Gracias por la nota Andr�s. Es verdaderamente increible, aunque se despotrique tan ampliamente del marxismo, la historia se sigue repitiendo. Y en Colombia sigue la adoraci�n al FMI y al BM !!, claro, los que vendieron, venden y seguir�n vendiendo la naci�n, jam�s se quedan, est�n al frente de la OEA y organismos similares, sus familias llevan solo el antifaz de colombianos. En ciencia recuerdo a un iluso amigo mio que prodigaba elogios a USA por apoyar investigaci�n en paises en vias de desarrollo. Ojala �l, ahora, haya logrado entender que todo ese dinero regresa all�, en equipos, reactivos, etc. Por qu� ser� que nos cuesta tanto abrir los ojos ???. Fraternalmente, Mauricio On Wed, 11 Oct 2000, Andres Villaveces wrote: > > Env�o ac� un comentario editorial del London Observer sobre la "ayuda" que > este organismo supuestamente presta a los pa�ses en desarrollo. (Va en > ingl�s). > > Atte, Andres. > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > Andr�s Villaveces Izquierdo MD MPH > PhD Candidate, Department of Epidemiology > University of Washington, Seattle, Washington > WK : (206) 521-1570 > FAX : (206) 521-1562 or (508) 526-1066 > email: [EMAIL PROTECTED] > http://students.washington.edu/avillav > ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ > > ++++++++++++++++++++++ > > The following is from the (London) Observer's Business section (it's a > Sunday-only newspaper). I am sending it mainly as background, but if you > want to write an LTE (letter to the editor), the address is > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (put 'Letter to the Editor' in the subject line) > > -------------------------------------------------------------- > > Failures of the 20th century: see under IMF > > An internal study reveals the price 'rescued' nations pay: dearer > essentials, worse poverty and shorter lives > > Sunday October 8, 2000 > > So call me a liar. I was standing in front of the New York Hilton Hotel when > the limousine carrying International Monetary Fund director Horst Kohler > zoomed by, hitting a bump. Out flew a confidential report, Ecuador Interim > Country Assistance Strategy. You suspect that's not how I got it, but you > can trust me that it contains the answer to a puzzling question. Inside the > Hilton, Professor Anthony Giddens told an earnest crowd of London School of > Economics alumni that 'globalisation is a fact, and it is driven by the > communications revolution'. > > Wow. That was an eye-opener. The screeching green-haired freaks outside the > hotel demonstrating against the IMF had it all wrong. > > Globalisation, Giddens seems to say, is about giving every villager in the > Andes a Nokia internet-enabled mobile phone. What puzzled me is why anyone > would protest against this happy future. > > So I thumbed through my purloined IMF Strategy for Ecuador seeking a chapter > on connecting the country's schools to the world wide web. Instead, I found > a secret schedule. By 1 November this year, it says, its government is > ordered to raise the price of cooking gas by 80 per cent. It must eliminate > 26,000 jobs and halve real wages for the remaining workers by 50 per cent in > four steps in months specified by the IMF. It must begin to transfer > ownership of its biggest water system to foreign operators by July and grant > BP's Arco subsidiary the right to build and own an oil pipeline over the > Andes. > > That's for starters. In all, the IMF's 167 loan conditions look less like an > assistance plan and more like a blueprint for a financial coup d'�tat. > > The IMF would say it has no choice. Ecuador is broke, thanks to the > implosion of its commercial banks. But how did Ecuador, an Opec member with > resources to spare, end up in such a pickle? > > For that, we have to turn back to 1983, when the IMF forced its government > to take over the soured private debts owed by Ecuador's elite to foreign > banks. For this bail-out of US and local financiers, Ecuador borrowed $1.5 > billion. > > To repay this loan, the IMF dictated price hikes for electricity and other > necessities. And when that didn't drain off enough cash, yet another > assistance plan required the state to eliminate 120,000 jobs. > > Furthermore, while trying to meet the mountain of IMF obligations, Ecuador > foolishly 'liberalised' its tiny financial market, cutting local banks loose > from government controls and letting private debt and interest rates > explode. > > Who pushed Ecuador into this nutty romp with free-market banking? Hint: the > initials are IMF. It made bank liberalisation a condition of another berserk > assistance plan. The facts of this nasty little history come from the IMF > report marked: 'Please do not cite.' Pretend I didn't. > > The IMF and the World Bank have lent a sticky helping hand to scores of > nations. Take Tanzania. Today, 1.4 million people there are getting ready to > die. They are the 8 per cent of the nation's population who have the Aids > virus. The financial 'rescuers' found a brilliant neo-liberal solution: > require Tanzania to charge for hospital visits, previously free. This cut > the number of patients treated in the three big public hospitals in the > capital, Dar es Salaam, by 53 per cent. The financial cures must be working. > > The bodies told Tanzania to charge school fees. Now the bank expresses > surprise that school enrolment is down from 80 per cent to 66 per cent. > > Altogether the Bank and IMF have 157 other helpful suggestions for Tanzania, > and the Tanzanian government secretly agreed last April to adopt them all. > It was