From Africa Recovery, Vol.13#2-3 (September 1999), page 19 (box within article "Finance for development")

HIPC initiative is like blackmail, says Meles

"What I find most objectionable about this initiative and most of the other debt reduction initiatives, is that they are being used as the whip to enforce unquestioning acceptance of the economic orthodoxy, the so-called Washington consensus, that is being promoted by some international financial institutions. The abysmal failure of this orthodoxy in Africa over the past decade and half (...) clearly suggests that it can and must be questioned. Indeed, many thoughtful individuals in the citadels of the orthodoxy are questioning many of its prescriptions. The choice we are left with under HIPC is thus to either abandon all independent and rational thinking in economic policy making or wallow in the quagmire of unsustainable debt. It is a choice between the devil and the deep blue sea. To use the whip of the debt overhang to enforce this orthodoxy in debt-ridden countries, is in some ways tantamount to blackmail and is therefore both unviable and immoral."

-- Ethiopian Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Speech to ECA conference's opening session

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