Daily Press Cuttings

 

Friday 7th January 2000

Le Monde: Jubilee 2000: French national newspaper Le Monde carries the article by Bono, published in the Times and the Frankfurter Rundschau. “L'idée immense, c'est Jubilé 2000.” France/Debt: At a New Year's reception for the diplomatic corps in Paris on Tuesday, French President Jacques Chirac called for "an ethics of solidarity" and appealed to the G7 countries to respect the debt relief commitments they made at their summit in Cologne last year. If these commitments are "strictly" respected, said Chirac, France could propose 100 per cent debt cancellation at the G7 summit in Okinawa in July.

The FT: Ecuador: Ecuador's President Jamil Mahuad yesterday imposed a state of emergency in a move to contain growing social protests, amid signs that the country's economic crisis is deepening. Confidence in the government has fallen with the sucre losing 21 per cent of its value since January 1st. IMF reform: Stanley Fischer, first deputy managing director of the IMF, yesterday countered US calls for the institution to narrow its focus and concentrate on financial emergencies by highlighting the IMF's wider role in international economic policy-making. Larry Summers, the US Treasury Secretary, said last month that the IMF needed to reflect changes in the world economy. These should include more selective financing by the IMF, focused on financial emergencies and less medium and long-term development lending. Mr Fischer said that whilst the crisis of the last two years had underlined the relevance of the IMF, its importance was not limited to financial emergencies. He described the IMF as “the most important way that the international community promotes good macroeconomic policies around the world.” this it did through its loan programmes with countries when crises did not loom, through economic surveillance and through technical assistance. Nigeria: Texaco, the US oil company, yesterday said that ti had maede a giant oil discovery off Nigeria that oculd boost its crude oil reserves by as much as 11 per cent. Angola: War-shattered Angola has taken a first step in what promises to be a spectacular expansion of oil output with the announcement this week of the first production from Chevron's giant Kuito field off the northern enclave of Cabinda.

The Times: Senegal/Youssou N'dour: Profile of the Senegalese singer, who runs Senegal's biggest communications empire. He owns the most important record label, Jololi, and the leading recording studio. The article concludes that Youssou N'dour is both a rare talent and a rare human being. Debt/UK: Letter from K.J. Johnson criticises the Chancellor's plan for debt relief, saying he is sick of seeing African leaders salt away public funds to overseas bank accounts. Regrettably, the African people to whom these funds belong have no voice and none of the resources of those who pursue the assets of Holocaust victims. Who is going to pursue the banks who connived in this scandal?

IHT: Poverty: Article looks at global poverty, saying that as we enter the new millennium there are more people in poverty than the world has ever known. Out of 6 billion now, 1.3 billion are below the absolute poverty line, living on less than $1 a day, and $2.8 billion eke out survival on less than $2 a day. Inequality has multiplied enormously. Of the poorest, 70 per cent live in Asia. The UNDP says that the gap between the one fifth of the people who live in the poorest countries and the one fifth in the richest is now 74 to 1. In 1990 it was 60 to 1 and in 1960 it was 30 to 1. The world's leading economies did agree in June 1999 to cancel $70 billion of third world debt, but as income levels continue to rise in the richest countries, generosity continues to fall.

The Independent: Venezuela: Venezuela is investigating claims that security forces illegally shot dead looters after last month's mudslides.

Thursday 6th January 2000

The FT: Cote d' Ivoire: Journalist William Wallis looks at the recent coup d'etat in Cote d' Ivoire. With a collapse in cocoa prices and debt servicing taking 40 per cent of the budget, the Cote d' Ivoire's new army chief, General Robert Guei, faces a tough task to restore its fortunes. The celebrations following the coup are mainly due to the ending of the increasingly arrogant and xenophobic rule of Henri Konan Bedie. One of the first challenges is to find room to improve soldiers' wages in line with the demands that served as an immediate pretext for the coup. General Guei has sent out mixed signals. First he pledged to honour payments on the $11 billion external debt. More recently he has announced a suspension of payments. External economic shocks have added to the difficulties experienced by the country. Last year's collapse in the world price of cocoa, 43 per cent of which is produced in Cote d'Ivoire, led to widespread protests by the many farmers, who depend on it for a living. Zimbabwe: Zimbabwe's opposition Movement for Democratic Change yesterday accused President Robert Mugabe of printing money to raise top salaries ahead of parliamentary elections. UK/Arms: Economist Samuel Brittan argues that so much effort and subsidy are devoted by governments to encouraging weapons sales that it would pay to reduce them. Reducing arms sales would have industrial costs, but it would also produce budgetary savings for the government in the reduction of the activities of the Export Credits Guarantee Department and the Defence Export Services Organisation. The net effects on the British economy of reducing arms sales are negligible or even favourable.

