“I wonder what will happen when we finally reach our goal of thoroughly ruining our country — its economy, its credibility and its social values — and are in need of help from the very people we are killing.”
“I wonder what will happen when we finally reach our goal of thoroughly ruining our country — its economy, its credibility and its social values — and are in need of help from the very people we are killing.”
“I’m ashamed to be South African.”
…and I’m ashamed to have believed all the liberal bullshit about how “evil” white-dominated South Africa was. Giving someone a vote or the right to govern themselves does not mean that they will suddenly have the ability to do so responsibly.
The truth is everyone should have butted out of South Africa’s affairs and left them alone to run things as best they could. Clearly that would have had a better outcome than the current hellish mess that has been created in it’s place.
Thanks Kate for posting that. When I was a kid my father used to take me shopping in Johannesburg when we holidayed in South Africa. It was a great place to shop for those hard-to-find Meccano parts which I always wanted for my sets.
About 18 years ago I was there again, and it had reached the stage where you had to pay a heavily armed guard to escort you from a restaurant parking lot to the restaurant itself.
On more recent trips to SA I have not even gone near the city as it has become a no-go zone.
It was a truly beautiful city once….fountains, shops, restaurants, clean, vibrant….
Warren will be calling soon.
Its becoming clear that South Africa is no better than it was under apartied. Yes, universal sufferage has been put in place, but many of the country’s leaders are incompetent, and allegedly corrupt – Jacob Zuma’s facing corruption charges. South Africa;s problems should not be balmed on the dismantling of apartied, they should be blamed on the ANC, the party is too corrupt and virtually unaposed. Its time for South Africans to get over their racial grieviances and elect more competent people to office. Just wait until that mess is exposed to the world during the 2010 world cup! (Its pretty pathetic and embarrassing when Johannesburg, once the shining city of Africa is more dangerous than Baghdad!)
– Michael
Re Toilet lurker/NaziHunter showing up.
Diplomatic immunity, can clearly be claimed; pictures to prove it.
http://www.slackers.co.za/viewtopic.php?f=31&t=9577
About the only nice thing I know of coming from SA these days is this:
http://www.shelbycobra.net/cav_info_specs.htm
That said, I defy anybody to stick up for apartheid. I’ve known a few people who were subject to it, it didn’t do them any good. I remember one girl in particular was so unused to being accepted by white people that hanging around with my friends and myself in Toronto freaked her out something ferocious. She was black, we didn’t care and it was just amazingly abnormal for her.
I thought it was crap she had to live like that at the time, and I still think it’s crap 25 years later.
ANC is a semi-communist outfit. I’d say that has a lot more to do with SA’s problems than black people living there.
And Warren Kinsueya can k my frickin’ a.
This is exactly why the Israelis destroyed everything before pulling out of Gaza. It’s just too painful watching a bunch of barbarians lay to waste all the accomplishments they are totally incapable of.
Phantom,
The evidence is overwhelming in all black countries that the state of their society displays the effects of Negros being Negros. It has little to do with what political idiots are in charge.
I do not mean to sound racist on this topic, but if we wish to discuss it, we are talking about Negroes and their societies. I know of no country on earth that is dominantly black that is prosperous, clean, safe and desirable. NONE! What does that mean?
Most white folks today turn themselves into pretzels trying to accommodate the Black culture (whatever that may be I know it’s different in the USA than in Africa but it looks much the same) and want an integrated society where all can be comfortable.
What do you think it will take to get this message across to the Negro community. That is not a question, the message has been out there loud and clear for a couple of generations now.
The point is that they have shown that they want to live they way they want to live and it just isn’t very accommodating to civil society, that is why so many white promptly left SA when the Blacks took it over. I don’t give a shit what Bono says or Kinsella either. It is what it is.
Depressing.
time for Obama to declare it fixed …
look how easy it was for him to stop the war in Georgia.
and he probably is planning a trip to Atlanta to make sure its all finished.
