Letter: Third World rights
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.Sir: Professor Kenneth Minogue's racist polemic, "Arguing the case for the nation state" (Podium, 5 February) must be rejected as post-imperialist nonsense. His suggestion that the peoples of Africa "most notably lack" certain "invisible moral virtues" possessed by "us in the West" is absurd. Globalisation exacerbates inequalities of wealth but not for the reasons suggested by Professor Minogue. War economies are not the monopoly of any one country or region.
A front-page article in the same issue ("Rebuke for Cook over Sierra Leone") refers to the "arms to Sierra Leone affair". The global arms bazaar has more to do with current economic crises than the presence or absence of any "moral virtues".
"Democracy, I have no doubt, is doomed," says Professor Minogue. The end of apartheid in South Africa is evidence to the contrary. Notwithstanding the persistence of racism, even among some intellectuals, fundamental human rights are universal and must be constantly defended against those who claim the superiority of "Western" civilisation.
ANTHONY H RICHMOND
Emeritus Professor of Sociology
York University, Toronto
Join our commenting forum
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Comments