A Debt to Be Forgiven.

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A Debt to Be Forgiven

Submitted by: Arif Patel

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The OPEC oil crisis and the Cold War are long over. They remain nothing but distant memories and a controversial debate in nations such as ours in the Western world. In striking contrast, it is these very events - and other similar predicaments - which have shackled the under-developed nations to their sorrowful plight. Staggering amounts were loaned to them decades ago by institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. And it is these very debts that prove so powerful in burdening them. Burdening them to such an extent that they are in an utter loss to cope with the dire needs of their nation.

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Many of these nations have fragile industries, and mostly agrarian societies. They depend heavily on cash crops such as cotton. Thus the GDP is relatively small and subject to fluctuations, pending on the international market. Conditions such as these make it difficult for the third world governments to make the interest payments, let alone make payments on the actual principle. This entraps them in a never-ending cycle of debt.

Many of the creditors were motivated to lend the money to secure allies during the Cold War, or to invest the wealth of the OPEC nations that had been ...

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