As President Bush pledges $674 million of aid to Africa,[1] I cannot help but wonder how much of that could be provided in a more permanent and more effective way by simply forgiving their debt. The Church has been calling for debt forgiveness for the third world for some time, long enough and consistently enough that even though I only recently started paying even sporadic attention to the news, I am aware of it. It is not right to saddle these struggling economies with interest bearing debt.

[1] http://news.ft.com/cms/s/f7705608-d74f-11d9-9f43-00000e2511c8.html

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