HUGH ADLER,
Sir, - I wish to take issue with Eddie Holt's column (Weekend, September 7th) on the Junior Certificate Geography Textbook, Geo (by Liam Ashe and Kieran McCarthy, published by Edco in 1999).
Mr Holt says the book has "many merits", and makes only one major criticism of the text, that he views as propaganda a reference to "rogue states" in the chapter on militarism. He describes this as "the only failing in an otherwise excellent book".
While I have no objection to his taking offence at this term - I myself find it a useful and innocuous description; after all, they aren't exactly model states - I think that the book's failings lie in quite another direction. Having used Geo in preparing for my Junior Cert, I found it inaccurate, contradictory and displaying an appallingly left-wing bias, with the authors never missing an opportunity to criticise the US, OPEC or the developed world in general.
In a chapter on population growth and change they managed to omit an entire stage of the population cycle model. This limits students' understanding of population dynamics, a question on which often comes up in the exam.
In another chapter they speak in glorious terms of Ireland's wonderfully low corporation tax rates and high availability of skilled labour in relation to the rest of Europe, and its telecommunications which are of an "international standard", all of which attract investment from MNCs (multinational corporations) in droves. Then in a later chapter, they do nothing but whinge about MNCs and protectionism destroying the economics of countries of the developing world and driving their people to produce cocaine and other drugs. Double standards or what?
Finally, the chapter on militarism is just a compilation of statistics on global military spending, deploring violence and weapons of any kind and wishing for the sort of peace, love and harmony that only Greenpeace-supporting college students, with nothing better to do with their time than sail happily around ships which they themselves insist are on the brink of leading nuclear waste everywhere, can condone.
This chapter is completely superfluous, as the only "military" matters we need to discuss in Junior Cert Geography are incidences of third world countries spending more on arms than they do on healthcare, and other such matters, which are discussed in other chapters.
Admittedly Geo is accessible and "colourful" to the point of being garish, but in my opinion it wildly exceeds its brief as a geography textbook with its "propaganda" - not, as Mr Holt believes, dangerous right-wing propaganda, but propaganda of a different, equally dangerous sort.
Yours etc.,
HUGH ADLER,
(Transition Year Student),
Adrian Avenue,
Harolds Cross,
Dublin 6W.