Katrina, Language, and the “Third World”
by Eric Stiens
Mukoma Wa Ngugi writes an interesting piece examining possible reasons why “[t]he devastation of New Orleans by Hurricane Katrina is being compared to disasters in the “Third World”.”
He writes that:
The American citizen has been stewing in nationalism, manifest destiny and the myth of the democratic society that errors but never oppresses or marginalizes for so long that even a natural disaster cannot be seen and understood outside this lens. And the fact that most of the victims are predominantly poor and African American is not being understood as a creation of very specific domestic policies and conservative ideologies; it has to be filtered through the “Third World”. As if a disaster from that “part of the world” somehow managed to sneak through the porous Mexican borders.
Meanwhile, a new UN report on global inequality makes the claim that for many poor people of color in the United States, daily living conditions and access resources, especially health care, are worse than those in developing countries.
Paul Vallely, analyzing the report in the UK paper The Independent, writes that “yesterday’s UN report provides statistical proof that for many - well beyond those affected by the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina - the great American Dream is an ongoing nightmare…the infant mortality rate in the US is the same as Malaysia, which has a quarter of America’s income…Blacks in Washington DC have a higher infant death rate than people in the Indian state of Kerala…Throughout the US black children are twice as likely [as white children] to die before their first birthday…Hispanic Americans are more than twice as likely as white Americans to have no health cover[age].”
September 12th, 2005 at 1:01 pm
Blacks live with whites because the best they can do on their own are fetid, barbaric cesspools like Haiti, Nigeria, Ethiopia, or Papau New Guinea.
Think about it, when whites lived in these places they built advanced, First World civilizations. When they left, blacks took over and advanced civilizations disappeared. The environments are the same but the people are different, therefore the peoples’ culture and/or genes are the root cause of the difference.
Read this and weep for your lost ideology of egalitarian lies.
September 13th, 2005 at 9:16 am
Interesting the examples you give of black peoples’ supposed inability to govern themselves or create societies — they’re all former white colonies (except for Papua New Guinea).
I agree with you: let’s think clearly and calmly about this for a few minutes. We’re going to set aside several countries in Africa that clearly defeat yr claims (including South Africa, Ghana, Guinea, Cameroon) about self-governance. Those countries have problems, but so does every country.
What was the point of white colonialization of Africa? In a word, exploitation. Africa was and probably still is the most naturally rich continent, loaded with exploitable natural resources, including oil, minerals, gold and diamonds, etc. European powers, including Great Britain, France, Belgium, Italy and Germany, built colonies and oppressed native peoples precisely so that they could extract wealth from free or slave labor, from natural resources, and from captive markets.
No one who knows anything at all about African colonialism disputes the economic motivation for colonialism.
Now, after deciding that direct colonial occupation was too costly and too unwieldy, there was a wave of decolonialization after WWII, during which many former colonies won freedom throughout Africa. (While some, like South Africa, took a lot longer.)
Since this struggle for independence and self-rule took place in the context of a Cold War between superpowers, it was vastly complicated by shifting allegiances and alliances between the US, the USSR, and African countries struggling to survive decolonialization. Which was itself often a very brutal experience; there is an often told story of the Belgians simply destroying the infrastructure in the Belgian Congo as they departed there. Ripping up telephone and electricity lines, etc.
Nigerian mineral and petro wealth to this day does not benefit Nigerians but, rather, Shell, Exxon, and the Western oil companies. How would you feel if the natural wealth of your country were repatriated to another?
Ethiopia —
a Christian nation, by the way(corrected by the cowardly anonymous racist “Stir the Pot”, who points out that Ethiopia is actually majority Muslim and animist — was the site of the most ghastly human experiments by Italy before WWII (Mussolini bombed Ethiopians for sport), and it suffered an unfortunate drought (the causes of which are not at all clear or simple); but other than that, Ethiopia is an old and respected culture and a functioning nation today.Haiti is interesting because it’s the notable American experiment with colonialism, interference, and destruction by, among others, consecutive Presidents, the Marines, the State Department. Haiti is, in fact, the hell hole of the Western Hemisphere, which just so happens to be the sphere of influence the US defends vociferously. I wonder if it’s occurred to you whether there’s some connection between US interventions in Haiti — going back at least 100 years — and the fact that Haiti is nearly uninhabitable?
