The Third World dilemma
Sue Shaw employs a detective in the mysterious case of the disappearing dollars.

Moonlight, bulldozers
and the honeypot
Distortion, decadence and deceit in the IMF. Anthony Swift reports on the senior official whose conscience forced him to resign.

Life or debt?
A chance to try your hand at escaping from the Third World debt trap.

Born to shop
I want, therefore I buy. Doug Smith considers the bubble behind the boom.

Sweetness and plight
The shackles of sugar, by Peter Cox.

Pigs can fly
What is pink, porky and perceptive? Debbie Taylor tells a tale with a twist.

DEBT - THE FACTS

Several pounds of flesh
Susan George explodes the myth of the Western debt crisis.

Death on delivery
Sparklers and shooters. Janice Turner throws the spotlight on two arms dealers.

Food and flames
A food rioter from Zambia talks to John Mukela.

SIMPLY... the West's debt to the Third World

Confessions of a loan shark
He was young, gifted and drunk. Ex-loan shark Sam Gwynne reveals his contribution to the startling banking practices that begot the international debt crisis.

I nearly died of fright when I agreed to do a magazine about Third World debt. I couldn't eat. I couldn't sleep. Surrounded by mountains of books, I wept into my coffee. The word 'debt' paralyzed me: I couldn't think of anything more difficult or boring to edit a magazine on. How was a mere mortal like myself who shudders at the sight of numbers - to produce an exciting, intelligent publication about global economics? As I peered tentatively over the precipice of political economy, I wondered whether to throw myself off, or just pack my bags and go home.

The worst crime in producing a magazine is to be boring. You can do anything (almost) apart from that. So, struggling to stay awake through the Brandt report, I was filled with a lamb-to-the-slaughter sense of doom. (A bit like the unfortunate teacher who, unable to get his class's attention, went in one day, took off all his clothes and standing stark naked before them, still failed to stop the chatter.)

If the collective had let me do the magazine which I wanted to - on children and war - there would have been no problem. Children, war, blood: I don't mean to sound callous but it's all juicy stuff. By which I hasten to add, not that I'm for it, but that there is no problem getting interesting stories on the subject. Everyone cares about children and war. About debt, on the other hand, they do not.

And do you blame them? Where is the human face behind those long columns of figures in The World Bank reports? Or the books that people write - who are those poor lost souls? - that are full of nothing but equations. And how do you illustrate the wretched subject? No wonder the friend who had to listen to all my woes said that it sounded like I had been asked to spin toilet paper into silk.

However as I started to read more about debt, I realized that those columns of figures didn't just find their way into The World Bank report - or anywhere else - on their own. By which I mean, not just that someone wrote them, but that ultimately they represent people. All those percentages on capital flight, those negative results of IMF programmes, and those arms sales: if only I could get at the characters behind the action, the whole subject might be brought to life.

So that is what I tried to do. And I must confess that eventually I found it fascinating. For one thing I realised that you can't really care about poverty without caring about debt too. And having to dig out the shady characters behind the balance sheets - arms dealers and loan sharks - brought the whole issue alive for me. There were some very exciting stages - like talking to the courageous IMF official who has publicly renounced the funds policies. I could even say that by the end I was quite obsessed by debt. In the wake of my initial fright, my new-found understanding has given me a real sense of personal achievement

As we go to press this month more demonstrations are raging against IMF policies, this time in Berlin. I hope this magazine will help readers understand what the fuss is all about.

Letters
Letter from China
Update
Briefly
Endpiece: by Monica Connell
Reviews: including André Malraux classic
Country profile: Fiji

COVER PHOTO: Abbas / Magnum
ONLINE MAG MAINTAINED BY SIMON LOFFLER