Posted December 28, 2013
by Jerry Alatalo
One wonders if people ever think about a world where no nation has – there is no such thing as – what we call a “national debt”. Is such a world possible, and what would have to occur for such a situation to come about? I’m willing to get all spiritual/philosophical by thinking out loud on the reason(s) the Creator/God has for allowing such a state of affairs in the world. Talking about the conditions on Earth where countries are, either intentionally or unintentionally, ending up with facing huge repayments of debt – with interest payments alone in the billions and hundreds of billions of dollars.
In the past few days Democracy Now interviewed a fellow by the name of Eric LeCompte, who is the head of Jubilee USA, an organization that works on the issue of international “odious debt”. After the Philippines tragedy of Hurricane Haiyan, 300 or 400 million dollars has been donated by nations around the world to the Philippines for relief efforts. Mr. LeCompte stated that the government in the Philippines has, in the months since the hurricane, paid $1 billion from their treasury on interest payments on their national debt.
Mr. LeCompte pointed out that the Philippines national debt consists of billions that were racked up during the time of Ferdinand Marcos, and he is calling for an independent audit to determine what part of the total Philippines debt is “odious”. Now, some are asking, “what is odious debt”? The dictionary defines odious as hateful; disgusting; offensive. The criteria that must be met to classify certain debt as odious are:
A government took loans/debts which were not approved by the people
Government and lender(s) were aware the loans/debts were not approved by the people
Government and lender(s) were aware loan proceeds were not spent to benefit the people
Debts which meet these criteria can be classified as odious and illegitimate, hence not the responsibility of the nation’s people to repay. In the USA the budget items known as “pork” are directly related to odious debt, as the government borrowed for wasteful spending without the people’s consent – for things which did not benefit the people.
Find and view the documentary “Debtocracy” on YouTube or filmsforaction.org to cut to the chase on odious debt.
The USA government’s annual tab for interest alone on the $17 trillion national debt (some think the figure is $70 trillion) is $450 billion. The Philippines has paid $1 billion in interest on its national debt in the months since the most destructive hurricane in history devastated the nation. Now, the USA and the Philippines are only two of the over 200 nations on Earth. I haven’t yet seen a figure of the grand total the nations of the world face every year in interest payments alone.
With regard to the world’s public debt annual interest costs, could we agree that the figure is… well… huge? Now, I’m going to get all simple-logic, artsy-creative, and imaginative on you. Let us say that we possess the ability to have a shared out-of-body experience where we can go into space and get a look at the entire Earth. Let us say that we also possess an ability to see money – in the form of interest payments – as an energy/light that moves around the regions and nations of the planet.
We look at the region between Washington, D.C. and Wall Street, New York and see the brightest of energies moving between the two locations. We turn to gaze at the Philippines and see that energy on a smaller scale, yet it is moving from the capitol of the Philippines to whatever financial institution(s) receive the interest payments. We take in the regions of the Earth and, in each nation which pays interest on their national debt, the energy moves in small, medium, and large intensities related to the size of the country’s debts.
What the heck, we’ll go even further out on the artsy, “imaginey” limb by saying that at this point, out in space looking at interest payment “energy” moving all over the place, we smoke a doobie of the highest-grade pot in the universe. Because the strength of the weed is so high we now are able to “see”, in addition to public interest energies, personal interest payment energies as well. Interest on sub-prime adjustable rate mortgages, credit cards, student loans, cars and trucks, business start-ups, home improvements, Libor, etc.
At a certain point, as our expanded consciousness takes in the profound energy of interest payments moving around the Earth, we notice that the energy comes from a great variety of locations – but becomes deposited in only a few locations – where the energy emits light in a greater intensity. We think to ourselves about what those few high energy locations represent. The realization arrives that they represent the privately owned central banks of the world, and those who have the most stocks in them.
Through history that energy represents the trillions of dollars transferred from the human race to a few people.
So, is it any wonder why the people of the world are more and more making demands for public-utility, public-service, central banking? Recently the Federal Reserve “celebrated” its 100th birthday (1913-2013). It seems that the nations of the world would be much better off financially by strongly suggesting the 100 year old greed-master stop coming to the bank/office – and hang it up.
Thereafter, when men and women travel to space on out-of-body experiences, they will view the Mother Earth in a meditative, absolutely peaceful state.
****
The following interview is of Mr. Eric Touissaint, a senior lecturer at the University of Liege in Belgium. He appeared in the powerful documentary “Debtocracy”, and has an intimate, wide knowledge of odious debt. He is one of many men and women calling for odious public-debt, national audits to find and separate the portions of countries’ total debt obligations which are illegitimate. Those who have viewed Debtocracy are aware that the United States government successfully repudiated 50% of Iraqi government national debt incurred under Saddam Hussein, yet kept the fact secret to prevent any other nation on Earth from replicating the action, thereby blocking major reductions of debt/interest payments in regions and nations the world over.
In the Democracy Now interview, Eric LeCompte calls for independent public-debt audits to become widely performed in countries around the world, in addition to the Philippines. Mr. Touissaint calls for public banking solutions to the long-suffered world economic crises and austerity.
(Thanks to SkriptaTV @ YouTube)
Related articles
- Philippines hit as much by unfair debt as typhoon (irishtimes.com)
- Federal Reserve System CAUSES unpayable debt, unemployment, inflation, high interest rates (examiner.com)
- After 100 Years, It’s Time to Make the Federal Reserve a Public Utility by Ellen Brown (dandelionsalad.wordpress.com)
- Put life before debt in the Philippines, says Christian Aid (christiantoday.com)
- Jubilee USA reception sparks moves toward debt solutions (dailycal.org)
THE ONENESS of HUMANITY 