And just when the poorest of the poor in Haiti get together to elect a president, Aristide, who they believe in — in a huge upset that no one in the US governement saw coming, since Aristide beat the US-backed candidate — the US intervenes, replaying some old Cold War fantasies, and opposes Aristide.
What right does the US have to back a candidate, any candidate, in Haiti? And if it’s going to back candidates and intervene in Haitian affairs, doesn’t it (don’t we) have some accompanying responsibility for what the place is like?
You said,
But that’s simply a viper’s nest of lies and distortions.
First, whites didn’t build advanced, First World civilizations in those places. The entire notion of “first world” only came about after the waves of decolonialization in the late 1950s and 1960s. And white European powers didn’t build civilizations there, they destroyed existing societies, and reconfigured them to maximize profit extraction.
And, when they left, destroying what they could as they went, native peoples did take over, and quickly became pawns, at worst, in a Cold War struggle that really had nothing to do with them. But they needed money for aid and development, because they weren’t left with “advanced civilizations”, as you wrongly claim.
Finally, you’re gross (as in clumsy, artless, and hamfisted) scientific racism is not only not supported by the facts and by history, but is also actually shown to be a self-serving lie. You talk about “root causes” like you have some knowledge or some evidence, but then you can’t even decide whether that root cause is culture or genetics.
You haven’t “stirred the pot”; you’ve simply parroted racist lies and made a fool of yourself in the process. No wonder you won’t publish under your real name!
September 13th, 2005 at 9:37 pm
Your view of history is suprisingly shortsighted. If you wanted to stretch it out a bit, you would perhaps encounter the fact that throughout history most of the advanced civilizations of their time were ‘non-white’*: Egypt, Nubia, Phoenecia, the indigineous civilizations of North and South America (Mayan, Incan, Aztec, Anasazi, etc, etc, etc) , the Huang He valley of China, Vedic civilization in the Asian subcontinent, etc.
If you’re actually interested in exploring some of your claims regarding why European/Western Civilization rapidly became and continues to be dominant in the world (or to put it a little bluntly and simplisticly, why Europeans tended to be the colonizers and most other peoples the colonized) I would recommend Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs and Steel
*author notes that this is a problematic assertion since whiteness as a racial/ethnic category is rather new, and an effect of white supremacy, not a cause of it.
September 14th, 2005 at 1:39 am
kendall,
“several countries in Africa that clearly defeat yr claims (including South Africa, Ghana, Guinea, Cameroon) about self-governance.”
If these are good examples I fear the bad. South Africa now has the world’s highest murder rate and 50%+ black unemployment post-Aparteid, but they can vote.
“African countries struggling to survive decolonialization.”
Funny, but the non-white natives of humid and crowded Singapore, Macao and Hong Kong actually prospered after colonization. The difference in human capital is clear.
“Nigerian petro wealth to this day does not benefit Nigerians but, rather, Shell, Exxon, and the Western oil companies. How would you feel if the natural wealth of your country were repatriated to another?”
Yes, I don’t like to see the wealth produced by my white Christian tribe that built America now flowing unreciprocated to non-whites and non-Christians. More to your point, Nigerian wealth is stolen by a black Nigerian elite of thieves in the most corrupt nation on earth. Big oil companies run by whites extract the petrol for a fee because the native blacks cannot due to ignoranc, yet you blame whites for Nigeria’s mess. Might as well blame the Japanese for Lagos’ smog, since they made most of the cars. More helpless non-whites in need of noblese oblige’, right?
“Ethiopia — a Christian nation, by the way — was the site of the most ghastly human experiments by Italy before WWII (Mussolini bombed Ethiopians for sport), and it suffered an unfortunate drought (the causes of which are not at all clear or simple); but other than that, Ethiopia is an old and respected culture and a functioning nation today.”
http://www.cia.gov/cia/publications/factbook/geos/et.html#People
See the above link, Ethiopia is majority Moslem and animist. Your double-standard is striking. Mussolini’s bombing of Ethiopia is not worth a mention next to what Japan did to Nanking or Manilla, Germany to the Ukraine, or the US/British to Tokyo/Dresden/Hamburg, etc. Yet Ethiopia is basicly a failed state next to any of these others, with recurring famine killing millions and no substantive achievements.
“Haiti is interesting because it’s the notable American experiment with colonialism, interference, and destruction by, among others, consecutive Presidents, the Marines, the State Department.”
