That is to say, the campaign should respond not simply to the debt questions of an ill-defined small group of nations, but also to the deeper systemic injustice represented by poverty, malnutrition, the absence of basic services and cultural and ecological debasement resulting from transfers of wealth and the prevailing political power structure. This includes the structural adjustment policies that best epitomize social and international dependence and oppression. On the other hand, ecological health and renewal of the Earth hinges especially on peoples of the North who consume far more resources and produce more waste than people in the South. Many of these require campaigns to change the behavior of governments and communities, or our way of life. Jubilee signifies atonement.
Atonement implies forgiveness at the individual and societal level.
And forgiveness cannot be divorced from ecological reconciliation, nor reconciliation from recreation. The Jubilee 2000 Debt Remission Campaign is or should be conceived as as only one element for the New Beginning on every level. The specific petition of the Debt Remission campaign calls for the presentation of a petition to the leaders of the G-8 at their 1999 Summit calling for the remission of the backlog of unpayable debts owed by the poorest countries in time for the beginning of the New Millenium. But the attainment of Justice and the fulfillment of the Jubilee Vision will not be achieved by debt relief alone. Analysts and peoples would agree that there must be also an enablement of poor nations to make a fresh start toward genuine social and economic development.