Comments by "" (@orboakin8074) on "Whatifalthist"
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As a Nigerian, my opinion on colonialism will be more nuanced than that of most westerners. On one hand, it was brutal in some ways but on the other it did play a huge role in bringing much of Africa into the modern age via introduction of modern tech, medicine, western education, and nation building. My country and many others would literally not exist without it and most of us are happy with that. Even many people who actually lived through British colonialism in Nigeria, like my grandmother and great grandmother (before she passed away in the early 2000s) don't look at it with horror or anger. They saw so many improvements like modern medicine and better food production and they even saw their children and families rise from poverty because of the effects.
Also, one major good it did was abolish slavery. I cannot be more thankful for the British using their naval power and economic might to suppress the slave trade in Africa. Oh, I know they partook in it for a time, themselves, but it existed here long before whites ever came to Africa. Even my own ancestors of the Edo kingdom were slavers. Same with the Arabs who had a longer and more brutal slave trade here. What makes the British different is that unlike other regional African and Arab powers, they had the cultural & religious framework, wisdom, humanity and courage to actually stop the evil of slavery even at huge cost to their economy. God bless them.
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When I watch your videos, I get partly black-pilled, frightened and a little white-pilled at the end. I have no doubt the world is in for some turbulent (or as the Chinese say, "interesting") times but I have a good feeling most of us will make it and it will be grueling and hard but necessary. Heck! My grandparents and my great-grandmother, along with my parents and their respective families, made it through the colonial era of Nigeria, our civil war, military juntas, the cold war, and even I made it through the 2000s, the great recession, the SARS, Ebola, Avian flu pandemics, and much more. We humans are a stubborn and resilient species and many of us have experienced so serious stuff and I am damn sure we will survive what's coming, Amen.😊😊
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@ladybernkastel5696 None taken. I can understand why it boggles people's minds why I would emigrate to a foreign country and face challenges rather than stay in my country. But the honest answer is I, like most immigrants, want better opportunities but more so, in my case, it's the only way I can actually improve my own life and improve my country. I have seen how many Ghanaians, Indians, Filipinos, and Israelis emigrated legally to better countries and established themselves, contributed to those countries via their work and paying taxes and setting up businesses and later used their wealth to help improve their own countries via things like remittance payments and setting up joint ventures or businesses back home to help bring jobs to their countries. That is my main goal and that is partly why I emigrated here. I want to change my country and the best way I can do so is to get enough personal capital and wealth in the land of opportunity to do so. Believe me, I still feel some sense of shame and guilt like I ran away but then I remember that I am also giving back to my parents to manage their farm business. I cannot do a whole lot now but I aim to do so much more and the only way for me is to establish myself here. That is honestly one of the ways I feel much of Africa will be fixed and developed via the expats who return with the know-how, the connections and the resources to impact real change.
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@feliz2892 Finally, to address the demographic issue you raised, yes, the Muslim population is looking to become slightly higher than us Christians but that is not really as dire as you would think. Thankfully, islam here is not nearly as regressive as Arabic Islam. You will find more Muslims here who support democracy, nationalism, capitalism, education, and abhor regressive practices. They have to in order to maintain our nationak unity with Christians. Here, culture and tribe factors more than religion. A southern Muslim is more secular and open minded than a rural northern Muslim. Also, structure of our politics and judiciary has secularism enshrined in our public affairs. For example, our military is mostly composed of Northerners and Muslims but it is barred from letting anybfaith or tribe influence it. Civic Nationalism has become more dominant over time here. So the notion of Nigeria becoming a Sharia state or another Sudan is not likely.
Also, though our largely Muslim north is still underdeveloped in terms of economics, infrastructure and education, this is changing gradually and with this change comes a more moderate culture. Look at Kano, Abuja and Kaduna. They are northern and largely Muslim but also modernized and more urban. This is making them more on par with some southern states in terms of culture and perspective.
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@tomatop6754 Pal, I am not white but I can assure you that the white population in North America will never become a minority, despite what weirdos say. This is because in North America, unlike Europe, there is a high and vibrant white population that has not being undermined by leftists and their destructive ideology. Plus, they still have the highest birth-rates in their part of the world. Europe will still have a high white population but the declining birth rates in western Europe are an issue. Eastern Europe will be fine, however. Also, the majority of Hispanic immigrants tend to identify as white and intermarry with the existing white population.