IHT: Cote d'Ivoire: Letter from A. Bolaji Akinyemi, a former foreign minister of Nigeria, says that the recent military coup d'etat in Cote d'Ivoire shows a defiance of the resolve by the international community to make military coups a thing of the past. It also illustrates the weakness in the way the international community has defined the doctrine of democratic legitimacy. It is apparent that so far the international community has been more concerned with free elections and has paid scant attention to the behaviour of governments once in power. He says that if the drive to enshrine democracy is to have credibility, sending observers to observe the process of elections must be accompanied by the institution of a permanent democracy and civil rights monitoring group. USA/Sudan: The NGO Save the Children has criticised the US government in its foreign policy toward Sudan, arguing that it is one-sided in its hostility toward the Khartoum government and insufficiently committed to promoting a just piece.

The Guardian: Zambia: The Zambian government has sacked all of the country's junior doctors for an “illegal” strike and banned them from leaving the country to seek jobs abroad.

Wednesday 5th January 2000

The FT: Russia: Russia is likely to stand by its decision to hold presidential elections on March 26^th 2000. (4/1/00) Debt/millennium bug: FT comment on the millennium bug says that the $400 billion spent on making computers recognise the year 2000 would have been more than enough to write off the debt of the world's poorest countries. Governance: Harvard economist Jeffrey Sachs argues that there should be an accepted international norm for the maximum period for the national leader of any country: 20 years. Castro, Mugabe, Moi and Saddam Hussein are all entering their third decade of rule with their countries in disarray. Corruption/ Nigeria: Peter Eigen, Chairman of Transparency International, writes a letter highly critical of the Nigerian Senate which is blocking proposed anti-corruption measures by President Obasanjo. The people of Nigeria stand only to gain from the success of President Obasanjo's campaign against corruption.

The Observer: Millennium/Jubilee 2000 (2/1/00): Leading figures tell of their hopes and fears for the next thousand years. Ann Pettifor, director of Jubilee 2000 UK: My fervent hope is for a Copernican shift: from a money-centred world to a human-centred world. For the subordination of money values to human and environmental values. For people and planet to enjoy the awe and respect now accorded to wealth. Andrew Motion, the UK poet laureate, lists amongst his hopes the cancellation of Third World debt. UK/Debt relief: (26/12/99): Observer leader welcomes the UK Chancellor's initiative on debt as far as it goes, but says that it does not amount to much. The initiative works out at 50 pence per British citizen per year---hardly very generous. The debt was not money lent for schools and hospitals but as subsidies to British exports. The relief will not come all at once and comes with heavy6 conditions imposed. Ultimately, the paper concludes, it is a small measure dressed up as a large one.

