As Rabbi Lerner has written, Barack Obama will either become a transformational president or "another flash-in-the-pan hero who will always be honored as the first Black president, but not as one who actually made that big a difference in the long run."

The next thirty days present a major test of what kind of president Barack Obama will be. On April 2, President Obama will travel to London to meet with the Group of 20, the leaders of the most economically powerful countries. At the end of this week, on March 13 and 14, finance ministers and central bankers are having pre-meetings ahead of the leaders' summit.

G-20 leaders are meeting to coordinate their response to the global economic crisis. As is too often the case, the people most affected by the crisis -- the world's poorest nations -- won't have a seat at the table. The World Bank projects that 53 million people in the developing world may be pushed into poverty in 2009, left to live on less than $2 per day.    

Now is the time, more than ever before, to practice the Strategy of Generosity. Instead of asking "What's good for America," we must start asking, "What is best for the world and for the planet?" This requires us not only to think about ourselves, but about everyone, whether they live next door or in South Asia, whether we see them every day or never get to meet them.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the host of the G-20 summit, has proposed a Global New Deal to respond to the global crisis. His proposal could involve between $500 billion and $1 trillion in new lending to low-income countries from international financial institutions such as the IMF and World Bank.

Prime Minister Brown's proposal sounds generous. But without significant reforms at the financial institutions, this massive new lending could increase the debt of the developing world without helping them through the crisis. The IMF and the World Bank have a history of imposing harmful conditions on the recipients of their loans, such as requiring the privatization of government services and spending limits on social programs, which often leave people worse off than they were before.

For example, in its January, 2009 loan to El Salvador, the IMF required tax increases and decreases in gas and transportation subsidies, at a time when the United States and other developed nations are relying on stimulus spending and tax cuts to avert a further economic downturn.  

We should not increase the debts of developing countries, which already owe nearly $3 trillion to the IMF, the World Bank, and wealthy nations. The debt burden forces governments to divert resources from health care, education, clean water, and infrastructure to repay loans at high interest rates. For every dollar Africa receives in aid, it pays $2.30 in debt service. With numbers like this, reaching the Millennium Development Goals, which aim to halve poverty by 2015, seems unlikely.

Instead of focusing narrowly on more lending, the G-20, with President Obama's leadership, should support grants and cancellation of existing debts in the Global South. In the past, the cancellation of debts has been successful in freeing up governments' ability to take care of their citizens. Savings from debt cancellation allowed Zambia, for example, to hire 4,500 new teachers and eliminate fees for rural health care.

Funding debt relief would not have to cost taxpayers a dime. The IMF has, over the years, amassed significant gold reserves, which could be sold to pay for anti-poverty efforts and keep the crisis from getting worse. The gold reserves -- built up by IMF member contributions over many years -- are a shared resource and should be treated that way.      

During the campaign, then-Senator Obama promised to double foreign assistance, expand debt relief and grant support for poor nations, and reform the IMF and World Bank. Whether he keeps these promises -- or allows himself to be captured by the "realism" of inside-the-Beltway political operatives -- depends on us.
 
Spiritual progressives must call on President Obama to lead with the values of love, generosity, and compassion and move us toward a radical new consciousness that recognizes every human being as an embodiment of the sacred. We must not miss this opportunity to repair the world.

Margot Friedman is a supporter of Jubilee USA Network, an alliance of more than seventy-five religious denominations and faith communities, human rights, environmental, labor, and community groups working for the definitive cancellation of crushing debts to fight poverty in Africa, Latin America, and Asia.