Sir, - The review of Third World debt by various contributors (The Irish Times, October 2nd), while giving detailed reasons for the increase in this debt to unmanageable proportions - mismanagement, corruption, etc. - completely ignores one of the main underlying factors in the need to borrow such funds in the first place. This is the unsustainable birth rate in all the countries mentioned in the survey.
Kenya is mentioned as a particularly deserving example for debt cancellation, and, while your correspondent gives heart-rending statistics and examples of destitution, he fails to mention that Kenya has one of the highest population growth rates in the world at 4 per cent a year.
Cancellation of debt repayment and curbing corruption will not in themselves solve these countries' problems: this will begin only when both their leaders and their populations accept that irresponsible procreation leads only to a never-ending spiral of poverty and misery. - Yours, etc.,
Tim Dennehy, Ballinamoursough, Rathka, Co Tipperary.