In Mexico, wages halved between 1982 and 1988. In the Philippines, a million or more desperate peasants moved into the hills, where they cleared erodible slopes of protective trees and farmed to survive. And in southeastern Brazil, immunization cutbacks opened the way for a measles epidemic that killed thousands of babies in 1984. The debt crisis in the poorest nations thus confronts the world with a dilemma. Critics on one side of the issue point to the theft and waste and ask why taxpayers in rich countries should let incompetent or unaccountable governments off the hook.
Debt is a promise to pay, and a promise is a moral obligation.
It is easily the most far-reaching debt reduction offer yet, and a sign of the power of Jubilee 2000. Additionally, Italy, the United States, and the United Kingdom, among others, have promised to write off all their loans to the HIPC 41, which could bring the total reduction to 55 percent. With the debt reduction initiatives, official creditors have taken an important step toward resolving the current debt troubles, and with another big push from the likes of Jubilee 2000, they might go far enough to succeed. However, the initiatives only attack the symptoms of debt crisis. Largely designed by and for creditors, they do little to highlight, much less address, the underlying causes.