This is really quite a hopeful sign, but I have my doubts whether Tunisia will be allowed to go ahead with this:
http://therealnews.com/t2/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=31&Itemid=74&jumival=8732
The concept of odious debt has been around for some time, but there's some naive rationalizing going on in this - is it really to be supposed that banks that have lent to dictatorships were unaware or care about what happened to the money they lent? As far as they're concerned, the only thing of importance is to keep the debt-go-round spinning faster and faster....
What would happen, after all, if just any old country were allowed to poke its nose into what the elites did with the money that they 'borrowed' for the taxpayer to re-pay? Taxpayers in countries like Greece might want to know how much of their defense budget actually went on defense, and how much was simply bribery for corrupt arms contracts which could then be repudiated as odious.
Like the OECD convention on bribery and the UN Convention Against Torture, the elites of the north/west prefer governance by simulacrum, grandiose documents and noble-sounding declarations that are purely symbolic and which no-one pays any attention to...
Dr Jon Cloke
LCEDN/MEGS Research Associate
Geography Department
Loughborough University
Loughborough LE11 3TU
Office: 01509 228193
Mob: 07984 813681
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