Violence in DR Congo

[95thrifleman]

We can sit here and blame the white man or wax lyrical on how inferior the black man is (depending on your political/idealogical stance) or discuss a viable solution?

Is it even viable at all to rip up existing borders and let Africa re-establish itself along tribal lines?

[Kyffhäuser]

No I wore the Australian style hat you can see in my profile. Bloody great time hiking with my just minted fiance at the time for 6 weeks (Kenya and Tanzania). Had really nice time meeting the family of one of her scientific collaborators who helped us navigate Nairobi. Also some of the best samosas I have ever had I got out of little corrugated steel shack (*) bar about 20 miles outside of Nairobi from a real nice old women running the kitchen - real nice strong goat - also the fried lake fish is good as well. Been back, South Africa fairly cool but that was a free riding on my wife's scientific conference trip so only got into town for a day or two. Food was damn odd mix of British comfort food and some good local stuff but maybe I was picking bad (I don't do the yelp or equivalent I usually just wonder about till something looks interesting) so hope no SAers are mad. So not Madagascar. But my wife is eyeing a vacation for a few days after conference in Botswana in a year or two can't recall. Haiti nope, I kind of avoid the Caribbean its a tad sunny for my taste. But been close to the Dominican Republic. Went walking a bit people seemed nice.

This is my beef with egalitarians and liberals (and I lump conservatives in with liberals), you presuppose racists think these other human races are sub-human. You found some commonalities among humans which nobody denies exist. We all smile, that doesn't make us equals or nice. That's wonderful. I never doubted you would, but you went for a conference you say? A vacation too? You didn't actually live there, you were a transient who could blow some cash and get out. No skin off your teeth. I can turn this into a blog too. I was homeless for over a year, about 14 months actually, ~8 spent bunking with 40 undisciplined men from all over the country who have everything they need looking right back at them in the mirror, but they still chose to beg and mope and pity themselves. I met people you never will and wouldn't believe. Everything I believed in was changed or slain, but I wouldn't go back for a million years. See? I have my own experiences as well. It wasn't lightly that I slowly became racist, and fwiw it had nothing to do with the internet, Republicans, or klansmen.

Well technically the last I checked the Pyramids a Giza sorta qualify and had the top rung for a long time.

Dude, they don't qualify. Terms have meaning, so lets define them and stick to them. That city owes a great deal to recent European not sub-Saharan invention.

That is a a moving window - modern that is and place. Let's recall the Persians and Greeks would and sneered at Picts and Germans the same as you are trying to do. Besides any culture that has created the modern monstrosity big box store in its disposable square has to own up for that and the endless sprawl it requires

I'm not trying to sneer, I already have. Anyway, we're talking about European and sub-Saharan races. I have no problem with Greeks sneering, they gave us the Iliad and Aristophanes, and its a shame what calamity befell Persia. Its interesting you bring that dichotomy up, as Greeks and Persians were descended from Indo-Europeans. If Greeks were right to sneer dung huts then so am I. We struggled, we overcame, we advanced. Africans didn't, and I'm not sorry.

Anyway that's the best you got buildings? How about fire and stone tools you know the things that started the ball rolling? Or just People.

What's wrong with buildings as example, how long do you want this to go on? I'm not allowed to use the most ready examples at hand? How about music? "What are engineering and buildings compared with stone tools and fire?" That's what this is really about, isn't it? Rolling the clock back to a neverland millions of years, when we are all equal again. You can't have it any other way.

Like you are a racist who avoided my earlier response. Or are simply baiting another poster on the Internet.

Chief, you asked me if I was racist, which had to be rhetorical on your part, because you are not dumb. I gave it to you straight and said yes. As a matter of fact, I don't believe in equality of the races. They have their strengths and weaknesses, but I do love my own more than others and I'm not ashamed if that makes me a prole.

* Actually more clean and sanitary a fair number of bars about rural SE Idaho.

I trust you took swabs for cultures, because I don't barhop in Africa and I don't drink at all. Still, a clean bar tells me the spot's none too busy. If not, there's a reason that should tell you more about the place, like maybe they're smart not to drink (or at least what's served). Though if finding even a dozen clean bars in the world's second largest continent is impressive, then it isn't I who is being naive here.

[swabian]

I can turn this into a blog too. I was homeless for over a year, about 14 months actually, ~8 spent bunking with 40 undisciplined men from all over the country who have everything they need looking right back at them in the mirror, but they still chose to beg and mope and pity themselves. I met people you never will and wouldn't believe.

I'm sure nobody is harder than you are, but what is your point?

Is it even viable at all to rip up existing borders and let Africa re-establish itself along tribal lines?

No of course it is not, but this is beyond our control.

[Mayer]

In the end it's simple nature\instinct - one looks for the biggest stick with the implicit excuse of defending one self. Once a bigger stick then the neighbour's is available it will get used on the neighbour. Under whatever excuse (Lebensraum, WMD, heretic\infidel etc).
The level of civilization, education or technology is fairly irrelevant, the latter however is a potent multiplier of the final casualty list.

Nationalism and state's monopoly of violence are a evolution toward non-aggression, violence is virtually absent in western society and discouraged/prosecuted.
The level of civilization and education is quite relevant, i believe it has a antiproportional relationship with the occurence of violence.

Well technically the last I checked the Pyramids a Giza sorta qualify and had the top rung for a long time.

I'd sort egyptians under the semitic group, they weren't black africans, today's egyptians are largely indigenous (the expulsion theory is bollocks).






Statistics:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read: 

Wars in the past became less frequent and more exhausting. The trend in violence is falling worldwide.



Wars in Africa are frequent and often very long low-intensity conflicts.

[Gigantus]

Nationalism and state's monopoly of violence are a evolution toward non-aggression, violence is virtually absent in western society and discouraged/prosecuted.
The level of civilization and education is quite relevant, i believe it has a antiproportional relationship with the occurence of violence.

Well, I mentioned higher conflict threshold in my prior post vis a vis education and education, I also mentioned the multiplying effect of it (the technology that goes with it) on casualties. What was the final count in the fairly recent Balkan conflict? The happenings in the DRC pale considerably against that I would think.

It's a matter of personal preference in the end: do you prefer wholesale slaughter within a short time span or the more drawn out bleeding out of a region? The latter makes more headlines, that's for sure.

[Abdülmecid I]

A reminder that the subject of the thread concerns the internal troubles of the Democratic Republic of Congo and neither the merits of eugenics nor African civilisation nor your interlocutor's habits and sex.