Wednesday, January 24th

Wednesday morning at the World Social Forum found Nancy in a session where Roberto of Social Watch challenged the perceptions of the IMF and neo liberals that governments of the South need to cut expenditures to make up budget deficits. The South recognizes that they need to increase revenues to meet the budget deficit. The invisible parts of our international financial system are the tax havens, investment returns on privatization, trade and tax evasion. The IMF is mandated with the control of capital flow, yet they do nothing about the major flaws in the system that drains capital out of the South. For every dollar spent on aid to the south, $10 flows out to the north through a secret system of tax havens. In 2005 there was $11.5 TRILLION sitting in offshore tax havens. If we just taxed that money at a modest rate it would generate $255 Billion in tax revenue. The Millennium Development Goals will cost somewhere between $45 Billion and $110 Billion to accomplish. It seems like a simple answer to creating a world that values all life, everywhere.

The afternoon found us all together in the “Big Tent” for a WSF sponsored conversation on debt. Our Kenyan hosts kicked off the meeting by singing and dancing. The Chair of the Kenyan Debt Relief Network kicked it off with a rousing speech emphasizing repudiation. “To negotiate is to die.” From an explanation of ecological debt by Evonne of Ecuador to the history of Haiti’s debt to buy independence from France, one thing is clear: The countries of the South are the creditors, and “Don’t Owe Won’t Pay” was the call by all.