Posted on 12/18/2013 7:30:18 AM PST by Paladins Prayer
Its hard to forget meeting a man who hated Mahatma Gandhi. I once did, though. No, he wasnt some erstwhile viceroy lamenting lost glory days, but an Indian born and raised in the land of sati and saris. The reason for his ire? He said that when Gandhi drove the British out, India lost everything: technicians, engineers, expertise, bureaucratic integrity, etc. In the same vein, I have a Zambian friend who has argued that colonialism had a positive impact, in that it brought civilization to the lands such as his it touched.
And, in fact, even that Kenyan Obama agrees. The presidents half-brother George Obama, that is. He once told social commentator Dinesh DSouza that it would have been better if the whites had stayed longer in Kenya, as their premature expulsion caused his nation to descend into poverty.
But what of the conventional narrative that colonialism is responsible for Third World poverty? Economist Dr. Walter Williams addressed this in 2011, writing:
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
I once knew a highly educated Indian man who immigrated to the United States. He strongly maintained that the British Empire was the best thing to ever happen to India, and India’s independence marked the beginning of its decline. I’m certain this is neither an original nor unique perspective of many Indians.
and plumbing, did I say plumbing? It’s all the rage in the West....
Once England made something of India, the Indians wanted it all without repaying the investment
Same with South Africa, Rhodesia, what Saudi Arabia did to us and so on and so forth
Western civilization > other cultures.
Period.
If it had not been for bad colonial practices we would not be what we are.
You mean tribalism, ritual murder, cannibalism, disease, slavery and superstition weren’t good for the Third World? They were according to the enviro-idiots. Death is good for children. It keeps down “the surplus population” (Thank you, Mr. Dickens).
Thanks for posting this article.
I think you forgot sanitation. Or maybe that is implicit in your fine list...
Were it not for colonialism, the Americas would be a land of people who are barely out of the stone age.
I can cite one enormous evil of imperialism. If not for imperialism, there would have been no Barack Obama junior.
“What have the Romans ever done for us?”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Qc7HmhrgTuQ
Reminds me of the question in THE LIFE OF BRIAN.
“What have the Romans ever done for us!
Ever time they come up with something good from the Roman invasion the new question becomes ...
“Well, other than that, what have the Romans ever done for us!”
A classic example of the perils of anti-colonialism is the Congo. Once a relatively prosperous colony of Belgium (of all countries ...) due to its rubber and copper resources, in the 60s, it began to assert its independence. Inevitably, it descended into anarchy, the mines fell into disrepair as European maintenance technicians fled, and the once-thriving economy collapsed. It has survived despite numerous coups, rebellions, and ongoing disruptions only because lender nations continue to prop up its economy and send troops to defuse the internecine violence.
Savagery is so much preferable to colonialism.
But, before the EVIL WHITE MAN colonized America, it was a paradise of happy dancing people who loved nature and all was skittles and unicorns and peace and love, and their version of rock and roll.
http://www.dickshovel.com/scalp.html
I happened to be channel surfing a few years ago and came upon Al Gore’s cable channel. I was stopped and had to watch the program.
It was about a journey throughout India and SE Asia and the sanitary conditions on how the people had no toilets. They just went out and crapped in the fields, or river. The river looked like grey sewage and people drank from it.
They didn’t even have the sense to dig a simple hole or slit trench, do their job, and cover it up.
AND I WAS SUPPOSED TO FEEL SORRY FOR THEM!
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