JIM BLAKE,
Sir, - I suppose it's hardly surprising that Philip Donnelly (July 29th) rails against the decision of the Irish government to support the cancellation of debts owed by one of the world's poorest countries, considering the awful misinformation that is perpetrated by powerful vested interests and the world media (very often, and increasingly, the same thing).
Mr Donnelly suggests "military intervention to remove power-crazed wreckers such as President Mugabe of Zimbabwe" as a "good place to start" in solving the problems of Africa.
This certainly fits with President Bush's plan to deal with what he calls "rogue states" as he gears up for another war on Iraq, ostensibly to get rid of Sadam Hussein.
In Britain, the Blair government has just deported the Zimbabwean Minister for the Disabled, Joshua Malinga, because of European Union sanctions against the Zimbabwean government for refusing to accept EU monitors at election time.
Philip Donnelly is therefore expressing the prevailing consensual wisdom on Africa.
Globalisation is essentially the process of ensuring that the "profit at any cost" phenomenon called capitalism reaches into every little recess of the planet, destroying communities, their environment, the forests, wildlife, the atmosphere, rivers, lakes, seas and the very planet itself.
In whose interests is this being done? In the interests of those who live by rents, profits and dividends, the transnational corporations which have taken on a profit-maximising life of their own to the detriment of us individuals who have an interest in long-term survival.
Concretely, the Irish government must, through the EU, protest at the deportation of a Zimbabwean government minister going about his business and move immediately to implement its own promise to give 0.7 per cent of GNP to assist third-world countries.
I would say to Mr Philip Donnelly: "Do you seriously believe that it was simply the potato blight that killed one million people in 19th-century Ireland or was it not the poverty resulting from the underlying relationships at the time"? - Yours, etc.,
JIM BLAKE, Grosvenor Mews, Douglas West, Cork.