If anything, it's us in the black population that will suffer thanks to a combination of factors, courtesy of the left: promotion of abortion, destroying the nuclear family, illegal immigration that actually hurts black communities, the cancerous welfare state that has eroded any incentive for cultural and demographic improvements, the crime rates and recidivism.
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@Luid101Clips My guy, I see some of the points you are making but let me offer some counters:
1) One the issue of colonialism never happening, the two countries in Africa that were never colonised (Ethiopia and Liberia) didn't end up better than most of the colonized ones. both have been plagued with tribal conflicts and civil wars. Ethiopia has one currently ongoing and has no strong national unity, despite no colonialism and both their economies lag behind ours. A lack of colonialism doesn't automatically equal prosperity.
2) Regarding our country, is it as bad as you imagine? In the south, we are more tribally and culturally different than the north where they are more culturally and religiously homogenous. Yet, the south is more stable and economically rich and more developed with infrastructure than the north. Clearly we have shown that our diverse country can work if we have done it well in teh south. It's a matter of political leadership, not just tribe.
3) Even if the Europeans had never colonized us, it would have happened with another power; most likely teh Arabs in the Sahel region. They were an encroaching force in west Africa before the Europeans and had they gained more inroads, we would probably be a country like Sudan. Power imbalances and differences in economic strength and development always leads to colonialism. It would have happened to our region regardless. I am just glad it was by a better group like the British.
4) Finally, on the issue of technology and modernity, it would have been nice for us in Africa to get all those things via trade or diplomacy but in reality, this is not how it happens. Even in western Europe, the ancestors of the French and British got development and modernity and their identity after being conquered by Romans and adopting stuff from them. Same thing in Singapore where their own founder said the British were teh reason their civilization became established. This is the sad but true basis of human history.
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@lupusalbus3795 Yeah, the Rhodesia stuff is one of those bitter ironies of African history. Yes, the government was pretty oppressive in some ways but under them, Rhodesia (now Zimbabwe) was the bread basket of Africa with mechanized farming and increasing economic output and development. All that was destroyed when mugabe and his ilk ruined the economy and went on to brutally subjugate his own people and also stole the farmlands from the people who were actually good at farming and feeding the nation (the white farmers, of whom one's son was a friend of mine in the UK. great guy👍) I will not pretend that the Rhodesian government had no faults but compared to mugabe and his group, they were the better devils. Also, the "rice from the sky" program, is that the foreign aid food you are referring to? If so, I agree. Many of the famines here in Africa are largely due to government incompetence, rather than solely drought, and most of the food aid the international community sends to Africa usually ends up being used by those bastards as leverage to control their populations and further. Fortunately, more and more African countries are improving gradually. We are working to embrace the positives brought by the colonialists like liberalism, industrialization, democracy, capitalism, and national unity. For example, Botswana, Kenya, Rwanda, and even my own flawed country of Nigeria.
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My guy, I see some of the points you are making but let me offer some counters:
1) One the issue of colonialism never happening, the two countries in Africa that were never colonised (Ethiopia and Liberia) didn't end up better than most of the colonized ones. both have been plagued with tribal conflicts and civil wars. Ethiopia has one currently ongoing and has no strong national unity, despite no colonialism and both their economies lag behind ours. A lack of colonialism doesn't automatically equal prosperity.
2) Regarding our country, is it as bad as you imagine? In the south, we are more tribally and culturally different than the north where they are more culturally and religiously homogenous. Yet, the south is more stable and economically rich and more developed with infrastructure than the north. Clearly we have shown that our diverse country can work if we have done it well in teh south. It's a matter of political leadership, not just tribe.
3) Even if the Europeans had never colonized us, it would have happened with another power; most likely teh Arabs in the Sahel region. They were an encroaching force in west Africa before the Europeans and had they gained more inroads, we would probably be a country like Sudan. Power imbalances and differences in economic strength and development always leads to colonialism. It would have happened to our region regardless. I am just glad it was by a better group like the British.
