wfn.org | Address by the Archbishop of Cape Town

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TITLE:FEATURES SERVICE
April 25, 1997
ANGLICAN COMMUNION NEWS SERVICE
Canon Jim Rosenthal, Director of Communications,
Anglican Communion Office
London, UK

[97.4.4.7] 

FEATURES SERVICE

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Address by the Archbishop of Cape Town,
The Most Reverend Njongonkulu Ndungane,
at Southwark Cathedral,
Thursday, April 24, 1997

Seizing the new Millennium: Reshaping the World's Economy

Grace and peace to you all in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ. It is
good to be with you today as we approach the new millennium. There could
not be a more appropriate place for this address than this great
Cathedral which stands on a site where people have worshipped for more
than a thousand millennium. This place of holiness and worship stands in
the shadow of the City D a place of complex relationships where powerful
financial decisions and actions influence people in far-flung and 
isolated parts of the world. But the City of London, its workers,
dealers, clients and commentators stand at the centre of our new global
village and its economy.

The church's role in the world is somewhat different, and far less
powerful. For it exists for mission. As Christians, our responsibility
is to the God we worship. Like Jesus of Nazareth we do not share in the
power and influence of institutions such as those that dominate the City
of London. But there are comparisons. One of our strengths is that, like
a multi-national such as Shell Oil, or Coca-Cola, we too are part of an
international organisation with branches and outlets throughout this
world village. In the new Europe, in Africa, in Latin America, in Asia,
we are growing and are spread throughout the land. People gather
together in our premises, in great Cathedrals such as this, in wattle
and daub structures, in small halls, and under trees. We are more
diverse than the most diverse multi-national, and we are able to bring
all well-disposed people together. That is a great strength. In bringing
people together, the Church has an obligation to read the signs the
times and to interpret them in the light of the Gospel. In this address
today, I want to make the links between our responsibility as god's
stewards, the obligation of the world of finance, and the possibilities
of new beginnings at the dawn of the new millennium.

So, from this bustling city of London, let me take you to the other
extremity of the globe in the southern hemisphere D to the side of the
road in Maputo that links Mozambique to what  is generally thought to be
the economic giant in that region, South Africa. On this road are
countless business people. There is the occasional stall selling fruit,
vegetables and indigenous craft. Most of these business people
displaying their wares alongside the road, however, are entrepreneurs 
in what was the world'spoorest country. They proudly display their wares
on the roadside: lounge and bedroom suites and other furniture,
barbecues made of wrought iron, wicker work and other manufactured goods
which would typically emerge from a light industrial area in developed
nations.

The difference is that these hard-working people have had to develop
their industry without capital and in the aftermath of two debilitating
civil wars. This is part of an economic turnaround in this Third World
country which expects a 7 to 8 percentage growth per annum in the next
two years. I use the term Third World with some reluctance, because of
the recent history in my own country, where blacks were referred to as
third class citizens. It seems to me that referring to developing
countries in Africa, Latin America and Asia as Third World implies that
they are third class citizens of the world, doomed always to straggling
last across the finishing lines of life's races. You will thus
understand if I tend to refer to developing countries as opposed to the
Third World.

But to return to Mozambique, recent reports show that exports are up,
and some US$6-billion is expected in foreign investment. Mozambique, in
which the Anglican Diocese of Lebombo also falls, has swallowed the
medicine prescribed by the World Bank, in the form of a structural
adjustment programme that decreased inflation and increased
privatisation, with concomitant changes in foreign exchange restrictions
and fiscal discipline. Spending is kept strictly in line with actual,
not projected revenue collection, something that is seldom achieved by
the governments of industrialised countries .

The cautionary tale that should follow from this apparent beginning of a
success story in Africa is that the World Bank, the IMF, and other
global financial institutions do not repeat the policies of
strangulation experienced by developing countries in the past. For this
would choke the economy of Mozambique and deny the fulfilment of the
potential of the entrepreneurs of whom I have spoken. This is because
the history of developing countries and their relationship with the
honey pots of the northern hemisphere is not happy. Many of these
countries emerged from protracted freedom struggles against colonial
oppressors and had to find their own feet economically. They grasped at
economic lifelines thrown out by the developed countries. But the
lifelines were flawed. Instead, the leaders of these countries incurred
massive debt on behalf of their people D a people who were unaware that
they were being dragged into a mire of foreign debt that would lead them
into a sea of poverty. In the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s, the world's
economy was dramatically reshaped as the rich nations lent money to the
poor.

The underlying tragedy is that the people of these poor nations had no
understanding of the debt they were incurring, any more than ordinary
people of rich nations understand the intricacies of the world economy.
The result is that millions of people in developing countries are now
living in poverty, while a massive transfer of wealth from the people of
the south takes place to the developed and industrial nations of the
northern hemisphere. Debt repayment has become an important mechanism
for transferring wealth from developing countries to the financial
giants of the northern hemisphere. According to the United Nations,
developing countries paid US$1.662-trillion in debt that was due between
the years 1980 and 1992. This is three times   the original amount owed
in 1980. What is even more staggering is that despite this repayment,
the total debt of developing countries is still estimated to stand at
more than US$1.3-trillion. These figures are so large that, for many of
us, they are mind-boggling.

This transfer is no accident. It is the result of a coherent set of
decisions and forms part of a system of global relationships which
reproduces the wealth-poverty dichotomy. Former French President,
Francois Mitterand was forced to admit at the G7 summit in Naples in
1994 that despite the considerable sums spent on bilateral and
multilateral aid, the flow of capital from Africa towards the industrial
countries is greater than the flow of capital from the industrial
countries to the developing countries. This is underlined by a report
last year which said Britain was squeezing cash out of the world's
poorest countries by demanding levels of debt repayment far outweighing
new loans or aid. According to the European Network on Debt and
Development, Britain has been a net recipient of cash from developing
countries since 1981. This is hardly something of which any nation can
be proud.

