Sir, - In June, 1992, I attended the lecture given at UCD by Prof Noam Chomsky of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, arguably the world's greatest scholar of today, in which he said: "The countries of Africa and Latin America are very rich countries . . ."
The large attendance waited, stunned.
".. . because they paid one trillion dollars in interest to US banks in the 1980s."
Prof Chomsky went on to explain his methodology. He had simply gone to US government records and counted. Clearly, it would take someone of the research skills of a Chomsky to count to a trillion but the data is there for all to check.
As everybody knows, the countries of Africa and Latin America paid more in interest to US banks in the 1990s than they did in the 1980s.
I would like to ask Mr Ahern and Mr Andrews to make the elimination of Third World debt the cornerstone of Irish foreign policy for the third millennium, on the grounds that the loans have been repaid many times over.
If Ireland does not do this it is unlikely that much will be done. Only Ireland has the prestige of being a senior (since 1973) member of the European Union without being a member of the US-led military alliances, Partnership for Peace and NATO. - Yours, etc., Dr Desmond Keegan,
PEI Ltd., Blackrock, Co Dublin.