Can someone please invade Zimbabwe?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Ted Striker
I'm talking back when it was Rhodesia, wannabe Eurocom.

Africa as a whole is much worse off than South America, and just coincidentally wholly and DIRECTLY ruled by Eurocoms for most of this century.

You are incorrect. Liberia was America's disaster. Ethiopia was independent for much of the century.

And cut the name calling, it's petty. Besides which- are you seriously suggesting America did a great job with its empire? The Philippines? Cuba?

It is to larf, really.

[Ted Striker]

Liberia is the ONLY place with American involvement. That's a scratch on a much larger surface of a European created disaster.

Look at the damn maps. You will see Brit German Italian French Belgian colors splattered all over the entire continent.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Besides which- are you seriously suggesting America did a great job with its empire? The Philippines? Cuba?

Puerto Rico looks pretty good. As do all the Western States (including Alaska and Hawaii), as well as Wake and Guam and American Samoa. You expect every place in an empire to turn up roses?

And the Philippines was the ONLY colony in history where the indigenous people could gain positions of power and have authority over people from the colonizing country. The Phillipine head of engineering in the 1920s was a Filipino, who gave orders to white Americans. That's a hell of statement compared to what happened in other empires.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Besides which- are you seriously suggesting America did a great job with its empire? The Philippines? Cuba?

Puerto Rico looks pretty good.

Compared to what? The only places in the US poorer than Puerto Rico are the Indian reservations that don't have casinos.

[Ted Striker]

Look, the point here is that Eurcom should be the one to clean up the African disaster:

[Imran Siddiqui]

Compared to what?

Ever been to parts of the former British Empire before? Or any other former colony?

[chequita guevara]

Do you think you're being profound?

Anyway, given the support the US has given to anti-democratic movements and dictators there in the last half century, we've got our own fair share of mess to clean up.

[chequita guevara]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Compared to what?

Ever been to parts of the former British Empire before? Or any other former colony?

Does Canada count?

[molly bloom]

Originally posted by Imran Siddiqui

Compared to what?

Ever been to parts of the former British Empire before? Or any other former colony?

You mean like Singapore? Australia? New Zealand? Kuwait? Canada?

[Felch]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Compared to what? The only places in the US poorer than Puerto Rico are the Indian reservations that don't have casinos.

Compared to the rest of Latin America. If Puerto Rico were independent it would be the wealthiest nation in Latin America, and I believe, the third wealthiest in the Americas.

[Ted Striker]

Okay former British colonies that don't have a majority of British descended people.

[Ted Striker]

AKA WHITE PEOPLE

[Ted Striker]

Originally posted by chegitz guevara
Do you think you're being profound?

Anyway, given the support the US has given to anti-democratic movements and dictators there in the last half century, we've got our own fair share of mess to clean up.

I don't deny that.

But this thread is about Africa.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Does Canada count?

No, it's a settler colony. It is not comparable to the US 'empire' (as long as you don't count 'the West US' as part of it)

You mean like Singapore? Australia? New Zealand? Kuwait? Canada?

Take out all the places that were settler colonies (ie, British moved in), and see what they did to the natives.

I'd MUCH rather be in Puerto Rico than India, Kuwait, Pakistan, etc.

[Spiffor]

I agree with Ted.
A good part of the African disaster is directly due to Europe's sheer incompetence or unwillingness to improve the situation.
France has played an especially important role, by keeping its postcolonial influence pretty everywhere in the French-speaking countries (including Zaïre and Rwanda), and tries to expand its influence in other countries by being buddy-buddy with every tinpot dictator.
It was great for Elf and other firmas, but the African people suffered greatly from this.

However, the African mess cannot be repaired without a voluntary action and even initiative from the Africans, or at least the African elites. Africa cannot accept decisions solely met in Paris or London anymore. The French compromise suggestion for Ivory Coast is an example of this : de Villepin suggested the formation of a national government encompassing elements from the rebellion and from the regular government, and the whole population rejected it violently, accusing France of favoring the other side.