 Presbyterians rally for Jubilee 2000 By John H. Adams The Presbyterian Layman Volume 33, Number 3 Posted May 22, 2000 LOUISVILLE, Ky. – With the blessing of the General Assembly, some Presbyterians went to Washington in April to rally and lobby for Jubilee 2000, a London-based movement to require major industrial countries to cancel the debts of developing countries. If debt relief is enacted by Congress, the United States would cancel its share of more than $170 billion owed by “poor countries,” although the determination of who’s poor and who’s not is still being debated. For instance, Nigeria, the sixth-leading oil producer in the world, is considered one of the “poor” that must have its debts forgiven. Jubilee 2000 is a paraphrased concept from Leviticus 25 where Scripture speaks of a “jubilee year” every 50th year to restore “liberty in the land.” The application to global debt has become a leading cause of mainline ecumenical organizations – the World Council of Churches and the National Council of Churches in Christ, which have had serious financial problems themselves. The Presbyterian Church (USA) and other mainline denominations that are the principal U.S. underwriters of the World Council of Churches and National Council of Churches are leading the parade for global debt cancellation by Congress. They argue that loans to poor countries impoverish them even more and that the only way out from under the debts is to have them forgiven.
One critic of the plan, economist Steven H. Hanke of Johns Hopkins University, says “the usual luminous do-gooders – politicians, churchmen, academics, writers, sports figures and entertainers” – are instigating the global crusade for Jubilee 2000. Hanke says the worldview behind Jubilee 2000 deserves a close look. “Here’s the pitch: 700 million people in the world’s most destitute countries are held in bondage by rich countries. Not to forgive the debt of the poorest nations would be refusing crumbs to a beggar,” he said in a column in Forbes magazine. Hanke believes “poor countries are not bankrupt – contrary to another Jubilee 2000 claim, again laid to foreign loans – but are solvent, as even a cursory review of their balance sheets shows. They could retire their debts simply by privatizing some of their assets. But guess what? Despotic regimes generally don’t like to sell off their utilities, mines and trading companies. And most poor countries are already liquid, receiving more money in loans and grants from official sources each year than they pay out in debt service.” Resources used by Presbyterians and others supporting Jubilee 2000 say the debts of poor nations are, in effect, a new form of slavery. They cite a United Nations report that says having use of the funds now required to repay loans “would save the lives of about 21 million children by 2000, and provide 90 million girls and women with access to basic education.” “The rhetoric pulls at the heart strings,” Hanke says. “But a dose of reality challenges that rhetoric easily.” Hanke says debt cancellation could have exactly the opposite effect as is intended. “Debt cancellation constitutes a transfer of wealth from taxpayers in Western countries to rich politicos and their cronies in poor countries. By further empowering those bad seeds debt cancellation will help poor countries remain unfree and corrupt.” |
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