Madam, - Jason Fitzharris (July 7th) dismisses the "Make Poverty History" campaign as an unholy coalition of religious right, loony left, and nauseating self indulgent pop stars. He goes on to propose what he sees as the obvious and solitary solution to Africa's problems - trade, and trade alone.
As an ardent supporter or the "Make Poverty History" campaign, I wonder which cliché Mr Fitzharris would like to tag me with. As an accountant whose well-paid career has provided me with great career mobility, I am a whole-hearted supporter of globalisation. However, as someone who volunteered a year-and-a-half of my career to an NGO in Angola, I have also seen how the global system continues to fail Africa.
Without ceding any moral authority to pop stars one has to recognise that Bob Geldof et al. have achieved with Live 8 an unprecedented level of reasoned debate on Africa and the developed world's responsibilities to it.
The emerging consensus from this debate is that the solution to Africa's problems must be multifaceted. The G8 leaders have been pressed to give a commitment to the aspects of the solution that are within the control of the developed world: debt relief, more aid and fairer trade. The solution also requires pressure on the African Union to get its own house in order, to tackle the corruption and aggression that also holds the continent back.
Mr Fitzharris dismisses the value of aid with a simple yet incorrect cause and effect analysis: billions in aid has been provided to Africa over 40 years, the continent is now worse off, therefore aid does not work. This analysis fails to consider why aid might not be working (tackled in Paul Cullen's article in the same edition). To borrow Mr Fitzharris's fire-fighting metaphor, we have been tackling a forest fire with a hand pump, but just because we have wasted a lot of water doesn't mean that more isn't required.
A belief that trade alone will cure Africa is as naïve as believing that debt relief or more aid alone will cure it, and represents a poor understanding of the current state of much of Africa.
No market force will build a road to the village where those of working age have been ravaged by Aids. No market force will educate the children of the village if there is no one to pay. No market force will save the 20 per cent of those children who don't make it to school-going age because of preventable diseases. - Yours, etc,
PAUL SWEENEY, Port Melbourne, Australia.
Madam, - It bothers me when people such as Jason Fitzharris fail to inform themselves about something before slating it. He writes that the "Make Poverty History" (MPH) campaign is another way for "sanctimonious white people. . .to assuage their white guilt".
Regardless of race, many people do not do things as wholly selfless acts, and charity is not even the issue here. Even if people are doing something good only to be seen to be doing good - which could arguably be seen to be the case for many of the performers in the Live 8 events - they are still actively doing something, which, though it may seem hypocritical, is better than doing nothing.
Much of Mr Fitzharris's letter also questions the benefits of aid, as if this is the only thing which MPH is concerned with. This is a complete misconception, as it is now fairly widely recognised that aid alone can do little to pull people out of the poverty cycle.
While more and better aid is one of MPH's aims, it does not stand alone, nor should it. The other aims - the cancellation of debt and the prevalence and prosperity of fair trade - are held to be of equal importance in the eradication of extreme poverty in the future. Mr Fitzharris's citing of the need to "stop subsidising our rich farmers" is one of the key issues in boosting indigenous markets, but in the context of a fair market, as opposed to an entirely free one,which an underdeveloped country would never be able to enter competitively.
Finally, nothing regarding MPH is about pity. To say that ridicules the entire campaign, as well as demeaning those whom it is intended to help. One of the goals of MPH is to give people the freedom to pull themselves out of poverty by their own hard work and determination. - Yours, etc,
CAITRIONA BURKE, Marley Close, Dublin 16.