Get ready for the African revolution, says Mbeki

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[Ironfocus]

Good post, and an accurate analysis of the situation. The most important point you make is the will to change, and I have long maintained that we are wrong to assume that all Africans want to live like Europeans or Americans. And we are wrong to measure them by Western standards, because it simply does not fit.

[Ironfocus]

So you are moving to India soon, as the Bell curve showed that Asians were the most intelligent? Sure seems to bring them prosperity.

[ought-six]

Much of colonialism was bad (what King Leopold of Belgium did in the Congo was unconscionable); however, much of it was good for Africa, as well. All things considered, if Africa had been left to its own devices it would still be largely populated by bug-eating nomads except for some of the areas on the Mediterranean coast.

[cyborg]

Well you know abstract thought is the absolute key to success and hard work and learning in school have nothing to do with it! Shame you don't know that yet/sarcasm

[Ironfocus]

Well, we just won't know how Africa would have turned out. I think also that a lot of criticism is directed towards colonialism, and the influence of the Soviet Union is largely ignored. That influence is much more responsible for Africa's condition today than is colonialism. It was already identifed in the 1930's that Africa should become Communist.

[neutrino]

as the Bell curve showed that Asians were the most intelligent?

Really?

[Fred Hayek]

"Worse, existing brainpower is being driven away"

That has been going on in Africa for decades. I have worked with a number of engineers and technicians originally from Nigeria. Their reason for leaving? Corruption and a government that had degenerated to a thugocracy. This had driven out most of the professionals. The natural resources are there, the brain power is there, but the rot is at the top office. "Government is the problem" (can't remember who said that ;) )

[zimdog]

There were very few "bug-eating nomads" in 1885 when Africa was partitioned among colonial powers, who at any rate, had their share of rat-eating nomads.

[zimdog]

The comparison between slave reparations and the systematic and meticulously documented profiteering conducted by European firms with the support of (mostly) friendly, undemocratic colonial regimes in Africa is not the strongest comparison you can make.

Our point (if I may speak for cyborg) is that if you want property rights to be respected, you need to respect everyone's property rights. I would add that just because the statute of limitations is up for particular colonial thefts of the 20th century doesn't mean that they weren't thefts. For Europeans to hide behind the law to escape prosecution for wrongdoing invites tyrants like Mugabe to change Zimbabwe's laws to give that same veneer of legalism to what is so clearly morally wrong.

[Safetgiver]

Tell that to my voilaby, mate.

[Ironfocus]

Hey, you chose to show the bell curve here, I'm just following your argument.

[Max Combined]

I am into voilà, ever since I went into a little cafe in Paris with my family and ordered breakfast. I had I am into voilà, ever since I went into a little cafe in Paris with my family and ordered breakfast. I had cafe au lait and my wife and daughter had hot chocolate and we all had a croissant apiece. When the waiter had set everything out he finished off the hot chocolates with a shot of whipped cream with a flourish and as he finished he exclaimed, "Voilà!" It was very theatrical and very French and my family and I got a big kick and a good laugh out of it.

I am a true conservative and I hate the foreign policy of France, but I must admit that everyone I dealt with in France was very nice to my family and me. Maybe I just got lucky, but the French were very kind and friendly on my trip some years ago. Not one bad thing to say about the people.

[ought-six]

Actually, most of the "bug-eaters" were a bit further south than the Congo, but Kenya, to the east, had its share. And you are right, rodents were eaten by a whole slew of folks in Africa, indigenous population as well as colonials.

[muir_redwoods]

To believe you are among the elite when you are not or to be naive as an adult is to be stupid by definition

Category three is already defined as stupid so all leftists are simply stupid.

[Publius6961]

"The call to achieve Africa's renaissance is therefore necessarily a call to the African masses to rise up in struggle to defeat poverty and underdevelopment, to end Africa's marginalisation and to restore the dignity of Africans everywhere," wrote Mbeki.

At the risk of inviting the lunatic finge and the machete mob, isn't it necessary to have a "naissance" to have a renaissance? Similarly, how can something be restored which never existed?

[Ironfocus]

Yes, Mbeki did not really say did he? What is it he wishes to renew? Must be above me.

[JZoback]

To believe you are among the elite when you are not or to be naive as an adult is to be stupid by definition

Category three is already defined as stupid so all leftists are simply stupid.

Obviously, you are correct

"All leftists are stupid" regardless of their background or upbringing.

To have a different world view other than yours automatically makes one stupid

Glad we cleared that up. You should be able to sleep at night now.

[muir_redwoods]

To have and hold a world view that suggests that some people don't deserve the freedom one demands for oneself is to be ignorant of things one should have learned in grade school. That is what leftists believe. If you can point to a collection of adults who didn't learn what thay should have learned in grade school and you have a reason other than stupidity make it plain

[lqclamar]

ping