Jeffrey Sachs tells African countries to take a stand

Economist Jeffrey Sachs, world-renowned special advisor to Kofi Annan, has said that if the rich countries refuse to cancel the debts of poor African nations, they should refuse to pay them. "The time has come to end this charred." Indeed it has. It is outrageous that the poor countries in Africa, who probably collectively have less wealth than some of the richest men in the world, are expected to pay debts which were forced on them by paternalistic greedy rich countries which took advantage of their leverage in the matter. Meantime, their own people are suffering and starving from systemic poverty and AIDS. Why is the poverty systemic? It is so because loans were forced on them with huge interest rates, and strings attached related to the ideological bent of the lenders, resulting in the misuse of funds (look up market fundamentalism). To be fair, some African leaders have used the funds to serve their own interests as well, but that is not the fault of their citizens.