Third world campaigner Bob Geldof has called on Irish business leaders to play their part in the "long walk to justice" for Africa.
He also attacked the Government for breaking its promises on development aid and said Ireland's economic recovery was only good if the Irish people faced up to the responsibilities that came with prosperity.
Addressing an Institute of Bankers lunch in Dublin, Mr Geldof criticised the global economic system as "intellectually absurd and morally repulsive" and said it facilitated the "rape" of African economies by the West.
People in Africa were going to die as a result of the Government's failure to fulfil its commitment to give 0.7 per cent of GDP for development, he said. No bank would allow a business person to default on their debts in the same way.
"This was a promise made in our name by our elected representatives. When Ireland signs off on that international treaty, it's agreeing to something that has to be done."
Referring to trade, aid and debt as the "great trinity of decline", he said the global economic system entrenched the decline of the Africa. Quoting from The Wealth of Nations by Adam Smith, he said that "infant economies must be protected".
That was impossible in the current regime because it protected the interests of first world economies in the name of free trade.
The system of tariffs and subsidies created challenges so onerous for African economies that they were unable to compete, he said. Farmers in the EU received a $2 (€1.55) subsidy per week for every "unwanted cow" while the average African person had to live on only €1 per month.
Mr Geldof said he thought he had seen everything until he came across a family in Africa that was mourning the death of its grandfather. "The granny was sucking at the breast of the young woman because that was all that they had. Well, how depraved have we become?"
He praised the commitment of Pope John Paul II to the eradication of Third World debt and his argument against the "moral void of consumerism".
Mr Geldof was surprised that a letter the late Pope wrote in support of the Jubilee 2000 campaign on debt was not regarded as one of the great pieces of the political literature. Citing Jefferson, he said it upheld truths that were self-evident.
