it's a beginning

In the Jewish scriptures there is a provision for a Year of Jubilee - every 49 years, all debt would be forgiven and all lands go back to the orginal families of ownership. It was a way of preventing any one family from accumulating too much wealth and relegating others to perpetual poverty. Scholars tell us that the provision was never invoked. Then as now, those with power use it to retain their positions. Those without... well, too bad.

The IMF has extended 100% debt relief to 19 countries. There are those who say that this is just a ploy by the IMF to get those liberal do-gooders off its back. After all, the debt relief only amounts to about $3.3 billion and there are many countries that owe much more and desperately need relief. It certainly isn't the Year of Jubilee. Still, it is a beginning... and those 19 countries and their citizens will be much better off once this relief is granted in 2006.