Sir, - Philip Donnelly (August 14th) makes many assertions which are simply not true - a product, one suspects, of an academic education not tempered with necessary practical experience.
Having spent time in Asia, taking Indonesia as my case in hand, I must inform him that, though it may beggar our enlightened sensibilities into disbelief, forced migration is still a policy of some countries.
Mr Donnelly rightly points out that gravitation towards wealth is a cause of migration, but in the case of Javanese displaced to the outer islands of the Indonesian archipelago, it is the government and industry that are gravitating towards wealth. The stability of Java, the most populous island on earth, is crucial to prosperity and rule in Indonesia. Overpopulation threatens this. Forced migration, by political, economic or other means, is a method both of solving the population crisis and of increasing a practical hold over the outer areas that often have aspirations of autonomy - a model not dissimilar to the plantation of Ulster. Java is the centre of industrialisation in Indonesia and, with its huge population and adequate infrastructure, is the source of practically all sweatshop labour, bringing riches to an economy run by a few.
The West did not magic its wealth out of thin air, as the briefest review of colonial history would reveal, and does not continue to do so. Undeniably the West, along with the wealthy eastern Θlite, profits from the ignorance and weakness of millions in South-East Asia. It is of course true that work provides these people with necessary money to live, but it is also true that the Θlite need this source of income to live in the luxury they are used to. If they were given the choice of withdrawal of business by a multinational, or adopting more humane practices, they would change their approach to human rights overnight.
Globalisation is a complex phenomenon, and I am well placed through an education in politics and circumstance to see how ignorant I and others are of its subtleties, and to be aware of the amount of manipulation politicians, police, protesters, academics and the occasional letter-writer to the editor employ.
The amount of ignorance surrounding the subject among educated people is appalling, considering how fond they are of speaking out on the topic. But, as in any sphere, common balanced sense is more invaluable than any amount of intellect and ingenuity.
Ireland should be studying now the effects of policies of immigration and integration in countries which have faced our current crisis in the past, and should be making realistic, swift and practical plans for the future. We will have to have our share of immigrants - it is as unstoppable a process as the weather we are as fond of giving out about. We have a chance to plan and build a functioning multicultural society - a positive challenge in which we could learn good about ourselves as a people as well as gaining the enrichment that comes with other cultures. Now would that not be true wealth, to know ourselves as good people? - Yours, etc.,
Ted Stone, Roseberry, Newbridge, Kildare.