"The Generation That Betrayed Its Own Heart." posted by Richard Seymour

Western narcissism knows no bounds. If the antics of Gordon Brown and Bono are anything to go by, waging war on global poverty is essentially about us being good people, being true to our ‘hearts’. Yes, yes, yes. Our hard-headed capitalist mentalities tug us one way, our basic goodness another. If one sixth of the world weren’t already starving, they’d be vomiting their guts out. Bono has pleaded with Tony Blair and Gordon Brown to be the "Lennon and McCartney of progressive geopolitics". Well, at least that would give us a fifty-fifty chance of Tony Blair being shot.

The preposterous image of a benign West showering its goods on a grateful Africa/India/Indochina/wherever would surely have no purchase in a society where informed debate was the daily order. As it happens, little but the most rudimentary and banal facts are ever reported by the media, even that section of the press which advertises itself as having a liberal conscience. Bono urges his equally stale colleagues like Bob Geldof to dramatise global poverty just like back in the day. He calls people to the streets to ask "why these promises are not being met". Frankly, if it means being bored to death by a whining old former talent at a rally, I’d give it a miss. But just to answer his question, perhaps he might entertain the possibility that the reason Gordon Brown and Tony Blair are not delivering mountains of cash to needy villages is that they are part of the problem?
Naturally, much has been made of the US government’s refusal to involve itself in these soppy gestures. But this is treated as lack of charity rather than the refusal to countenance lifting poor countries even minutely out of the shitpile that rich countries have buried them under via the World Bank and the IMF. Consider:

Research clearly indicates that even the minimal poverty reduction targets set by world leaders cannot be met unless massive amounts of debt are 'relieved'. The response of the World Bank and the IMF is to refuse to complete the debt relief promised and are blocking further loans to Ethiopia. So it is paying an extra $35m a year in debt service. Ethiopia is being left to rot . Sudan is a nation in conflict, and in desperate need of debt relief - but there is no sign of them receiving any . In fact, you can find a similar siuation across Africa and some of Latin America.

Even the minute promises so far made have not been adhered to.

The reality is, of course, that the Structural Adjustment Programmes imposed on countries as a condition of loan provision is responsible in large measure for Third World economic collapse. The opening up of markets has allowed companies to swoop in, buy up the juiciest sections of the national economy, satiate themselves, rapatriate the profits, then withdraw their investment as soon as things look tough because there aren't any tarrifs or currency controls. This, in fact, is the principal reason why Western administrations have been so eager to make bad loans to countries unlikely to be able to repay:

"Debt is an efficient tool. It ensures access to other peoples' raw materials and infrastructure on the cheapest possible terms. Dozens of countries must compete for shrinking export markets and can export only a limited range of products because of Northern protectionism and their lack of cash to invest in diversification. Market saturation ensues, reducing exporters' income to a bare minimum while the North enjoys huge savings. The IMF cannot seem to understand that investing in ... [a] healthy, well-fed, literate population ... is the most intelligent economic choice a country can make."

-Susan George, A Fate Worse Than Debt, (New York: Grove Weidenfeld, 1990), pp.