104/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
reasons. But foreign deposits are so great for Latin America, North
Africa and the Middle East - where they equal two-thirds of total
foreign debt - that it is safe to conclude that they largely correspond
to the fraudulent and personal enrichment of people from
government and business circles. Such people have embezzled a large
share of foreign money loaned to their countries (the Argentinian
example is striking). Some of these deposits also come from organised
crime, the drug trade in particular.
Table 8.1 Gross and net debt-end of 1995 (Sbn)
Region Gross Deposits Net Net/
debt debt Gross (%)
North Africa/Middle East 364 254 110 30.2
Sub-Saharan Africa 198 47 151 76.3
Latin America/Caribbean 529 366 163 30.8
Asia/Oceania 830 299 531 64.0
Total 1,921 966 955 49.7
Source: Jacques Bournay from BIS figures, 1997 unpublished.
Privatisation of the South's State-Owned Companies
Governments of the South have sold off and continue to sell off their
state-owned companies, of which a great number are bought by
private and public MNCs from the North. Given that these companies
are sold very much below their real value, there can be no doubt that
this, too, constitutes a transfer of wealth and strategic position from
the South to the North.
The 'Brain Drain' from South to North
Although the North has gradually closed its borders to the South's
citizens, some countries in the North - especially the US - have made
exceptions to allow for a brain drain from the South (and East).
Having received publicly funded training and professional
experience in their home countries, citizens from the periphery are
welcomed in the North. In some cases, the number of people involved
is quite staggering. Sudan, for example, has lost a large share of its