Rich, I am far from an expert in the situation of pre-colonial Africa, and
the 'nations' were divided up in a conference room [in London IIRC] without
any consideration of topography or community relationships, but basically
the situation in any area [don't think of 'nations' in pre-colonial times]
was that if people could grow or find food they lived there, and when they
could not get enough food they moved and found or fought for a new place to
live where they could get food [you do like run-on sentences I hope].
Hunger was not as big a problem because there was no one forcing them to
grow crops they could not eat so $$ could be earned by export. The taxes
imposed by colonial rule were more to force people to become part of the
system than to generate direct revenue, and people who could continue their
traditional way of life had no need of money except to pay the taxes. A
Kenyan friend who owns some land outside of Nairobi told me that if he were
ever to plant an export crop [coffee and cocoa are the main ones there, I
think] on his land he was legally bound to never grow anything but that,
even if he were starving. The infrastructure was created to bring natural
and agricultural resources to the ports for export [look at the rail system
of colonial India and Haiti also], and the enforcement of export production
left a lot of people without the means to support themselves - thus having
to purchase food that they once could grow for themselves. Ghana is another
interesting story [one of my professors was a tribal chieftain from there,
with a PhD from NYU]. HUGE natural resources, but they were not of interest
to the native peoples, and in many ways [almost every way] have turned out
to be a detriment to the population. Colonial powers abused the population
[to 'civilize' them, of course] and extract gems that were valued elsewhere.
Is there some God-given right to do anything to native peoples so that
foreign desires can be satisfied? That is the $.25 answer, and leaves out
probably 75% of the full story. Much of the same story can be told of our
taking of land and resources from native American tribes [who did the same
thing to other native American tribes, who had done it to others] to create
the United States. I suppose the underlying question is always can we stop
the process when we get what we want, or should we expect others to take
over from us. We were the "Taliban" to native Americans, I guess.
Do also realize that it is not just Africa that is affected with
this sort of thing. Great quantities of the best agricultural land in
Central America and the islands is owned by huge trans-nationals [I only use
the term 'multinational' when I forget how misleading it is], and areas that
once fed local populations can sit idle for years if the price for bananas
[or other export crops] means the folks in the board room won't make enough
profit planting. If you have another several pages of listening available
you can investigate the role of the church in colonialism. Rather an
interesting story there also, and does not exactly square with Christian
values.
Down from soapbox, but you sort of asked for it.
BillR
-----Original Message-----
From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
On Behalf Of Rich Thomas
Sent: Friday, October 31, 2008 9:05 AM
To: Mercedes Discussion List
Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT: Ever see 100 billion dollars?
What was the place like before the colonial powers took over?
--R
Bill R wrote:
> It is really a bit more complicated than that. The system of malignant
> stupid policy decisions and favoring the folks in power [foreign or
native]
> did not arise out of the culture all by itself. The shorthand version is
> that the colonial system stayed in place for the most part and the folks
at
> the top [colonial powers with some experience in national affairs and
> international relations while raping the country] were replaced with
locals
> who had worked for them and who kept most of the structure, but had none
of
> the international or even national experience while they were raping the
> country. It is a mess now and can be blamed on them if you want, but the
> situation did not arise all by itself.
> BillR
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED]
> On Behalf Of LWB250
> Sent: Thursday, October 30, 2008 8:58 PM
> To: Mercedes Discussion List
> Subject: Re: [MBZ] OT: Ever see 100 billion dollars?
>
> Yeah, in Zimbabwean money. Check out their rate of inflation lately. Our
> problems pale compared to theirs....
>
> And that's what they get for kicking out the colonials and taking back the
> land. Lots of good it did them.....
>
> Dan (who used to do business in Harare)
>
>
> --- On Thu, 10/30/08, Mitch Haley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
>
>
>> From: Mitch Haley <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
>> Subject: [MBZ] OT: Ever see 100 billion dollars?
>> To: "Mercedes Discussion List" <mercedes@okiebenz.com>
>> Date: Thursday, October 30, 2008, 8:23 PM
>> Here's a pic of 100 Billion dollars, and what you can
>> buy with it:
>> http://humorland.wordmess.net/files/2008/10/zw018.jpg
>>
>>
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>
>
>
>
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