Colonialism - is the alternative worse?

[tinfoilhat]

Isn't it just an attempt to avoid feeling any guilt about what our countries did in the past by claiming that it was beneficial?

 

Far from it. There are atrocities going on in Africa with a very regular basis. Some of these places have a UN presence and it still happens. Despite lots of aid for decades and a wealth of natural resources millions live in complete abject poverty. Now if you think this can't be changed or by doing a direct debit for a fiver a month will cure the problem, ignore this thread.

[Eric Arthur]

Robert Mugabe holds $1m birthday party in drought-hit Zimbabwe

[tinfoilhat]

Robert Mugabe holds $1m birthday party in drought-hit Zimbabwe

 

See, I've got it all wrong - places like Zimbabwe are doing fine.

[petemcewan]

The West isn't jumping in anywhere and "sorting it out". The following should disabuse anybody of such a fantasy.

 

"The economic failure of the West is eroding belief in values and institutions that we once thought were permanent.

Since 2008 trillions of dollars of convected money has flowed through the banks,hedge funds,laws firms and consultancies to keep the global system functioning.

But the long term prospects for capitalism are bleak. According the OECD, growth in the developed world will be "weak" for the next fifty years. Inequality will rise by 40 %. Even in the developing countries,the current dynamism will be exhausted by 2060. The OECD's economists were too polite to say it, so lets spell it out:for the developed world the best of capitalism is behind us, and for the rest it will be over in one lifetime.

What started in 2008 as an economic crisis morphed into a social crisis, leading to mass unrested, and now,as revolution turn into civil war , creating military tensions between superpowers, it has become a crisis of the global order".

 

Source. Paul Mason . Postcapitalism . A Guide To Our Future. p.8.

 

The whole world is in a mess.

Edited March 13, 2016 by petemcewan

[Solomon1]

No it isn't. Prove otherwise

 

https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/14567/Israel+-+created+by+terrorism

 

"The British government, attracted by the Zionists’ promises that their settlements could help consolidate Britain’s control of newly-captured Ottoman lands, issued a declaration in 1917 agreeing to support the creation of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine"

[petemcewan]

The West isn't jumping in anywhere and "sorting it out". The following should disabuse anybody of such a fantasy.

 

"The economic failure of the West is eroding belief in values and institutions that we once thought were permanent.

Since 2008 trillions of dollars of convected money has flowed through the banks,hedge funds,laws firms and consultancies to keep the global system functioning.

But the long term prospects for capitalism are bleak. According the OECD, growth in the developed world will be "weak" for the next fifty years. Inequality will rise by 40 %. Even in the developing countries,the current dynamism will be exhausted by 2060. The OECD's economists were too polite to say it, so lets spell it out:for the developed world the best of capaitalism is behind us, and for the rest it will be over in one lifetime.

What started in 2008 as an economic crisis porphed into a social crisis, leading to mass unrested, and now,as revolution turn into civil war , creating military tensions between superpowers, it has become a crisis of the global order".

[tinfoilhat]

https://socialistworker.co.uk/art/14567/Israel+-+created+by+terrorism

 

"The British government, attracted by the Zionists’ promises that their settlements could help consolidate Britain’s control of newly-captured Ottoman lands, issued a declaration in 1917 agreeing to support the creation of a “national home for the Jewish people” in Palestine"

 

If your only source is the socialist worker, it's not much of an argument. Any thoughts on where a Jewish homeland should have been?

[NigelFargate]

It was the World Bank in October 2015. Here's more.

 

 

---------- Post added 13-03-2016 at 07:38 ----------

 

 

 

So the World Bank was referring to poverty in Africa, not in the world as a whole. Your original quotation did not make this clear.

 

What Africa needs is greater integration into the global economy, i.e. more global investment and more global trade. Unfortunately, apart from extractive industries, Africa is not a very attractive location for foreign direct investment (lacking for example, good infrastuctures, skilled labour, good governance and political and economic stability). Moreover, apart from the products of extractive industries, most African countries have nothing to sell in the global marketplace.

 

So it is not surprising that Africa is falling even further behind other regions in economic development (with the exception of certain oil producing countries).

[Solomon1]

If your only source is the socialist worker, it's not much of an argument. Any thoughts on where a Jewish homeland should have been?

 

The facts remain the same

 

Britain is to blame for the giant mess

 

That is Israel

[tinfoilhat]

The facts remain the same

 

Britain is to blame for the giant mess

 

That is Israel

 

That has never ever been a fact.

 

I'm not saying Britain has not done some awful things, some thoughtless things ("let's put a line here, draw another one there and call it Iraq") but I think if people can't get along after a certain amount of time then it's down to both sides.

 

If someone locked me and you in a room and you killed me after a week, whose fault would it be? Yours, mine or the unseen force who locked the door?