A chara, - Brian Scott of Oxfam (July 12th) writes about the "debt crisis" of "the world's highly indebted poor countries." I am sure he did not intend to perpetuate the moral falsehood of calling these countries "debtors". Surely it is the rich countries who have long been in debt to them - for their cheap labour and goods, which we benefit from, while they endure such deprivation. Surely it is time the rich countries started repaying their debts to the countries they brought to poverty through imperialism, unjust trading and other forms of plunder and exploitation.
Words are powerful. John Banville recently wrote, in your columns, that the phrase "ethnic cleansing" should not be used without the "moral cordon" of parentheses or inverted commas.
Let us be clear on which countries are indebted to which. And by how much. - Is mise,
Fionnuala Nic A' Bhaird, Cill Droichid, Co Chill Dara.