Peace Without Profit: How the IMF Blocks Rebuilding in Mozambique

You've almost certainly heard by now of the massively painful and destructive floods in Mozambique. The floods have killed thousands and destroyed great portions of infrastructure . But what's making this natural disaster even worse is the structure of a global economy in which entities like the IMF control Mozambiquans access to development funds.

The debt service for Mozambique is over $1M per week (this for one of the poorest countries on earth), and a large portion of that debt can be traced to Mozambique trying to deal with South African apartheid. But now the only way for Mozambique to get funds -- other than donations -- to alleviate the present suffering caused by the floods is for countries to cancel debt, which the U.S. hasn't yet chosen to do, for the IMF to cancel debt, which it has refused to do, or for the IMF to make additional loans, not grants, to Mozambique. Of course, in the infallible wisdom of the "market" new IMF loans to Mozambique will be available only for the capital, Maputo, and surrounding areas, which weren't hit by floods. The area devastated by floods is in an undeveloped part of the country, and the market-wise IMF won't make loans for it.

If you want to understand why the situation in Mozambique is so tragically bad, read Joseph Hanlon's book, if you can find a copy, Peace Without Profit. It'll not only open your eyes about Mozambique, but about the IMF too. If you don't need to understand it first, then just call your Congress person to urge her or him to support debt cancellation for Mozambique.