My son, you asked me what this “note” means that the American institution Moody’s is a cru bon de donner au Sénégal.. A legitimate question, I agree with you. And as your father has always had the weakness of preferring intelligence to resignation, I will attempt to answer you not as an economist, but as a sensible man observing, from the edge of the world, the contortions of the planetary circle called “international finance”. You see, mon fils, Moody’s is a private company whose mission is to “note” the States, a little like a schoolmaster correcting the copies of turbulent students. But the difference is that the master in question has himself been caught three times in the pot of confiture, convicted of fraud, blindness or complicity in fraud and that he continues despite everything to teach others with the gravity of a priest who has lost his faith but keeps the goupillon. In other words, Moody’s judges the country, as a pyromaniac evaluates the fire resistance of a neighbor’s house. It is l’Occident qui note l’Afrique. The thief who values the virtue of the proprietor. The liar who classifies honest people according to their ability to lie well.. These agencies of notation, mon fils, are taken for des oracles.. They observe our economies through dollar-tipped glasses and conclude: “Ce pays inspire confiance” or “Celui-là est à risque”.. It’s not the same. But their trust, you see, is not an affair of justice or truth. It is a question of submission. You obey the market, you are “bien noté”.. You dare speak of sovereignty, you are “degraded”. Le Sénégal, aujourd’hui, s’affirme.. The Sénégal, today, is affirmed.. He dared to say: “We want to decide ourselves, produce ourselves, finance ourselves”.
Letters to my sons. (A-PROPOS DE MOODY’s and the absurdities of the world finance)
