How can you wind up getting 9,084 valentines?
Irresistible Charm? Nope ...
Alluring first-class looks? Nope ...
Tantalizing personal aroma? Nope ...
Demanding that the unjust debt of Africa's first republic be canceled immediately? Surprisingly yes.
About a month ago, a few organizations realized that a Liberian donors' conference was taking place in Washington on Valentine's Day and this offered a historic opportunity to focus attention on the West African country's debt. These groups, which work on debt cancellation from a variety of angles, include Africa Action, Church World Service, Friends of the Earth, Institute for Policy Studies, and Jubilee USA. They asked activists across the United States and around the world to send valentines to U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson. At first we honestly had no idea how many people would take time to cut a heart out of red or pink construction paper, write "Dear Secretary Paulson, Have a heart for Liberia, Cancel the Debt Now," and throw it in the mail.
Well, now we know: 9,084 people did.
History of the Debt
The goal of the campaign is to fully cancel all of the debt Liberia owes. The country's external debt has ballooned to $3.7 billion. Much of this debt was accrued under the brutal regimes of two dictators, Samuel Doe (who the United States supported) and Charles Taylor. Neither of them represented the will of the people of Liberia. On top of that, much of the debt snowballed due to unpaid interest and penalties from non-payment throughout a vicious 14-year-long civil war during Charles Taylor's regime. Not only is this debt odious, but it is also one of the major barriers to rebuilding and developing a country torn by war.
The major lenders to Liberia during that time were the United States and the other G8 wealthy countries as well as international financial institutions such as the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund (IMF). The World Bank and IMF have included Liberia in their Heavily Indebted Poor Country Initiative (HIPC), but Liberia still has to pay them $1.5 billion that it "owes" in arrears first before it can see any reduction in its debt.
Since Liberia owes about 10% of its overall debt to the United States ($358 million) and the United States has strong influence over the World Bank and IMF, we thought that the perfect target would be Security Paulson, who ultimately has the most influence over these policies.
The Campaign
So how is it that this Valentine's Day the people with the meanest lending policies got the most valentines? "The people with the meanest lending policies received the most valentines because they most need to understand the compassion necessary to bring poor nations out of poverty," said Betsy Fisher, a student activist at Denison University in Granville, Ohio who organized a group of her classmates to also send in valentines.
The organizations behind this initiative wanted to take advantage of this critical moment in Liberia's history, which was formerly dominated by dictators, foreign arms dealers, and civil war. Now the country has a democratically elected President, Ellen Johnson-Sirleaf, who is in Washington this week for an international donors' conference. She has put debt cancellation on the table, so we thought that this might be the exact time to make sure the Treasury Department knew we are out there in solidarity with the people of Liberia to demand the cancellation of their unjust debt and to try to get debt cancellation on the agenda for the donors' conference.
We only had a few weeks to gather the valentines and one night to count them. We also had hundreds of people call into the Treasury Department to demand cancellation of the debt. On February 7th, a bitter cold day in Washington, about 30 people gathered to delivery all 9,005 valentines to Paulson. In the mail, on the phone, and in the streets—thousands of people joined forces to make sure that the United States is a key leader in the cancellation of this immoral debt.
Success?
But what was the outcome? In a meeting with the Treasury Department when a handful of the organizers delivered the huge piles of valentines, officials definitely acknowledged our presence. In addition, Johnson-Sirleaf on February 12, acknowledged everyone who sent valentines and thanked the overall movement for debt cancellation for Liberia here in the United States. And probably most importantly, debt cancellation is on the agenda for the donors' conference.
This action surprised not only the Treasury Department and the donors participating in the conference. It also surprised the organizers. This effort resonated with everyone from students to people of faith as well as many Liberians living here in the United States.
And who knows, maybe the heart-shaped piece of paper with a simple message someone sent to Paulson will mark the first step into canceling the debt of an entire country.
Nathan Fishman is the Outreach and Congregations Fellow at Jubilee USA. Saif Rahman is the Movements coordinator for the Institute for Policy Studies and the Youth and Activism editor for Foreign Policy In Focus.
