Shine-A-Light

This letter has been formatted so you need only drag to highlight the text, click the copy command on your Edit menu, and paste it in the textbox of your email program. The electronic address of the International Monetary Fund is publicaffairs@imf.org.

Esta carta está formatada e por isso só precisa de seleccionar o texto, dar a ordem para copiar no seu menu “editar” e dar a ordem de passar (também no seu menu de “editar”) para o espaço de texto do seu email. O endereço de email do Fundo Monetário Internacional é publicaffairs@imf.org.

Dear Sir,

Though the lending and monetary policies of the International Monetary Fund have undoubtedly done much to aid the recent growth in Latin American gross national products, these economic policies have also led to one of the saddest tragedies in recent memory. Today, some forty million children must beg, steal, work, or prostitute on the streets of Latin America simply in order to survive. The International Monetary Fund can do something to end this injustice, and we write to ask that you do so.

While a national balanced budget is clearly a noble goal, and repaying debts breeds fiscal responsibility, the IMF's efforts to enforce these goals have brought unbelievable suffering to Latin America's children. Today thousands of children feed themselves in the dump in Guatemala City, where infant mortality rates exceed fifty percent. For years, the sewers of Bogotá have been filled with children hiding from execution squads or simply looking for a way out of the cold rain. The poverty they experience makes medieval peasant life appear idyllic.

Clearly, no one could say that monetary policy is the exclusive cause of this horror. War, domestic violence, and a failure of private philanthropy play their roles. None the less, we believe that the International Monetary Fund should be aware of its own contribution to children's homelessness in Latin America:

We do not write to inspire guilt, or to ask a mea culpa, only to ask small changes in International Monetary Fund lending policies to help homeless children.

Please remember that development occurs not only in the numbers of the Gross National Product, but in the lives of all the people of a nation.

Sincerely,




		This letter has been formatted so you need only drag to highlight the text, click the copy command on your Edit menu, and paste it in the textbox of your email program. The electronic address of the International Monetary Fund is publicaffairs@imf.org. Esta carta está formatada e por isso só precisa de seleccionar o texto, dar a ordem para copiar no seu menu “editar” e dar a ordem de passar (também no seu menu de “editar”) para o espaço de texto do seu email. O endereço de email do Fundo Monetário Internacional é publicaffairs@imf.org. Dear Sir, Though the lending and monetary policies of the International Monetary Fund have undoubtedly done much to aid the recent growth in Latin American gross national products, these economic policies have also led to one of the saddest tragedies in recent memory. Today, some forty million children must beg, steal, work, or prostitute on the streets of Latin America simply in order to survive. The International Monetary Fund can do something to end this injustice, and we write to ask that you do so. While a national balanced budget is clearly a noble goal, and repaying debts breeds fiscal responsibility, the IMF's efforts to enforce these goals have brought unbelievable suffering to Latin America's children. Today thousands of children feed themselves in the dump in Guatemala City, where infant mortality rates exceed fifty percent. For years, the sewers of Bogotá have been filled with children hiding from execution squads or simply looking for a way out of the cold rain. The poverty they experience makes medieval peasant life appear idyllic. Clearly, no one could say that monetary policy is the exclusive cause of this horror. War, domestic violence, and a failure of private philanthropy play their roles. None the less, we believe that the International Monetary Fund should be aware of its own contribution to children's homelessness in Latin America: IMF enforced currency policy has undermined domestic agriculture, forcing small landowners into the cities where their children become homeless. IMF enforced monetary policy, including interest rate hikes and the loosening of world capital flows, have given the rich an extraordinary competitive advantage over small farmers, forcing these farmers to sell their land to agribusiness. IMF constraints on social spending have obliterated even the fragile safety net for poor children. We do not write to inspire guilt, or to ask a mea culpa, only to ask small changes in International Monetary Fund lending policies to help homeless children. The IMF should not demand that a country chose between paying a debt and allowing children to die. Monetarist dogma must allow fluctuation in currency exchange rates when fixed currencies undermine export based employment (as in the case of Argentina). Please remember that development occurs not only in the numbers of the Gross National Product, but in the lives of all the people of a nation. Sincerely,