Yosh Tandon - political economist, Zimbabwe

My name is Yosh Tandon. I'm originally from Uganda, but I now live in Zimbabwe. I have been an academic most of my life, teaching political economy in the universities. I am interested in conserving basic morality and decency. It is important for our people to prevent these values from being dictated by governments, large trans–national corporations, or international organizations such the World Bank, the IMF and the WTO.

19,000 children die daily in Africa from preventable diseases. There is no reason for these deaths. These people don't even have access to water, medicines, and food. According to some calculations by the UNDP, 50 billion dollars is all that is needed to eradicate this problem entirely from Africa. Yet, the debt of Africa escalates to trillions of dollars, 50 billion is just a fraction of the amount. This is genocide; so many children die every day, yet more money is demanded from impoverished countries. This is a crime, which goes unrecognized by those controlling the finances, the capital market, as well as the manner in which debts are being extracted from our countries.

We must intervene. We must stifle those forces that are creating conditions in which poverty can persist. I think that we are now in a global world where we no longer have the luxury of comfortably living alongside such atrocity without responding. In the South, we suffer all the time, and it's not simply the marginalized 60–70% of the population. Now even the middle classes are impoverished. Currently in our countries at least 80–90% of the population is suffering from the affects of globalization. The North cannot continue pretending these issues pertain solely to the South. The crisis in the South, if it continues as such, will spill over into the North.

We are now reaching a different level of understanding. Debt is not simply seen in terms of numbers that you negotiate with your creditors for relief on a periodic basis, or as a magic formula by which the developed countries can forgive part of the debts of the South and then enforce harsh structural adjustment policies. The people of the South must influence their governments so they may understand that the policies presented to us are false ones, and they should not be intimidated by Western countries.

The world environment is another alarming concern. Throughout the past five years, European governments have been forced by the people's movement in Europe to consider the environment a political issue. We are promoting a sense of value–based responsibilities, and not simply reducing issues to economics. I'm hoping that kind of understanding exists among European thinkers, although that is not apparent as of yet. One of my main concerns is that although the environment for people in Europe is an important political issue, exemplified by the green political parties, Europeans do not seem concerned with the development in other countries such as in Africa. While I appreciate the fact that the environment has become an important world issue, third world development must also be a major focus. I look forward to the day there are parties in Germany and Britain that focus on development. Only then can we say we live in a global society. Currently, environmental concerns in the North are selfish and ethnocentric. The issue of development must be integrated into political agendas. I hope that the debt issue could be one way of raising this consciousness for people in the North.

Countries such as Canada as well as Scandinavian countries have conflicting traditions. One is a moral, value-based, humanist tradition that takes social responsibilities seriously. The abovementioned countries have been able to devise a system that allows more equal distribution of resources, taking responsibility for their nations' people. The second tradition is a real politic one, which sees men as inherently selfish. It perceives human relationships as constant power struggles, and in order to maintain relations with other communities, countries must exercise their power. These countries are humanist internally yet they are real–politik in their external actions.

Internally, Canada acts rationally and fairly. Externally, it appears as though their internal value–system guides them on issues of peace, conflict resolution, and the environment. In reality, this is not so. In international relations they employ real–politik strategies, rather than applying their seemingly humanistic principles. This duality has become apparent. In their external relations, these countries exist as part of an empire, part of the United States, and Europe, as an empire in which they have different relationships with their subjects in the South, whom they dominate, exploit, and govern. Even when they cancel debts, they dictate how their subjects should organize their internal structures. They are patronizing, and they are forcing their will upon the South.

It is important to understand why the North has such a relationship with the South. The main instrument of the North is the G7, in which the empire comes together from time to time. The World Bank and the IMF come together because they have the majority vote and the power. These groups are power based, and they are united in a manner in which they are able to impose their power upon the South. In the UN, the South displays its want to express its opinions and concerns. The superpowers do not accept this and therefore their preferred organ is the Security Council where they can have all the power. When they cannot get consensus, for example on the Kazoo issue, they exercise power through NATO.

Western civilization has reached a contradiction in itself. It is humane to those within the empire, but this caring and nurturing attitude does not exist in the empires relations with the South. They even close the borders, because the barbarians are coming. Heavy immigration controls are employed, because the barbarians will disturb society or upset budgetary calculations. This is a crisis that cannot be resolved for the North, and we are going to get deeper and deeper into crisis. The only way to alter this relationship is for the South to rebel. That is what we are witnessing – rebellion in the South.

There are enough people in the North, however, who see this inequity, and want to extend the internal humanistic system in their own countries. They are the people who come to meetings of this kind, here in Dakar. There is the possibility that people in the South could make an alliance with such people in the North. However, most people in the North are power focused, empire people, and there is no chance that they will change unless we force them to change.