Blog the Debt

Call for inputs for the 4th bulletin of the campaigns on illegitimate debt

The fourth illegitimate debt campaign bulletin is going to come out soon.  

Please send your inputs. The inputs needed are very short (200 words max) descriptions of actions you recently undertook or plan to start. If appropriate they should describe how others can join the action.

Organizations working on this issue decided at the World Social Forum in Nairobi that it would be helpful to establish a new bi-monthly bulletin to digest recent and planned actions in a short format. It compliments existing listserves by containing only extremely short and action-oriented articles, with links or e-mail addresses for follow-up.

Coming out every 2 months, it will help busy people within the campaign and people in overlapping campaigns who want to keep track of and join in with our work. At present, many people are either overloaded with information on their e-mail lists or are not on those lists and, therefore, excluded. The bulletin is being issued in English, French and Spanish.

The bulletin is the responsibility of the International Facilitation Team on illegitimate debt that was established in Nairobi. This comprises Jubilee South, CADTM, Jubilee USA and Eurodad.   

Send inputs for bulletin #4 by October 3 to debtbulletin@illegitimatedebt.org  

Remember to keep them very short, and provide an e-mail address or web link for further information.

8 NEW CO-SPONSORS ADDED TO THE JUBILEE ACT!

Rep Edwards, Chet [TX-17] - 9/24/2007
Rep Honda, Michael M. [CA-15] - 9/24/2007
Rep Watson, Diane E. [CA-33] - 9/24/2007
Rep Welch, Peter [VT] - 9/24/2007
Rep Murphy, Christopher S. [CT-5] - 9/24/2007
Rep Davis, Susan A. [CA-53] - 9/24/2007
Rep Pastor, Ed [AZ-4] - 9/24/2007
Rep Berman, Howard L. [CA-28] - 9/24/2007

• Join the Fast
• Learn more about the Jubilee Act

58 total co-sponsors!!!

Christians & Economic Justice on the Weakly Report

Jason Weakley, formerly our 2007 winter/spring policy intern here at Jubilee USA, started a blog after his time here discussing the intersection of faith and politics.

Yesterday, Jason explained the intersection between immigration and the need for debt relief. He writes:

Extreem [sic] poverty has caused parents to sell their children, young single mothers to trust strangers to take them hundreds of miles in hopes of a job, only to be fooled and sold into slavery. Whole families have sold their life's possessions at a chance of stowing away in shipping containers and trucks comeing [sic] into the Unites States, hoping for a better life here in our country.

Read the Full Blog

Why I Fast: Rev. Duncombe Explains His Convictions

• Watch video directly at YouTube.com.
• Use the video as a way to inform your faith community or organization about the Cancel Debt Fast and the Jubilee Act (HR2634)

Report Back from Berkeley, California

By Robyn Morrison | Jubilee Supporter from Berkeley, CA
 

September 18—I convened a chapel service as a component of Peace Week at Pacific School of Religion.

 

I am a third year M.Div. student and candidate for Ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church.

The service arose out of my reflection on the lectionary gospel text Luke 16: 1-13 and the message focused on the relationship between the oppression of international debt and war.

Understanding the Fast in 7 Days

By Robyn Llloyd | Jubilee USA Supporter, filmmaker, activist

JubileeUSA is holding a rolling fast for 40 days from Sept.6 to Oct.15 to bring awareness of the urgent need for debt relief for impoverished countries in order for them to meet the Millennium Development Goals of 2015. 

This year is a Sabbath Year (seven years from 2000) and the world is midway towards the deadline of the MDGs. But are we midway toward meeting the goals of cutting global poverty and hunger in half?

I am one of more than 10,000 fasters supporting the Jubilee Act (HR 2634), which is co-sponsored by 50 representatives. My congressman, Vermont Rep. Peter Welch has not yet officially signed on to the Jubilee Act, though he said he wuld sign it.

More than 10,000 people nationally are planning to fast — for one day or many — and have registered to fast on the Jubilee USA website.

David Duncombe, a 79-year-old minister from Washington state, has vowed to fast for 40 days, and spend his time walking the halls of Congress in support of the Act.

I decide to take part doing a week-long fast. Below are excerpts from what I experienced on different days of the fast. Though I know my experience of ‘hunger’ will have very little resemblance to the day in and day out suffering of one in five people around the world who are impoverished, it’s my way of showing solidarity with the millions of people who cannot and do not choose to fast. For them, it’s a way of life.

It's All About the Oil

By Nathan Fishman | Jubilee USA Staff

The article talks about the Oil Law that the IMF/WB led by the U.S. and Britain is trying to impose as a qualification for debt cancellation, which contracts out many of Iraq’s oil fields to foreign oil companies (especially Shell, Exxon, and other U.S., British, G8, country companies). 

A Dose of Realism: Gotta Love Gado

Gado Mwampembwa sent us the cartoon below. Many impoverished countries in Africa, Asia, and Latin America need debt relief to meet the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). Without debt cancellation, the MDGS will be just that: a goal never to be reached.

Wheaton Franciscans Fast for Justice

By Ann Piasecki | JPIC Office of the Wheaton Franciscans                     

WHEATON--Understanding the plight of millions of displaced people in the Democratic Republic of Congo due to civil unrest and famine, and the millions more attempting to eke out a living in Kenya and Tanzania is as simple as grasping an adapted version of a Dr. Seuss rhyme:

How to Keep Haiti in Debt

By Shirley Pate | hcvanalysis.wordpress.com

Long before Bretton Woods and the establishment of the IMF and World Bank, the U.S. and France besieged Haiti with schemes involving extortion and outright theft of Haitian government funds leaving Haiti in perpetual debt.

Paying for Winning the Revolution

Approximately 21 years after Haiti trounced General Bonaparte’s army in the Revolution, France proved that it was incapable of accepting the defeat.

In 1825, France promised the Haitian government that it would not invade Haiti again if it paid 90 million in gold francs (approximately $22 billion in today’s currency) for restitution to France and French slave owners for lost “property.” Yes, this included slaves.

The idea of being colonized by France again combined with France’s mammoth economic power left Haiti little choice. To make the first payment, Haiti had to close down all of its public schools and it took until 1947 to pay off the debt entirely. It’s no wonder that Haiti is considered the first case of structural adjustment.