Apartheid created a lot of the problems that exist now. Others of course will come from the pre-existing societies and values.
I notice anything to do with black-white relations that just so happens to paint blacks in a less than flattering light is something Kate has to report on.
Let’s not get too down on apartheid.
Canada practices it with our native Indians. Many of them are on reserves … away from the general Canadian public. They are paid to stay there.
That is segregation based on race.
If we turn our country over to them, we can expect our cities to look like reserves very quickly.
I have seen reserves. It’s similar to what is shown in that clip and also what I have seen in black ghettos in the USA.
It is what it is.
Here is a contrast. I have seen numerous examples of what Italians do to a neighborhood that they take over. Suddenly there are gardens, lawns, flowers, neatly groom hedges, fences, great restaurants and safe streets.
Not all cultures are the same are they?
Hey Christoph,
Are you under the delusion that SA was a tolerant peaceful society before the evil whitey showed up?
Give me a break. Africa has been a s**thole for millenia.
The culture is the problem – not the skin, not whitey, not conolialism. It’s problem’s root is tribalism (god I hate sounding like ET!! but in this case it’s true.) African’s first loyalty is the tribe. Their last loyalty is to the tribe.
Africa is no more capable of democracy than Iraq or Russia for that matter. In fact, most of Europe barely understands the concept.
John V
As someone who has an italian grandparent, I’d have to suggest that society can live without the cheap fake-statues and tacky water fountains… lol.
“Africa is no more capable of democracy than Iraq or Russia for that matter. In fact, most of Europe barely understands the concept.”
Never mind the political bent of the tribal societies. My question is … why can’t they simply be clean and civil?
Is there some rule that they must toss their garbage anywhere they want, not work, rape women and never stop blaming their squalor on whitey?
Warwick,
Just about every real friend I have ever had has been Italian. I am willing to overlook their little monuments and backyard shines to the Madonna because everything else about them is wonderful. Your comment is funny nevertheless.
First, I don’t think this has anything to do with “Negros being Negros”. I find that implication rather offensive. I work with some “negroes” who are smart, competent, and hard working and, frankly, are go-to people ahead of some of the whites around the place. I imagine the country (ours or SA) would be in rather better condition if it were run by the likes of Colin Powell, Thomas Sowell and Condi Rice.
Most SA expats I’ve spoken to agree that apartheid had to end. The problem was, how? SA was colonized and then it was decolonized. Unfortunately amongst the colonists were some of the more churlish, hard line Boers who worked to cement the tribal/class distinctions of SA as opposed to, (dare I say?), the more British colonial model which tended to get the locals involved in the work at all levels, including, crucially, the civil administration. The result was, as in India, a professional/administrative class which cut across tribal/caste lines and had something resembling a pan-national identity. The transition was not without problems by any stretch, but it’s worked and democracy has been preserved with prosperity growing.
Apartheid by contrast simply cemented the tribal divisions (calling ET) which are inimical to an efficient, national administration and economy. Add a paucity of education and administrative experience and it’s a formula for disaster.
The writer of the piece is black. She gets it. That’s a hopeful sign and with luck SA may yet turn things around, though I won’t hold my breath. Even Zimbabwe has a chance if the thug du jour is deposed and a democracy can be restored with a market based economy respectful of private property.
I suspect Kate runs these pieces because it puts the lie to Liberal bumper sticker solutions which don’t work and usually result in more human misery than hard-nosed, time consuming, realistic approaches even if these don’t assume the best about every politically correct victim group. Africans have a chance, if they don’t die first of western political correctness and naivete.
and it remains that in those italian neighborhoods, the plaster Madonnas are not set alight or stolen in random acts of tribalism.. as if to gain entry into some club… er… gang… er… tribe.
So many interesting conversations with S.A. educated doctors…
time for Obama to declare it fixed …
look how easy it was for him to stop the war in Georgia.
cal2, and he did that while he was on vacation.
Just think if the Obamasia and big Al (Goracle) worked on it. The results would be outstanding, eh!
