Giving free gold (ooops, "debt relief") to Africa is like giving the car keys to your drunk teenage sons.
A wiser parent would make them sober up, first.
France's Pascal Lamy emerged the top candidate to head the World Trade Organization (WTO) after the first round of consultations among members on Friday.
Lamy, the former European Union trade chief, was followed by the foreign minister of Mauritius, Jayen Krishna Cuttaree, and Uruguay's former ambassador to the WTO Carlos Perez del Castillo, said Amina Mohamed, Kenya's ambassador to the WTO and head of the election process.
The Brazilian candidate, Luiz Felipe de Seixas Correa, stands last of the four hopefuls, she said.
Outgoing WTO Director General Supachai Panitchpakdi of Thailand ends his term on Aug. 31 and his replacement is expected to be picked by May after several rounds of closed-door consultations among the group' s 148 members.
According to WTO rules for choosing new leader, the bottom-ranked candidate will be dropped after each round of consultations and only three candidates could stay in the second consultation slated for April 21.
The term of the WTO chief is six years and bitter divisions among members during the last election in 1999 have forced the group to split the term between New Zealand's Mike Moore and Supachai, with each getting three years in the job.
Giving free gold (ooops, "debt relief") to Africa is like giving the car keys to your drunk teenage sons.
A wiser parent would make them sober up, first.
Debt relief is a joke. How about helping people to become economically independenet instead of money slaves to the western nations? I guess having a financially free Africa doesn't make libs feeeeeeeel good.
"..... rid the world's poorest countries of their crippling debt..."
Since they aren't paying it in the first place, why pretend that the debt itself is "crippling"?
Better to address the primary maladies, if THAT is even possible.
What he really means is "How in the devil can we con America into supporting Africa? all they think about is Mexico." Both places could have a high standard of living if their leaders weren't thieves and corrupt like Mugabe and Fox.
I am sick of the American taxpayer being told we have to take care of the whole world. Take care of your own people, you leeches.