Debt campaigners hit the streets of the Olympic City

Nearly everyone around the world watching the Olympic games on their television screens over the last few weeks will have missed the strange but highly dramatic sight of chain gangs marching through the streets of Sydney. Keen to make the most of the fact that thousands of people were gathered in the Australian coastal city to participate and watch the Olympic games, debt campaigners took to the streets of Sydney to draw attention to the debt crisis that affects many of the competing countries at the Games.

Athletes arriving in the city were almost instantly greeted with dozens of banners throughout the city and en route to Olympic sites, saying DROP THE DEBT and DEBT KILLS - with the Jubilee 2000 logo.

Campaigners also hit the streets in “chain gangs” of around seven each, due to severe restrictions being placed on the usual rallies. “Chained” together, with placards describing poor country debt as the new slavery, they reminded thronging city crowds that the world is a long way from enjoying genuine fair competition between nations at the Olympics. There will be no level playing field for athletes until there is greater equity in global economic relations, they explained, arguing that the first step was to cancel the debts of the poorest nations.

The “chain gangs” attracted a great deal of positive interest from crowds. The campaigners gathered hundreds of petition signatures and talked with journalists and anyone interested to hear more - people from Bangladesh, Belgium, the USA, Canada, Ireland as well as Aussies came up to the groups to ask questions. They received excellent local print media and radio coverage, as well as coverage by some visiting journalists.

Creditor countries and debtor countries with comparable populations show vast differences in their ability to send athletes to the Olympics. Germany is represented by 436 athletes, Vietnam with a similar population size is represented by just 7 athletes; France is represented by 343 athletes, Ethiopia by 31; Denmark and Rwanda are represented by 100 and 6 respectively.

Olympic Solidarity's entire budget of $US25 million in 1999, which provides hundreds of scholarships to promising athletes from impoverished countries, is about equivalent to what top American basketballer Kevin Barnett earned in a year.

Four fifths of the world generate less than half the total medal tally at Olympic Games. The poorest fifth earned 3.5% of the medals at Atlanta. This reflects the distribution of the world's wealth. UN estimates in 1996 were that the richest fifth of the world's population was earning 86% of world income and the poorest fifth was earning around 1%.

Nigeria exemplifies the connections between debt, poverty and Olympic achievements. According to President Obasanjo, Nigeria's borrowing of US$5 billion has resulted in debt repayments of $16 billion to its creditors, yet it is being told it still owes $28 billion. In the meantime Nigeria's debt servicing is around five times the expenditure on public health, while its infant mortality rate is 114 deaths per thousand live births. Australia's infant mortality rate, by contrast, is five. Hence, with a population in Nigeria more than six times Australia's, in the last two Olympics it won fewer than a sixth of Australia's medal tally.

In the 16 days the Games were in progress, on the basis of UN estimates, over 306,000 children died because their countries are servicing their international debt and therefore unable to use the same money on nutrition, clean water, basic health care and sanitation.

Thea Ormerod, a Sydney Jubilee 2000 campaigner concluded: "The slogan for the Olympics in 2000 is “celebrate humanity”. I hope that, when rich nations' leaders finally heed the call of their people for debt cancellation, at future Olympics we will be able to “celebrate humanity” in a way which has not yet been possible."

• To get involved in the Jubilee 2000 campaign in Australia, please visit their website at http://www.jubilee2000.org.au