ABSTRACT
Holding health hostage As will be shown in this chapter, the whole mechanics for financing development of trade in the third world imposes almost impossible strains on the debtor nation domestic economies. These impact most heavily in health, both directly and indirectly. Imposition, for instance, of policies required by the lender nations force such governments to direct cash from previously public funded services to private. Since, for almost any country, the two largest publicly funded areas tend to be education and health, those sectors are hit most drastically. As we shall see in Chapter 4, such negative consequences are also often indirect, through the impacts of environment, which themselves lead to increase in the incidence of disease. A necessary basis for good health - especially with respect to personal hygiene, diet and sexual activity - is education itself. If there are cutbacks to schooling, health is soon the loser.
