This may shock you, but even the great and powerful nations have been known to accept outside help during a crisis. Foreign governments have provided assistance to the US after hurricane Andrew and Katrina, as an example. And look at the multinational efforts in regard to flight MH-370, If the US and Malaysia are capable of accepting outside help to rescue people why isn’t Nigeria?
No one, absolutely no one, is talking about an invasion force. Nations like the US have offered assistance, leaving it up to the Nigerian government to accept or not. Which is as it should be. If some US satellite imaging and some UK expertise in hostage negotiation can help get these girls home it is stupid to refuse such help out of some misguide pride or disgust at “charity”.
I don’t think race has anything to do with this particular problem. It’s about class. Those girls weren’t considered important enough for the ruling elite of Nigeria to care about. If it hadn’t been for the outside world taking notice the Nigerian government would have done jackshit for them.
Moving right along - it seems Boko Haram has released another video. It shows a lot of girls in Muslim dress and seated in a group, which might be reassuring to parents who can recognize their daughters and see they’re still alive. I think the leader’s name is Abubakar Shekau, and he is offering to trade the girls for those of his group that are in prison.
He also claims he has converted all the girls to Islam.
Will someone tell that jackass that forcing people to change their clothing and making them recite a prayer at gunpoint does not constitute conversion? Of course, now that they’re “converted” any deviation from who Shekau considers proper would be an excuse for punishment. What a piece of shit.
Actually, some of the girls likely were Muslim before being kidnapped, but Boko Haram doesn’t consider other Muslims to be Muslim enough or some such.
It may shock that your evasions and lies do not escape the readers.
This is a non-sequitor.
In fact it was part of the stupid suggestions in this very thread and it was to those stupid things I reacted, and to your lies and your ignorant comments about the supposed slave markets.
Your speculations in ignorance about ruling elites and class or claims about what the Nigerian government is or is not doing continue to reflect you know nothing about the Nigeria. In fact the political elites of the Northeast are in a open conflict the the government of Goodluck Jonathan and since many months before this incident over his incompetence in the responses to the Boko Haram having new power.
The class of families that send their girls to such schools is not low class and your ignorant speculations add nothing but to your self-indulgence as a pretender.
Neither. I would use drones to find them and then missile bomb strike them. Which we should also be doing to the slave markets. Then there would be no more kidnappings of the girls and killing of the boys. Africa would finally be free from its’ oppresions.
You’d kill the slaves too. And why would they stop kidnapping girls rather than just sell them on the down low and not in open markets? Has indiscriminate bombing stopped all terrorism in Afghanistan?
Then perhaps YOU should stop acting all high and mighty and provide examples of why people like me should NOT feel that every country in Africa is effed up in one way or another instead of proclaiming all the rest of us a bunch of ignorant fools. Your pompous words don’t do a whole lot to convince anybody that what I posted there ISN’T true.
You keep stating all these things that you claim African countries need to do without pointing out that these are things that they COULD HAVE BEEN doing all along if they’d had the will to do so. On the one hand you’re coming off as VERY pompous and on the other you’re coming off as somebody who is VERY SERIOUSLY in denial about the state of affairs in Africa as a whole. Frankly, you’re no more aid to this discussion than are the people who are advocating for “White Knighting,” as you put it. Matter of fact your position might very well be worse.
Yes. I remember reading several years ago (and, Ramira, I couldn’t care less if it came from a source you “approve” of, or not) that Nigerians, themselves, feel that theirs is the most corrupt government in the world. All these things that the “high-minded” and “evolutionary” Ramira believes that African countries can do for themselves without Western intervention - how does one reconcile that with the fact that African governments are so corrupt and ineffectual? Oh, that’s right - ostensibly being from that continent Ramira is like anybody else on the planet…willing to defend those people even in the face of circumstances and facts that suggest that she should do otherwise. But I guess the rest of us are simply not reading the correct news sources and are relatively uninformed, is that right? :mad:
For the love of God would you stop lumping together a continent of a billion people and 53 different countries that covers 11 million square miles? Please?
Corruption isn’t caused by people just being bad. Corruption will always occur where there is an opportunity and incentive. It’s a structural phenomena, not a moral deficiency. A government can’t just willpower their way out of it, they need to be able to change the structures that are making it happen. And unfortuantely, that change isn’t always a simple one.
Exactly. Heads of state that keep all the wealth and foreign aid for themselves and their golden toilets and let their people starve and war and kidnap each others children for sex slaves are good people and it’s not their fault for not doing anything to help. It’s just that they set their government up wrong.
If only these heads of state had gone to Camaroon like you then they would realize this and fix themselves but since they didn’t I guess their people are just screwed. Oh well. Maybe after these kids live out their lives as sex slaves and die they’ll be lucky enough to be reincarnated in the US.
Well, either that or foreign powers can stop propping up corrupt regimes, undermining democracy and assassinating potentially good leaders for political expediency, as happened from the dawn of independence to 1991.
Now that the Cold War is over and that stuff has largely died down, the structures that encourage corruption are withering and democracy is making massive head ways. But it will take some time for the corruption-based systems in place to dismantle, and it will be messy as weak states (which were previously able to survive thanks to Cold War sponsorship) reorganize into strong ones that are capable of maintaining control within their borders without restoring to buying off local warlords and power brokers and manipulating ethnic politics.
That’s funny, inasmuch as I feel the same way about referring to one’s government as “we.” Leave me out of it. Identifying in such a personal way with those who intend to rule you is a characteristic of authoritarian societies. In such a mindset, anyone who criticizes or opposes the actions of your government is opposing you.
It’s not “we” the government, it’s “we” the nation, in whose name the government gets to act whether you like it or not, which means we, the Americans, invaded Afghanistan and now we are leaving.
And don’t try to dissociate yourself from all responsibility. If you vote, you bear some, and if you don’t vote you have no business bitching about what government does.