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Vulture Funds ...
Former Member
Posts: 1,876,323 The Mix Honorary Guru
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/6365433.stm
"British Virgin Islands-based Donegal International paid less than $4m (£2m) for a debt the African nation owed, but sued Zambia for a $42m repayment."
Isn't this terrible?!
"British Virgin Islands-based Donegal International paid less than $4m (£2m) for a debt the African nation owed, but sued Zambia for a $42m repayment."
Isn't this terrible?!
0
Comments
Disgraceful that such thing can even take place.
"Vulture funds - as defined by the International Monetary Fund and UK Chancellor Gordon Brown among others - are companies which buy up the debt of poor nations cheaply when it is about to be written off, then sue for the full value of the debt plus interest."
...
""It also means the treatment, the Medicare, the medicines that would have been available to in excess of 100,000 people in the country will not be available," he added."
...
"Mr Kalunga-Banda added that while the repayment might be legal, it arose from debts accrued when the country was under "an undemocratic system"."
...
""Profiteering doesn't get any more cynical than this," Ms Pearce said.
"Zambia has been planning to spend the money released from debt cancellation on much-needed nurses, teachers and infrastructure.
"This is what debt cancellation is intended for, not to line the pockets of businessmen based in rich countries." "
Just in case you missed it.
To be fair they've moved to a democratic Govt after getting rid of the one party state that borrowed the money from Romania to pay for Romanian tractors.
Don't say that, Seeker will start another thread!
Let`s ignore the first four sentences.
I think such a thing takes place because it can . . . legally.
By coincidence that looks to be how the debt accrued in the first place.
Maybe it wasn`t a coincidence. :chin:
For instance, tax avoidance through the explotation of loopholes might be technically legal but is as wrong as kicking a puppy to death. That billionaires who make their fortunes in this country and pay semi-slave wages to their employees manage to pay next to fuck all taxes thanks to their army of lawyers and experts using every trick in the book to deprive the country of millions of Pounds is an abomination and those who engage in such practices should be put against a wall and... er... you know the rest
Equally, companies that prey on those in precarious conditions, be individuals or entire nations, and exploit them in such manner are the worst kind of subhuman scum.
As a zen master recently said to me:
If a man elects to play a game of snakes and ladders, it would be foolhardy if he became emotional at the sight of snakes on the board.
lol
Mildy awful, but it happens all the time on a personal level too.
All these debt collection agencies who threaten people with prison if they don't pay up buy debts for pence in the pound.
The whole lot of em are cunts.
What are you going to do - repossess Africa?
Ah, but Confucious say "Make sure you know the rules of the game before you join, because what you may be under the impression that you are playing draughts when in reality you are playing russian roulette"
Reduce aid, impose trade sanctions etc - there a lot of ways to place the squeeze on a country.........
They could reduce aid...but since African countries are paying back more in debt interest than they receive in aid that doesn't seem much of a threat.
Nor do sanctions really - it would lead to total economic chaos all over the world if the whole of Africa was put under sanctions by the US/UK the/west, its not a plausible threat.
Might as well. Before China grabs it all