In
Greek
IMF Tragedy
& Lagarde
Guilt, Africa
Ignored As
Sudan
Protests,
Coups
By
Matthew
Russell Lee
UNITED
NATIONS,
June 28 -- The
International
Monetary Fund
and its
director
Christine
Lagarde often
use Africa, or
the idea of
Africa, as a
place
that they
vaguely help
or at least
care about.
But
at Thursday
IMF briefing,
amid repeated
questions
about Greece,
Cyprus, Spain
and
Hungary, not a
single sub
Saharan Africa
question was
taken, much
less answered.
It's not that
they weren't
asked. Inner
City Press
submitted
questions
about the Democratic
Republic of
the Congo
and
these, among
others:
In
Sudan,
the IMF
earlier this
month urges
the government
to institute
"emergency
measures."
Have the steps
since
announced,
which
have given
rise to
protests that
have been
cracked down
on, been
consistent or
inconsistent
with the IMF's
advice?
Pledges
to
the IMF have
given rise to
questions
& protests
in South
Africa,
the
Philippines
and elsewhere,
by those who
say the money
could be
better spent
at home on the
poor. What is
the IMF's
response?
And
again:
What is the
status of IMF
programs in
and reviews of
Mali
and
Guinea Bissau,
given coups in
each country?
But
the IMF did
not
take the
questions (in
previous
weeks, it has
answered Inner
City
Press'
questions
about Sudan by
email after
the fact.)
Now, the IMF
gives
austerity
advice to
Sudan, then
when protests
erupt, the IMF
would answer
or even take
the question.
A
journalist ran
in late,
citing an
interview at
the American
Enterprise
Institute,
and still got
another answer
on Greece.
Perhaps it is
Lagarde's
guilt
for telling
Greeks to pay
taxes when she
doesn't. But
what about
those children
in Niger?
Watch this
site.
, 
