Helgo your sig is disturbingly appropriate, and unless you seek to turn the EU into the Roman Empire so I am too drunk on Italian wines to resist I shudder at the prospect of British soldiers dying just so the EU can claim North Africa.
I think the current European consensus is something like: "We've tried that one already – let's leave the second round to China."
They just want to rip resources out of Africa and rebuild the silk road (which is a lot better than it sounds), they're less than ideal but tolerable for as long as you don't interfere with their projects. Empires are expensive, no matter if your intention is power or humanitarian, acting in any way on a foreign nation is cheaper when done indirectly. And whilst they don't give a shit about governments whose human rights records have probably been destroyed by their secret police, I think it's become abundantly clear stability trumps democracy, as instability means no democracy and militiants.
Hooray for Britonland, then. (Except for that part about cutting services given to Britons.)
Costs money, and there's not enough to do everything and help everyone. You have to pick, if you try to help everyone you fail everyone.
Meanwhile in Failand, True Finns are all about "helping refugees in their home countries *simper simper smirk*" while their politicians are slashing foreign aid to bits and setting the pieces on fire and stomping on them like fucking lunatics. And naturally they're also slashing social security at the same time, but hey, that's only fair to those poor third-world buggers.
I was under the impression that Finns are grim fellows, and I recall that old saying in regards to the Swedish military versus Russia in that Sweden would be defended to the last Finn. I am also under the impression that even in spite of cuts Finland's welfare system is one of the most comprehensive in the world. What makes the nation Failand? I was also under the impression that Finland's deficit was growing too large, so much so that it violated the EU's budgeting rules which Finland has been subjected to. In a perfect world you can afford everything for everyone but this is not a perfect world. One of the crazy homeless chaps I used to talk to died in the past winter 2 years ago and now I see more replacing him on the benches as this summer comes to an end. Kids Company shut down, houses are not being built nearly fast enough, our airports need expansion, Osborne's balancing defence, pensions, welfare and the NHS with all four cut beyond breaking point, we already had problems with segregated communities and multiculturalism failing so the yearly net 330,000 more migrants coming through the EU aren't going to help - even worse since they're not coming through the commonwealth. Hell, the rape gangs are still operating, you can't make this shit up, and they're just the extreme end that manages to catch headlines. In my county alone there's been 3 shootings and 1 stabbing, and to turn those numbers around 1/3 children aren't ready for school, and many of the schools need expansion because they can't cope with the increase in students. Plans for a new sewerage system has thankfully gone ahead, but we need a bridge over the Thames on eastside, the cuts on health will shoot the legs off nurses most in my area (my health centre is already notoriously shit) and to end on a nice metaphor we're running out of cemetery space. Also 300 people somehow caught malaria last year.
I've said this before in one of the bay12 politics threads, but I always love grilling all my north london liblabgren m8s over the fact that they support unrestricted mass immigration despite their only experience of immigration being north london restaurants whilst everyone else's got to deal with the obvious consequences. I will always love the irony in that if I meet someone in London who supports unrestricted mass immigration then they're white european, if they don't they're either from the Indian subcontinent, Caribbean, Arabia or Eastern Russia. There must be some element of white guilt or colonial guilt that I'm just not getting. This island has obligations to its own peoples and that of the commonwealth first and foremost, it is peculiar to me as to why they are ignored.
If I was going to come up with a long term plan involving colonial shenanigans in Africa I'd probably be looking to counteract desertification where possible, improve the local agricultural and educational system as a priority, and disrupt criminal activities like diamond wars (probably best stopped by causing a crash in the diamond market by removing the artificial scarcity of them), maybe root out militant groups and try to reform them into legitimate political factions. If done well it could result in a decently stable society with good grounds for meeting basic necessities with a potential to become industrial later.
Would take 20+ years I dare say, but it took decades to get Europe fixed up after the World Wars, so it's not as if it's impossible. Of questionable moral and ethical standing, but possible.
Well the West's always been running education stuff (hence why Boko Haram have their little name of Western Education is Verboten) but in regards to criminal activities the USA's been doing a juggernaut's work in this regard. In addition to unloading billions of dollars worth of equipment to government forces they also work with the state and private sector to pull the funding out of militant organizations (in Africa meaning ending illegal gold mining so the government can profit off of it and also regulate it so the workers actually get payed/don't use mercury). Causing a crash in the diamond market wouldn't really do anything since the Kimberly Process is a thing, I guess it would make getting married considerably cheaper. America and China's (legal) exploits and exploitation in Africa have come with the benefit of more roads, factories and jobs.
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Topic: Calm and Cool Progressive Discussion Thread (Read 1285979 times)