Africa’s Strange Death Wish

[nigel99 617]

** Post written on a forum by my father **

All countries and all continents have their successes and their failures; Europe, Asia, North and South America. But in general the other continents are progressing toward a better, freer and more prosperous life for their people. Not so Africa. When one looks at Africa one sees a sea of corruption, violence, malnutrition, starvation, intolerance and bigotry from North to South, East to West. There are very few exceptions indeed. Yet nearly all these countries were relatively prosperous and peaceful in “colonial times”.

From what I know most countries of the Roman Empire suffered the same fate after the fall of Rome and it took more than a thousand years for countries such as France, Britain, Germany and Europe in general to even begin to recover. During the period of the Roman Empire there was a general peace “Pax Romana” and the same laws applied from Constantinople to Scotland. Many houses had running water, sewage systems, heating in the winter and generally a high standard of living. There was also a magnificent road system throughout the empire, and beautiful buildings that survive to this day.

By about 700 AD most of Europe had gone back to living in houses constructed of sticks and mud. The roads were no longer maintained and the art of reading and writing was almost entirely lost. Life expectancy fell dramatically of course.

The comparison with Africa is frightening. Everywhere, “things fall apart”, not only in material ways but morally and ethically as well.

Throughout history we have seen how a successful minority has been persecuted in order to unite people against a “common enemy”. In Germany it was the Jews. They generally stuck together with their own people and culture. So Hitler demonised the Jews and Germans were encouraged to steal their property as they wanted. Later of course, there was an attempt to murder the entire Jewish race in Europe.

In Zimbabwe the Zanu dictatorship has instilled hatred of “whites” and “the west” in its followers. The reasons are the same; whites are very easily recognised in a predominantly black society and also whites are generally much more prosperous than the general population. This manifests itself as a combination of awe and fear for whites, as well as a great deal of envy. Zanu and Mugabe have played on this constantly, and as their own efforts to run the country increasingly failed, so the hate speech against whites rose to a crescendo. These people (Zanu) could just not understand why their efforts failed whereas the whites had been successful – so they began to see plots and “hidden agendas” everywhere. It was of course impossible for them to see that their failure was fundamentally due to incompetence and a lack of the appropriate value system for success in the modern world.

The Land Grab which destroyed Zimbabwe is an absolutely classic example of the working of this hate, fear and inadequacy. For twenty years before 2000 there had been sporadic and largely unsuccessful attempts at “resettlement”. Most of this land was either totally unutilised or drastically under-utilised. The Zanu government also showed absolutely no inclination to encourage more black Zimbabweans into agriculture and indeed efforts by the CFU to do this were spurned. In 1998 there was an International Land Conference in Zimbabwe. At this conference massive aid was promised to get more black Zimbabweans involved in agriculture. There were however a number a number of conditions; the whole programme had to be legal and had to be specifically targeted at Poverty Reduction.

Mugabe and Zanu rejected this out of hand because it would have undermined their painstakingly constructed Patronage system. Then came the shock of the loss of the 2000 Constitutional Referendum (where Zanu with the help of Moyo had drawn up a draft constitution exactly opposite to what the majority wanted).

Shocked by this, Mugabe and Zanu fought back the only way they knew how, using violence, hatred and envy. Thus began the Land Grab. Whether those who instigated it realised that it would destroy the country, I do not know. But if they did, they did not care. This has been stoked and inflamed over the years since 2000 in a way that Josef Goebbels would have been proud of! We have seen the endless repetition of lies and distortions twenty four hours a day, seven days a week. Many have bought into these lies, and now believe them to be the truth, as we see here, as we read in the Zim newspapers and as we hear from Zim politicians.

Just to recap: the land grab was violent, it was illegal and it was blatantly racist. It was also terrifyingly STUPID. But then, so are all emotionally-driven actions. We have people on here seriously stating (and possibly even believing?) that whites should own no land in Zimbabwe, that whites are “the enemy” and that it is just and fair to steal or destroy anything owned by whites. This is the foundation ethos of the whole Zanu philosophy. What is truly bizarre is that many if not most of these fanatics are living in “white” countries, many carry the passports of those countries, and a great number own property or land in those same “white” countries! Yet, they don’t see any irony in that.

I cannot see Zimbabwe (or Africa) moving ahead until such time as the philosophy of hatred, fear and envy is replaced by a more mature philosophy of Nationalism and Patriotism. We have many, many competent and mature people from Zimbabwe but sadly they are mostly out of the country, and will in all probability never return except as tourists and visitors.

