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Over the last few days, I'd become increasingly frustrated by the chorus of voices expressing their dissatisfaction with a FREE concert (not conveniently located to me, not the bands I like, not the bands that should be playing)...and now, not a single comment regarding the fact that all the effort Geldof, Bono and many others have exerted for years seems to finally be having some political effect ... it's just sad.
I know the trade issue hasn't been resolved yet, and the debt cancellation hasn't necessarily been granted to every country that needs it. Still, today's news seems like damned good reason to celebrate.
Debt cancellation is a welcomed and necessary first step but it is only treating the symptoms. The root causes are corruption and syphoning off of wealth by government officials; proxy wars for control of natural resources; and unfair trade practices. It seems to me that Bush only wants to address the first of these. I will celebrate when the other two are seriously being tackled as well.
Today, there was an announcement that the G8 will completely cancel the debt of some of the poorest countries http://www.cnn.com/2005/WORLD/europe/06/11/uk.g8.africa/index.html , and there's not a single post about it.
Still, today's news seems like damned good reason to celebrate. And not a peep.
I did plan to post it myself last night, but didn't get near my PC, and to be fair it broke fairly late on Saturday over here.
Interesting Gordon Brown (the chancellor of the exchequer) said up to 20 other countries could be eligible if they meet targets for good governance and tackling corruption. Poor people having to meet Labour targets. Next thing they'll be stung by stealth taxes (OK, I'm being flippant here!).
Twenty-seven countries are eligible for debt relief under the HIPC (highly-indebted poor countries initiative). The 18 that have reached completion point, and will therefore qualify for immediate debt relief, are shown in bold:
Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Chad, Democratic Republic of Congo, Ethiopia, Gambia, Ghana, Guinea, Guinea Bissau, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Malawi, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Sao Tome, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia
Make that New Labour. yadayadayada. I won't get on my hobby horse, but misguided 'Old Labour' and the party of big business 'New Labour' are very different creatures.