of office, Clinton was equally adamant about relieving African countries of their debt. He introduced the Clinton Foundation HIV/AIDS Initiative that would help African countries prepare budgets and detailed government approved plans for the use of the money they save from debt. Under this initiative, Botswana and Senegal have already created such plans and proven that they money would go to good use—providing appropriate funding for nurse and doctor training as well as the building and updating of clinics and facilities.
Just months after Clinton proposed his initiative in 2003, the Bush administration promised $15 billion towards the AIDS emergency in Africa over the next five years. President Bush confronts these issues in his State of the Union Address in January 2003,

We have confronted, and will continue to confront, HIV/AIDS in our own country. And to meet a severe and urgent crisis abroad, tonight I propose the Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief -- a work of mercy beyond all current international efforts to help the people of Africa. This comprehensive plan will prevent 7 million new AIDS infections, treat at least 2 million people with life-extending drugs, and provide humane care for millions of people suffering from AIDS, and for children orphaned by AIDS.

I ask the Congress to commit $15 billion over the next five years, including nearly $10 billion in new money, to turn the tide against AIDS in the most afflicted nations of Africa and the Caribbean.

The White House later clarified that the $15 billion would include all U.S. funding for AIDS globally, not specifically Africa or the Caribbean and to date only $200 million of that money has gone to the Global Fund, a U.S. sponsored organization aimed to finance healthcare and fight AIDS, Tuberculosis, and Malaria. In November 2004, a new round of grants was slashed by the Bush administration, making their contribution $200 million less than the previous year. For the past two years, the Bush administration proposed the U.S. contribution stay fixed at $200 million. Congress has overridden this decision and appropriated $547 million. However, the Global Fund remains to come up short in its promises. The Bush administration, though claiming to hold Africa on its list of top priorities, has put forth only a fraction of what it has promised. At the present, only 1/100th of 1% of the United States budget is spent on aid to Sub-Saharan Africa. That is, only a fraction of the percentage of the budget, $1 billion in monetary terms, is appropriated to the continent. The Bush administration also emphasizes conservation measures such as abstinence-only and prioritizes prevention over treatment. With attitudes like this, leaders are not doing much to combat the immediate threats of death and sub-par healthcare.
President Bush is, however, doing a sufficient amount of perpetuating the enormous double standard surrounding debt cancellation. The United States repudiated Cuba’s debt after the Spanish-American War that started in the late 1890s. After World War II, debts in European countries like Germany were cancelled as well. Currently, as the War on Terrorism marches on, President Bush has set his priority on the rebuilding of the country. In early 2004, it was estimated that Bush’s goal was to eradicate two-thirds of Iraq’s debt so that future oil earnings could go to reconstruction as opposed to debt repayments. Much of Iraq’s debt, estimated at between $100-$200 billion, is considered to be odious because it was incurred under Saddam Hussein’s regime, not unlike Africa’s debts incurred by dictatorships. James Baker III, a Bush family friend and the Special Envoy for Iraqi Debt Reduction, said that Iraqi debt must be relieved immediately so that Iraq can find its feet as a result of the war. It seems that the U.S. is willing to write off the debts that aren’t owed to them even though it has been proven by the Debt and Development Coalition Ireland that both the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund could afford to do without the debt/interest repayments owed to them by third world countries without it negatively affecting their credit rating or lending ability.
In the late 1980s, an approach to restructure debt to commercial banks called the Brady Plan was adopted. This plan emphasized voluntary market-based debt service reduction operations. The debtor in exchange for bank claims would issue a “Brady bond”. This kind of operation is complementary to the countries’ efforts in restoring their own external value and viability. However, the Brady Plan did not go far.
In 1996, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund enacted the Heavily Indebted Poor Countries Initiative, or the HIPC Act. Since 2000, 27 countries have qualified for some relief and paid almost $1 billion less on debt, 23 of those countries belonging to sub-Saharan Africa (see Map). In order to qualify for assistance, a country’s external debt ratio after traditional debt relief must be above a threshold for the value of debt to exports, that is, interest as well as principal payments due on publicly guaranteed debt during a year for the same coverage of debt as in the net present value debt-to-export ratio, but expressed as a percent of the exports for that given year. The key indicator of external debt sustainability used in the Initiative is the ratio of the net present value of debt to exports. The country’s case is brought before a board of executives in the World Bank and IMF representing creditor countries. The relief is given at what is called the completion point after a country has been accepted for assistance.
The money comes from donors, official bilateral creditors, and multilateral institutions providing financial assistance in the form of grants and concession loans. The World Bank provides IDA grants and supplemental IDA allocations during this period. Between the years 2000 and 2004, Congress appropriated $860 million to the Enhanced HIPC initiative in both bilateral and multilateral debts. In April of 1998, Uganda became the first country to reach completion point under the HIPC Initiative and is currently receiving 20 percent of its debts outstanding. Mozambique reached completion point in June of 1999 and the country remains the largest benefactor under the HIPC Initiative, having so far received almost two-thirds of its debt reduced.
The HIPC also addresses the poverty stricken countries and proposed the nationally owned Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper (PRSP). The PRSP would outline the strategy proposed by the country and would be endorsed by the Executive Boards of the World Bank and the IMF. The PRSP theoretically should be in place once the country has reached its decision point under the HIPC Initiative, however that could be reached faster than a Strategy could be reached.
In 1999, it became clear that the HIPC Initiative wasn’t fulfilling its intention. The goal was to provide indebted countries with a significant reduction to a debt level that could be sustained and lived on. The Initiative promotes self-sustaining economies but is fairly unrealistic given that most countries are so strung out with warfare and poverty that they can barely make ends meet. The Initiative has been modified slightly and in 1999, the G7 and the Boards of the World Bank and IMF implemented the Enhanced HIPC Initiative, revised to provide deeper and quicker debt relief. Congress passed legislation in 2003 to provide even more debt relief, making it so that no HIPC pay more than 5% of its annual budget on debt or no more than 10% if that country has no health crisis. The Administration has not approved the proposal.
African countries can trade their way out of debt if only American agreements would allow African products to line its shelves. Capitalism doesn’t recognize that so many products and resources could be brought to American consumers if we opened up trade initiatives invited fair trade and equal opportunities. Quotas limit the number of products allowed into a given market and trade taxes make these products too expensive to compete. Some of these taxes are applied without regulation especially hurting the African farming industry.
The African Growth and Opportunity Act (AGOA) was enacted in 2000 as the first piece of trade legislation focused on increasing trade between the United States and sub-Saharan Africa by permitting duty-free export to the U.S. of most African goods. In order to qualify for the AGOA, countries must show evidence that they are working to improve the rule of law, human rights, and respect for core labor standards and currently 37 of 48 sub-Saharan African countries are eligible.
The products eligible under the AGOA include textiles, tobacco, coffee special blends—Starbucks Coffee currently sells this—tea, fruit, oils, precious stones, medicines, and leather. Many industries have benefited from the AGOA including agriculture, oil, textiles, clothing, and cars and as a result more than $500 million in new investments and 250,000 jobs have been created in Africa. Kenya has increased its apparel exports thanks to the benefits it saw from the AGOA, exporting $184 million worth of goods and implemented 30,000 new jobs. In 2003, the government in Madagascar approved export processing zone status for apparel factories, employing 21,000 workers.
As seen with the HIPC Initiative, these legislations often need to be enhanced and revised based on the progress or lack of progress shown by the participants. In the case of the AGOA, the U.S. Congress passed the African Growth and Opportunity Acceleration Act in June of 2004 by unanimous consent. The original AGOA was set to expire in September of 2004, however the newly amended law will improve the AGOA and extend it through 2015. At a presentation at Africa Action’s Annual Baraza, Ann-Louise Colgan addressed the state of Africa’s trade:

U.S. agricultural subsidies hurt Africa’s competitiveness, costing the continent tens of billions of dollars each year in lost revenues. U.S. trade policies, exemplified by the African Growth and Opportunity Act, have succeeded in perpetuating the continent’s role as a source of raw materials and cheap labor. The U.S. continues to insist on free market solutions to Africa’s development challenges, and to promote the interests of American corporations. But it refuses to dismantle trade barriers and level the playing field in the global economy.

While current administrations continue to promote trade as a way for Africa to pull out of its economic slump, U.S. trade agreements have proved to be false hopes for the continent.
The HIPC and AGOA have benefited many countries but they both fail as solutions to the debt problems still plaguing African countries. As budgets for organizations and spending on aid continue to be slashed, Africa is growing increasingly crippled by its odious debts. In this year alone, 3 million people will die from AIDS globally; most of these will be from Africa.
The AIDS pandemic is evidence that there is an immediate threat against the human race. Particularly on the continent of Africa, where 6,500 people die on a daily basis from insufficient health care and crippling debts. America has the drugs and the ability to cancel ridiculous debts. Legislation such as the HIPC and the AGOA are simply not working. For decades, children of repressed people have been forced to pay the costs left by the corrupt leaders governing their history. These debts must be cancelled and America should not live with the role they play as firefighters watching an entire continent go up in flames.

:crack: I'll attach it, too. Stupid indents.
 

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Nice, Keocmb! Do you have a bibliography/works cited for that? I'd like to read some of the sources as well.

I think the best paper I've ever done was a research/analysis/persuasion paper on AIDS in Africa (presenting history, facts, and then creating a development plan). I lost the file though :(
 
Yeah LivLuv, it's at the end of the attachment. I'd post it again but I'm on a different computer that doesn't have it on there. My internet blew up. :rolleyes: I'll get it from the disc tomorrow.
 
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