It is not only the policies of governments and world banking
institutions that have contributed to the debt problem. Big business, in
particular the oil industry, has exploited the natural resources of many
developing countries, in the process frequently pandering to the greed
of some of its despotic leaders. Nigeria, for example, is a country with
enormous oil resources and a political establishment long in decay. More
than a dozen international, mostly Western European and North American,
companies are enmeshed in an oily romance with this West African nation,
despite her policies.

According to the Alternative Information and Development Centre in Cape
Town, the ratios of foreign debt to Gross National Product in 
sub-Saharan Africa rose from 51% in 1982, to 100% in 1992, a period
during which the so-called Third World debt crisis was allegedly
resolved. The external debt of developing countries has become an
eternal debt and stands as the largest immediate obstacle to growth and
sustainable development.

It is important for us to understand the consequences of this iniquitous
imbalance in the lives of ordinary people that is the result of this
situation. The United Nations General Assembly understood this imbalance
perfectly when it published a paper on poverty in which it said:  The
faces of poverty are many. They are one in every five. The majority of
them are the faces of women... In addition, there are the faces of
children, youth, the disabled and the elderly, of indigenous peoples, of
migrants, and of refugees D those whom progress has pushed to the
periphery The effects of such poverty are wide ranging and all
encompassing. Poverty imprisons individuals and whole communities,
robbing them of their ability to live with dignity and self-respect. It
is a curse which poses one of the greatest threats to society,
undermining political stability, social cohesion and the environmental
health of the planet.

Poverty is a contributing factor towards the spread of diseases such as
HIV and Aids, internecine conflict and wars, and many environmental
disasters. The debt of developing countries  is exacerbating global
environmental degradation. This is linked to the omnipresent black gold
syndrome D oil. According to Helen Caldicott, in her book If you love
this planet , poor developing countries had, until 1973, made great
strides in public health, preventive medicine, and crop production. But
then the OPEC countries suddenly increased the price of oil fivefold,
and made huge profits by depositing their money in the world's major
banks: The banks, ever eager to profit from this windfall, decided to
offer low interest loans to Third World countries, which could obviously
benefit from extra cash. The banks called this lending policy Recycling,
but it turned out to be an international lending spree, in which they
unloaded petrodollars on unsuspecting developing countries But tight
monetary policies that followed as a result of increasing deficits in
the US saw interest rates double, with a consequent rise in indebtedness
by developing countries.

It is not only in the area of interest repayments that the powerful
nations of the world control and restrict the development of others.
Wealthy countries impose tariff or trade barriers on processed goods,
but seldom, if ever, on raw materials, thus ensuring that poor countries
remain in poverty. To quote Caldicott again: In 1985, British tariffs on
raw cotton were zero, on cotton yarn 8 percent, and on cotton t-shirts
17 percent. So the Third World can never break the poverty cycle,
because First World tariffs work against the importation of manufactured
goods from the Third World. But processed goods are worth much more
money than raw materials are The dire human consequences of these
restrictive policies are complex. Governments invested in arms, some
rulers enriched themselves, depositing their riches in Swiss and
American banks, while the people ultimately responsible for the debt
were swamped by malnourishment, famine and disease, and, in some cases,
war. In so far as the environment was concerned, the World Bank
encouraged countries to destroy tropical rain forests to repay their
debts.

The Judeo/Christo religion tells us that the world and all that is in it
belong to the Lord; the earth and all who live in it are his (Psalm
24:1). As the Church, we pay homage to God who is the Creator of heaven,
earth, and sea, and all that is in them (Ps 146:6), and as such have
overarching responsibility to all people. As followers of Christ, we
have an onerous responsibility to ensure that we act as faithful
stewards of God's kingdom and his dominion over all; that we don't
despoil the earth's resources, that we are not unjust in dealing with
his creation.  All of which means that we have to internalise in our
personal, corporate and national lives the truth that when you have done
it to one of the least of these, you have done it to me.

There are sufficient illustrations in developing countries that, despite
the iniquities of the past, they have been able to stem the tide of
economic decline. Many, however, are still faced with huge debt, and
will be restricted in their ability to grow while they continue to have
to service debts acquired  by previous governments.

This can be interpreted in theological terms when one considers the
parable of the talents. In this parable, Jesus speaks of how we are
expected to use our talents and skills to take the opportunities that
are offered to us and use them in the most productive way possible. Many
of us are familiar with the story of the three servants, each of whom
dealt with the money entrusted to him in a different way. One of them
hid it under his bed, too scared to do anything with it, thereby earning
the wrath of his master for having made no use of the opportunities
presented to him. Angela Tilby, who preached here on Good Friday, says
that there are ways in which we oppress and imprison ourselves and each
other which prevent our gifts being used and blocks off the gift of the
future. She adds: One of the most effective ways of killing the future
is by lending people things in such a way as to control them. In
financial terms, this is what the prosperous world did to many Third
World countries when they had money to spare in the late 1970s. As a
result, their economies are enslaved to ours, they have no future that
is not in our interest. The God-given talents of millions of our fellow
citizens are unable to flourish, because they are being used to produce
quick cash, simply to pay the interest on the loans. No one ever
believes that the capital is repayable, and so the rich nations have
effectively turned the world into a slave economy We need to heed the
lessons of Jesus in his talents parable, as we are challenged to allow
our brothers and sisters from poorer parts of the world to develop their
gifts, free from the bondage of oppressive debt.

(End of part 1. Continued in next segment: [97.4.4.8]