Africa was self sufficient on everything from food to manufacturing, mining etc before this mess of a governmnet took over after Arpartheid ended.
Just like Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) was before Mugabe. Rhodesia used to be the bread basket of Africa, a great agriculture country. Now thanks to the current government (Mugabe) they are constantly asking for food aid and handouts. Blaming their plight on the previous white regime.
I predict that South Africa isn’t far behind Zimbabwe (Rhodesia) on the UN’s have not nation list and needs world food aid.
Are there any african nations that aren’t on the UN’s food aid list?
What’s that old adage? “Correlation is not proof of causation?”
There is a seeming correlation between the predominant colour of the ruling class of a country and the economy of that country (after you remove countries swimming in oil revenue from the list). But is it correct to say that colour is the cause?
No. Pigmentation / melatonin cannot reasonably be the culprit. It must be the culture. Or, to put it in other terms, it is much more likely to be “nurture” than it is “nature” (although we don’t know how much of a role that genetics plays).
Change the culture and the colour is of no issue (Powell, Rice, et al).
So, it would likely be more accurate to blame “Black culture” than to blame “Blacks”. It is not the colour of their skin but the content of their character.
Let’s not play the racism game.
Sorry way O/T but you got to see this video…
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2008/08/amazing-video-georgian-female-reporter.html
Nice that the ruskies are obeying the O, eh?
“So, it would likely be more accurate to blame “Black culture” than to blame “Blacks”. It is not the colour of their skin but the content of their character.”
Fine! Then we’ll say that turning over a nation that was the product of Western European culture to a backward, clannish, corrupt, primitive culture was a fool’s errand.
The liberal agitators amongst us played that bait and switch game too…led us to believe that it was “Bill Cosby” or “Oprah” or Colin Powell” etc that was being oppressed, not a bunch of backward spear-chuckers who themselves needed to be separated so that they wouldn’t kill each other.
Yes, Edward Teach. Although rather aggressively-stated, I generally agree with your statement.
Black culture is exclusively the domain of er let’s see … oh ya … Black people. Can we find a way to separate the two, or can we simply deal with what the reality actually is?
I understand this to be a discussion about Black people and their culture. I also understand that a people is their culture. That’s what Quebecois tell us. Sounds reasonable.
The Black people named … Colin Powell, Thomas Sowell and Condi Rice, are people who have abandoned the Black culture and embraced something more civilized … white culture.
I am not so sure about Powell though since he appears to be going African with his hinting that he is about to endorse the Kenyian, Obama. Wut up wit dat?
Visit Jamaica, Haiti, most African countries and see if you are appalled or offended, or outraged or just plain scared shitless.
I should mention that I am aware of the ‘white trash’ factor in our societies, but they are a small faction and even most of them behave themselves most of the time. They are mostly just poor and stupid. Poor, because they are stupid.
I have said this before. Most white folks want black folks to integrate into the larger white society. It seems to me that if they are uninterested in that move, they have the choice to go to one of the many counties that persist with the Black culture.
Some American Black did just that. The country they moved to is called Liberia. Check it out sometime. They very quickly went ‘native’. They live in squalor and speak a type of pigeon English.
Some things change, most things don’t. I am starting to think that this discussion is actually pointless.
Just like Muslims can be killed by their peers for criticizing themselves, Bill Cosby took great heat for criticizing American Blacks. Until self-criticism is allowed, nothing will change.
Although, I hope it doesn’t ever get to the same point that self-criticism, the left has taken it to. That is called cultural suicide. Some serious tweaking is all that is required actually.
Question: Why are Black Africans poor? They live on a resource rich continent.
If you haven’t bothered to read the op-ed, don’t bother, here’s the gist “It’s tough to find good help these days.”
I wonder if this woman grew up in one of the South African slums, or if she was a privileged black person.
