Vulture Funds

Jane Mutanga is ill with the symptoms of AIDS and exhausted by hunger, often too ill to work to feed her orphaned nephew Obetty (11, left) and two children, Milimo, 4 and Mazuba. *

While a lot of governments and people are trying to alleviate the problems of developing nations by finding ways to eliminate their debt, there are companies and businessmen lining their pockets with money which was meant to feed the poorest of the poor. Vulture funds as described by the IMF are "companies which buy up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off and then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest - which might be ten times what they paid for it."

The world is full of greed but vulture funds take the cake, whats surprising is that these businesses collect in rich countries by taking the poor nations to court, several cases have been lost by cash strapped governments and vulture funds have collected millions which were meant for housing, food, medicine and education. The UK & US governments whose courts entertain these cases, can put a stop to all this but vulture funds line up the pockets of politicians to continue doing what they are doing.

• British Virgin Islands-based Donegal International paid less than $4m for a debt the African nation owed, but successfully sued Zambia for a $42m repayment.
• Paul Singer bought Congo Brazzaville’s debt for $10 million and is suing for $400 million.
• In 1996, Singer bought discounted Peruvian debt for $11 million and sued for $58 million.

Donegal International is collecting its money from the Zambian government after winning its case in the UK. Calls for Bush to put a stop to Paul singer and his likes have put Mr. President between the devil and the deep blue sea, because Paul singer according to a BBC Newsnight Report is the largest "donor" to the Bush Campaign($1.7M) and has already pledged 15 Million for Rudy Guiliani's campaign.

* Picture taken from World Vision International

Stuck

Pakistan seems to have been in a whirlpool since its independence. The nation is stuck between the devil and the deep black sea for ages. There is always someone at the helm of affairs for whom their personal interests are more important then that of the Nation. The people of Pakistan on the other hand have faced every adversity with hope and determination. What the world sees is a small minority of people bent on causing devastation and havoc, what they dont see is the silent majority fighting against all odds to give their children a happy and bright future, a future that our fathers fought for more than 50 years ago.

This recent development of the Judicial crisis in the country is nothing new. The President like every other human being has been blinded and corrupted by power, "power corrupts, absolute power corrupts absolutely." this statement that be justified for every person who has ruled out country. Power goes into our heads, the president saw that the chief justice was becoming a threat to his rule so he got rid of him. Did he for once stop to think what implication the action would have on the country. Yesterday we saw one of the worst days of protests and violence in the country. The government says that there is a free press in Pakistan how can they justify stopping transmissions of private television channels because they telecast the protests. How can justify the raid of a private television station by the security forces. Another sad era has taken wings in our young country, another blow to freedom and democracy. But we look forward to days where honor and dignity of every citizen will be protected by our state, we strive hard to get to where we should have been by now. God Bless.