The Guardian: Jubilee 2000: (30/12/99) Guardian leader says that “two years ago almost to the day, we first wrote in these columns of Jubilee 2000's “glorious bravado” in asserting that “human beings have the capacity to right huge structural economic injustice.” We sponsored it as our millennium campaign. Yet we scarcely imagined the scale of its future achievements. At first, politicians were wary, but Jubilee 2000 matched street campaigning with persistent lobbying in London and Washington. They began to find allies. Both sides could join in celebrating the deal in Cologne to cancel $100 billion of debt, as well as Mr Brown's Christmas surprise of 100 per cent cancellation of UK two weeks ago. Jubilee 2000 has injected a note of optimism into the millennial gloom for the billions in the developing world. It has wrong-footed those who mumbled about western compassion fatigue. It has pioneered a new form of global internet activism. In all of that lies a hope for the new millennium that the decisions which affect millions of lives will not all be made in board and committee rooms, but also on the street and increasingly at the computer terminal. (1/1/00) Letter from Adrian Lovett, Deputy Director of the Jubilee 2000 Coalition, responds to the Guardian leader, which reported the UK chancellor as irritated by Jubilee 2000's lack of appreciation for diplomatic realities. There is scant evidence of Jubilee 2000 campaigners inability to appreciate the realities of international diplomacy. This campaign has been grounded from the start in those very realities and our record shows it. It was British Jubilee 2000 supporters who flooded the German finance ministry with postcards in 1997, helping to bring a marked change in that government's policy. It was the British Jubilee 2000 coalition, with our America colleagues, who worked the corridors of power in Washington to turn around the opposition of the US Congress in October. And we will focus in the same way on Japan, the new chair of G7, in the new year. Now that the British have joined the Americans in pledging 100 percent debt cancellation, we can focus all our energies on persuading others to follow suit—and on turning promises into reality. That is our challenge in 2000. (31/12/99): Jubilee 2000: Full page coverage of the past year of the Jubilee 2000 campaign, which was sponsored by the Guardian and bore amazing fruit. Millions of campaigners around the world won a pledge to write off $100 billion owing by the poorest states, giving hope to those like Peru. Peru/ Jubilee 2000: Madeleine Bunting reports from Lima saying that inequality is evident everywhere in Peru. Under President Fujimori, Peru has instituted the deregulation, liberalisation and privatisation advised by the IMF. While a tiny elite has prospered, the lives of people in the shanty towns are more precarious than ever. The response to Jubilee 2000 in Peru stunned campaign organisers. The country now accounts for 10 per cent of all the signatures collected world-wide. The role of the Roman Catholic church has been crucial—when priests asked parishioners to sign the petition, they did so in their thousands. Their enthusiasm became an expression of protest against a political system controlled by Fujimori. It amounted to a rejection of his entire model of development in which he has implemented IMF strictures. Global finance: (31/12/99) Journalist Charlotte Denny reviews the economic developments over the year, and says that debt relief for the poorest countries was put at the top of the international agenda at the G7 summit in Cologne by unprecedented public support. Letter from John Smith says that Gordon Brown does not deserve so much congratulatory praise for cancelling debts. The debts were not being serviced anyway and even if other G-7 nations follow suit, third world debt, which now stands at $2500 billion will continue to grow.

The Economist: (23/12/99): Debt: Main leader on debt relief takes an in-depth look at the issue and the “Drop the Debt” campaign. It looks at the problems of HIPC 1 and the fact that a country such as Mali would pay more after passing through the programme than before. It concludes: “Debt campaigners are right that the new century ought to bring a new deal between rich and poor countries, and that the rich can afford to do more for the world's poor. Debt relief is an important way of helping them. but it is not—can cannot be—a magic wand.” (The full article was sent round yesterday.)

The Times: (4/1/00) Jubilee 2000: Article by Bono—Why the Pope swapped his beads for my shades--on the impact of Jubilee 2000 in 1999 and what rests to be done in 2000. The article also appeared in the Frankfurter Rundschau. (The full article was sent round yesterday.)

The Independent: (28/12/99) Jubilee 2000: Ann Pettifor, director of Jubilee 2000 UK, replies to the Independent leader of 22^nd December on the British initiative on debt. She says that the Independent is right that kleptocrats could abuse debt relief, believing economic failures will be forgiven in the future, but why did British taxpayers guarantee them huge loans in the first place? She calls for more transparency and accountability, and says that debtor nations should be given the right to declare effective bankruptcy. A small independent and transparent court of arbitration would then negotiate between debtors and creditors. It would do so transparently, introducing accountability to taxpayers in both debtor and creditor nations. Corrupt dictators would lose the oxygen of new loans; and western financial institutions would be disciplined for bad loans. Letter from David Golding critical of the lukewarm Independent's leader. He says that the paper ignores the fact that debt sets the whole process of economic and social progress in reverse. IMF/Poverty: Jack Boorman of the IMF explains the thinking behind the new Poverty Reduction Strategy Papers (PRSPs) that will be drawn up by debtor countries as they seek their debt relief. He says that if we can succeed in ensuring that all resources—not just debt relief—are effectively used toward poverty reduction, we can rebuild the constituency for aid in industrial countries. Christian Aid: (2/1/99): Christian Aid advertisement “Millennium Madness, 1/3 off debt, still thousands of child deaths daily. Christian Aid argues that despite recent pledges on debt relief the situation is getting worse, not better.” Debt relief/UK: Independent on Sunday leader (26/12/99) describes the British initiative on debt as one of the successes of the year. We wait to see how much debt is written off and how many conditions are attached, but it would be churlish not to welcome this apparently altruistic use of his fabled “war chest”.

The Daily Telegraph Magazine: Film director Anthony Minghella describes his millennium wish to see an end to Third World Debt.