The Sunday Mail
Martin Bernal, Chiekh Anta Diop and many other scholars of international renown will tell you that Greece — the most celebrated of Western civilisations — traces the roots of its scientific and cultural advances to Africa.
Africa is “the source”, in both physical and metaphysical terms, and a 19th century text by Gerald Massey says the continent’s name is derived from the Egyptian “af-rui-ka”, which means “to turn toward the opening of the Ka”.
The “opening of the Ka”, Massey said, was a reference to the “womb or birthplace”.
That said, Greece and Africa are inextricably tied. Never mind that trade between the two is miniscule — the historical ties are incontrovertible. And what is happening in Greece today should be of interest to any African as it raises existential questions about our future, questions that cannot be divorced from contemporary policy planning.
Here is the short of it: private investors put their money in Greece and for whatever reason, Greece failed to repay those monies.
The European Union, primarily through Germany, put pressure on Greece to pay at whatever cost.
Greece borrowed to repay those private investors. Naturally, it borrowed from the IMF. Now Greece owes the IMF. More specifically, ordinary Greeks owe the IMF.
Meanwhile, the investors get their money plus profit. Huge profits.
This is symptomatic of a sick global financial system, a highly undemocratic way of doing things that incredibly favours private capital while putting ordinary souls in debts they can never repay.
Zimbabwe right now is said to be frantically trying to appease the IMF.
We want to pay the IMF so that we can borrow more. Ever hear of a debt trap?
We have been through this. We see Greece going through this. Do we want to go down this garden path again?
President Mugabe has long called for a reform of the international financial architecture. Are we prepared to fully re-immerse ourselves in this system before not even a single move has been made to reform this suffocating and exploitative architecture?
Why are we not making equally frantic efforts to get a word through to the New Development Bank that the Brics — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are establishing?
Should our Look East policy not find it natural to seek succour in the NDB instead of wooing an unfaithful lover called the IMF?
Goerge Monbiot, writing for the UK Guardian last week, pointed out that to get money from the IMF you need 85 percent of the vote. The US holds 17 percent of that vote.
In essence, if the US doesn’t support you, you don’t get anything from the IMF.
And the American sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, orders the secretary of that country’s treasury to ensure every US director of any international financial institution to “oppose and vote against (1) any extension by the respective instruction of any loan credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; (2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United State or any international financial institution”.
And these conditions remain in place for as long as, among other sanctioning conditionalities, our Government has committed to land reform premised on “agreements reached at the International Donors’ Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 1998”.
America is telling us that we will not get anything meaningful from the IMF and related institutions until land tenure reverts to the pre-2000 status quo. So what are we doing? What are we saying as a country?
We are busy trying to raise money to repay an IMF that in all likelihood will simply put our cojones in a vise grip without giving us anything significant in return.
Will this lead to debt restructuring, or writing off of some or all of our dues? Consider the 32 countries — the majority of them African — granted Enhanced Highly-Indebted Poor Country status some ten years ago.
They owed a combined US$40 billion at the time of the write off. Today they still owe billions because their debts were written off so that they borrow more. International lending, as economists have pointed out for decades, is a tool to fatten the balances of private investors while screwing over poor countries desperate and naïve enough to think there will be salvation. Our energies are best expended in looking at the alternatives offered by the Brics NDB.
The basics of “looking East” and South-South co-operation enjoin us to do as much.
EDITORIAL COMMENT: Zim and IMF: Getting back to basics
The Sunday Mail
Martin Bernal, Chiekh Anta Diop and many other scholars of international renown will tell you that Greece — the most celebrated of Western civilisations — traces the roots of its scientific and cultural advances to Africa.
Africa is “the source”, in both physical and metaphysical terms, and a 19th century text by Gerald Massey says the continent’s name is derived from the Egyptian “af-rui-ka”, which means “to turn toward the opening of the Ka”.
The “opening of the Ka”, Massey said, was a reference to the “womb or birthplace”.
That said, Greece and Africa are inextricably tied. Never mind that trade between the two is miniscule — the historical ties are incontrovertible. And what is happening in Greece today should be of interest to any African as it raises existential questions about our future, questions that cannot be divorced from contemporary policy planning.
Here is the short of it: private investors put their money in Greece and for whatever reason, Greece failed to repay those monies.
The European Union, primarily through Germany, put pressure on Greece to pay at whatever cost.
Greece borrowed to repay those private investors. Naturally, it borrowed from the IMF. Now Greece owes the IMF. More specifically, ordinary Greeks owe the IMF.
Meanwhile, the investors get their money plus profit. Huge profits.
This is symptomatic of a sick global financial system, a highly undemocratic way of doing things that incredibly favours private capital while putting ordinary souls in debts they can never repay.
Zimbabwe right now is said to be frantically trying to appease the IMF.
We want to pay the IMF so that we can borrow more. Ever hear of a debt trap?
We have been through this. We see Greece going through this. Do we want to go down this garden path again?
President Mugabe has long called for a reform of the international financial architecture. Are we prepared to fully re-immerse ourselves in this system before not even a single move has been made to reform this suffocating and exploitative architecture?
Why are we not making equally frantic efforts to get a word through to the New Development Bank that the Brics — Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa — are establishing?
Should our Look East policy not find it natural to seek succour in the NDB instead of wooing an unfaithful lover called the IMF?
Goerge Monbiot, writing for the UK Guardian last week, pointed out that to get money from the IMF you need 85 percent of the vote. The US holds 17 percent of that vote.
In essence, if the US doesn’t support you, you don’t get anything from the IMF.
And the American sanctions law, the Zimbabwe Democracy and Economic Recovery Act, orders the secretary of that country’s treasury to ensure every US director of any international financial institution to “oppose and vote against (1) any extension by the respective instruction of any loan credit, or guarantee to the Government of Zimbabwe; (2) any cancellation or reduction of indebtedness owed by the Government of Zimbabwe to the United State or any international financial institution”.
And these conditions remain in place for as long as, among other sanctioning conditionalities, our Government has committed to land reform premised on “agreements reached at the International Donors’ Conference on Land Reform and Resettlement in Zimbabwe held in Harare, Zimbabwe, in September 1998”.
America is telling us that we will not get anything meaningful from the IMF and related institutions until land tenure reverts to the pre-2000 status quo. So what are we doing? What are we saying as a country?
We are busy trying to raise money to repay an IMF that in all likelihood will simply put our cojones in a vise grip without giving us anything significant in return.
Will this lead to debt restructuring, or writing off of some or all of our dues? Consider the 32 countries — the majority of them African — granted Enhanced Highly-Indebted Poor Country status some ten years ago.
They owed a combined US$40 billion at the time of the write off. Today they still owe billions because their debts were written off so that they borrow more. International lending, as economists have pointed out for decades, is a tool to fatten the balances of private investors while screwing over poor countries desperate and naïve enough to think there will be salvation. Our energies are best expended in looking at the alternatives offered by the Brics NDB.
The basics of “looking East” and South-South co-operation enjoin us to do as much.
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