Will Zimbabwe and Africa sink into a thousand-year period of barbarity as happened to the Roman Empire? It is up to the people of Zimbabwe (and Africa) to make the choice between progress and regression. I believe the Civilised World has very nearly run out of patience and that Africa will be left to stew in its own juices, sink or swim as the case may be, within the next ten years. China will no doubt be happy to harvest resources (and maybe settle a few hundred million of its surplus population) but the Chinese are not primarily driven by the altruism that motivates The West.

Experienced jumper - someone who has made mistakes more often than I have and lived.

[ErricoMalatesta 0]

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I cannot see Zimbabwe (or Africa) moving ahead until such time as the philosophy of hatred, fear and envy is replaced by a more mature philosophy of Nationalism and Patriotism.

hahaha!

Oh how mature the philosophy of nationalism and patriotism are! Can't you see stupid Africans! Just worship the little coloured lines on the map! it will solve your problems!

[Erroll 80]

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Can't you see stupid Africans! Just worship the little coloured lines on the map! it will solve your problems!

As usual, you have no idea what you are ranting about, but you need to spew your bile anyway.

[Skyrad 0]

An interesting read. Sadly I wouldn't be suprised if SA follows Zims demise over the next couple of decades.
As for corruption, sure Zim is about as bad as it gets but there is plenty of corruption on a massive scale in Europe and the US too, its just generally better hidden. Although some are better at hiding it than others (Siemens wern't very good at hiding it but are reaping the rewars anyway).

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[dropoutdave 0]

So his main gripe seems to be with what has happened to the rich white people of Zimbabwe.
How about taking a look at what is happening to the rest of the population all down to that prick Mugabe?

Sorry for not shedding a tear for the few rich farmers that got done over when the bigger picture is far worse for many more people.

Playing the race card doesn't work either, he's even worse to the black people of his country who don't agree with him.

In summary - he's a c**t to everyone.

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May Contain Nut traces......

[ErricoMalatesta 0]

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Can't you see stupid Africans! Just worship the little coloured lines on the map! it will solve your problems!

As usual, you have no idea what you are ranting about, but you need to spew your bile anyway.

Says the South African who can afford a computer and the internet.

I'm sure you are a big proponent of the "mature philosophy of nationalism" assuming whitey keeps his computer and we can find someway to get all the dark fellas to go away.

[Andy9o8 2]

All that time and energy spent composing 1,048 words, when he just as easily could have simply said: "Damned Negroes!"

Oh well; so much for economy of language.

[warpedskydiver 0]

Someday, when the goverment decides to change the law, and let squatters forcefully and violently take away the land that was yours (for hundreds of years) try not to shed a tear over it.

[warpedskydiver 0]

Wherever you really do live, just start giving away your home, and everything else you own, because somehow others deserve what yoo have,

[wmw999 2,588]

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Someday, when the goverment decides to change the law, and let squatters forcefully and violently take away the land that was yours (for hundreds of years) try not to shed a tear over it.

Does that apply to Israel/Palestine as well?

Wendy W.

There is nothing more dangerous than breaking a basic safety rule and getting away with it. It removes fear of the consequences and builds false confidence. (tbrown)

[Andy9o8 2]

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Someday, when the goverment decides to change the law, and let squatters forcefully and violently take away the land that was yours (for hundreds of years) try not to shed a tear over it.

Nice diversion, Randall. My point was to point out the thinly-veiled undercurrent of racism in this sort of "critique" of sub-Saharan Africa. That is not negated by the horrid shit that the Mugabe thugs have done in Zim.

Oh, by the way, the house you live in sits on land that white squatters forcefully and violently took away from the Illinois Nation, which occupied it for hundreds of years. If you're going to be intellectually honest about your point, you really should give the land back to the surviving 5% of the Illinois Nation that was not wiped out by the European genocide of their people.

[BDashe 0]

The fact that he used the whites in zimbabwe may not have been the most prime example as you immediately can pull the race card and post below the belt comments re: SA as an example. So I won't even touch that as an argument with a dead end is in plain view.

He is correct though, the continent has some serious leadership and philosophical issues. Look at the '94 genocide in Rwanda, a country literally decimated by it's own people in 100 days while Clinton and NATO (still licking their wounds from somalia and the "blackhawk down" incident) tap danced around the term "genocide" for a few months while the country repeatedly slams it's fist on the self destruct button. How about everything currently happening in Sudan, Congo, or northern Uganda?

You mix malnutrition and disease with poor education systems, living conditions, and infrastructure then sprinkle greedy politicians on top and you end with a social cluster f*ck and exchange rates of 20,000:1. Can't flip a switch and fix it. Very depressing to contemplate, but a beautiful place to visit with some inspiring stories to be told/heard.

So there I was...

