So, part 2 of My beatitudes blog is going to outline one of our new fall campaigns at Jubilee USA. It's a little sad that I'll be working on this for the next month and won't be here in the fall to see it's effectiveness but maybe someone will keep me in the loop!
"Vulture Culture" Is a campaign to stop vulture funds from preying on small impoverished countries.
Let's start at the beginning, why are these countries in debt to begin with and who do they owe the money to? Many highly impoverished poor countries ascertain debt through dictators and governments who greedily mismanaged the funds collected by the state from the people whom they serve. When a country runs out of money they have the option to borrow money from sources such as the World Bank or the International Monetary Fund. Later, after these governments have been removed from power, the country is left with large amounts of debt that can total hundreds of billions of dollars. The country can then apply for debt cancellation from their creditor, a practice that Jubilee supports in full.
Sometimes before a deal is finalized for debt reduction or cancellation, a company will swoop in and buy the debt from the creditor, usually for slightly more than the amount that the creditor has agreed to settle the debt to the poor country. This company will often draft a thick legally binding contract that an impoverished nation may not have the legal expertise to be able to see the full legal scope of the contract.
If you haven't guessed already, these company's have been nick-named 'vulture funds.' After the poor country has payed the agreed upon amount, the 'vulture fund' will then sue them for the original amount of the loan.
For Example>
Romania loans Zambia $15 million. Zambia was not able to repay the loans because the farming equipment they bought with the loan did not work well and European Agricultural subsidies rendered Zambia unable to hold stake in the global market place. Romania and Zambia came to an agreement to liquidate the debt to $3 million. Donegal International saw this as an opportunity and paid Romania $3.3 million for the debt. Due to interest and back payments, the debt was valued at this time to be $30 million. This transaction occurred while Chiluba, a notoriously corrupt man, was President of Zambia.
By the time Zambia had settled on a debt settlement with Donegal International, the value of the debt was held at $44 million. Donegal International settled on a re-payment figure of $15 million (does that number sound familiar?).
Soon after, Zambia stopped paying the debt saying that it was accrued under corrupt circumstances. Donegal waited to sue Zambia until one month before Zambia qualified for HIPC, the Highly Impoverished Poor Countries Intitiative. The G8 leaders in 2005 voted to relieve all of Zambia's debt. Unfortunately, the Donegal International debt was not included because it was not held by a country but rather by a company. Donegal International then took this opportunity to sue Zambia for $55 million, the full amount of the original debt plus interest and penalties. After the case was taken to a British court the debt was reduced to $15.5 million, $.5 Million more than the original loan.
So, Jubilee is on a mission to "Stop the Vulture Culture!" Soon there will be a petition at www.stopvultureculture.org that you can sign and we'll deliver it to as many banks involved in vulture activity as we can! Get educated and stay tuned for more information!
Wednesday, June 25, 2008
MemorySuppliers.com
The fine people at MemorySuppliers.com are giving me $15 back on my order today for posting this link to their website on my blog. Thank you Memory Suppliers!
Monday, June 23, 2008
Part 1 of my Beatitudes Society Blog
So, this week I am required as part of my fellowship to blog three times. This is the first one. Enjoy!
Greetings from Columbus, OH!
I’m currently sitting in the Port Columbus Airport waiting for a connecting flight through NY to finally arrive back in my summer hometown of Washington DC.
For those of you who may not know what Jubilee USA does, here’s a brief rundown. Jubilee is an organization committed, like many other organizations, to ending global poverty. Jubilee insists that debt cancellation for developing nations is one of the most important things we can do to fight poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Why debt relief? It turns out that many highly impoverished poor countries have borrowed money from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other lending sources and have been sacrificing the well being of their citizens in order to pay down their debts, some of which were acquired under brutal dictatorships. Lending conditionality, vulture funds, and high interest rates are the three main contributors to global poverty where debt is concerned, but I’ll spare you a lecture on odious and illegitimate debt.
This weekend I’ve had the opportunity to attend Jubilee’s annual grassroots organizing conference in Columbus, OH. It was a jam-packed weekend of speakers and workshops, panels and fun. I was assigned to camcorder and picture taking duty for most of the weekend which turned out to be perfect. It gave me the opportunity to walk around and meet lots of folks from all over the country and to sit in and record some very interesting workshops on debt relief. Organizing a conference, as a co-worker put it, is a lot like having a baby. It needs constant attention. Needless to say it was a busy weekend.
Later this week I’ll catch you up on some of the things I’ve been doing in the office. Here's what you can look forward to: I’ll continue putting together my network of seminarians, trying to come up with community leaders to participate in an interfaith dialogue about debt relief and analyzing data to help with some strategic planning. I’ll also give you some insider information about our upcoming fall campaigns, “Stop the Vulture Culture” and “Picture an End to Global Poverty: A Call to the Next President to Make Debt Relief a Serious Priority, and Appoint a Treasury Secretary Who Will Do the Same. (We’re trying to come up with a better name…)
Greetings from Columbus, OH!
I’m currently sitting in the Port Columbus Airport waiting for a connecting flight through NY to finally arrive back in my summer hometown of Washington DC.
For those of you who may not know what Jubilee USA does, here’s a brief rundown. Jubilee is an organization committed, like many other organizations, to ending global poverty. Jubilee insists that debt cancellation for developing nations is one of the most important things we can do to fight poverty and achieve the Millennium Development Goals.
Why debt relief? It turns out that many highly impoverished poor countries have borrowed money from the World Bank, International Monetary Fund, and other lending sources and have been sacrificing the well being of their citizens in order to pay down their debts, some of which were acquired under brutal dictatorships. Lending conditionality, vulture funds, and high interest rates are the three main contributors to global poverty where debt is concerned, but I’ll spare you a lecture on odious and illegitimate debt.
This weekend I’ve had the opportunity to attend Jubilee’s annual grassroots organizing conference in Columbus, OH. It was a jam-packed weekend of speakers and workshops, panels and fun. I was assigned to camcorder and picture taking duty for most of the weekend which turned out to be perfect. It gave me the opportunity to walk around and meet lots of folks from all over the country and to sit in and record some very interesting workshops on debt relief. Organizing a conference, as a co-worker put it, is a lot like having a baby. It needs constant attention. Needless to say it was a busy weekend.
Later this week I’ll catch you up on some of the things I’ve been doing in the office. Here's what you can look forward to: I’ll continue putting together my network of seminarians, trying to come up with community leaders to participate in an interfaith dialogue about debt relief and analyzing data to help with some strategic planning. I’ll also give you some insider information about our upcoming fall campaigns, “Stop the Vulture Culture” and “Picture an End to Global Poverty: A Call to the Next President to Make Debt Relief a Serious Priority, and Appoint a Treasury Secretary Who Will Do the Same. (We’re trying to come up with a better name…)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)
