not the motorcycle diaries

I was bound to blog about this eventually, i.e. the G7-8 decision to cancel the odious debts of Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, Ethiopia, Ghana, Guyana, Honduras, Madagascar, Mali, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, Niger, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia. I may have been quashing my cynicism in favour of my ignorance here, but I thought the decision was a bit special when I read about it nearly a week ago now (even with that photo of Feckin Bob Geldof - the man we all love to hate). The debts of these countries are *so* emblematic of the worst of structural global injustice. To cancel these debts would mean that national governments are practically enabled to budget for basic needs over servicing their debts to other governments and financial institutions who already have plenty to play with and are generally hell bent on keeping it that way.

It seems pretty clear, as George Monbiot writes, that ‘cancellation’ comes with the same old conditions as the structural adjustment loans that brought on odious debt in the first place (and is therefore not really cancellation). Not much will change for people who will no more benefit from ‘public’ funds than they did before this decision. Anyway, the ‘granting’ of ‘relief’ by the global oligarchy on their terms is paternalistic and doesn’t suggest a radical shift in the balance of power.

But … it *is* a shift of sorts, and one that has been brought about by the exertion of pressure on the rich and powerful to take some responsibility for perpetuating such dire, endemic poverty - which is surely the stuff of change. In this sense, I can’t help but feel the debt ‘cancellation’ is, just maybe, in some ways, with lots of brow-furrowing caveats and mental gymnastics, a hopeful and joyous thing. Maybe not in a strictly political, linear sense - but when hearts are moved a tiny bit …. well, maybe we underestimate the power of this. Like the impending changes to Australia’s refugee policy, the decisions are so bound up in the desire to maintain dominance. And yet, because these decisions respond to basic human need, they still carry some potential for the radical change that is so required. Hopefully.