Danny Glover Sticks Up For Poor Countries

I didn't know what a Vulture Fund is so I looked it up on Wikipedia. Wait, I don't get it. What does this have to do with global warming?

Actor Danny Glover Urges Protection For Poor Countries Against 'Vulture Funds'

AP

WASHINGTON: Actor and activist Danny Glover is urging the world to develop ways to protect poor countries from predatory investors.

President George W. Bush should use the upcoming summit in Germany of the world's major economic powers to seek commitments to deal with the issue, Glover told the House Foreign Affairs subcommittee on Africa and Global Health.

Glover and others who testified Tuesday cited the practices of so-called "vulture funds," predatory investors who buy a nation's debt for pennies on the dollar, then sue to win repayment of the full value of the initial debt.

The morally bankrupt actions of these investors "render the commitments to debt relief made by the United States and other wealthy nations meaningless," Glover said.

Glover cited the case of Donegal International Ltd., a private U.S.-owned company registered in the British Virgin Islands. The company's actions were endorsed by a British court, which ordered that Zambia pay Donegal $15.5 million (€11.5 million), a sum that "could have provided free education for over 150,000 children," he said.

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