270/YOUR MONEY OR YOUR LIFE!
1986 Brazil. A S500 million loan for an electricity project is used
to complete a dam that damages the Amazonian rainforest
and its inhabitants.
1988 Nigeria. The government eliminates subsidies for kerosene,
used mostly by poor households. The increase provokes riots,
during which six people are killed.
1989 Venezuela. More than 300 people (some place the figure as
high as 2000) are killed during riots against a 100 per cent
increase in the price of petrol and fares for public transport.
These increases are part of a package of restructuring
measures adopted to satisfy conditions for IMF and World
Bank structural adjustment loans.
1989 Ecuador. Further increases in the price of petrol and motor-
vehicle taxes lead to a general strike of bus and lorry drivers.
The president calls out the army to operate public transport.
In November, there are violent student demonstrations in
response to an increase in bus fares.
1990 Worldwide. Despite numerous internal studies showing
that the least expensive techniques are the best for ensuring
energy availability, less than 1 per cent of Bank loans
between 1980 and 1990 go towards improving energy
efficiency and conservation. Of more than S35 billion
in vested by the B ank in hydraulic proj ects between 19 81 and
1990, only 0.4 per cent went into small-scale irrigation
proj ects; 0.6 per cent into water distribution and 2.3 per cent
into conservation. It is universally recognised that small-
scale projects meet the population's needs at the lowest price.
A study from the Ford Foundation says that the Bank is
'wedded to giant-sized projects'.
1990 China. The Bank resumes its loans after an eight-month
suspension in the wake of the Tienanmen Square massacre.
1990 Cote d'lvoire. The government cuts private sector salaries
by 10 per cent, public sector salaries by between 15 and 40
per cent. The measures are met with student demonstrations
and riots, and then strikes by teachers, health professionals
and bank workers. The government is forced to relent. Still,
a general strike is organised with army and police participa
tion, threatening the stability of the regime.