REPORT #511 August 2002
NICARAGUA & BELIZE COMPARATIVE POLITICS! ( BELIZEAN PHILOSOPHY #104)


by Ray Auxillou

The heaviest indebted nation of Latin America, if not the world is Nicaragua says OXFAM. There is absolutely no hope of Nicaragua EVER shedding their debt. They can put moratoriums on payments for a breather, with agreements from the predatory lenders; but the interest keeps running continuously, increasing their debt while they take a breather? This is the help of so called "development" bodies like the IMF, Inter-American Bank, or World Bank? The World Bank is making $11 Billion a year off interest to Third World countries. (OXFAM) The IMF makes loans to other predatory lending banks in the name of the debtor nation, which must then still assume the debt, but meet IMF austerity measures. More commonly known as bone breakers, or testacle twisting of the common people, to squeeze the debt out of them.

Free Trade has been proven to be a FARCE in the last year or so! Free Trade is an industrial nation concept, to open markets to their mass produced products. Third World protective customs tariffs, protect local businesses, help acquire self sustainability and protect from dumping by mass producing countries.

40,000 businesses OXFAM says, have shrunk in ten years in Nicaragua to only 6000 businesses, while unemployment has increased 100%, under FREE TRADE. Is it smart not to protect your self-sustainability, even if local products cost more? The mass producing industrial countries have such protective tariffs, though they use semantics and call them by other names, such as; import quotas, agriculture supports and so forth.

Subversives are the common people targets of uncontrolled rampant capitalism, greed and exploitation, without any checks and balances. Subversives are unarmed civilians like me, who seek political reform peacefully against the power of the guns of the military controlled authoritarian greed self-enrichment ruling political party system. The ruling political party systems have variations in different countries, but common to all, is centralism and authoritarianism. Some of the worst self enrichment, exploiters are Third World political parties who have authoritarian centralized systems themselves and not by outside forces. Rule is by persecution using government bureaucracies and departments, forced exile, and in the worst cases by death squads fighting, so called subversives. 80 % of the dead in the last 50 years in Colombia have been subversives. Just ordinary unarmed people wanting the same political checks and balances in government and government services; like they see on television in industrialized nations of Europe and North America.

Should a person, an individual accumulate too much debt, say from Credit Card predatory lenders who gang up on unwitting naŒve people; individuals can seek relief in some countries by declaring bankruptcy under bankruptcy laws. The predatory lender then has to swallow and write off the predatory loans. Should not Third World governments who fall prey to the same predatory lending practices have the same choice of relief? Who and what economic, or political blocks will make such a bankruptcy law for governments? CARICOM? Doesn't seem so, if our own government leaders are any guage of intelligence, initiative, innovation and ability. They are sadly lacking and despite fancy academic paper University degrees are often more stupid, than ordinary fishermen. "Common sense they say is not so common!" And it certainly seems if the Belizean political parties are any material to judge by; the more academic education you have, the less common sense experience you have. If such people can write a bankruptcy law for people, how come they cannot write one for the nation?

As an alternative to a political block like the CARICOM nations, making a Caribbean government/nation bankruptcy court and set of laws; can a local government in Latin America and the Caribbean write their own lending and borrowing laws controlling political parties and their nation from predatory lenders and the raping of their Third World economies?

It would seem that it is easily possible? An example was thrown together this morning for the listserve in twenty minutes of, "off the cuff" writing by this fisherman/tourist guide. Surely the self styled LEADERS/RULERS of centralized authoritarian political parties in Latin America and the Caribbean, like our own PUP run government in Belmopan, by 23 elected individuals, can show the initiative and innovation to create and write such a law? I mean, why did they get an academic education, if they cannot show common sense and think about such solutions?

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