Page 5 - aruba-today-20230713

A5
WORLD NEWS Thursday 13 July 2023

3.3B people live in countries that spend more on

debt interest than education

By EDITH M. LEDERER
Associated Press
UNITED NATIONS (AP) —
Some 3.3 billion people al-
most half of humanity now
live in countries that spend
more money paying inter-
est on their debts than on
education or health, ac-
cording to a new U.N. re-
port released Wednesday.
U.N. Secretary-General An-
tonio Guterres told a press
conference launching
the report that because
this “crushing debt crisis”
is concentrated mostly in
poor developing countries,
it is “not judged to pose a
systemic risk to the global
financial system.”
“This is a mirage,” the U.N.
chief warned. “3.3 billion A public school student attends a math class on the first day back to school after the Christmas
people is more than a sys- holiday, in the Cota 905 neighborhood of Caracas, Venezuela, on Jan. 12, 2022.
temic risk, it is a systemic Associated Press
failure.” Guterres said finan- increased sharply from 22 tries. has reached “colossal lev-
cial markets may seem not nations in 2011 to 59 in 2022. The debt crisis is leav- els” largely due to two fac-
to be suffering yet but bil- The secretary-general said ing governments with no tors: First, countries’ finan-
lions of people are and the a growing share of debt is money to invest in lagging cial needs soared as they
levels of public debt “are held by private creditors U.N. development goals tried to fend off the impact
staggering and surging.” who charge sky-high in- for 2030 that include end- of cascading crises includ-
“In 2022, global public debt terest rates to developing ing extreme poverty; ensur- ing the COVID-19 pandem-
reached a record $92 tril- countries. As an example, ing that every child has a ic, the rising cost of living
lion and developing coun- he cited African countries good-quality primary and and climate change, and
tries shoulder a dispropor- that on average pay four secondary school educa- second, the global finan-
tionate amount,” he said. times more for borrowing tion, and to invest in tran- cial architecture “makes
According to the report, than the United States and sitioning to renewable en- developing countries’ ac-
the number of countries eight times more than the ergy, he said. cess to financing inade-
facing high debt levels has wealthiest European coun- The report says public debt quate and expensive.”q

U.N. rights body calls for more action to combat

religious hatred

GENEVA (AP) — The U.N.’s Eastern countries. on countries to take steps tion, hostility or violence.”
top human rights body The resolution comes in the to “prevent and prosecute After the vote, Ambassador
overwhelmingly approved wake of recent Quran burn- acts and advocacy of reli- Khalil Hashmi of Pakistan in-
a measure calling on coun- ings in parts of Europe, and gious hatred that constitute sisted the measure “does
tries to do more to prevent among other things, calls incitement to discrimina- not seek to curtail the right
religious hatred in the wake to free speech,” but tries to
of Quran burnings in Eu- strike a “prudent balance”
rope, over the objections between it and “special
of Western countries who duties and responsibilities.”
fear tougher steps by gov- “The opposition of a few in
ernments could trample the room has emanated
freedom of expression. from their unwillingness to
Applause broke out in the condemn the public dese-
cavernous chamber of cration of the Holy Quran or
the Human Rights Council any other religious book,”
on Wednesday after the Hashmi said.
28-12 vote, with seven ab- “They lack political, le-
stentions, on a measure gal and moral courage to
brought by Pakistan and condemn this act, and it
Palestine that was backed was the minimum that the
by many developing coun- A woman holds up a Quran during a protest outside the Swedish council could have ex-
tries in Africa, as well as Chi- consulate in Istanbul, Turkey, on Jan. 22, 2023. pected from them.”q
na and India, and Middle Associated Press