LETTERS: Stalag 2000 is a good idea

To the Editor: Are Penn administrators aware that shows would take place between the hours of 7 p.m. and 11 p.m.? A venue at Penn, especially at the proposed 40th Street location, would bring more locals into the campus area, serving to populate the neighborhood (making it more safe, not less so) and probably also bring some business to area restaurants and the like. Have Penn administrators ever attended an indie rock concert? If so, they would realize that the attendance at many of these events is strewn more with relatively harmless 13-year-olds trying to catch a glimpse of their favorite rocker rather than the drug-smoking and hard-drinking crowd they fear this club and others like it will attract. Sean Agnew and the staff of Stalag 2000 are trying to make something in this community that can be culturally great. Their plans for the club would have been a welcome addition to the area. Now, though, students and locals will just have to do what they always do for a great show: Go downtown. Mayumi Hirtzel Project Assistant Office of College Houses and Academic Services No free money To the Editor: While Ronald Kim's argument for the repudiation of Third World debts is high on emotional appeal, it is low on substantive economics ("U.S. usury: At what cost?," DP, 10/22/99).EThe most obvious problem with Kim's appeal is the great moral hazard involved: If the U.S. relaxes its debt standards now, why should any of its future debtors expect America to collect? Another fallacy in Kim's argument is his representation of paying interest as a punitive measure. An interest rate is the cost of money; no one would "sell" money to anybody else if costs were not compensated. Also problematic is Kim's assertion that debt is a harmfulEinstitution afflicting Third World borrowers. Rather than an encumbrance, debt can be a blessing to poor or struggling countries, allowing them to expand beyond current constraints and defray the costs over many years. Indeed, debt financing played a great part in the American industrialization of the 19th century: European nations, especially Great Britain, loaned enormous quantities of money to fledgling U.S. industries and a period of economic development ensued. Thus, Kim's assertion that "economic development -- let alone industrialization or acquisition are impossible" for debtor nations is patently false, and the exact opposite is in fact true: Debt is an extremely efficient way to finance economic development. For too long, the U.S. has been making concessions to dictators of Third World nations in the form of debt relaxation, all in the name of humanitarian aid. While these dictators squander U.S. funds, their people starve --Eand the U.S. pays the bill. It is not the U.S. or the Western powers who "have greatly exacerbated the problems facing the Third World," but it is the Third World that has exacerbated its own problems. Aaron Yunis College '02 More spirit needed To the Editor: I write in enthusiastic support of Melissa Wong's column "Four years to chase dreams and desires" (DP, 10/25/99). While freshmen typically enter Penn full of first-year enthusiasm for all that the University and Philadelphia have to offer, for many of us that vision narrows substantially as we become upperclassmen. Imagine how different Penn would be if all 10,000 undergraduates were proactively involved in extracurricular activities that were important to them. As long as you have not yet donned the cap and gown, it's not too late to get involved. Morgan Vandagriff Wharton '02