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how many schools, clinics for $28,000 a minute?

How many schools could we put up? How many clinics could one build for $28,000 a minute?

Another World is Possible If...
ABC Radio: Saturday 28/05/2005

Summary:
Susan George, a tireless campaigner against the tyranny and inequity of globalisation, has just written a book called, Another world is possible if... We talk to her about that 'if', and find out that it's all about the way power is deployed.

(....) Then, for instance, the African countries are still paying back $28,000 every minute in debt service. This is not just Africa, this is the 52 poorest countries on Earth…are remitting $28,000 every minute, and I did the calculations that way, just dividing the total sum. It’s almost incomprehensible what that means, and so when you start thinking in terms of how many schools could we put up? How many clinics could one build for $28,000 a minute? And you start to think that you could educate a good many children and save a good many women from dying in childbirth. But the debt is such a powerful tool, it is such a useful tool, it’s much better than colonialism ever was because you can keep control without having an army, without having a whole administration, you don’t need to spend money on it, all the money comes to you, and it’s the World Bank and the IMF that do the work of the policing. So it’s ideal for the northern countries, and that is why, 25 years after the debt crisis began, we’re still talking about it.
(....)

Continue reading this interview with Susan George at ABC radio:
http://www.abc.net.au/rn/arts/booktalk/stories/s1375620.htm
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