A Chara, - There is a strong mood in the air, though sadly not always reflected in our media, fronted by an assortment of alliances to bring pressure on our world's richest countries to make a once-off cancellation of unpayable Third World debts by the year 2000. Most of the affected countries are in Africa.
The facts are stark and overwhelming: at least one billion people in the Third World are trapped under the burden of debt; for every £1 given in aid by so-called developed countries, poor countries pay back a staggering £4. Debt repayment is causing schools, clinics and hospitals to close. And that's just the tip of the iceberg. Like it or not we in Ireland are part of an expanding Euro-circle of friends living in close proximity to the continent that contains most of the countries in need of a fresh start - Africa.
The call for debt cancellation is only a first step, albeit a necessary one; but I honestly feel we need to take a courageous second step which will include appropriate compensation to Africa for the untold (and sadly often unrecorded) damage done to the continent by European politicians, especially during the course of the past 100 years or so. Let's face it: it was as recent as 1885 that the infamous Treaty of Berlin sanctioned the rape and plunder of Africa - often described in our history books as the "scramble" for Africa. For what reason? "As a safety-valve which let off European steam where it could do relatively little harm." (Snellgrove). Another contemporary commentator, J. Holland Rose wrote: "The statesmen of Europe sought to plant in Africa the lightning conductors that would safeguard the new arrangements in Europe."
I'm sorry to say a lot of harm was done to Africa; and, yes, while the so-called new arrangements of Europe may have been safeguarded, the existing arrangements in Africa were thrown into turmoil. Well, it's pay-back time now - especially for our European colleagues who involved themselves in the race for "the dark continent" - Britain, Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Italy, and the Netherlands. Indeed, Ireland is in a particularly difficult situation in view of our relationship with our European partners. We cannot shirk our responsibilities in this matter, whatever they may entail. And in a culture awash with all sorts of retrospective claims, surely it is only a short step to push the time-threshold back a few more decades so that the dignity of so many of our African neighbours, so often violated in the past, may be healed and restored.
Yes, debt cancellation is a necessary first step, but let's also examine the necessity of meaningful compensation, so that at least a billion people world-wide, trapped by historical decisions, may have some cause to celebrate the coming of the third millennium. Ultimately, there cannot be a Third World or a First World, because, like it or not, we are all in this beautiful and fragile world together. - Is mise, Brother Kevin McEvoy,
De La Salle College, Waterford.