Jason Y writes:
A tiny elite steals from people in many nations, not just African (or New World African) states.
The Blacks generally just sit there and take it though in Africa. And in Africa it is particularly nasty because of the dire poverty of so many of the people. For instance, Gabon has a per capita income of $20,000/yr. Should be a nice place. But the malnutrition rate is sky high, most of the people are horribly poor and/or starving and the health indicators are complete shit. Apparently some little elite, probably one tribe, monopolizes the state and steals all the money leaving everyone else with jack. With all that oil wealth, Nigeria should be a rich country. Instead it’s one of the most nightmarish places on Earth with horrific poverty and crime.
You want to know why Blacks just sit there and take it in Africa? Because they are used to this crap! African Blacks have always lived in tribes under a chief. Generally the chief and his pals monopolized most of the best women and apparently a lot of the money, but I would assume that they doled out enough for the tribe to live by. They still sort of do that in a way. One tribe gets into office and steals all the money and gives it to their tribe and all the other tribes get jack. The other tribes don’t revolt because they are used a thieving all powerful chief. Instead they plot for their tribe to take over public office so that they can enrich their tribe and fuck over everyone else!
I will say that I like what Mugabe has done in Zimbabwe though. The capital society is pretty peaceful and nice and even the slums are not that bad by African standards. Mugabe is a populist and a socialist, and he has done a lot of great things for his people.
Botswana is said to more or less function also.
The takeaway point is that Africans don’t rebel against their leaders even when they suck because they are used to living under an autocratic thieving chief who could not be challenged. Instead they opt for zero-sum games of replacing one tribe’s oppression with another’s.
I do not know about this tropical diseases holding Africans back thing. There are a lot of tropical diseases in the Caribbean, Brazil, Vietnam and Singapore and those places are doing all right.
It is not at all typical for a small oligarchic elite to steal everything and leave everyone else with jack. It’s hardly the case in Europe except maybe in the Ukraine and possibly in Russia and Kazakhstan. That model does exist in India, Pakistan, Nepal and Burma. Further east, this is the model in Indonesia and the Philippines. This is also the typical model in most of Latin America, though things are finally changing now.
However, in India, Nepal, Russia, Ukraine, the Philippines and now most of Latin America, one can at least say that there is a loud and angry Left made of the masses who are getting screwed by the oligarchs. In a number of places, the Left is even armed. But there seems to be no such thing in most African states. It is if Africans simply expect to be ruled by a thieving autocratic bastard and do not see any other alternative.
In most of Asia it is not the case – Mongolia, China, South Korea, Japan, Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia and Taiwan are relatively equitable places. The entire Arab world is more or less run according to a socialist model as is Iran. Most of the former SSR’s are relatively socialist places such as Belarus, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Kirghistan, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. The oligarchic model is pretty much nonexistent in traditional Europe and in the Anglosphere of the US, Canada, Australia and New Zealand, though the US is starting to resemble the model somewhat.
Trust me that nowhere else on Earth would you find a country that had a PCI of $20K/yr where the majority of the people wallowed in horrific poverty, starving and sickly. That sort of lunacy would only be found in Africa.