4) Finally, on the issue of technology and modernity, it would have been nice for us in Africa to get all those things via trade or diplomacy but in reality, this is not how it happens. Even in western Europe, the ancestors of the French and British got development and modernity and their identity after being conquered by Romans and adopting stuff from them. Same thing in Singapore where their own founder said the British were teh reason their civilization became established. This is the sad but true basis of human history.
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@jayfizz545 My guy, believe me, I feel you and I even agree with your sentiments to a degree but realistically, I don't think the nation will break apart. I am not even a northerner; I am Edo. What I see happening is restructuring. The north has been the biggest obstacle to this but after the last 8 years of buhari foolani mismanagement, and the amount of increased poverty and terrorism that their region has experienced because of their baba in Aso Rock, they can no longer ignore the calls to restructure Nigeria and two of the candidates (Peter Obi and Atiku) have made it clear that they want to restructure Nigeria. You notice I don't mention tinubu at all because I doubt he will come close to winning as APC is increasingly hated. What will likely happen is that once the insecurity problem and economic issues have been addressed after the 2023 election, there will be working on changes like the constitution and making more decentralization, especially for the army and police. Basically, Nigeria will start to function like a proper republic and if they keep putting up hinderances, it will either result in break up or serious conflict and restructuring by force. As you said correctly, the north (especially their elites and rulers) know that they need us more than we need them. They have mismanaged their own region and their people are growing increasingly resentful of them.
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@bevvy.bee9 Okay, my guy. Let's discuss:
1) You are correct that the British allowed the North to remain more intact and they didn't influence them as much or "they gave them power" as you say while they stayed longer in the south. But look at the result. The north was allowed to remain culturally and religiously the same with little British influence and as a result, they didn't get the positive British influence or infrastructure the we in teh south got. That is why the north remains poorer, less educated, less infrastructure and more insecure with terrorism and also have less co-existence compared to us in the south where our economies are richer, we have more infrastructure, better education, and co-existence with different tribes and religions here. We clearly benefitted more.
2) Yes, Ethiopia was not colonized but they also took far FAR longer to get modernity, better technology and good economics and even food stability. They also have less national unity than most colonized African countries. They tried to assimilate other tribes like Eritrea and have had more civil wars than us and still have terrible national unity and their economy is less developed than ours.
3) Friend, if the British and a few Europeans had not abolished slavery, as a result of colonialism, what makes you think it would not exist here? The last country on earth to abolish slavery was Mauritania and they did it in the 1980s and ONLY made it illegal in the mid 2000s but it still exists there. Slavery was a cultural and economic institution in much of Africa and it simply wouldn't have disappeared as you like to imagine without foreign (British) influence.
Final note, colonialism sucks but it is something that tends to happen in all societies, cultures and throughout history. Our Bantu group of West Africa ended up becoming the dominant ethno-group in much of Africa. is that not colonialism? What matters is he reflect on teh after-effects and based on this, those of us who had more European (British, mainly) influence ended up better than those who didn't like Sudan that was colonized first by Arabs and the black Christian population was oppressed for centuries until they split up and they lag behind us in terms of development.
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@dylangtech This will be a long read, friend. Honestly, my base prediction is that our country will have a rough patch as we are still working on maintaining our democracy and national unity but things will continue in an upward trajectory for us. Insecurity is a huge problem, mainly in the north due to proximity to unstable countries like Niger and Chad. Our military has undergone intense modernization and improved training to combat this. So there is some hope
While tribalism is still a factor here, it's not nearly as endemic as you would think. Good political leadership is what we mainly strive for. In the north, they are more cultural and tribally and religiously homogenous but also the most economically underdeveloped and insecurity-plagued region here meanwhile in the south, with more cultural and tribal and religious diversity, we are more economically strong and tend to have better co-existence among different tribes. e.g., me being Edo but growing up in Lagos. That's partly because here we got more of the British systems before the north did. Even in the East, the Igbo people are more aware of how corrupt and inept leadership is what plagues their region, rather than discrimination by other tribes.
On the economic side, our industrialization is increasing and we still maintain our status as the largest economy in Africa and it is projected to only grow. The issues we need to address are infrastructure challenges and insecurity.
