By Patricia Lefevre
Shoulder to shoulder, arm in arm, some 300 assembly participants ringed the Great Hall
yesterday afternoon, creating a human chain and chanting "cancel the debt," as
delegates emerged for their afternoon tea break on Tuesday.
While assembly youth initiated the demonstration, many of those taking part were
grey-haired.
"It’s economically, politically, morally and legally advisable to cancel the
debt," said P.C. Alias, professor of economics at Kerala University, in India.
He lamented that one third of every rupee collected in taxes in India goes to service the
nation s debt. This means that development aid, education and medical care all are short
changed, he said.
"Unless the debt trap is removed, India can’t survive," Alias warned,
adding that his nation is "exhausted" from carrying its debt burden. But lenders
shouldn’t be pessimistic in the wake of possible debt cancellation as the Jubilee
Year 2000 dawns, he thought.
"Lenders will be doomed if developing countries have nothing to spend because of
their huge debt serving demands. Who will buy your Coca Colas?" he wanted to know.
Alias, a Malankana Orthodox Christian, joined the chain and held hands with two other
Christians: Roman Catholic Assumption Sister Jessica Gally of London and British Guinea
theologian Dr. Hazel Campagne, a Roman Catholic who works as a consultant for the Anglican
Diocese of Toronto.
While ringing the Great Hall, Gally recalled a similar manifestation earlier this year
when 70,000 Britons, including many immigrants from Commonwealth states, ringed the city
of Birmingham and demanded the cancellation of Third World debt.
Gally said that the major churches in Britain, along with such NGOs as Christian Aid and
CAFOD all support programs for debt reduction and alternative economics.
Across Canada, similar initiatives were launched in September, Campagne said. They have
been endorsed by an interchurch coalition.
Switzerland has already cancelled its bilateral debt with 12 of the poorest developing
nations in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East, noted Christine Eberlein of
the Swiss Coalition, which is part of the Padare. The Swiss launched their debt
cancellation plans during the Alpine nation s 700-year celebration in 1990.
In addition to bilateral debt relief, the Swiss have also urged their commercial banks and
the international financial institutions to work toward creative debt relief, said
Eberlein, a member of the Swiss Reformed Church.
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