Making friends and playing nice since 1983

[pirana 0]

Don't romanticize colonialism. The colonial period for those countries was not in any way some sort of Pax Romana (in case that was meant to imply that being colonized by European powers was some sort of good thing). Being colonized by a stronger nation-state for the purpose of their extracting cheap resources or exploiting cheap labor is hardly a good thing.

Pax Romana as a term was invented long after the fact as an attempt to justify past empire building, the effort required to maintain the empire, and the military dictatorship that it had to become in order to do so. Irony is that those things along with the constant fighting at the edges; ensured the empires demise. All empiure building is by nature temporary, because you can only fuck so many people over for so long before the forces of revolution overcome the forces of subjucation. History proves it so.

The long recovery Africa is enduring right now is the direct result of the end of the colonial era, which was nothing but exploitative. When the imperial powers lost control they left behind a really sick system which had no elements of fairness or equality. It was inherited by bullies and/or puppets that didn't use the opportunity to remake their people into a nation-state based on principles of freedom or liberty or justice or any of those good things. Instead they just put themselves in charge of the system.

We will have to wait for more true leaders to emerge and overthrow the pretenders that inherited the ways of the colonial powers. It's a tough row to hoe though; because most of the programs that the naive good humanitarians of the world put in place only feed the problem, further lining the pockets of those in power.

As mentioned, it takes a long time. Institutionalized evil doesn't go away just because it is ugly and fucks over a lot of people. It will take several more generations for meaningful recovery. A significant shift in how aid is provided would also help.

Sad but true bottom line is they were royally fucked over and the recovery is going to stretch out for a long time to come.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley

[Skyrad 0]

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Says the South African who can afford a computer and the internet.

You should really try travelling. Shit, I can't remember tha last time so many middle class lefty white boys with guilt complexs over something they have no clue about got together in one place like this, must have been the time the local flick showed Lethal Weapon 2.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Andy9o8 2]

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I can't remember tha last time so many middle class lefty white boys with guilt complexs over something they have no clue about got together in one place like this,

I take it you've never jumped at The Ranch.

[Skyrad 0]

No not yet.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[ErricoMalatesta 0]

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Says the South African who can afford a computer and the internet.

You should really try travelling.


I've traveled the east of S.Africa several times. If my own eyes aren't enough to confirm South African poverty issues I'm sure someone who can be arsed will go off and get some googled statistics.

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Shit, I can't remember tha last time so many middle class lefty white boys with guilt complexs over something they have no clue about got together in one place like this, must have been the time the local flick showed Lethal Weapon 2.

I don't have a guilt complex, I'm not middle class and I'm not entirely white.

So lets summarise the discussion so far...

The article - Nationalism is a mature philosophy that should replace the philosophy of violence that sub-human niggers adhere to.

Me - I'm confident that nationalism sucks a big set of balls and that the article sucks.

South African (Nationalist)- Your foul ranting stinks of bile and wah wah wah.

Me - Uh oh whitey misses apartheid.

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[SpeedRacer 1]

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Pax Romana as a term was invented long after the fact as an attempt to justify past empire building, the effort required to maintain the empire, and the military dictatorship that it had to become in order to do so. Irony is that those things along with the constant fighting at the edges; ensured the empires demise. All empire building is by nature temporary, because you can only fuck so many people over for so long before the forces of revolution overcome the forces of subjugation. History proves it so.

This bit right here is basically what I keep telling the Neo-Cons.

Speed Racer
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[Andy9o8 2]

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Pax Romana as a term was invented long after the fact as an attempt to justify past empire building

It's right up there with Manifest Destiny and White Man's Burden.

[Skyrad 0]

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The article - Nationalism is a mature philosophy that should replace the philosophy of violence that sub-human niggers adhere to.

Sub human niggers. If that is your interpretation of the description of black Africans I would suggest that says more about you than it does Errolls father.

When an author is too meticulous about his style, you may presume that his mind is frivolous and his content flimsy.
Lucius Annaeus Seneca

[Andy9o8 2]

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The article - Nationalism is a mature philosophy that should replace the philosophy of violence that sub-human niggers adhere to.

Sub human niggers. If that is your interpretation of the description of black Africans I would suggest that says more about you than it does Errolls father.

My preumption was that ErricoM was speaking in parody, i.e., he was being sarcastic. I guess he's best to clear that up.

[pirana 0]

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Me - I'm confident that nationalism sucks a big set of balls and that the article sucks.

Nationalism; it can be good, and it can be bad.

To marshall the efforts of individuals for some common greater good that does not involve crushing others under a bootheel - - all for it.

To whip people into a frenzy to the point they are willing to perform aforementioned crushing out of greedy self interest - - very bad.

" . . . the lust for power can be just as completely satisfied by suggesting people into loving their servitude as by flogging them and kicking them into obedience." -- Aldous Huxley