(February 4, 2004) Iraqi ministries will now be able to borrow billions of dollars to buy much-needed equipment from overseas suppliers, but only by mortgaging the national oil revenues through a bank managed by New York-based multinational JP Morgan Chase.
Zhang Guangdou’s interview on Beijing TV
(February 4, 2004) Prof. Zhang reflects on the courage of his late colleague Huang Wanli: ‘It’s not easy for all of us to speak out the way he did, is it?’
Saddam’s odious debt
(February 2, 2004) Saddam accumulated around $130 billion of unpaid debt, on top of tens of billions of war reparation, and the countries and companies he owes are seeking to extract as much money as they can and use the debt as a lever to control Iraq’s economy.
Government pooh-poohs Tutu’s apartheid appeal
(February 2, 2004) “If the archbishop had sat down with the Minister of Justice (Penuell Maduna) to discuss the issue, he would have had a clearer understanding of the government’s position on the litigation in the United States.”
Apartheid claims against top firms backed by Tutu
(February 2, 2004) Mr Tutu has broken with the government over the issue South Africa’s former archbishop, Desmond Tutu, has backed compensation claims filed by apartheid victims.
Nam Theun 2 dam – Fighting corruption World Bank style
(February 1, 2004) Last year, presumably in an attempt to clean up its tarnished image, the World Bank produced a glossy brochure: “10 things you never knew about the World Bank”.
Debt be not proud
(February 1, 2004) Odious debt" left over from rotten regimes cripples the developing world.
American Friends Service Committee
(February 1, 2004) Without doubt, the Iraqi people deserve a reprieve from debt. But Africa’s predicament doubles Iraq’s many times over. In Africa today, millions have been killed, and are routinely wounded, raped and displaced from their homes and means of livelihood by war.
Debt and reparations
(February 1, 2004) In addressing Africa’s struggle for relief from its onerous external debt, advocates of global justice have raised a critical question: Who owes whom? Millions of people on the continent and throughout the world have concluded that it is the countries of the Global North that are heavily indebted to African countries for over a century of exploitation.
After Iraq, let’s forgive some other debts
(February 1, 2004) It is right that most of Iraq’s debt should be forgiven – but so, too, should the debt for new democracies forced to endure the hangovers from the self-aggrandizing binges of their autocratic predecessors.
Power rumble in Belize jungle
(January 31, 2004) In effect, the Belize
government used the imprimatur of Canadian money (via CIDA) to push
through approvals on the Chalillo project. After all, Canada is not a
corrupt country . . . but this is flawed logic.
Green groups lose Belize dam battle approval
(January 30, 2004) Coalition of environmental groups vow to fight on.
Documents indicate that Hussein paid off officials, journalists
(January 30, 2004) The regime of deposed President Saddam Hussein paid off Western and Arab countries through illicit oil sales and bribes in exchange for their support for the regime, claims Baghdad daily "Al-Mada".
Bashar ‘ready to return’ Saddam cash stashed in Syria
(January 30, 2004) Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad is ready to return to Iraqi authorities money stashed in Syria by ousted President Saddam Hussein but does not want to give it to the Americans in Baghdad, a member of Iraq’s transitional Governing Council said yesterday.
Shh . . . Iraq (US) owes $200bn war debt
(January 30, 2004) There has been a lot of discussion of debt forgiveness for Iraq, but there have also been some interesting, almost forbidden, topics in the debate.
Patricia Adams
Dai Qing
Fan Xiao
Lawrence Solomon
Mu Lan
Probe International
Lisa Peryman
Probe Media
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