Demographics-wise, our population is largely young and increasingly getting more skilled and educated but, again, due to economic mismanagements, this has hindered growth and development. However, even this is gradually changing.
Politically-wise, democracy is here to stay as many of us simply have no desire to return to military rule or to see our country balkanize as this would screw over so many of our smaller tribes and economically ruin even the larger one. We also still maintain our national language and a more secular-ish form of national laws. i.e., stuff like Sharia law doesn't apply to all areas or even to all Muslims in the country. We even tend to maintain an unwritten power-sharing deal between the north and south and we are working towards more federalism.
On the issue of religion, it is true that Christian, especially us Catholics, do tend to be targeted but mainly in the northern regions where insecurity and Islamic terrorism is a problem but they also tend to target mostly Muslims too. The future of relations between our two dominant faith is likely one of civic nationalism as there is no serious animosity between most people of both faiths, especially here in the south where Christians and Muslims tend to get along far better.
Basically, to sum it up, I am cautiously optimistic as a Nigerian. Socioeconomic, cultural, demographic and political pressures are what are ensuring that we maintain some sense of stability and given how most of our tribes and people (elites and non-elites, included) tend to benefit more from our nation's continued existence, i strongly feel we will continue to exist and things will improve. Plus, given how I grew up mainly in the 2000s and saw how the country changed and improved economically and socially after decades of military misrule (2000-2014 under PDP), I can strongly say that all we need is good political leadership again and most Nigerians would agree with me.
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22:20 As a Nigerian, I couldn't agree more about the British. my opinion on colonialism will be more nuanced than that of most westerners. On one hand, it was brutal in some ways but on the other it did play a huge role in bringing much of Africa into the modern age via introduction of modern tech, medicine, western education, and nation building. My country literally wouldn't exist without the British. For all the issues we face, most of us wouldn't ever dream of not having a country of our own.
Also, one major good it did was abolish slavery. I cannot be more thankful for the British using their naval power and economic might to suppress the slave trade in Africa. Oh, I know they partook in it for a time, themselves, but it existed here long before whites ever came to Africa. Even my own ancestors of the Edo kingdom were slavers. What makes the British different is that unlike other regional African and Arab powers, they had the cultural & religious framework, wisdom, humanity and courage to actually stop the evil of slavery even at huge cost to their economy.
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@srelma Well, the simple reasons why my country is still, unfortunately, a shithole (I won't disagree with you there) is mainly due to our government and terrible government policies that have hampered our infrastructure (especially electricity) and eroded law and order; both of which are critical to attract economic investors and give rise to economic development and growth. No, seriously, that is just it. The corruption, the hesitance of foreign companies to further invest in the country is mainly down to our government; especially our current one since 2015. After 1999, when civilian rule returned, our economy was being remodeled and improvements were happening. Privatisation of many public monopolies was been done and our national debt was greatly reduced. Foreign investment and our middle class was rising up until 2015 when we elected buhari, a northern Nigerian, whose policies and incompetence have undermined much of the socio-economic progress, national unity and development our country made and resulted in many economic problems and worsening security crisis.
One major issue with Nigeria is that when the British colonized us, the incorporated many different ethnic groups and tribes into the entity that became Nigerian republic. This is broken into the north and south. The British stayed longer and incorporated the south; fully pushing their social system, economic models and democratic process there and as a result, even before our independence, the south became-and remains-the economic power house of Nigeria and is also the most literate, and most developed and most secular region in Nigeria. However, with the north, the British did not fully incorporate that region. They conquered them but struck a deal with the ruling muslim elites to let them continue their social and political structures with little British influence. Thus, the north is more homogenous ethnically and culturally but lags developmentally and culturally behind us in the south. After independence, our union had to be maintained and many compromises were made like a national police force, a national electricity grid among other things. It was done with the aim of centralising power and helping the less developed regions catch up but it has been such a problem. Our country is a federal republic but federalism barely exists. Many corrupt politicians (especially in the north) have been abusing our federal system to embezzle public funds for their own enrichment without improving infrastructure and they also use the cover of "adhering to tradition" as an excuse, especially in the muslim north. In the south, we have our corruption too but the more established economic infrastructure here provides an incentive to said corrupt politicians to ensure that things function.
