Hey!!
Next in the series of docos we’ll be watching is John Pilgers’ short documentary “War by other means” (Blurb below). There’ll be ample chance to explore themes discuss what DEBT is and have a ‘good ol’ chat about recent events in the economic order. Come along enjoy a drink and and engage in some interesting chats!
“War and debt are exactly the same things, and you don’t have to occupy the same territory”, says writer and director John Pilger of his latest documentary film. This film was shown for the first time in Australia at the Carlton Movie House on October 8.
The film focuses on the foreign debt of the Philippines, which climbed to US$4.5 billion under Ferdinand Marcos before he was overthrown in 1986. While 45 million people in the Philippines live in poverty, 44% of the national budget is going to the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund; 3% goes to health services and 15% to education.
“In the Philippines”, says John Cavanagh, of the Institute of Policy Studies in Washington, “we have calculated that one child dies every hour because debt repayments consume vital sources like health care”.
“Never before in history have the poor financed the rich on such a scale, and paid so dearly for their servitude”, writes John Pilger in his book Distant Lives. “At the current rates of interest, it is a mathematical impossibility for most countries to pay off their debt.” This situation allows the World Bank and IMF to coerce the Third World into “structural adjustment” programs.
“Structural adjustment” in the Philippines meant the establishment of export processing zones for foreign investors built on what was originally rich agricultural land. Another result was the “great scam”, the nuclear power plant built under Marcos at Batang Peninsula, adjacent to volcanoes and an earthquake fault.