Madam, - Vincent Browne is right. Few people, it seems, care about black Africans until they turn up on our shores seeking refuge or asylum from the misery and suffering that is experienced by many millions on that blighted continent. No sooner do they arrive than we seek to send them home again.
Madam, - Vincent Browne is right. Few people, it seems, care about black Africans until they turn up on our shores seeking refuge or asylum from the misery and suffering that is experienced by many millions on that blighted continent. No sooner do they arrive than we seek to send them home again.
The litany of African horrors mentioned by Browne in his piece "Ignoring the African holocaust" (Opinion, April 14th) - Rwanda, Congo, Sudan, Burundi, Uganda - is by no means complete. There are many more examples of wars and large-scale human rights abuses, but he gives a good enough cross-section to let your readers realise the extent of the suffering in Africa and, by extension, the depth of the shame that should be felt by the international community for its lack of reaction.
That the West should continue to look the other way as Africans suffer at the hands of their political and military leaders is indeed a disgrace. Our lack of concern for our fellow human-beings is, as Tony Blair so famously put it at the launch of his Africa Commission, "a scar on the world's conscience". It is to be hoped that Mr Blair's commission, which was first suggested by former Irish rock star Bob Geldof, will examine all aspects of African life including conflict resolution, economic issues, education, health, HIV/Aids, corruption, and governance.
Meanwhile, the Irish Government must continue to examine its policies on overseas aid, both in terms of the amount it gives compared with its pledge to achieve the UN target of 0.7 per cent of GDP, and also in the types of regime it supports. We must avoid at all costs offering support to any government that is corrupt or has a record of human rights abuse.
Only when we are seen to be making a concerted attempt to improve the lives of people in their own countries can we in all sincerity be so fussy about whom we will accept into our own green and pleasant land. - Yours, etc.,
JOHN O'SHEA,
GOAL,
Dun Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.