Swaziland's King Gets Protested

[Master of Ossus]

It's Africa, also known as the plugged toilet of humanity. What do you expect?

One could argue that's significantly because Europe was shitting on the place for five hundred years and then divided it into countries by throwing darts at a map blindfolded... but the current power structure hasn't done a lot to improve things.

I don't think Mike's trying to address the question of why Africa sucks so bad, but is simply pointing out the obvious fact that it does indeed suck.

[Lord Zentei]

It's Africa, also known as the plugged toilet of humanity. What do you expect?

One could argue that's significantly because Europe was shitting on the place for five hundred years and then divided it into countries by throwing darts at a map blindfolded... but the current power structure hasn't done a lot to improve things.

Slavery was very much in practice in Africa before the Europeans came. Indeed some African countries also continued practicing it after they left. Furthermore, many of the East Asian economies are now a match for the European ones, while the entire economy of sub-Saharan Africa, not counting SA, is less than that of Belgium. Blaming the evil Europeans for the woes of Africa is all very glib and easy, but it is also a cop-out.

[Vendetta]

It's also a correct identification of one of the causes of Africa's problems. Slavery is a small part of it, British, French, and Dutch colonialism, and the oppression and warring, and eventual rebellions that came with it are larger parts. These are the things that put in place the structures that people like Mugabe use today, the residues of colonial nations are used to fuck everyone over.

[Lord Zentei]

It's also a correct identification of one of the causes of Africa's problems. Slavery is a small part of it, British, French, and Dutch colonialism, and the oppression and warring, and eventual rebellions that came with it are larger parts. These are the things that put in place the structures that people like Mugabe use today, the residues of colonial nations are used to fuck everyone over.

Yet former Asian colonies are doing much better as I pointed out earlier. It is true that colonialism is one of the causes for Africa's problems, but it is not the most important one.

Or more accurately: colonialism caused some of the problems, but the reason these problems have not been solved yet in Africa yet has nothing to do with colonialism. In particular, colonialism cannot be blamed for most of the structures that are holding Africa back today: tribalism. Did the Europeans found the Swazi monarchy?

[Chmee]

It's also a correct identification of one of the causes of Africa's problems. Slavery is a small part of it, British, French, and Dutch colonialism, and the oppression and warring, and eventual rebellions that came with it are larger parts. These are the things that put in place the structures that people like Mugabe use today, the residues of colonial nations are used to fuck everyone over.

Yet former Asian colonies are doing much better as I pointed out earlier. It is true that colonialism is one of the causes for Africa's problems, but it is not the most important one.

Or more accurately: colonialism caused some of the problems, but the reason these problems have not been solved yet in Africa yet has nothing to do with colonialism. In particular, colonialism cannot be blamed for most of the structures that are holding Africa back today: tribalism. Did the Europeans found the Swazi monarchy?

European colonialism didn't penetrate mainland Asia in quite the same way as it did in Africa. Where Europeans did clumsily clump together incompatible tribal, ethnic and religious groups in Asia, the results were just as unstable as the same process in Africa .... Indonesia, for example.

[fighterace]

That guy looked SO cool!

To all those people who complain about his extraordinary lifestyle:

In the immortal words of Loius XIV "L'État, c'est moi!"

[Lord Zentei]

European colonialism didn't penetrate mainland Asia in quite the same way as it did in Africa. Where Europeans did clumsily clump together incompatible tribal, ethnic and religious groups in Asia, the results were just as unstable as the same process in Africa .... Indonesia, for example.

Indonesia is nowhere near as poor as Africa. Poor regions in Asia, such as Afghanistan, western Pakistan, Laos, remote regions in Burma, etc are generally either tribal in nature or dictatorial such as North Korea.

[salm]

That guy looked SO cool!

To all those people who complain about his extraordinary lifestyle:

In the immortal words of Loius XIV "L'État, c'est moi!"

yeah, he looks like the guy from next door where you go when you don´t have anything else to do, have a blunt and endless rounds of virtua fighter. then you go to your 24/7 gas station to get a couple of snacks, maybe a few beers and head back for the play station. and he´s got a big back gammon board and blinking dice and even these cool namco gamepads which twists in the middle and acts as a gas pedal in racing games and his thai girlfriend has made these really great spring rolls filled with crabs and tentacle seafood thingies and they´re all pilled up next to you and you shove them into your mouth in between the rounds and take another drag and then you find out that you´ve still not mastered akira so you switch back to sarah and grab another spring roll. damn, he´s cool.

[Master of Ossus]

[snip]

Uh... yeah.

In a way.

[Lord Zentei]

yeah, he looks like the guy from next door where you go when you don´t have anything else to do, have a blunt and endless rounds of virtua fighter. then you go to your 24/7 gas station to get a couple of snacks, maybe a few beers and head back for the play station. and he´s got a big back gammon board and blinking dice and even these cool namco gamepads which twists in the middle and acts as a gas pedal in racing games and his thai girlfriend has made these really great spring rolls filled with crabs and tentacle seafood thingies and they´re all pilled up next to you and you shove them into your mouth in between the rounds and take another drag and then you find out that you´ve still not mastered akira so you switch back to sarah and grab another spring roll. damn, he´s cool.

salm, what the fuck are you smoking?

[frigidmagi]

salm, what the fuck are you smoking?

Least we got an idea of who's he smoking with...