Word: poorest
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...rearmament of environmental stakeholders looms large on the horizon of national consciousness. The roots of the new environmentalism can be found in the recognition, at the national level, of sub-populations that are particularly vulnerable or susceptible to the impacts of environmental deterioration. Vulnerable groups, including the poorest of the poor, suffer from various combinations of natural geographical factors, insensitive zoning laws and/or uncouth sociopolitical maneuvers that increase their exposure to detrimental environmental factors...
Activists are targeting the IMF and World Bank partly because the organizations are creditors for much of the $350 billion owed by the world's impoverished countries (a sum just one-third of the value lost on the NASDAQ over the past three months). Of these, many of the poorest, like Mozambique, Honduras and Myanmar, have little hope of making repayment. Drastic steps to relieve their plight have gained a spectrum of supporters, including Pope John Paul II; Bono, the U2 rock-band singer; and Jubilee 2000, an international faith-based coalition...
...prosperous countries. To be sure, no one doubts the substantial rewards of debt reduction. A relief program enabled Uganda to save $45 million in debt service in 1999 alone, helping it cut tuition fees and almost double enrollment in primary schools in just two years. "Debt relief for the poorest countries is both a moral and economic imperative," asserts U.S. Treasury Secretary Larry Summers...
...power may be more diffuse. The federal government Monday gave its employees who work in the vicinity of the World Bank and IMF headquarters the day off, as police continued to battle mostly peaceful protesters challenging the international financial system and demanding debt relief for the world's poorest countries. Heavy-handed policing has, however, for the most part allowed the annual meetings of the bank and fund to proceed unmolested. Still, images of riot policemen dragging young Americans off the streets of the nation's capital, and of blue-collar workers making common cause with turtle-hugging environmentalists...
...parameters of debt relief are fiercely debated. Although many of the activists gathered in Washington, supported by voices as diverse as the pope and the rock group U2, are calling for cancellation of the debt to the 48 poorest countries, the principle of unconditional and total forgiveness doesn't sit easily with the creditor nations, who also want guarantees that the beneficiaries of debt relief will be the poor and not self-appointed political elites. Efforts to tie debt relief to democratization and some form of accountability have slowed the practical implementation of debt cancellation efforts announced by the industrialized...