Right, that interference was to keep foreign powers out of a failed state, and stop famine.
“Haiti is, in fact, the hell hole of the Western Hemisphere, which just so happens to be the sphere of influence the US defends vociferously. I wonder if it’s occurred to you whether there’s some connection between US interventions in Haiti — going back at least 100 years — and the fact that Haiti is nearly uninhabitable?”
Good joke. Haiti is what we can reasonably expect when black Africans are left alone. The pattern is universal, across continents, in the Carribean, African jungles, S. America, and Pacific Islands. If the US had left Haiti to its own devices, after the genocide of whites there, the population would be down to the few thousand the island could support in a primitive state-of-nature economy. Without whites to impose their alien laws, Haiti, and New Orleans, returned to the natural African ways of their citizens.
“What right does the US have to back a candidate, any candidate, in Haiti?”
I agree, let them rot.
“white European powers didn’t build civilizations there, they destroyed existing societies, and reconfigured them to maximize profit extraction.”
That Africans PREFER to live in societies run by whites is evidenced that during Aparteid S. Africa has to patrol its borders to keep black immigrants out. They, like anyone, want to eat and know their own economies can’t provide. Even today, they seek to live among their former colonial masters when emmigrating.
“scientific racism is not only not supported by the facts and by history, but is also actually shown to be a self-serving lie.”
As wrong as you can be. All you need do is show evidence of equal disease resistance, physique, or mental abilities of the three main races to shoot me down. You can’t because it does not exist. What does exist is a range of mountains of studies documenting different sizes, abilities, and IQ’s of the three main races.
This difference in group ability is what is at the core of cultural and achievement differences between races worldwide. Again, prove me wrong with factual links, rather than invective and ad hominem.
Until then, understand that the modern fantasy of absolute equality of human abilities, or radical egalitarianism, or blank slate theory, is an unsupported lie.
September 14th, 2005 at 2:01 am
estiens:
“throughout history most of the advanced civilizations of their time were ‘non-white’*: Egypt, Nubia, Phoenecia, the indigineous civilizations of North and South America (Mayan, Incan, Aztec, Anasazi, etc, etc, etc) , the Huang He valley of China, Vedic civilization in the Asian subcontinent, etc.”
Keep dreaming, and provide some links. The ruling elite of Egypt and Iraq, then and now, are primarily white caucasians. The mummy of Ramses 2, Egypt’s greatest ruler, is on display in England with red hair and Euro features for all to see. Many scholars believe today that the early Chinese civilization was imported, west to east, along the Silk Road by white tribes like the Tocharians.
http://www.ku.edu/kansas/medieval/100/sections/06indoeu.html
“If you’re actually interested in exploring some of your claims regarding why European/Western Civilization rapidly became and continues to be dominant in the world (or to put it a little bluntly and simplisticly, why Europeans tended to be the colonizers and most other peoples the colonized) I would recommend Jared Diamond’s book, Guns, Germs and Steel”
What Mr. Diamond, (and you?), seems to be running from is the possibility that natural, genetic differences in human abilities has caused the Euro dominance of which you speak. Diamond has published a paper documenting the differences in testis size (bigger balls) between groups/races, and how the extra testosterone effects people. That he then published a novel which lies by omission in its exclusion of these documented differences is evidence he is simply telling people (soft-headed liberals) what they want to hear (racial differences in intelligence/creativity/cooperation, etc are purely environmental). That the liberal elites on the Pulitzer Prize committee gave him an award while willfully avoiding these obvious facts is evidence he knows his audience.
Like hitting the snooze button on an alarm clock to avoid waking, the PC establishment tried to buy some time with ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’ before they are forced to either face the truth of race differences or see their credibility match the Flat Earth Society’s.
“whiteness as a racial/ethnic category is rather new, and an effect of white supremacy, not a cause of it.”
Your historical distortions continue. Ancient Greek and Roman texts were well aware of differences between peoples. Celebrate diversity
September 14th, 2005 at 12:51 pm
I note you didn’t say anything about the more stable, successful countries I cited. Since you’re claiming a genetic determinant of black inability to self-govern, there only has to be one country that is an exception to this rule and yr claims are defeated.
