The earthquake in Haiti
Few people can have been left unmoved by the pictures of grief coming from Haiti. As if life wasn’t unfair enough to its people to be visited by an earthquake that may have killed quarter of a million people is beyond the unjust. Something that is equally unjust is that Haiti owes a consortium of international banks over $1 billion, some of it left over what the Duvalier family dictatorship. This has not been cancelled, so while the international community have made great efforts to rush aid and relief workers to Haiti, that country has to continue to repay money to mega-rich financial institutions, to ensure their management echelons have enough money to spend on their private jets, their five-star resorts and their ten gran a night prostitutes.
This unjust debt can and should be cancelled. A petition has been launched to bring pressure to bear on the finance ministers of the G7 to take such a move at the next G7 meeting scheduled for Canada next week. Details can be found at avaz,org