I’m not condoning the violence. I’m not condoning laziness. Simply arguing that somebody who’s biggest worry is finding good help is probably too stupid to get the notion that solving all of the associated problems resulting from centuries of systemic racism might take a little longer than 14 effing years.
hey John,
14 effing years is a long time in a country with an average age of…?
Of course, that’s it, racism is the cause of all their current problems! Sarcasm off…
The real issue is the people’s belief that they have no compelling future. That’s the issue on reserves in Canada as well as the homeless population – regardless of race.
People who truly believe they have no power, will vote for whomever promises them the most. Canada is a prime example of this. How else could the Liberals have stayed in power so long with all the known corruption?
Once the HRCs are demolished, people will see that you can fight big government and win.
Oprah’s girls school may just change South Africa. The entire point is to give hope and create girls who see opportunities, not just fear.
Some of the pictures from that video are from a website called (I think) “Death of Johannesburg”. There are many more pictures at that site worth checking out, particularly the before and after scenes, showing how far and fast Jo’burg has deteriorated since the end of apartheid.
Another excellent website on post-apartheid SA is “Why South Africa Sucks”. Google has closed the site down a couple of times for racism, but it is back up at zahell.com.
To the commenter who wrote that there are no successful black majority societies, what about the Bahamas and Barbados? However, these two tiny nations are the exceptions that prove the rule.
The best case scenario for South Africa is for enough whites, Coloureds and Asians to move to Cape Town and the western third of the country, declare independence and establish sub-Saharan Africa’s only nation where blacks are a minority. Leave Jo’burg and the eastern two-thirds to the black nationalist-socialists of the ANC, who are rapidly Zimbabwe-izing it, as is their wont.
I agree that I don’t find current arguments for SA’s problems compelling (i.e. colonialism, apartheid, etc.), however it seems many here somehow believe that white culture is somehow “immune” to what seems to be a perceived “barbarity” of black culture.
Let’s do a quick recap here:
Soviet Union:
At least 30 million dead due to poor economic planning, hundreds of thousands more dead due to a draconian legal system and special police.
WW2: Tens of millions killed by the deranged leader of a _democratic_ nation. Add in the holocaust, one of the worlds worst genocide’s ever seen, all amongst “whites”/Europeans.
WW1: Tens of millions killed over our treaty system. Sound somewhat familiar to tribalism hmmm?
American Civil War:
Tens of millions killed over differences between the north and the south….*cough* tribes? *cough*.
Napoleonic Wars:
Napoleon wanted his Empire and took over most of Europe. This led to a backlash that eventually defeated him by the aristocracy and monarchs who not only wanted to retain power, but because of a fear of the ideas introduced by French culture, namely the effects of the French Revolution.
All these conflicts were amongst white people. Hundreds of millions of people died. This includes genocides, rapes, poor economic planning leading to a devastated nation, poor legal systems, corrupt governments…..
So why exactly are we carrying on about Africa? Sure we’re sitting pretty since we’ve learned from our collective mistakes, but who’s to say what the future holds? We’ve committed our own genocides, destroyed our own indigenous populations, had our own problems with racism, poor economic decisions, amongst other issues, and now that we’ve finally reach a place where we can put some of that behind us, we now look down from our exalted heights and point the finger of judgment?
Give me a break.
Another successful African country is Botswana.
There are a limited number of tribes there, basically two.
Hi,
I’m white but I currently live on a reserve. I find what John V is saying discrediting to the opinions of conservatives all over.
1. Segregate any group of people (of any colour) and they will end up differently than the group that was maintained in the mainstream. See Bountiful BC.
2. The Bantustans set up by the Apartheid regime in essence caused a group of formerly nomadic peoples to be sedentary. I’m pretty sure that if we told John V that he must live a nomadic life in Nunavut he (and 4 generations of his family) would probably end up pretty wonky anyways.
3. Assuming that Thomas Sowell or Condi Rice have embraced “white culture” is hideously racist. What is white culture by the way? Jazz music? I’m not sure if you know this but basketball (to some an essential element of black culture) was invented by a white man.
