Since the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank began their "debt relief" programs, most Heavily Indebted Poor Countries have moved more deeply into debt.
by Graemme Marshall
Today 52 countries are listed as HIPC
(Heavily Indebted Poor Countries) and the number of people in extreme
poverty increases daily. Despite some forgiveness, the remaining debt
burden still stands around $216 billion. Meanwhile, in those countries,
millions of people are starving or sinking towards starvation. Why does
the problem of debt remain, even after substantial relief? What are the
enormous global challenges involved with forgiveness of debt, and what
is the prophetic solution?
The Jubilee 2000 campaign
to forgive HIPC debt
In 1990, a petition was started among students
at Keele University to present to the UN secretary-general about the debt
problem. Two thousand students signed it, and in 1993 a small charity,
Jubilee 2000, was launched, drawing for its title the biblical injunction
about debt forgiveness. It has amassed 20 million signatures and expects
to surpass the 22.5 million mark of the largest petition ever, that of
the anti-apartheid campaign. Its deadline is December 2000, and its object
is to force agreement among international financial institutions that
it is possible to cancel debt. But not all nations are in agreement that
forgiveness of debt is the answer.
What is feared is that unresolved Third World
debt will further widen the gap between the rich and poor, the "haves" and
the "have nots." Some believe that to allow this to happen at a time of
immense change through globalization and other fundamental shifts in societal
attitudes would be dangerous for everyone. Jubilee 2000 aims to use its
20 million plus supporters as political leverage so a minimally decent
life can be had for over one billion people, as they enter the new millennium.
It's noble but prophetically doomed to failure. The real way (and revolutionary
in man's view) is the biblical jubilee—but administered as God originally
intended.
