Glen
If there's something I can't bear is to be called racist. Call me stupid,
arrogant, weak, unfair, ignorant ... and I will smile. But not racist !
1. I don't think that a civil war is always a good option. During the cold war,
both Russians and Americans were well disposed to give help (weapons, money,
food) for political reasons. But, even in those times, the cure has been often
worse than the illness (Vietnam, for example). Sometimes (Cuba) the result has
been good, but not definitive, so, even if that people had an evident progress
after the revolution against Batista, they are not still leaving in freedom
(even thanks to a stupid embargo, that gives the dictatorship more strength, and
the people less food). In few words, the usual outcome of a civil war in the
last half century has been nearly a disaster.
2. Anyway, now that the cold war is over, a revolution has really few chances.
Especially the peoples oppressed for *market reasons* (like Nigerian peoples)
have no alternatives. They can't find the necessary weapons, and they end into a
forgotten war of knifes against bazookas.
3. For what I know, in Nigeria, like in almost all African countries, THERE IS
a civil war. There are hundreds of forgotten wars, all over the world, but the
CNN uses to show only those assuring a good audience.
Few years ago the writer Ken Saro Wiwa has been executed by the government after
having denounced the abuses over the Ogoni people, guilty only of living over a
land that is full of oil. The main problem is that the Nigerian oil is too
important for the west, and many western countries used to sell weapons to the
Nigerian government. We need oil, so who cares of the Ogoni rights? After the
execution of Ken Saro Wiwa, the president of the USA, Bill Clinton, announced
the USA would stop the export of weapons to Nigeria. Many interpreted the
decision as an admission of guilt. Obviously, the embargo never worked, so the
dictatorship (for what I know) is still wealthy.
4. Especially one thing among your words sounds very far from a correct MOQ
interpretation.
> but the way them to stop being victims is
> for them to stand up and assert their rights.
Of course! Like to say, if they are not fighting, it means that everything is
alright. No. These rights are not obvious. They don't come out from the air.
They came out in a special cultural/social situation. The intellectual level has
these rights at its foundation, as the basic form of the intellectual level is
probably the awareness that the individual rights are more moral than the
society. But the great part of the world has never met the intellectual level.
We don't come to life naturally free. Freedom is a set of intellectual patterns
of value we learn living in our social context.
It sounds strange to our hears when we come to know that in many poor African
countries wars are always tribal. There are many civil wars, but the result is
often that the former government is replaced by another equally cruel ... of
another tribe. Why? The MOQ can give an answer. They are not still in the
intellectual level. Not 'cause they are stupid. Simply, 'cause the social
context is not like ours. They can't fight for the individual freedom, as they
don't know that the individual freedom is good. They just fight for their social
structure, against another social structure. This is not racism, boy. This is
MOQ. By the way, they never identify with their nation. African nations have
been designed on the map by Europeans colonizers, with no care for the different
cultures. Probably well knowing that thanks to the tribal wars, we can easily
control them.
So Glen, when you see that a people is NOT fighting, it doesn't mean that
everything works well there. I have not easy solutions for the African forgotten
tribal wars. But I'm pretty sure that the market model we are imposing there is
not the right model. We are not teaching freedom. We are teaching that there's
another big and ugly white tribe. Not really a good presage.
Ciao
Marco
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