Quotes of the Day

Your article "Africa, Business Destination" was a welcome recognition of the importance of trade and business development as tools for combating poverty [March 23]. But I have to correct a suggestion in the piece that Bono and Bob Geldof seek to represent Africans in their work as activists. They work in partnership with leading Africans but never suggest they represent Africans. Bono and Geldof represent themselves and others who want to see the world's richest governments keep the commitments they have made to Africa. These two have also argued that trade and investment will be more important than aid. But while business grows, African leaders at the International Monetary Fund conference in Tanzania in March made clear that development assistance is still needed too, for now.
Kathy McKiernan, Global Communications Director, One, WASHINGTON

I am amazed at the idea that "jobs are the new assets." In a country where unemployment hovers around 40%+, this is old news. The irony is that investing in training or skills won't necessarily ensure you a job — you might just end up as yet another highly qualified, unemployed South African looking for greener pastures overseas.
Ilse van Staden, CULLINAN, SOUTH AFRICA

I didn't see the idea of "Common Wealth" that was a part of last year's cover story [March 24, 2008]. Why? Is the challenge of cutting extreme poverty, hunger and disease — the defining challenge of the 21st century — no longer important, or has it perhaps already been accomplished? The global economic crisis that started at the end of 2008 will certainly go on for at least four more years, intensifying the problems of extreme poverty, hunger and disease.
Rubens Amaral, RIO DE JANEIRO, BRAZIL

You correctly identify organic cotton as problematic in your article on ecological intelligence but fail to suggest the clear alternative: industrial (nondrug) hemp. The crop, which can be used as an alternative to cotton as well as a base for fuels and plastics, can grow with rainwater and requires no pesticides. The fact that the U.S., unlike most industrialized nations, continues to prohibit hemp deserves some serious attention in these dire times.
Tim Mensching, ASTORIA, N.Y., U.S.

Among your 10 ideas why was there nothing about the planet's burgeoning population? I smiled two pages later at the advert depicting a family with four children. Could this signal why we're in the pickle we are, financially and environmentally?
Clarissa Hughes, CAPE TOWN, SOUTH AFRICA

I am surprised that among the 10 ideas cited, there was no mention of the one that has most captivated the younger generation: the belief that we can all make a difference. Revitalizing suburbs and building biobanks are great ideas, but none will be executed if our future leaders don't believe these projects will benefit anyone.
Rick Say, WEST CHESTER, PA., U.S.

Tell Us Something New
In his article, former history professor Newt Gingrich misstates some facts about the 20th century [March 23]. The Great Depression did not give rise to Nazism or Japanese militarism. It was World War I and its aftermath that set the stage for both Mussolini's march on Rome and Hitler's attempted putsch in Munich. By the time of the Depression, in 1929, the fascists had been in power for years, and the Nazis had been growing in strength for most of the decade. Furthermore, Gingrich's description of the Smoot-Hawley Tariff seems to imply it was part of F.D.R.'s New Deal. Smoot and Hawley were Republicans, and the act that bears their names was passed in 1930, during the Hoover Administration. If Gingrich is unable to get his facts straight about the last century, why should we listen to his suggestions for this one?
Lee Poole, PHOENIX

I disagree with Gingrich's article. in President Barack Obama's two months in office, Gingrich says, he "has so far failed to turn around the economic decline." It took the Republicans eight years to get us into this mess with their nonexistent oversight and their allowing the deficit to balloon to $10 trillion. All Gingrich can offer as an answer is Contract with America 2.0 — which consists mostly of tax cuts. It's the old trickle-down economics with a fresh paint job. I'd much rather have tax-and-spend Democrats than borrow-and-spend Republicans.
David Ingram, ST. LOUIS, MO., U.S.

Trouble in Ireland
Michael Elliot's view that it will take a long time to drain the poison from Northern Ireland is very perceptive [March 23]. The latest outbreak of IRA violence is like a recurring tumor, the cause of which is a pernicious cancer in the Nationalist body politic, namely: our fixation with a "united Ireland." As long as we succumb to our animal territorial instinct and harbour this futile dream, every generation will produce some young hotheads prepared to use violence to achieve it. Of course, like Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness et al, they will come to realize that it's simply not possible to force a million Unionists into a "united Ireland." Tragically, by then they may have destroyed another generation. Every Nationalist desiring a united Ireland must accept a share of responsibility for these latest atrocities. All our political parties must expunge such desires from their policies. A united Ireland is not our call and must remain off the agenda unless an overwhelming majority of Unionists requests it.
Dick Keane, GLENAGEARY, IRELAND

Bigotry stemming from the system of segregated schools throughout Northern Ireland, and in particular those under the control of the Christian Brothers, has and will continue to be the source of religious intolerance.
Peter Hughes, BURNHAM, ENGLAND

• Tell Us Something New; Trouble in Ireland