Colonization for resources is Evil

[IWantGod]

If by racism you mean cultural and technological superiority, yes.

There is nothing culturally superior in the idea of colonizing a country that is not yours and exploiting its native inhabitants…

 

[starshiptrooper]

You can claim that until some expansionist culture rolls right on over you.

 

[IWantGod]

Only a morally backwards thinking culture would do something like that. It’s merely an illusion of superiority.

 

[JimG]

Saudi Arabia isn’t colonized, but it makes a lot of money from oil—its own natural resource. But they import a lot of western workers to extract it. So are they exploiting westerners?

 

[Regular_Atheist]

They’re definitely exploiting the South East Asian workers who they force to labour in conditions of near-slavery.

Saudi Arabia owes much of its global status to its cushy relationship with other global powers, particularly the USA. It certainly isn’t a good example of a prosperous nation untouched by imperialism. It’s an imperialist, extremist nation supported by other imperialist powers.

 

[Theo520]

I obviously don’t agree. You’ll always describe yourselves as “peacemakers” but that’s not even close to what it looks like from the outside. Have some perspective. I wanted to end the discussion though, because you won’t convince me of your points of view and neither will I convince you of mine. But we’ve already expressed what we think, and that’s all. Have a nice day. God bless you

Have more faith in your ability to persuade!
I’m very open to changing my views, with new ‘valid’ (name removed by moderator)uts.

In no way do I think the US is completely altruistic in our international endeavors. I think we sometimes have noble objectives and sometimes not. I also think we fumble the ball repeatedly in our execution.

 

[ratio1]

Colonisation is definitely BAD overall. I don’t know anyone who likes to be colonialized.

This a stems from an individualistic culture. A culture of “me”. Colonialism is especially harsh when the people being colonised has a collective culture.

Perhaps a global culture of “us” is in order.
A community of human destiny could be the answer.

 

[Theo520]

They’re definitely exploiting the South East Asian workers who they force to labour in conditions of near-slavery.

Having lived in SE Asia and visited more than my share of factories, i disagree with this common western view of factories.

While it’s true that none of these factories meet current western standards, they must be taken in context of the countries level of development and alternatives. Sitting on an assembly line making export products is often a relatively high paying and sought after job in such countries. Conditions tend to improve as the economy improves and there is increased competition for quality workers.

During my time, I never saw a factory that remotely resembled the way ‘sweat shops’ are portrayed in our media. The ones that exist are more likely to be producing for the local market rather than export market.

 

[starshiptrooper]

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[IWantGod]

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President Trump: “why did i take this job?”

lool

 

[ratio1]

During my time, I never saw a factory that remotely resembled the way ‘sweat shops’ are portrayed in our media.

Wow you’ve been to every single factory, especially you pick d the worst ones that the media reports on!
Jokes aside, obviously you are right in most cases. The media would pick the worst ones to report. So these would probably be a handful of cases.
I’m not sure that people are “forced” to work though. If people are indeed working in near slavery conditions then maybe the alternative or what they were like before was worse than slavery.
Having said that, people DO remember how you treat them. And that was why my previous post about colonisation.

 

[ratio1]

Yes, we try to exert significant influence over countries like Iraq and Afghanistan, but they are hardly treated like colonies. For starters our money is flowing into these countries instead of taking value out. There is a strong history of the US leaving after local politics and violence stabilizes.

Face the facts, we wouldn’t be in Syria still if Syrians etal weren’t killing each other causing a refugee crisis with it’s own set of problems for the west. Nonviolent countries are pretty much left alone in regards to military intervention.

I might take on the challenge of the other poster then. Just trying to present both side of the story.

What do you think about how US treated Iran by ordering the coup of Mosaddegh?

 

[Theo520]

Wow you’ve been to every single factory, especially you pick d the worst ones that the media reports on!

Jokes aside, obviously you are right in most cases. The media would pick the worst ones to report. So these would probably be a handful of cases.

I’m not sure that people are “forced” to work though. If people are indeed working in near slavery conditions then maybe the alternative or what they were like before was worse than slavery.

Having said that, people DO remember how you treat them. And that was why my previous post about colonisation.

I shared my personal experience and observations, mocking is not cool.

How many Asian factories have you visited? ? ?

 

[Theo520]

I might take on the challenge of the other poster then. Just trying to present both side of the story.

What do you think about how US treated Iran by ordering the coup of Mosaddegh?

I think we are a mixed bag, we’ve been altruistic in some cases and completely selfish in others. Outside of humanitarian responses, I’d check both hands and under the car of any ‘gifts’ from the American Govt.

I think we were at our worst during the cold war and confess I don’t know much about the “coup of Mosaddegh.” I read it was a key cause of the subsequent Iranian Revolution.

 

[ratio1]

I shared my personal experience and observations, mocking is not cool.

Ok I do apologise. Please forgive my comment. I guess my point was we can’t dismiss media reports based on experiences of other factories unless you claim you have been to that particular one factory that the media talks about and you found that the media falsely represent the situation.
However as I said I do accept the vast majority would be fine as reported by your experience.

 

[ratio1]

I think we were at our worst during the cold war and confess I don’t know much about the “coup of Mosaddegh.” I read it was a key cause of the subsequent Iranian Revolution.

I’m not sure it was a key cause but certainly it was heavily in the minds of the revolutionists.

This story is often repeated in othe Middle East countries and I think this is what the other poster was referring to. US props up authoritarian dictators while deposing popular and democratically elected leaders. Another example is the US has supported Hoszni Mubarak in Egypt for years.
All this purely because of US interests such as oil in the case of Mossadegh.
I don’t blame the US for advancing its own interests, just be prepared for the consequences which is creating enemies and leading to events such as the us embassy hold up in Iran during the Iranian revolution.
To this day there is still a lot of animosity to the US in Iran.
This goes back to what I said about “me” culture vs “us” culture.

 

[Theo520]

Ok I do apologise. Please forgive my comment. I guess my point was we can’t dismiss media reports based on experiences of other factories unless you claim you have been to that particular one factory that the media talks about and you found that the media falsely represent the situation.

However as I said I do accept the vast majority would be fine as reported by your experience.

I’m not suggesting you would want YOUR kids to work for an Apple subcontractor but that is a dream come true for poor parents in a rural village. I remember one set of parents who were delighted their daughter got to work in an air conditioned factory and that we provided room and board.

In contrast, a visiting German compared it to his factory back home and immediately thought it was slave labor. I think his view was slanted by the media story rather than understand how life was day to day for real people in the country.

I’m also excluding prison labor from my comments. Though I think nothing is inherently wrong with prisoners being productive, I think this workforce is frequently abused in places like China, and they have no free will to find another job.

 

[AlNg]

How many Asian factories have you visited? ? ?

I saw one in the USA.

 

[AlNg]

I don’t know much about the “coup of Mosaddegh.”

Many Americans know nothing about how the US has worked to overthrow foreign governments, including assassinations, but they know a lot about a few twitter and facebook postings by Russian citizens “meddling” in the US elections.

 

[CatherineAlexanderia]

Hi everyone! I understand that most of the discussion her has revolved around history of colonization, American politics, the impact of the Church in other countries due to colonization ect. What a great topic to discuss!

But when I read this headline, my first thought was…It can’t be wrong. How could it be wrong to colonize the moon for its natural mineral resources? Is it wrong to colonize Mars for its resources in Iron? Is it wrong to explore, seek to understand the mysteries of the created universe and apply our intellect and creativity to the new found resources available?
Perhaps this response falls more into the ethics of science and discovery, but does anyone find fault for wanting to colonize Mars for its resources, or colonizing the Moon for its minerals?