posted
Ever since the Modern Era began in the 16th century, Africa and its inhabitants can be seen as the "Continent of Ironies". [b] The economic development and strength of the West derives directly from the role that African labor has played in that regard. Captive Slave labor from Africa was the crucial variable--of land, labor, and capital--that developed the Americas and Western Europe. All of the Americas from Canada(slavery was abolished in 1834) down to Argentina was impacted positively by African labor.
The economic catalyst set off by that initial profit making and capital generating event is still going strong--while Africa remains stuck in underdevelopment. The GDP of the European Union is $20 TRILLION with a per capita GDP of $40,000.
The GDP of the U.S. $18 TRILLION with aper capita GDP of $52,000.
Only China with a GDP of $12 TRILLION come close. Per capita GDP is just $8,000.
Africa Labor and Resources Made Euro-America Rich. Africa was impoverished in the process.
A Contemporary Example of this Syndrome of Africa Making Europe Successful.
The World Cup for football/soccer was recently concluded in Russia with France the winner. The interesting fact, commented on by several observers, was that the majority of the French team were players of African origin--yet African teams fared badly in their efforts. None reached the second round.
The jestful claim in all of this was/is that "Africa won the WC". That did not prevent France from erupting in joy when the final whistle went. Same old story.
posted
Interesting Phenomenon The black/African populations of the Americas and Europe directly from some form of forced transportation.
For the Americas the forced transportation ended with very onerous and heavy slave labor often under conditions of great cruelty. Example:[b] In Salvador, Brazil, the local people call each cobble stone of the area known as Pelourinho "cabeza de negro"(black man's head)because many slaves died in laying those cobblestones and building that city.
Yet, the descendants of those captives chose to remain in the same places that caused such great pain. They prefer to stay and hope that their erstwhile oppressors would treat them as equals--despite their lowly caste status. Imagine if they had quickly sought to return to Africa once freed. At least, the best athletes in world would be in Africa.
Posts: 5492 | Registered: Nov 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
We're beyond pathetic with regard to utilising resources for our own benefit. We (Africans) are essentially a continent of sadomasochists. Even if one were to blame the 'elite' for the somber poverty that prevails throughout the continent...why are the elite of these resource-rich countries not as wealthy as say the Gulf Arabs?
The DRC has $23 trillion in mineral wealth and yet they've done nothing with it. Yes, I know the West assassinated Patrice Lumumba and enabled their multi-national corporations to carve out zones with the help of militias but we could still recover from that if we cared about ourselves.
Posts: 1568 | From: Pluto | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
posted
The issue of athletes is not as important as our management of wealth - but it is illustrative of our overall attitude and conduct.
There's a great book that my brother is reading at the moment called the Dictators Handbook, and one of the points raised in that book is that dictators are able to establish and entrench themselves in resource-rich countries due to the fact that they can bypass the population in the acquisition of wealth; the dictators in these countries have no need to educate their populations in order to build wealth.
..They only need to work with foreign multi-nationals to dig up the wealth and use it for their own ends. Traitors like Mobuto purposely neglected to buid roads because (as he reasoned) those roads could be used to remove him from power. These African elites (traitors) are not ignorant, naive or even incompetant... they know precisely what they're doing. These elites were educated in the top Western universities.
Investing in infrastructure, science and education would weaken their grip on power and this is why African leaders do everything to avoid this; an educated population will inevitably demand certain checks on power and will demand greater participation.
It's a shame that not even one African country bucked the trend and made itself successful; such a country could do what the Americans did with the school of the Americas; a program in which the United States trained right-wing despots on how to attain and retain power. Now, imagine if an African country did the opposite; if this successful African country had a pan-African ethos... it could make a tremendous difference.
We could have positive colour revolutions in the continent if we had just one country; building coalitions would be essential; powerful blocks (with regional forces) could then start removing traitors from power all over the continent. This happened in Gambia, and I read somewhere that the AU Charter permits this but lacks the capabilities to carry it out.
Posts: 1568 | From: Pluto | Registered: Sep 2008
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic