22 Aug 2006

Global protests set at IMF-WB annual meet

By Veronica Uy
INQ7.net

Last updated 06:14pm (Mla time) 08/22/2006

A TOTAL of 350 organizations from 74 countries will be mounting global protests against the International Monetary Fund-World Bank during the latter's annual meetings in Singapore next month, the Jubilee South announced Tuesday.

At a press conference, Jubilee South convenor Lidy Nacpil said the twin initiatives -- the Global Actions against International Financial Institutions (IFIs) from September 14 to 20 throughout the world and the International People's Forum against IMF-WB from September 15 to 17 in Batam, Indonesia -- are demanding:

• immediate and 100 percent cancellation of multilateral debts claimed from the South without externally imposed conditions;

• open, transparent, and participatory external audit of all IFIs;

• a stop to privatization of basic services like power and water;

• a stop to funding environmentally destructive projects like dams, gas, and mining; and

• a stop to conditions that exacerbate the health crises such as requiring user fees for public education and health care services.

Nacpil admitted the difficulties in organizing protest actions in Singapore because of the city-state's strict internal security policy.

“More than the deportation is the fine,” she said, noting that in Singapore, three persons wearing the same colored shirts are considered staging a mass action.

Milo Tanchuling, convenor to the forum and secretary general of the Freedom from Debt Coalition, said local protest actions were being planned starting September 11.

“This is not because of 9/11, but because of the birthday of former dictator [Ferdinand] Marcos, whose policy of borrowing started all this,” Tanchuling said, adding that the Philippines has a standing national government debt of 3.8 trillion pesos and a public debt of 5.9 trillion pesos.

Tanchuling said 32 percent or about 300 billion pesos of the annual budget automatically goes to debt payment.

9/11 refers to the Sept. 11, 2001 terror attacks in the United States. September 11 is also the birthday of the late Marcos, the Philippine president for at least 20 years before his ouster in 1986 by a bloodless people power revolt.


7 comments:

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

Whilst the good folk of the chattering classes are screaming there guts out, the real humanitarians will be working quietly to save the human race from its own stupidity by Privatizing The Planet

These people still haven't got it, that why they're still moanin and groanin... and it'd be embarassing if it wasn't so funny to begin with.

When a "thing" is privately owned, it is LOOKED AFTER because the OWNER will lose money or lose value should the ASSET be allowed to deteriorate (by say, negligence or carelessness).

One sure way to heal the planet is to OWN IT — i.e. privatise everything. Consider this: if the Injun's had the Common Law protection of the institution of private property, no whiteman could steal Injun land.

If the niggahs had the Common Law protection of the institution of Individual Sovereinty, it would have been ILLEGAL to make any one of them a SLAVE.

Private property and individual ownership ensure that people look after what they own.

Why can these people protest, adn how come they have the resources to do such a grand globally coordinated event?

Because of the global market (capitalist) system which has given them: communications infrastructure, individual wealth and thus time to do this stuff, cheap computers, cheap bandswidth, cheap airfares, a reasonable standard of health (instead of battling diseases all the time), global knowledge base so that anyone can RESEACH anything i.e. Google and Yahoo (privately owned) etc etc.

Privatise The Planet!

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

antipathy: >>there are several logical fallacies in your argument.<<

Name one.

>>Firstly, not only are your examples non-verifiable, they fly in the face of common sense.<<

What is "common sense"? In matters of the political economy and social theory there is no such thing. And...

... just because you can't verify my examples doesn't mean they're "non-verifiable".

Anonymous said...

must privatize Green Peace, World Bank and IMF; they would all become more efficient; Green Peace would be able to mount better protests, and WB/IMF better meetings, and not depend on Singapore government to provide 4 millions smiles...

in the mean time, the privatized SPH sacks the failed journalist from Australia...

Anonymous said...

Lately, Mr Wang at http://commentarysingapore.blogspot.com has been deleting every of my comments. I don't understand why. I mean does this offend? I know it's completely off the subject but ....

57-42-202.rev.pacific.net.sg (Allen & Gledhill)

Singapore, 0 returning visits

Date Time WebPage
7th August 2006 05:34:10 PM plusminus48degreeswobble.blogspot.com/2007/12/dishonest-lawyer-or-politician.html
sg.search.yahoo.com/search?p=hoo sheau farn&y=All the Web&ei=UTF-8&fl=0&meta=0&fr=slv1-adbe&b=11
7th August 2006 05:50:11 PM plusminus48degreeswobble.blogspot.com/
plusminus48degreeswobble.blogspot.com/2007/12/dishonest-lawyer-or-politician.html
7th August 2006 05:51:49 PM plusminus48degreeswobble.blogspot.com/
plusminus48degreeswobble.blogspot.com/2007/12/dishonest-lawyer-or-politician.html


57-42-202.rev.pacific.net.sg (Allen & Gledhill)

Singapore, 0 returning visits

Date Time WebPage
7th August 2006 05:50:21 PM mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/
plusminus48degreeswobble.blogspot.com/
7th August 2006 05:50:59 PM mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/
www.blogger.com/profile/9100030
7th August 2006 05:51:09 PM mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_mytoiletpapers_archive.html
mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/
7th August 2006 05:51:12 PM mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_mytoiletpapers_archive.html
mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/2006_12_01_mytoiletpapers_archive.html
7th August 2006 05:51:14 PM mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_mytoiletpapers_archive.html
mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_mytoiletpapers_archive.html
7th August 2006 05:51:42 PM mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/2006_11_01_mytoiletpapers_archive.html
mytoiletpapers.blogspot.com/2006_10_01_mytoiletpapers_archive.html

Anonymous said...

lee hsien tau, stop writing crap, as we say in the outback go and stick your head up a dead bears bum. do you not have the intelligence to stick to the meaning of the blog? If you are a singaporean certainly no lah because I have gone already.

Anonymous said...

Gone where anon? Up the dead bear's bum? Was it dark in there? Did you hit any compressed shit?

Ⓜatilah $ingapura⚠️ said...

to antipathy: "the auspices of big government and military?"

I was using the hypothetical to illustrate the principle of private property. And you are right: if private property cannot be defended effectively, the institution (of private property) had not been developed sufficiently. But that is how progress occurs: by correcting mistakes.

The enslaved people of Africa and the Native Americans did not have the institution of private property and its defense developed, thus they could not defend against the "superior" (at the time) Westerners who had the institution of self-ownership and private property developed — the reason behind technological advancement, a wealth-producing economic system based on capital acumulation and the division of labour — and the preference for reason over mysticism with regards to decision making.

"Capitalism"is a bad word in many people's minds.

Gee, that's too bad.