The second point to make is that you are a liar. The actual unemployment rates for South Africa, as of March 2005, are as follows, taken from the official statistics web site of the South African gov’t:
In summary, you are a liar. The unemployment rate in SA is 26%, which is about 3.5 times higher than the US, but the US number is notoriously under-reported.
You are also a liar about the SA murder rate. According to the Seventh United Nations Survey of Crime Trends and Operations of Criminal Justice Systems, covering the period 1998 - 2000 (United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, Centre for International Crime Prevention), the SA murder rate was the 2nd highest in the world, well behind Colombia (.49 per capita for SA; .61 for Colombia). Hmm, maybe murder isn’t determined by “race” (duh!) but by something else?
For comparison, Zimbabwe and Zambia both have murder rates at .07 per 1000 people per year, and the US’s is .04. Tunisian’s is .01.
Further, according to the BBC, “Murder rates fall in South Africa“:
Then you said something else dumb:
Prospered after decolonialization, perhaps, but I don’t believe these are even roughly analogous situations. Interesting that you mention “human capital”, since that’s precisely what’s at issue here, among other things, except that no one who writes or thinks seriously or well about human capitals takes yr simple-minded genetic determinist line. Human capital is, first and last, social capital, and the social is the real of injustice, oppression, and neglect.
More lies. What, pray tell, were all of those slaves doing, if they weren’t producing wealth? What noxious spew! You are offensive and despicable.
Aided and abetted at every step by western corporations. Do you have any evidence for this claim about “most corrupt nation on earth”, or are you telling more lies? I suspect that several nations, including lilly white Russia, would vie for that title.
Yes, that’s right, I do. White people ran Nigeria and still, to a large extent do, and are responsible for a lot of misery and suffering there. Is there a ruling elite in Nigeria that collaborates with the West? Sure. But what does that prove?
None of which are relevant here; or, at least, I agree that all of these were horrible too, many of them worse. But we were talking about Ethiopia, not China, Russia, Japan or Germany.
I don’t think I’ll take yr word for this. You don’t even know what causes a famine (politics), much less would you recognize or know a substantive achievement in sub-saharan Africa.
Actually, Ethiopia is quite bad off compared to many other sub-saharan countries. The interesting question is why: you say it’s them, and I say it’s politics.
See West ‘risks new Ethiopia famine’ (from the BBC) for a discussion of the ongoing role of the West in Ethiopia.
Yeah, right, we did it because we care!
We’ve never left Haiti alone! How do you think those “black Africans” got to Haiti in the first place?
Some facts — instead of yr lies — about US interventions in Haiti:
http://www.cdi.org/adm/Transcripts/802/
http://soc.hfac.uh.edu/artman/publish/article_94.shtml
http://www.globalsecurity.org/military/ops/haiti.htm
http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-209.html
http://www.chomsky.info/articles/20040309.htm
(Interventions in 1888, 1889, 1914, occupation in 1915, 1994, 2004 — we’ve NEVER LEFT THEM ALONE.)
Yeah, the pattern is clear: white people have been a scourge in all of those places.
More lies, with no evidence, statistics, or citations. I don’t believe a word you say.
September 14th, 2005 at 2:51 pm
Ken Doll,
Unemployment stats are subject to variance in methodology. See the below link to explain why S Africa’s jobless rate was close to 40% in 2002, and probably over 50% now.
http://www.csae.ox.ac.uk/resprogs/usam/default.html
“I note you didn’t say anything about the more stable, successful countries I cited.”
Please elaborate on their crime rates, GDP’s, civil rights and life expectancies, then contrast with other, non-African successes for comparison, to document stability and success, if possible. Talk is cheap.
You are also a liar about the SA murder rate…the SA murder rate was the 2nd highest in the world, well behind Colombia.
Right, my mistake. They dropped from #1 a few years back to #2. This is a success only to the biased, or confused.
(Hong Kong, Singapore, Macao) “Prospered after decolonialization, perhaps, but I don’t believe these are even roughly analogous situations.”
The point is to disprove that colonization by Euro’s, or a jungle climate, stops or retards native economic/cultural growth. Clearly, these examples show this.
“Human capital is, first and last, social capital, and the social is the real of injustice, oppression, and neglect.”
This statement is, of course, subjective. What is objectively demonstrable is that the same ‘injustice, oppression and neglect’ applied to non-African colonies like Hong Kong and Singapore, among others, have not stopped progress there. Something else holds back Africa(ns), and it is not what you mentioned.
