Madam, - Your Editorial "US fails to lead on aid to Africa" (June 9th) seems simplistic. Official aid is the presumed panacea for Africa. Give more or take less? Is justice more generous or less greedy?
Although essential, aid per se remains insufficient. It treats consequential conditions rather than systemic causes. And it tends to be tied to overpriced products and services provided by donors. Corruption claims a share. Last, the aid-only way can create a dependency culture which stunts growth.
What matters is radical reform. But can the international system be challenged and changed? Free trade or fair trade? Aid dependency or self-determined development? Must the earth's nature resources forever flow in favour of the rich world? Greed or need?
Certain countries to their cost (eg Congo) are resource-rich. Hence vultures visit. Yet if precious metals, minerals or oil reserves do occur, such national assets need to be fully developed for the common benefit of all and not for privileged élites or extraneous interests. Africa belongs to Africans.
A century ago in the Congo, Roger Casement exposed the unspeakable savagery inflicted on native people by the agents of imperialism. Were he to return today, would he find the same forces at work? - Yours, etc,
JA BARNWELL, St Patrick's Road, Dublin 9.