NationStates Jolt Archive

Is there a more screwed up part of the world? Why do you think they have so many problems? Is it because they are forced to live with national borders arbitrarily drawn up by their former collonial masters without regard to the culture or ethnicity of the people who live there?

Maybe it's because their colonial masters were forced out before modernisation had taken place.... In the late colonial days, Africa was a net loss of money for its colonial masters.

When we left, did they revert to tribes again? No, they tried to form working countries, but because they weren't ready for it they didn't do so well. Thats the problem. They weren't culturally ready for the leap from tribe to nation, and there was no national identity holding the countries together. Things'll get better, but it will take time. AIDS hasn't helped though.

Is there a more screwed up part of the world? Why do you think they have so many problems? Is it because they are forced to live with national borders arbitrarily drawn up by their former collonial masters without regard to the culture or ethnicity of the people who live there?

I think you've at least partly 'hit the nail on the head' as they say. Africa's borders are indeed largely a legacy of the 'Scramble for Africa' and the conferences where European colonial powers divided the continent between them. As you say, these borders didn't consider the culture or ethnicity of the people they grouped together or divided. We've seen that such a problem can cause war even in Europe, with the example of the former Yugoslavia being the most recent example.

Of course, that doesn't necessarily answer all the questions, but it's a got to be at least a significant part.

However, I wouldn't necessarily say its the most screwed up part of the world. There's much competition, and Europe, the Americas and the Asia-Pacific all have their imperfections.

On the (sadly only) two occasions I have had the pleasure of visiting Africa (Tunisia and South Africa - admittedly two of the more prosperous countries of this continent), the people have been welcoming and have a sense of natural fun that's refreshing. I also used to know a political refugee from Guinea (he had been a lawyer representing a critic of the government) who was very intelligent and good fun to know.

It's largely because the people who are best at throwing off the shackles of imperialism -and thus came to be the rulers of the various sub-Saharan African nations- are also usually militaristic and dictatorial in general. The border equation is not nearly as pertinent there as it is in the Middle East. You can also add in the fact that more than a few of them remain puppet states to this day.

Well, the problem seems to largely revolve around the lack of a proper middle class IMO, not to mention the resistance of the formation of one. In South Africa when i finally emigrated a proper middle class began forming (largely out of educators and IT workers) but it was ravaged by many of the issues which should only have affected the lower rungs (EG AIDS, due to neglible women's rights concern largely stemming from the native culture.) That, and many of the current governments have their histories deeply rooted in taking support and inspiration from the USSR and governments there can be quite anti-western, blaming much of their actual problems on Europe and America instead of actually trying to solve them. South Africa is particularily bad from a propaganda perspective, the ruling party uses this to allow themselves to do things like declare HIV unrelated to AIDS and get away with it.

AIDS is a major issue there though as much as people try to distrat themselves from it. A morose positive aspect of it though is that the poorest of the poor simply wont survive it (especially since the government of South Africa is no longer obliged to treat rapists for AIDS, although they used to be, which is ironic since they didnt have to treat the victims and still dont,) however, considering the creme de la creme of south africa is emigrating regardless of cultural background (i remember having been in a confrence of IT workers from South Africa in Pielansberg where most could speak native languages and many had English as a secondary or even tritary language, but almost none of them actually still lived in South Africa, having moved to Australia, India, USA, Britain, etc...)

Actually, forget it. Its a mess which will clear up eventually on its own...

The best hope is that within a few years Zimbabwe might be relieved of Mugabe and South Africa will be under a new bipartisan or tripartisan system rather than its current near-absolute majority rule of one curropted party.

Whats wrong with them? No moral base....

419 scams being almost exclusive to sub-saharan Africans is a good indicator of their lack of morals.

www.419eater.com

Whats wrong with them? No moral base....

419 scams being almost exclusive to sub-saharan Africans is a good indicator of their lack of morals.

www.419eater.com

So, some scammers are from Africa. What does that prove? I have received a lot more scam letters from Europe, Asia and the US than from Africa, I certainly receive a lot more porn spam from the US than anywhere else. Does that mean that in those places people lack a moral base?

So, some scammers are from Africa. What does that prove? I have received a lot more scam letters from Europe, Asia and the US than from Africa, I certainly receive a lot more porn spam from the US than anywhere else. Does that mean that in those places people lack a moral base?

I am sure you have recieved quite a few from Europe....Nigerians have large populations in London, Madrid, Amsterdam and Brussels. There are pockets of them in many other cities in Europe. However, check the originating IP for where they are actually from. 99.9% of the 419 scammers are from Nigeria. the term 419 scam is derived from the Nigerian penal code for fraud. It is the number 2 industry in Nigeria behind oil. THATS how big it is there.

Yes, anyone who deals in porn lacks a moral base as well. The porn in the US is from a small area outside Los Angeles, a cesspool if there ever was one.

Also, AIDS is completely out of control in sub-saharan Africa. A TOTALLY preventable disease is killing 10,000 a day and another 14,000 a day are infected. The UN has already written Africa off to AIDS as they admit they cannot stem the rate of infection.

Eventually stability will break down (25% of all soldiers in Africa are HIV+) and then Rwanda will look like a schoolyard fight.

these borders didn't consider the culture or ethnicity of the people they grouped together or divided.

I think they were considered, but in a negative way. Specifically grouping different ethnicities under one 'country' so as to be able to utilise a divide and rule strategy, or to put a colonial-backed minority in power over the majority of a different ethnicity

Whats wrong with them? No moral base....

419 scams being almost exclusive to sub-saharan Africans is a good indicator of their lack of morals.

www.419eater.com
Wouldn't that be like me saying that the kidneys are fundamentally a weak and poor quality organ, because almost all urinary problems are connected with them?

Wouldn't that be like me saying that the kidneys are fundamentally a weak and poor quality organ, because almost all urinary problems are connected with them?

No, because kidneys cannot make decisions to change.....

Wouldn't that be like me saying that the kidneys are fundamentally a weak and poor quality organ, because almost all urinary problems are connected with them?

I have "baited" many of these scammers....and everyone of them has turned out to be a Nigerian, Ghanian or from the Ivory Coast. I have YET to find a 419 scammer that was NOT from West Africa. It is in their culture and they look at it as a job. It really is easy to bait them because they know nothing of Western pop culture. I have presented myself as "Fred Flintstone" and they have taken the bait. I am always amazed at how they think people would actually believe that they have $15,000,000,000 hidden in trunks in a "security company" without realizing how many trunks that would take. LOL

Whats wrong with them? No moral base....

419 scams being almost exclusive to sub-saharan Africans is a good indicator of their lack of morals.

www.419eater.com

Sub-Saharan Africans do email scams because they don't have enough influence or money to pull a big time job that First World crooks could do, like massive corporate fraud at Enron, WorldComm, or Parmalat.

Sub-Saharan Africans do email scams because they don't have enough influence or money to pull a big time job that First World crooks could do, like massive corporate fraud at Enron, WorldComm, or Parmalat.

Thats probably true, but the corporate fraud guys usually get caught. On the other hand, you cannot have fun with the big guys like you can with the 419 scammers. They are a riot!! ;)

I for one am of the opinion that all the Former Colonial Powers should go back into Africa (forcibly, if need be) and Re-colonise all the countries that haven't gotten their act together. The difference this time would be that they wouldn't leave- they've proven they can't run their countries, so it's time for the Second Golden Age of Imperialism!

That and I think "French West Africa" and "Anglo-Egyptian Sudan" have a pretty cool ring to them...