The IMF destroyed fragile nation-states all over Africa in the 80's, and neither they nor Western media heard their complaints.
No one cared that vibrant local economies were decimated by structural adjustment programs [SAP] and austerity measures to drive these countries into the arms of Western finance as neo-slave economies, with low wages, diminished infrastructure like health care, roads, or public development. These programs created huge swathes of refugees. These refugees still roam the earth, poor and landless, looking for a wage and a morsel. These IMF policies are why today there is no domestic mechanism in Africa to face something like Ebola from ravaging the population.
I'll take this indictment further: because of these IMF policies, there was no civil government to face the onslaught of predatory Western pirates who wanted to come in and continue to exploit these African States: the IMF loathes civil government, especially when it comes to peoples who don't know their place, as colonies; and colonies only serve one purpose - to feed and enrich the empires.
A condition of funding a country, the IMF routinely demands the dismantling of democratic institutions, such as public services.
So, because there was no civil government, Western neo-slave drivers could come in and ravage rainforests and landscapes the Africans knew not to touch. Not only were the forests depleted for mining, but a certain species of bat lost its habitat and flew, like another refugee, into populated areas: this bat, like the monkeys before, carried a certain microbe incompatible with humans. HIV, Ebola, and the gods-only-know what else is being unleashed just so Western capital can dig up some minerals, or natural gas, or whatever is of such worth to them that humans beings and their civil society must be eradicated to get to it.
Please read that again.
There was no 24-hour death watch on the news as this happened, no coverage of the democracy movements in these African countries who were pleading for air while the IMF noose was being tightened around their necks, no sexed-up feature of the leadership of the insurgent political parties or civil society movements. No, such things seem reserved for Greece.
But we all knew what the IMF was doing back in the 80's. The imperialist's own social scientists documented the "successes" of these measures in their journals and made ample coursework of it for undergraduates in the leading research universities.
So when the IMF chief claims ignorance how their policies have badly affected Greece, I am genuinely truly puzzled. I smell an imperialist. Since there is ample documented evidence what their policies do and their hatred for civil government as a frontal threat to Western financial interests, where is this mea culpa coming from?
Could it mean SAP and austerity are not intended for European audiences? I doubt it. Europeans will kill their own for profit as readily as they have killed Africans if it means turning a dollar into gold.
Speaking of blood and treasure, a lot went in to unifying Europe as an economic entity. Bismark started it in imperial Germany. Hitler accelerated the plan. And even when Hitler's body was still warm in the cellar, Europe regrouped after a disastrous war to solidify the dream of a "Common Market".
Maybe, just maybe Europe can do without Greece, but it cannot do with the precedence of an upstart member breaking free on its own. Spain and Ireland are sure to follow. The UK, too, for different, more nationalistic reasons.
Collectively, the former Christendom has despite its shrinking population offered a force to maintain its colonial relations. In case you missed that lesson, the colonial relationship is Europe, nothing more or less. It is not Nordic industriousness or German ingenuity or the island of shopkeepers or the French bourgeoisie. Europe was built by mercenaries, pirating what loot, bodies, and treasure they could from the other parts of the world.
This is why Africa may go to Hell as long as its resources are kept intact, but Greece warrants special attention. And this is why the IMF chief has come out with crocodile tears about what went wrong ... in Greece.
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