sign or starve. No developing nation can borrow hard currency without > IMF blessing (except China, whose output grows at 5 per cent a year thanks > to it studiously following the reverse of IMF policies). > > The IMF and World Bank have effectively controlled Tanzania's economy since > 1985. Admittedly, when they took charge they found a socialist nation mired > in poverty, disease and debt. > > Their experts wasted no time in cutting trade barriers, limiting government > subsidies and selling off state industries. This worked wonders. According > to bank-watcher Nancy Alexander of the Washington-based Globalisation > Challenge Initiative,in just 15 years Tanzania's GDP has dropped from $309 > to $210 per capita, the literacy rate is falling and the rate of abject > poverty has jumped to 51 per cent of the population. > > Yet somehow the bank has failed to win over the hearts and minds of > Tanzanians to its free-market gameplan. Last June, the bank reported in > frustration: 'One legacy of socialism is that most people continue to > believe the state has a fundamental role in promoting development and > providing social services.' > > The World Bank and the IMF were born in 1944 with simple, laudable mandates: > between them to fund post-war reconstruction and development projects and > lend hard currency to nations left skint by temporary balance of payments > deficits. > > But in 1980 they seemed to take on an alien form. In the early Eighties, > Third World nations, haemorrhaging after the fivefold increases in oil > prices and a similar jump in dollar interest payments, brought their begging > bowls to the two bodies. But instead of debt relief, they received > structural assistance plans listing an average of 114 'conditionalities' in > return for capital. > > The particulars varied from nation to nation, but in every case, they had to > remove trade barriers, sell national assets to foreign investors, slash > social spending and make labour 'flexible' (that is, crush unions). > > Some say the vicious policy change resulted from the election that year of > Ronald Reagan as US President, the quickening of Margaret Thatcher's powers > and the beginning of the neo-liberal ascendency. (My own information is that > the IMF and World Bank were taken over by a space alien named Larry. It's > obvious that 'Larry' Summers, once World Bank chief economist and now US > Treasury Secretary, is really a platoon of extra- terrestrials sent to turn > much of the human race into a source of cheap protein. But I digress.) > > So what have The Aliens accomplished with their e free-market prescriptions? > An article by Samuel Brittan in last week's Financial Times declared that > the new world capital markets and free trade have 'brought about an > unprecedented increase in world living standards'. Brittan cites the huge > growth in GDP per capita, life expectancy and literacy in the less developed > world from 1950 to 1995. > > Now hold on a minute. Until 1980, virtually every nation in his survey was > either socialist or welfare statist. They were developing on the 'Import > Substitution Model', by which locally-owned industry was built through > government investment and high tariffs, anathema to the neoliberals. > > In those dark ages of increasing national government control and ownership > (1960-1980), per capita income grew by 73 per cent in Latin America and by > 34 per cent in Africa. By comparison, since 1980, Latin American growth has > come to a virtual halt, growing by less than 6 per cent over 20 years - and > African incomes have declined by 23 per cent. > > Now let's count the corpses. From 1950 to 1980, socialist and statist > welfare policies added more than a decade of life expectancy to virtually > every nation on the planet. From 1980 to today, life under structural > assistance has become brutish and shorter. Since 1985, the total number of > illiterate people has risen and life expectancy is falling in 15 African > nations. Brittan attributes this to 'bad luck, [not] the international > economic system'. In the former Soviet states, where IMF and World Bank > shock plans hold sway, life expectancy has plunged, adding 1.4 million a > year to the death rate in Russia alone. > > Admittedly, the World Bank and IMF are reforming. The dreaded structural > assistance plans have been renamed 'poverty reduction strategies'. Doesn't > that make you feel better? > > Recently, the IMF admitted that 'in the recent decades, nearly one-fifth of > the world population have regressed' - arguably 'one of the greatest > economic failures of the twentieth century.' And that, Professor Giddens, is > a fact. > > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > > > ============================================================================= > Si necesita retirarse de la lista envie un mensaje a: > [EMAIL PROTECTED] > con una unica linea : > unsubscribe r-caldas > Para inscribirse en la lista envie un mensaje a [EMAIL PROTECTED] > con una unica linea : > subscribe r-caldas > Los mensajes que circulan en la lista los puede consultar en : > http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected] > ============================================================================= Si necesita retirarse de la lista envie un mensaje a: [EMAIL PROTECTED] con una unica linea : unsubscribe r-caldas Para inscribirse en la lista envie un mensaje a [EMAIL PROTECTED] con una unica linea : subscribe r-caldas Los mensajes que circulan en la lista los puede consultar en : http://www.mail-archive.com/[email protected]
