The time is overdue for global financial leaders to heed the demands of protesters who want to see the world’s poorer countries given more grants instead of loans, which must be repaid with interest.
Even the Bush administration chimed into the cause last month when it proposed $10 billion in U.S. foreign aid during the 2004-2006 period if the World Bank Group would agree to give more direct grants instead of loans.
But European leaders say that approach would deplete the World Bank’s resources unless the world’s wealthiest countries significantly increase their contributions.
The continuous dispute remains unsolved after the weekend’s annual spring meeting of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund in Washington, D.C. The world financial leaders have been under increased pressure to more effectively battle poverty since Sept. 11.
World Bank President James Wolfensohn has been a proponent of the notion that the United States and other wealthy countries will not wipe out terrorism unless they commit more money to abolish poverty.
But the leader downplayed the failure of the United States and European countries to settle the dispute about the institution’s loan program. He said there is a real commitment to keep the program “strong and growing.”
That commitment needs to be one that greatly will reduce poverty around the world.
Argentina set a global financial record in December with a default on $141 billion in foreign debt. The country closed its banks indefinitely Friday to halt a massive drain on deposits, according to The Associated Press.
There is no reason a country should be driven that far into debt. Huge debts, such as the one facing Argentina, do nothing to help nations ease the strains of poverty. These unpayable bills only make poor countries poorer.
About 1,000 protesters gathered outside the World Bank headquarters in the nation’s capital to push messages like “People over Profit.” Reports say the crowd mostly was peaceful and no arrests were made.
This year’s protest of the annual meetings are a different picture than that of two years ago when thousands turned out in Washington to shout similar demands to the world’s financial leaders.
More than 1,250 people were arrested that year, including four MSU students who joined a group of about 20 East Lansing area residents for the April 2000 protests.
In May 2000, a small protest was organized at MSU against that year’s keynote commencement speaker - Wolfensohn.
The protesters who call for more debt-free ways of financially supporting the world’s poorest countries are rooting for the right cause. It’s unfortunate some of them don’t always go about the work in the right way, as is evident in the violence and distortion often linked to the protests surrounding world financial leaders.
If the United States is able to become a leader in the eradication of world poverty through the pushing of grants instead of loans, the world will be grateful.
And perhaps anti-American sentiments, such as those that led to the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, may be eliminated as well.
