Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site dciem.UUCP
Path: utzoo!dciem!mmt
From: mmt@dciem.UUCP (Martin Taylor)
Newsgroups: net.politics
Subject: Re: Too many people?
Message-ID: <449@dciem.UUCP>
Date: Thu, 27-Oct-83 10:06:51 EDT
Article-I.D.: dciem.449
Posted: Thu Oct 27 10:06:51 1983
Date-Received: Thu, 27-Oct-83 14:24:31 EDT
References: <139@charm.UUCP>
Organization: D.C.I.E.M, Toronto, Canada
Lines: 21

================
        Poverty in India and other semi-colonial countries is not
caused by some failing on the part of the people there.  It is caused
by years of imperialist domination, which has resulted in enforced
economic backwardness.

================

Shouldn't this be in net.jokes? Surely there don't exist people who
seriously believe such stuff? Colonialism is surely bad, whether practiced
by European, Asian or American countries. It clearly can enrich the
colonial power (but need not). But there are lots of reasons for
poverty, and unless you define that imperialism exists because
poverty is there, you can't blame the imperialist powers for it.
Look at the inner cities or hill country in the US, for example.
It is the policies of the colonial power that matter, and how they
carry over after the imperialists leave. Would India have been better
off if Hindus and Muslims had worked together rather than massacring
each other on liberation?

Martin Taylor