Tax on Water

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) is asking the government of Zambia to put a tax on water. Really! They're also asking them to put a tax on food in a country where 80% of the people live in abject poverty (source https://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook). Oh yes, and they also want to tax agricultural supplies like seeds and fertilizer which are required by the very large population of low income subsidence farmers.

Zambian leaders are quick to jump and dance for the IMF to continue to receive large amounts of donor aid. Because of the IMF's demands, children in Zambia have to pay to go to school. The majority of Zambian children are not in school, mostly because they can't afford it. Even in the richest developed countries, elementary and secondary education is free. Also, very low income people in Zambia who do not even make enough to feed their families are required to pay income tax, again, because of IMF demands on the Zambian government.

Many people think that organizations such as the IMF and the World Bank are benevolent organizations that are helping the poor in developing countries. I think that assumption needs to be seriously questioned, and these organizations need to be monitored more closely. If my perceptions are correct, these organizations could be some of the biggest contributors to human suffering on the planet, and if that's true they need to be stopped.

I lived in Zambia in 1993. By that time, the Zambian government had already received billions of dollars from the IMF and the World Bank. Yet there was no visible sign of this money being invested in the infrastructure. The roads were unbelievably dilapidated. The hospitals were disgusting deathtraps. The schools were filthy shacks where the children sat on dirt floors and didn't have books.

School House, Petauke, Zambia, 2007

However, ruling party members and their families lived in luxurious mansions (even by our standards), and mostly drove around in new S-600's. Their kids studied in Europe, and God only knows what other assets they owned. What's interesting is that there were no other visible sources of income for most of these ruling party types, but there was definitely someone draining the donor aid. That was 1993. Zambians that I know inform me that the situation has gotten even much worse.

These absurd demands of the IMF on donor recipients make me question their motives. Are they really trying to help the poor, or is there something else going on? I suppose that it's little more than conspiracy theory to suggest that IMF is concerned with the interests of Western big business and investment opportunities in Africa and elsewhere. Nevertheless, the sheer probability of these things happening warrants serious investigation.

At the very least, we should be concerned about the vast human suffering which may be caused by IMF economic policies in Zambia and other developing countries. We should stop naively assuming that the IMF is doing everything right. We should take a good look at their policies and motives.

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