UR TV CAST

After one election, the new government unleashed a pogrom on the minority. State-sponsored mass murder continued fitfully for a decade, until the Tamils launched an independence campaign unprecedented in its ruthless violence, and which continues today.These are two of the many factors that make poverty so intractable Fairer trade, debt relief and more aid don’t change them The first is that antipathy to commercial activity. So we railed tons of the stuff 200 miles to Muslim textile manufacturers in the back streets of Colombo That was fun. But the project depended on raw materials drawn from a vast area.

It collapsed when the countryside became too dangerous.That danger arose from ethnic politics. Our product was terrific, but the factory would buy only from well-connected members of the Colombo ?te. The campaign is primarily aimed at the powerful G8 group of countries, and the European Union, in the year when the UK has the presidency of both.
This is a tremendous opportunity. It could create a new moral commitment to global justice, and it could make practical help much more effective. And it is good to see Britain, and the British churches, taking a determined and imaginative lead. And it is wonderful to see Tony Blair and Gordon Brown competing to smile upon the process.But there is a danger that other important issues may be ignored. I want to look at two of them, from the standpoint of one poor country – Sri Lanka.

I once worked there in a joint Methodist-Jesuit project on the remote east coast, offering technical training and job creation. One scheme was to make industrial starch out of cassava and sell it to the local state-owned paper factory. It calls for the forgiveness of unpayable debt; fair trade with poor countries; and the doubling of overseas aid. If we are not careful, the antagonism to the “other” will become a self-fulfilling prophecy.Dr Raj Persaud is Gresham Professor for public understanding of psychiatry. Last week 600 women clergy, led by the Vicar of Dibley, besieged Downing Street in support of the Make Poverty History campaign The formal launch takes place today This could be an enormously important initiative. In contrast, contemporary immigrants easily retain links to their homelands.