(June 20, 2006) I suspect the vast majority of ECA loans, credits, and guarantees to the Third World – which have doubled and now account for 34% of all Third World official debts – could be deemed "odious."
Patricia Adams
Patricia Adams is an economist and the Executive Director of Probe International, an independent think-tank and watchdog over the environmental consequences of Canadian government and corporate activities around the world. Her books include In the Name of Progress: The Underside of Foreign Aid, (Doubleday 1985), and Odious Debts: Loose Lending, Corruption and the Third World”s Environmental Legacy (Earthscan 1991), which exposes the jeopardy of years of loose lending for both the Third World’s environment and their economies, and proposes a legal remedy to place responsibility for the Third World’s debt crisis on the parties involved, instead of on First and Third World taxpayers. Pat also edited the English language translation of Yangtze! Yangtze!, the extraordinary critique by Chinese experts of the Three Gorges dam that inspired the democracy movement when it was first published in 1989, led to the postponement of the dam, and was subsequently banned by Chinese authorities. Her books have been translated into Spanish, Chinese, Japanese and Bahasa Indonesia.
Germany and Japan block new anti-bribery guidelines for export credit agencies
(February 24, 2006) Anti-bribery watchdog Probe International calls OECD guidelines "paper tiger" anyway.
International law supports Iraqi debt challenge
(February 11, 2005) Saddam Hussein used money western countries lent him mainly to arm himself, oppress his people, and build opulent palaces. So should his victims have to pay it back without knowing who lent the money and what the money financed?
Patricia Adams’ Oral Statement to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
(October 29, 2004) The oral statement presented by Patricia Adams to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the roundtable discussion on multilateral development bank corruption.
Patricia Adams’ Written Statement to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
(November 12, 2004) The written statement submitted by Patricia Adams to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations and the roundtable discussion on multilateral development bank corruption.
Commentary by Patricia Adams on Iraq’s odious debts
(October 1, 2004) "What better way to demonstrate the power of democracy and the rule of law than to establish a precedent telling filthy financiers everywhere their money isn’t safe when they finance tyrants against their people."
PRESS RELEASE Landmark decision will lead to other debarments
(July 23, 2004) Canadian-based foreign aid watchdog Probe International welcomed the World Bank’s decision today to blacklist Canadian engineering company Acres International from receiving World Bank contracts for the next three years and predicts the Bank’s blacklisting of Acres will lead to more debarments of other companies convicted in the Lesotho corruption trials.
Landmark decision will lead to other debarments: analyst
(July 23, 2004)Canadian-based foreign aid watchdog Probe International welcomed the World Bank’s decision today to blacklist Canadian engineering company Acres International from receiving World Bank contracts for the next three years and predicts the Bank’s blacklisting of Acres will lead to more debarments of other companies convicted in the Lesotho corruption trials.
Combating corruption in multilateral development banks: Statement by Patricia Adams to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations
(May 25, 2004) Patricia Adams’ statement to the US Senate Committee on Foreign Relations regarding its investigation of corruption in multilateral development bank (MDB) projects.
Human rights abuses and the Three Gorges dam
(March 19, 2004) Dai Qing, eminent Beijing-based journalist and veteran campaigner against the Three Gorges dam, discusses the suppression of opposition to the project in a recent talk at the University of Toronto in Canada.
Africa is not in flames
(November 17, 2003) While Bono’s oratory may be splendid, his analysis sells Africa short . . . As Africans know too well, the more that their governments have received foreign aid, the more poverty has grown.
Cancel Iraq’s odious debts first, donors conference told
(October 22, 2003) Debt relief groups have urged Iraq’s debtors to adhere to a 100-year-old legal principle to resolve Iraq’s debt crisis and assist reconstruction efforts when they meet tomorrow in Madrid.
Iraq’s odious debts
(February 12, 2003) Russia and France have good reason to oppose a war with Iraq: They stand to lose more from Saddam Hussein’s ouster than any other countries in the world.
Canadian multinational fined US$2.25 million for bribing African official
(October 28, 2002) Lesotho High Court has fined Acres International US$2.25 million (22,580,091 maloti) for bribing the former head of a multibillion-dollar dam project to secure contracts.
PRESS RELEASE Mekong hydro consultants convicted of bribery in Africa
(September 18, 2002) A major Canadian engineering firm that has worked on hydro projects and resettlement planning in Asia’s six-country Mekong region has been convicted by the Lesotho High Court on two counts of bribery.
Patricia Adams
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Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
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