4. John V’s hick/yokel culture is obviously the reason why he acts like this. I know this because I presume it of him. Not actually knowing him, or anything about him I feel like being a blowhard because I’m writing this on the internet. If he were acting “white” in the context of “White Culture” he would have a generations old guilt complex for the sometimes hideous and lingering actions of racism, colonialism, post colonialism, fascism, tribalism etc. Therefore I can assume that he is not acting in my predefined context of what it is to be white.
5. The Soviet Union was run by white people for white people. How did that turn out?
6. Why can’t they been clean and civil? Please visit The former Yugoslavia, Bratislava, Romania, Southern Italy, the Suburbs of Paris (there are many), Bolivia, West Virginia, Saskatoon or one of the many other holes in which white people live.
Don’t get me wrong, a lot of places in the “non white” world are pretty terrible, but that is based on the individual freedom that is maintained in that country. The fact that South Korea is better than North Korea has nothing to do with racial differences, what of that?
Why are Black Africans poor?
If you have not considered the oligarchical power that filled the vacuum of decolonization I suggest you get to some book learnin’.
John V is essentially why conservatives can’t have nice things. Thanks.
“Give me a break.
Posted by: barjebus at August 14, 2008 6:27 PM”
You are quick to hate whitey. Consider this …
You are confusing megalomania and greed with tribalism and stupidity. They are not the same things.
Stalin, Hitler, Mou, all megalomaniacs.
The American South … greedy plantation owners taking advantage of an acceptable opportunity at the time in history … Slavery. An end was put to that by whitey in the civil war.
As for other ‘white’ wars … we have had them and the result was a period after 1950 of the most prosperous, free, democratic, safe, clean, law-abiding countries the world has ever known.
During that time, the rest of the world has been greatly aided through the fantastic technology, medicine, communication and transportation than they would otherwise have had if whitey had not invented, developed and shared it all.
There is little to criticized in the white world if you are talking real problems. I don’t consider the petty human rights complaints ala the CHRC and the occasional disruption in basic services to be anything to whine about. The poor in the white societies are largely the stupid and the lazy. The real unfortunates get welfare and health care. We do what we can for those who will not do for themselves.
The very bad go to comfortable prisons where they can get free education and skills training.
The real horrors on this planet are in the Middle East (religion lunacy), Africa (tribal stupidity), Russia (megalomania), China, (real human rights violations, greed and megalomania)
India suffers from over population but is working hard to dig itself out in a civilized manner. That is due to the long time British influence when Britain still had a strong culture. there are more English speaking people in India that there are in Britain.
And okay maybe none of this is due to the color of one’s skin. I will just accept the coincidence that the most advanced and civilized people on the planet happen to have white skin for the most part. Had things been in the opposite, perhaps the word Whitey would have to be stated as the ‘W’ word,
This may appear to be a cause for confusion in the Black culture, but not to worry, they spell whore “ho”. I even heard Al Sharpton refer to it on FOX News as the “H” word. So I know I am right on that point.
:0)
Jon,
You are apparently a guilty white man and and that is YOUR problem. I have no guilt since I treat any and every person on their own merits. I am not responsible for what others have done in the past, nor what they are doing in the present. They are not me and I am not them. That is one of the blessings of being and independent freethinking, individualist.
I covered the white trash quotient in the last comment … And parts of Saskatchewan cities are shit holes because of the very large number of Indians who come in from the reserves and hang around town.
The European countries you named have ghettos and lots of them, just like the USA and Canada now have. It is what lives in them that makes the difference. Look more closely.
Those parts of Europe didn’t actually embrace the British culture anyway. Although, like most of Europe, they likely hated and envied the Brits just like most of the world loathes and envies the USA. It’s the same childish shit that makes kids hate their parents, employees (especially Union employees) hate their bosses. It’s the same childishness that makes Liberalism the plague on the more adult members of our society.
It was strange, I could hear the South African accent while reading the article. And apparently written by a black woman.
