International Debt Problem The purpose of this rese

The international debt crisis of the current period owes much to other kinds of economic crisis of earlier periods. A desire on the part of less developed countries of the South is to duplicate to a significant degree the prosperity of the developed countries of the North, and to do so very much as a group: "The primary bond that links the countries and peoples of the South is their desire to escape from poverty and underdevelopment and secure a better life for their citizens." But contained within that goal in recent history have been myriad traps, for the fact is that in order to finance the development and growth of the dream the countries of the South and indeed throughout the Third World took on massive debt obligations. The effect, particularly during the 1980s, was a widening gap between the prosperity of the developed w

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overnment. Indeed, as Wesson notes, "narcodollars have enabled Colombia to keep up debt service, with sustained growth although not without difficulty." This point is further developed by Bagley. Ironically, while Colombian traffickers have impeded state-sponsored rural reforms, their development of first marijuana and later coca cultivation, processing, and transportation has created jobs and improved incomes and standards of living for perhaps 100,000 poor peasants and urban slum dwellers directly and for some 400,000 family members and relatives indirectly. They have also donated lavishly to local causes, built schools and low-income houses, clinics, churches, and soccer stadiums. Meanwhile, the U.S. has focused on law-enforcement military style campaigns to destroy the drug trade, while ignoring less flashy but, as Bagley says, equally important elements contributing to the staying power of drugs in the economy. In the long run, the drug economy has the effect of undercutting political stability in countries like this, and Bagley cites assassinations and other destabilization maneuvers carried out by Colombian drug lords. A suggested solution for the U.S., which proclaims a vested interest in stopping drug traffic and impr
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Some common words found in the essay are:
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Approximate Word count = 2373
Approximate Pages = 9 (250 words per page)