| Biswo |
Posted
on 12-Feb-01 11:15 PM
Though this thread is continuity of the previous threads on the
education of ministers, engaging ashu, Rajendra and I, this thread
will give a new view ,which was prevalent among Seattle protestors
(and Washington protestors also), when the pandemonium was
witnessed in USA in the past.
The IMF,whose membership is well above 180(giving a precise number
is difficult as new nations are negotiating entry, I know it was
182 in Washington annual meeting),which is a new colonial economic
consortium of new era and which claims to be a global organization
citing its membership, gets 40 percent of its funding from G7
nations. Naturally,IMF is raised under this affluent tutulege, and
is beholden to preserve the interest of the rich nations. But the
vicious cycle of loan lending to the third world nations which are
willing to bow to its bidding and the fall of those nations' social structure/economic structure has been very apparent
in these years.
As we may recall, in the aftermath of Asian Economic crisis of
1997, the IMF bailed out the big loan lender institutes like
Citicorps, Chase Manhattan , JP Morgan etc immediately on behalf
of those suffering nations, but it also imposed strict SAP
( structural Adjustment Plan) in those nations, acc to which the
nations were to develop export oriented economy. In the name of
making export oriented economy,so that the nations could make
US dollars and pay the money back to IMF, the nations were asked
to downgrade workforce, cut funding in dailylife stuffs like
education and agricultural applications. The immediate effect of
such 'export oriented economy' was ghastly: parents pulled out
their children from schools in record number, (esp girls), fertile
lands were used to produce cashcrops(thus using chemical
fertilizers and vitiating ecological symbiosis of the locale),
labor force became available after big layoff of existing work
force to use in foreign funded projects.Higher medical fee caused
more death, literacy rate went down esp among women, and social
tensions increased in society and the difference between rich and
poor gaped widely.However, the rich nations and the internation
lenders/vendors/industries profitted immensely,because they were
provided a cheap labor force, and a global market.Not a single
multinational company lost its income those days, while thousands
of people were driven to desparation of suicide and others those
days.
Among the nations suffering most from IMF prescribed economy were
Rwanda and Yugoslavia, who underwent economic restructuring in 80s
and saw the worst kind of social tensions in their nations.
Indonesia and Phillipines and Thailand are among other nations
that exhibited the futility of IMF policy. In the other hand,
Malaysia and China demonstrated remarkable progress because their
economies were not IMF driven.
So why the nations of third world agree to implement the IMF
formula? The most obvious reason put forward by the activists
in those protests were:
1. The finance ministers of third world countries tend to be
western educated, and pretty much representing their own state
of mind,not the poor nation they come from. They tend to come
from rich family,and really don't care to empathize the plight
of the class most likely to suffer. They also will be the
beneficiary of the process:because they themselves can start the
export oriented industry,and earn dollars while slave driving.
2.The poor nations are left with little choice,anyway. If not
complied to the IMF formula, IMF will not lend any loan,and other
organizations are likely to follow IMF.
3.The nations that don't comply with IMF don't vigorously campaign
their motive. They are somewhat smeared as evil nation in western
press already.
(PLEASE, NOTE THE POINT ON EDUCATED FINANCE MINISTERS).
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