Debt, Development and the Biosphere

<Tab/>"Thou shalt sanctify the fiftieth year...and shalt proclaim remission to all the inhabitants of thy land: for it is the year of jubilee." This claim is found in the Old Testament in Leviticus 25:10. It is the premise behind the Jubilee 2000 campaign launched by British Christian based charities to relieve the external debt of developing countries. This ancient holy law was designed to protect the social fabric of the Israelite society; every fifty years creditors would forgive the debtors and farmers would re-claim land they sold to recover from bad years of harvest. O…