“What, pray tell, were all of those slaves doing, if they weren’t producing wealth? What noxious spew! You are offensive and despicable.”
Typical ad hominem and invective when pressed with uncomfortable facts. 1) Most all wealth produced by slaves in the US was gone after the destruction of the Civil War. 2) Slavery impoverishes cultures by devaluing labor/entreprenuership. 3) Current slave tolerant states like Mali and Sudan are dirt poor.
Nigerian wealth stolen by locals, “Aided and abetted at every step by western corporations.”
Right, let them leave, then the Nigerians will be unable to process petroleum, and there will be no more oil money to steal.
“Do you have any evidence for this claim about “most corrupt nation on earth”
Nigeria is now the world’s second most corrupt, see below:
http://www.infoplease.com/ipa/A0781359.html
“Is there a ruling elite in Nigeria that collaborates with the West? Sure. But what does that prove?”
Um…er…that the ruling black elite is not white, and therefore blacks are responsible for the current conditions there. Remember, GB left a semi-functioning civil service, military, and juriprudence system, like in Singapore, but Nigeria’s is gone now.
“None of which are relevant here…we were talking about Ethiopia, not China, Russia, Japan or Germany.”
The obvious point is that if Mussolini’s bombs caused Ethiopia’s present negative conditions, then the more numerous bombings in those other nations would do the same, or worse. Catch is that all the others were hit harder, yet are now better off than Ethiopia. Next red herring to filet, please.
“I don’t think I’ll take yr word for this. You don’t even know what causes a famine (politics), much less would you recognize or know a substantive achievement in sub-saharan Africa.”
Don’t take my word. Do your own research for how Ethiopia compares to other success stories, then provide a link to substantive black African achievements.
“We’ve never left Haiti alone! How do you think those “black Africans” got to Haiti in the first place?”
‘We’ was certainly not any US gov’t action, as Haiti was peopled well before 1776. If your point is that since whites transported the original black slaves to Haiti, today’s whites are guilty of something is called guilt by association. Not only is this unconstitutional, but if applied to blacks, would make them answer for CURRENT slavery in Africa (do you care if no whites are around to blame?) and excessive crime in the US.
“Some facts (about Haiti) we’ve NEVER LEFT THEM ALONE.”
And if we had left them alone you can bet that a biblical scale famine would have depopulated the majority of that island. Perhaps you would prefer that. Regardless, Haitians, not the whites they genocidally slaughtered, are responsible for the reduction of their paradise from France’s most productive colony to the Western Hemishere’s poorest nation.
“The pattern is clear: white people have been a scourge in all of those places.”
Right, we should leave and take with us our civilization and inventions. No more air-conditioning, anti-biotics, democracy, civil-rights, computers, motor vehicles, etc. Got it. Let them starve of their own accord.
“(Africans seek to live with whites) More lies, with no evidence, statistics, or citations. I don’t believe a word you say.”
Don’t believe me, but look at history. Blacks can leave the US any time they want to return to Africa. Yet they stay, and legions of Africans and other non-whites risk life and limb daily, today, to live with none other than their former colonial masters. Sober up and smell what you’ve been shoveling.
September 14th, 2005 at 11:38 pm
Hmmm. a detailed response to Kendall was deleted, so this one will be shorter and more concise. [No, it wasn’t, it’s above this “shorter and more concise comment” — Editor.]
Your position boils down to a denial of differences in ability between peoples, or races. These differences in physique, temperment, and, yes, intelligence are well-documented and have been accepted by the scientific and academic communities for decades, (including the late, duplicitous, Marxist Anthropology professor Steven J. Gould) as likely determining the culture and achievement gaps for which some in the ‘anti-racist’ movement seek to blame the omnipotent ‘white racism’. Think Singapore (IQ 106) versus Nigeria (IQ 75).
If you wish to disprove these assertions, you have simply to provide evidence of racial equality in physique, temperment, and intelligence, among others.
Until then, gentlepersons, your positions are unsupported, unevidenced and untenable.
September 15th, 2005 at 12:14 pm
I don’t wish to disprove nonsense. I don’t feel a need to disprove, say, the Great Pumpking Theory, or Intelligent Design, or any whacky right wing or racist nonsense that has no grounds to begin with.
Well, you know, says you, and now you’ve said it, and now comments on this post are closed.