I am pleased that PNG is experiencing economic growth and improved prospects, but it is not especially remarkable given its location. It has excellent natural resources, wealthy neighbours and easy access to the sea.
Many of the poorest african nations have none of these.
And these are not ad hoc excuses; these are the things I always list in these debates as the critical requirements for a fledgeling economy.
(I also mention corruption, but that’s often the side effect of a stagnant economy…it’s not the thing that we can really tackle first).
But anyway, it’s not like we’re talking about PNG overtaking SS Africa, just catching up quickly. So what?
The less developed eastern europe has caught up rapidly with western europe…do we need to suggest that it is because they are “modest and smart”?
So what?
It shows that people can develop, no matter how poor they were in the past. It is a matter of attitude.
Jared Diamond tell in his book “Germs, Guns & Steel” that the critical question that inspired him was done by a native of New Guinea who asked him:
"“Why is it that you white people developed so much cargo and brought it to New Guinea, but we black people had little cargo of our own?”
If it were for the oppinions here, that describe a highly developed Africa in the past, such a thought would have never appear in an African mind.
Believe me, the question of why Africans lags behind in development is very much discussed in African Studies and Human Geography departments around the continent - I should know, I’m doing a second degree in Geography. Everyone agrees the situation is pretty complex. No-one thinks it’s just colonialism.
However, no-one thinks it’s because Africa wasn’t primitive enough, either:rolleyes:
Notice all the things that you had to ignore to repeat your assertions:
Firstly, I just listed some of the geographical advantages PNG has versus the parts of africa you’ve cherrypicked to compare it to. So now you say it’s a “matter of attitude”.
Secondly, I’ve given at least a couple of analogies for why the modest catch up of PNG tells us nothing about the PNG or african populations, otherwise we’d need to say that Americans are stupid, say. You’ve ignored all that.
Finally, it has been pointed out to you that some african countries are doing very well, and their GDPs are rising much faster than PNGs. Whatever your point is, I don’t think it stands up very well to this observation.
I have wrote Sailer personally. He has to admit our Latino elites, those that study in the best American universities and come back, are smarter than himself and the average American.
If I recall correctly, Diamond also had some things to say about North America and I don’t think that they would jibe with your comments in this thread. In fact, if you were to hold Diamond to the standards you set forth here, I don’t see how you can rely on him as a source of anything much.