Category: Odious Debts by Country

When big dams spell disaster: assessing the Lesotho Highlands Water Project

(December 1, 1999) The Lesotho Highlands Water Project has its origins in the apartheid era. Lesotho Highlands communities are supporting the project, despite the destruction it has caused to their homes and arable land. South African environmental organisations, however, oppose it for various reasons. Steve Rothert explains why this project challenges traditional perspectives about large dams and development.

Givers and takers

(November 30, 1999) Most Taxpayers in the rich industrialized countries believe, as the Pearson Commission inquiry into foreign aid believed, that “it is only right for those who have to share with those who have not.” Much of the Western World’s sharing, though, has been in the form of loans, not gifts. The Third World has borrowed about one-third of the $400 billion in foreign aid that it has received from the rich countries’ national aid agencies.

PRESS RELEASE Philippine government to dismantle Marcos’ nuclear plant

(October 19, 1999) The debt-ridden Philippine government has decided to dismantle and sell the assets of the Bataan nuclear plant. The $2.3-billion (U.S. dollars throughout) plant, a painful reminder of the Ferdinand Marcos regime, costs Filipino taxpayers more than $170,000 a day in interest and accounts for more than 5 per cent of the country’s total debt.

Acres International replies

(August 27, 1999) We feel compelled to correct the record as it has been characterized in Patricia Adams’ commentary. Ms. Adams refers to Acres International and suggests that monies were improperly paid by our company to an official with the Lesotho Highlands Development Authority (LHDA). This is simply not the case. We did not make any such payments, and we have no knowledge of any improper transactions.