Strong criticism of the G8's recently-announced plan to cancel debt of poor countries comes from the Guardian's George Monbiot. Here, he denounces the plan because of the "conditionalities" applied to poor countries in order to be deemed eligible to have their debt canceled. What conditions the rich G8 countries pass off as essential for poor countries to have is actually ways that poor countries have to give up control of their general affairs to foreign insititions such as the World Bank.

Some excerpts from the article:
"Never mind that much of this debt - money lent by the World Bank and IMF to corrupt dictators - should never have been pursued in the first place. Never mind that, in terms of looted resources, stolen labour and now the damage caused by climate change, the rich owe the poor far more than the poor owe the rich. Some of the poorest countries have been paying more for debt than for health or education."

"That's the theory. In truth, corruption has seldom been a barrier to foreign aid and loans: look at the money we have given, directly and through the World Bank and IMF, to Mobutu, Suharto, Marcos, Moi and every other premier-league crook."

The article is full of facts and should cause anyone who regards the G8 countries and international institutions like the World Bank as good and saintly to take a second look at them and their policies.
Especially tragic is the case of Uganda which, as the article mentions near the end, in order to qualify for World Bank funding had to undergo privatisation of its water supplies, agricultural services and its commerical bank so that the country no longer had control over its own resources. In addition, Uganda had to impose fees on schools and health services that resulted in drops in attendance and collapse of health for the poor.