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Post by victor on Dec 16, 2011 20:32:35 GMT -5
Ever since Europe's hasty and sloppy withdrawal from Africa it's been hell for most African nations. Grinding poverty. Disease. Villagers living in fear that the neighboring villagers will roll through one day and hack them all to death with machetes. The leaders are corrupt, cynical, and greedy, ensuring that aid will never reach the places where it is needed most. No education. No health care. No hope.
This is a unfortunate as Africa is perhaps the most resource-rich continent on Earth. Vast amounts of untapped wealth, buried beneath all the suffering.
I propose the old European colonial nations (Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, Germany, Italy) step in and parcel up the continent again. The United States and China can get some countries too. The way I see it, this can only mean good things for the average African. The rule of law will prevail, not whoever has the most AK-47s. The corrupt leaders will be thrown out and replaced by a healthy western liberal democratic government, safely far away from corruption and bad local influences.
The resources of Africa will be unlocked, and the new industries will create jobs for Africans. Wealth will be created, leading to health care, learning, and of course the faltering global economy will benefit too. The wealth that is created will pay for the increased operating costs, and then some. Increase the dollar, Euro, etc.
Benevolent colonialism can work.
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Post by Art Vandelay on Dec 16, 2011 20:38:30 GMT -5
Here's why that's a bad idea. Look at huge military resources required just to keep Iraq and Afghanistan (two tiny, insignificant little countries) in line. Now imagine what it would require to do the same to all of Africa. The days of unarmed, ignorant and easily controlled tribals are long over. Try and colonise the country now and you'll be dealing with continent wide guerrilla warfare against heavily armed and fanatic militias. Unless the continent is a giant slab of gold floating on a massive reserve of oil, there is no way the cost would be worth it.
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Post by ltfred on Dec 16, 2011 21:11:39 GMT -5
Sure. You'd make a quick buck, it'd be great for the average US citizen. Colonialism is great- you get freebie natural resources and convenient markets. But it would cement the endemic, Imperialism-caused, poverty of the Third world. It would set back by another 20 years what little gains were made in the period beneath the end of the original colonialism and the creation of neocolonialism under the IMF and a set of dictators.
If you actually want to help the Third world, instead of greatly worsening it's condition under the absurd justification of improving it, disband the IMF as it exists. Cease pretending that the third world owes the first money- money lent to a dictatorship is not owed by the citizens oppressed by that dictator. Allow the third world to employ whatever economic model they want- even the effective ones, the protectionist ones we used. Forget about corruption, it doesn't matter. Forget about culture, it doesn't matter.
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Post by lexikon on Dec 16, 2011 21:12:48 GMT -5
So are you like Brendan's replacement?
And yeah, it would be a bad idea. It's better to educate & help the countries that are less corrupt and hope it spreads. After we fix all our own problems first of course.
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Post by Shane for Wax on Dec 16, 2011 21:21:37 GMT -5
LOL he deleted his account. How cute.
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Post by gyeonghwa on Dec 16, 2011 21:24:57 GMT -5
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Post by SimSim on Dec 16, 2011 21:25:58 GMT -5
What the fuck is this shit?
This won't work, a major reason Africa is such a mess is due to colonialism.
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Post by Art Vandelay on Dec 16, 2011 21:29:17 GMT -5
Wow, it looks like Bong Hit Drama Whore Barbie Ragequit has a successor, ain't that a doozy.
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Post by SpukiKitty on Dec 16, 2011 21:30:47 GMT -5
Ah, those pesky trolls....
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Post by ltfred on Dec 16, 2011 22:24:32 GMT -5
I just don't think it's ethical to claim to be helping people while looting them. Either do it honestly or not at all.
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Post by ironbite on Dec 16, 2011 22:29:56 GMT -5
I honestly want to know how exactly we're going to colonize Africa in the name of "helping". I mean that too. In this day and age you can't get away with that without human rights groups springing up screaming at how evil you are.
Ironbite-and then things get weird.
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Post by gyeonghwa on Dec 16, 2011 22:38:05 GMT -5
Colonizing Africa is why it's fucked up in the first place. As it turns out, colonizing any country tends to fuck it up more. I have the literature to show this.
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Post by ltfred on Dec 16, 2011 22:48:22 GMT -5
I honestly want to know how exactly we're going to colonize Africa in the name of "helping". Of course, the original colonialism- the explicitly exploitative kind- was done with the justification that looting the continent somehow improved it.
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Post by brendanrizzo on Dec 16, 2011 23:31:16 GMT -5
Aw man, I knew this guy was gonna get pilloried the moment I read the thread title. (And for completely justified reasons, I might add.) Well, Victor has left, and apparently has been reduced to the status of Guest, so he is never going to read this, and I cannot say anything which has not already been said, except for this.
The only way that Africa would ever be fixed would be if all racism, whether latent or overt, in the affluent countries were to completely disappear. Immediately after World War II Europe was a total wreck, but due to the Marshall Plan you would never, ever guess that today. (So it is theoretically possible to actually rebuild a country to be better than it was before.) Personally, I think that we need a Marshall Plan x 1000 in order to fix the monumental mess that is the Third World, but that will never happen for one simple reason: the people who live there aren't white. Post-war Europe was inhabited largely by white people, so the rest of the world was willing to help them, but in Africa? (Or Southeast Asia, or the banana republics, or any other shithole?) Don't hold your breath. Racism caused these problems, and it will prolong them indefinitely.
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Post by SimSim on Dec 17, 2011 9:51:39 GMT -5
Aw man, I knew this guy was gonna get pilloried the moment I read the thread title. (And for completely justified reasons, I might add.) Well, Victor has left, and apparently has been reduced to the status of Guest, so he is never going to read this, and I cannot say anything which has not already been said, except for this. The guest means that he deleted his account, but he could still read all the replies. You don't need to be logged in to view this subforum.
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