I still wish the country well, but I’ve got my legs crossed now.
“The American South … greedy plantation owners taking advantage of an acceptable opportunity at the time in history … Slavery. An end was put to that by whitey in the civil war.”
It can be argued quite convincingly that the transportation, cost to acquire, and cost of prolonged ownership in fact costed MORE than the cost of hiring labor in a free market economy. I personally believe that the North’s intention wasn’t as noble as many like to believe, but that it was rather about larger issues, and one of those was the Manufacturing North vs. the Agrarian South. This is besides the point, pretty much what I’m trying to say is that yes greed came into it from both sides, and “whitey” caused hundreds of millions of deaths because of “whitey’s” greed.
And yet you somehow find the balls to go and criticize greedy african leaders for embezzling funds? Riiight.
Inventions whitey made? Sure, white people have been responsible for a great number of inventions in the past two centuries due to the process of industrialization which was fueled by colonialism, i.e. the subjugation of non-whites. Most of the entire world was controlled by white people for a couple hundred years…and you somehow expect those indiginies to gather together, create their peer reviewed scientific journals, and cure polio?
On top of that, you have to look at past inventions made under other civilizations during their eminence, namely gunpowder being invented by the Chinese, Egyptians inventing the Chariot, Muslim scholars being light years ahead of Christian Europe with medicine and other arts. What do you honestly think sparked the enlightenment? A bunch of white people just decided to up and invent stuff? Of course not! They invaded the middle east during the crusades and after a few centuries, knowledge and culture was brought back by returning soldiers, causing new ideas to flow, and European white doctors to stop bleeding their patients to death instead of practicing real medicine.
Your ignorance leads me to not reply to this thread anymore John. For a bit I thought you might have some reasons to back up your posts, but your blanket views that white=good and black=bad makes this whole exercise of “debate” redundant.
John V – very nicely said…
‘Jon…
Yes I really feel a great deal of guilt because of injustices, that took place generations before I was born, were committed by people who happened to share the same skin colour.
…& since those historical actions were committed by people of the same color as myself it should somehow prevent me from criticizing the corrupt regardless of their skin color? How so?
That’s some impeccable logic!
What was that term claimed to be used by Lenin for certain people…
The last few images of that video reminded me of downtown Toronto… 😛
Where does the ‘tens of millions’ of deaths come from in the American Civil War? Total deaths among the soldiery was about 600,000 . . . mostly from disease. And regardless of what liberals would have you believe, even Sherman’s march through Georgia was notable for the lack of rape and murder associated with it. Total war to break the back of the Confederacy and show the armies in the field that they were incapable of protecting their rear areas; yes. Murder and genocide? Hell, no!!
Read all about it……….
I’m a little curious…..aren’t “white people” only around 10% of the current global population? I’m sorry I meant rainbow coalition?
THE BIG QUESTION NOW IS – Since we as “white” people are already a minority in the grand scale of global population, when we are a minority in our own countries in the next few decades will we be allowed to turn back the clock on affirmative action? Will our children have special privileges?
Who will suffer us the children our sacrifice to peace and love? Will it be the Shiites or the Sunni that favor us other than sex slaves and domestic servants to the new masters?
http://www.cnn.com/2008/US/08/13/census.minorities/index.html
http://www.smalldeadanimals.com/archives/009301.html#comments
Possibly we shouldn’t look at Africa as a place of our need, and instead possible we should focus on our own immediate problems here!
John V.: “The evidence is overwhelming in all black countries that the state of their society displays the effects of Negros being Negros. It has little to do with what political idiots are in charge.”
Disagree. It’s the political idiots. Mostly following false intellectual concepts that originated in Europe.
DrD: “I imagine the country (ours or SA) would be in rather better condition if it were run by the likes of Colin Powell, Thomas Sowell and Condi Rice.”
That one I can probably agree with. Definitely in the case of Thomas Sowell.
