Racism is Bunk: American Pilot comments

Great Debates
1

On another forum where I put this thread, an American Pilot responded as follows:-

Jan - EXCELLENT!!

In 1950, I was a Cadet aboard the MV Del Rio out of new Orleans. we sailed the West African coast from Dakar to Walvis bay. The only place that was NOT colonized was Liberia, and by just a small coincidence, the people of Liberia, The Negro Republic, were the worst off of anyone.

Liberia is, and was then a terrible place. The only whites were Firestone employees, and they were isolated (segregated) in The Firestone Compound, which was the only decent spot in the whole country.

The harbor pilot was also white, a Dutchman, who the locals needed to get ships in and out of Monrovia, even thought it was not a difficult thing to navigate.

On the rest of the coast blacks enjoyed a higher standard of living than they do today, under European rule.

Like Jan said, it’s the PEOPLE.

My next trip back to Africa was as an airline pilot. We were flying relief to the victims of the latest “civil war”, i.e., tribal war in what was The Belgian Congo. As a Cadet (USMMA, 1953) I saw Ango Ango, Matadi, and Leopoldville. The latter two were very nice cities. When I returned after the departure of the Belgians, it was chaos. Dead animals and people in the streets, no electricity, no hospitals, NO NOTHING.

Total despair.

In all my considerable world travels, Africa was the only place in the world that I actually saw a fly land on a man’s open eye, and stay there. He didn’t even blink.

Moderatz

2

I forgot to add my response to him:-

Like Jan said, it’s the PEOPLE.

Thanks for that wonderful feedback Moderatz. I’ve added it to a post on my website at www.AfricanCrisis.org. In my news articles section I posted some lovely private responses.

Your mention of Liberia is interesting. A friend of mine had mentioned it to me too one day saying: The “Colonialism argument is bunk because what of: Liberia and Ethiopia - neither were ever colonised”.

It is interesting to see the sad state of Liberia. But how few people would dare have the balls to say: If African Americans ran America then maybe it too would become like Liberia? It just goes to show its all the same issue.

We whites who live in Africa have long said money alone CANNOT and WILL NOT solve Africa’s problems. Africa is doomed until people wake up to that fact. I believe in the long run Africa will so discredit itself that nobody in the world will want to deal with black Africa. I believe Black Africa is, in the long term, digging its own grave by continually blaming whites and colonialism.

I saw a study done by Germans a year or so ago where they were saying black Africans just don’t have the aptitude to overcome the problems facing them. In short, the Germans felt that those people are poor because that is all they are capable of achieving and no more.

Let me tell you, the day Russia took an interest in Africa was a dark day. Through their machinations and all the lies they taught the blacks they have laid the foundations for the long-term discrediting of the black race. These lies about colonialism and the whites will come back to bite the blacks in years to come when it is obvious they could not even match the achievements of colonialism

3

Where is the debate? This is Jan once again beating his drum.

4

Um, JanL-I think you should have kept this in one thread.

sigh

5

Do you have a link to this forum?

6

As far as the Belgian Congo goes, apparently you’ve never seen pictures from the era when Leopold II was on the throne.

If ever there was a disgusting example of a human being, King Leopold was it.

7

Things that will not happen in my lifetime:

  1. The sun will rise in the west.
  2. The moon will be discovered to be made of green cheese.
  3. janl will post a letter from someone who disagreed with him.
8

Am I crazy or is this dude talking with himself?

9

Missing one, Duke.

  1. janl will respond to disagreement with something other than screaming and whining.
10

Now, now. Janl has finally posted something that was narrow enough to actually address in place of the scattershot sillyness with which he has packed his earlier offerings.

A few points:

Liberia was very much a colonial enterprise. The fact that the colonists were former slaves being sent in from the U.S. does not change the colonial aspect of the country. In addition, since it was, basically, a dumping ground for untested ideas, and since a great many of the “colonists” were uneducated, it was fairly doomed from the beginning. The “returning” blacks were given rights over the locals whom they were displacing, but they were not provided with the training necessary to actually run a country. The economy that was established was set up with an eye to ensure that Liberia would not compete either with other European colonies in Africa or with the countries of Europe or North America, so they were, again, set up for failure.

The local people were never permitted to set up a government, having the foreign government imposed on them.

The Belgian Congo is another wonderful example of dishonesty for the claims of colonialism.
Unlike South Africa, Rhodesia, and other British adventures, the black inhabitants of the Congo were not permitted to participate in the administration of the local government, so that when the Belgians made their hasty departure, there was no one in the country with the bureaucratic skills to take up the administration.
Further, when the Belgians pulled out, they removed as much of the physical infrastructure as they could steal, and destroyed massive amounts of that which they could not steal.

Now, Janl, you come along and pretend that history never occurred and claim that the people of the Congo Valley were not “capable” of doing that for which they were never tained and for which the necessary materials were stolen from them.

I agree that much of the Marxist and Socialist leanings of the various post-colonial governments did nothing to help them survive, but your constant carping on the evils of Marxism ignores the day-to-day reality of the events that actually occurred.