At least 67 countries cannot meet the Millennium Development Goals - to cut extreme poverty - without debt cancellation. It is not a just debt as most have been paid many times over - but the usury rates of interest are causing the impossibility of repayment.
Lenders have been irresponsible. Many loans were to corrupt leaders who oppressed their people (odious debt). People who never benefited from the loans are being asked to repay. Former Tanzanian President Julius Nyerere asked, "Must we starve our children to pay our debts?"
Ecuador's government programs now carry the slogan "Life Before Debt" because the government is responding to the people’s needs, "not to the markets!"
Democratically elected governments, like Liberia’s Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, should not be asked to repay unjust debt n after suffering under past dictators.
Jubilee Montana, a member of Jubilee USA Network, (80 U.S. organizations including faith communities and religious denominations) works to bring life and hope to the people. We partner with people in more than 60 countries.
The U.S. Congress of Catholic Bishops, African and Latin American Council of Churches, Nobel Peace Prize winners Nigeria’s Wangari Maathai and South Africa’s Archbishop Desmond Tutu call for debt justice. Pope John Paul II supported Jubilee. You can too!
A worldwide 40-day rolling fast begins Sept. 6. Mahatma Gandhi said, "My religion teaches me that whenever there is distress which one cannot remove, one must fast and pray." Join Jubilee Missoula members pledging to fast for one or more days (www.canceldebtfast.org).
Tell Congress, "We are hungry for justice." Rep. Spencer Bachus (a Republican from Alabama) said, "It’s the right thing to do ... ." and co-sponsored the nonpartisan, Jubilee Act, HR 2634 n to cancel debt without harmful economic conditions.
Ask Rep. Dennis Rehberg to join him. Ask Sen. Max Baucus, chair of the Senate Finance, and Sen. Jon Tester to co-sponsor a Senate companion bill to the Jubilee Act. Tell them we don’t want "charity" but "justice," which gets to the root of poverty.
Consider becoming a Jubilee Congregation like Missoula’s First United Methodist Church (contact Gail Gilman, 360-2759) and St. Francis Xavier Parish (Caroline Emmons, 543-0146).
Although solutions to global poverty are political, the issue is fundamentally about moral integrity. For every dollar of aid given, at least one and one-half dollars come back in debt repayments. Therefore, debt cancellation is a better form of aid, plus it works:
- Zambia made healthcare free for rural poor;
- Burundi and Tanzania eliminated school fees;
- Honduras provided three extra years of schooling;
- Mali, Senegal, Cameroon, Uganda provided resources to fight AIDS;
- Burkina Faso used savings to provide access to clean safe water and fight AIDS.
All children, all people deserve opportunities for education, health, clean and affordable water.
Missoulians raise your voices! “Proclaim liberty throughout the land to all its inhabitants. It shall be a jubilee for you” (Leviticus 25:10).
Rita Jankowska-Bradley is a member of the Jubilee Montana/USA coordinating committee, jubileemissoula@yahoo.com; www.jubileeusa.org. Stuart Reiswig is a University of Montana student and Jubilee activist.
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