“Question: Why are Black Africans poor? They live on a resource rich continent.”
Answer: Socialism. Or tribal gangsters invoking it as a rationale, a la Mugabe.
Barjebus: “All these conflicts were amongst white people.” [WW1 and WW2, Soviet Union, Hitler, etc.]
Bingo! Nothing to do with race. I’d be ashamed of being white if I thought I should feel guilty over the depredations of these mass murderers.
Edward Teach: “Then we’ll say that turning over a nation that was the product of Western European culture to a backward, clannish, corrupt, primitive culture was a fool’s errand.”
Look, everyone, the history of the human race is one of tribalism. Tribalism is the most primitive form of collectivism. Marxism, socialism, fascism and so on are just different forms of collectivism — same sh*t, different pile. They’re just an excuse for a gang of parasites to seize power and lord it over the unfortunate masses, just like the old-time tribalism. And they came from Western European culture, as a cancer from within it. The sooner we get rid of collectivism in all its forms, wherever practised, the better off the world will be. The only solution is recognition of individual rights and capitalism.
John V :
What you said had as much meaning to me as this :
Peoples intelligence has less to do with skin color than baldness.
Claiming one is stupid because of race just doesn’t make a heap of sense at all. People are so genetically close that even the most pure bred dogs have more genetic diversity. Some scientist are now “theorizing” most of the human race was killed off & that why we have so little genetic variability.
Any way its about culture. Both in SA & the US the cultures in black communities had become to believe ( In most instances where) they where persecuted than the bad parts of the culture where exulted over the good to protect themselves. Now they think the Government should save them, like the natives here with not a few others as well. Bill Cosby with other famous black stars are saying its about building strong families with friendly communities. An obligation to pay back what you enjoyed, instead of take all the time. Help the Community don’t live on it.
I don’t blame the history as much as I do there own race leeches with ours working in tandem to keep the taxes floating there way for free. They have done worse damage than the KKK could have dreamed of. They have stole the idea of self reliance from there own people, of community spirit, not government programs.
I look at it like the ancients, your either a barbarian or civilized it’s a choice. A pillager or looter. If you still think its race why are whites now going the same way with the exact attitudes. Riddle me that?
JMO
Sometimes the human skill at pattern recognition is not sociologically helpful…
OK, if a collective perspective is deemed unhelpful, let’s look at an individual one.
I know a man (today, he would have been called a “youth” – a teenager), came here in the 50’s from Europe with pretty d*mn near nothing (i.e., a suitcase and eaten’ money for a week), because there was p!ss all for him in the “old country”. He crossed the Atlantic by boat, spent the better part of a week getting from the Maritimes to the ‘Peg by train…in the friggin winter. Y’all remember the winters back then? His first job? Shoveling sh!t out of CP boxcars at 30 below. Long story short, classic rags to riches (well, maybe upper middle class comfort). Investment in his community – had half-a-dozen kids, built churches, schools, businesses.
Interesting thing? This was not unusual…at the time. For a society to flourish, a sufficient number of people must put in more than they take out. Everything else – laws, taxes, “culture” – is a “DC offset” that must be overcome. Canada, as a result, has thrived because the drag was low. By contrast, certain geographical areas (surely, this is sufficiently PC?) have had such enormous hindrances, and so few people willing to work, that they spiral into a singularity of sin and squalor. Regrettably, Africa is a premier illustration on the sinister side of the spectrum.
There are only two ways to motivate a man to work – love and fear. Absent either of these, the centre cannot hold…
“There are only two ways to motivate a man to work – love and fear. Absent either of these, the centre cannot hold…”
Also there’s nothing like the prospect of a cold bloody winter to inspire a man to industriousness (I guess that’s covered by fear).
It seems that all those who hail from northern latitudes have within them a sense of industriousness that I would posit is a result of having to prepare for winter, either by having a steady income or by working hard during the summer. The closer to the tropics you get and the warmer the winters, the more shiftless and lazy the inhabitants appear to be.