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@colinfrederick2603 Saying starting a "family=women's interest" is not sexist despite what current year progressive culture asserts. By that logic, you might as well say "men=providers and protectors" is misandrist. Not all men and women want to be, or should be, parents but how exactly is me pointing out a general trend and fact regarding most women sexist exactly? Don't women generally tend to have more nurturing and motherly instincts? Doesn't this also reflect in their choices of careers which focus more on people than things, unlike men? Your point about men needing to take part in raising of kids is also valid and I agree. I just don't agree that men should work less and women spend less time away from their kids because whether either of us likes it or not, the optimal way to raise a family is with a more involved mother being present for the child's formative years and a father being available but ensuring resources and means are provided. That's why even career women take time off or refuse higher demanding career advances because it cuts into their time with their children.
As to my point that having kids later is causally linked to mental health issues, I am referring to the proven fact that the older a woman gets (usually past 25) the greater the difficulty in having successful pregnancies and the increased risk of cognitive issues developing in the baby like down syndrome. This is due to her eggs not being as viable and chromosomal issues developing. It also happens with males and sperm but ours is delayed because biologically, we are more viral for a longer period than women.
Regarding your "Pareto Optimal setup" and build back better, what makes you so sure that will work, especially when the USA already has a lot welfare funding, family funding, nd increased public spending that has not really solved any of their intended problems that reducing poverty, reducing illiteracy and has even contributed to further destabilization of family units, especially black communities like mine? As for your mentioning of WW2, that was an extreme situation so it made sense to involve women in the war economy. But do you really think all women wanted to continue with that state of affairs? war, possible forced conscriptions, rationing?
Finally, where am I saying women should be trapped in the home? No one is saying that. But more so, how is that notion different from you demonising women at home while glorifying women only working behind cubicles and nothing else?
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@Crysalis-bd9so you are right that Islam is one factor but I don't view it as a major one, rather, culture is a bigger one. Turkey is largely Muslim but their culture was one that embraced modernity, liberalism (to a degree), democracy, capitalism and tolerance. That is what has made them one of the few Muslim countries that are doing well economically and socially and politically and have good future prospects. The middle east, on the other hand, continues to regress socioeconomically, culturally, demographically, and has instability because of their culture.
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@iwatchDVDsonXbox360 Yeah, this just further proves my initial comment. China was a trade rival with the UK. They had more of those raw materials and luxury goods you listed (porcelain, tea and silk) and traded them with Europe. The British, under the British Raj (India) didn't like this competition and wanted either control or destroy it but couldn't just declare war on China. They started to sell opium because it was a cheap drug and they knew the emperor would try and sop it and that would give them cause to declare war. Also, despite what the letter says, China was not self-sufficient in all things. They still imported stuff from Europe e.g. machinery, vehicles, steel, weapons, etc. The only difference was that they had a trade surplus because they exported more stuff, mainly tea, silk and porcelain.
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@emanuelsadu263 honestly, the issue with French versus British colonialism is for the following: The British were more selective than the French. They mainly colonized coastal areas or areas that could facilitate colonies. The French mainly just went for massive territory and were not as selective. Also, the British had a habit of instilling their socioeconomic and political structures and systems onto their colonies. This is why many former British colonies were quick to embrace and maintain democracy, capitalism, liberalism and civic nationalism even after the British left. The French mainly focused on maintaining control and didn't nearly impart more beneficial systems like democracy or capitalism and liberalism, plus the pre-existing poor geography and social issues in their colonies made it difficult to impart these values and systems. Finally, the British, for all their flaws and bad actions, actually did more good in their colonies like building infrastructure, creating economic development, modernity, and also abolishing slavery (which the French also did) The British also had a more humanist viewpoint as time went on with how they related to the colonies. A European journalist once asked some British administrators in Kenya why they were teaching the local Africans administration, democracy, economics, engineering etc. He wondered why since they would just use it to gain independence. The administrator responded that because it felt right and that the Africans were essentially part of the human brotherhood.
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@user-dn3fn3bg4l Sub- means below, beneath, or bordering on. In this case, we in Nigeria are "sub-Saharan". there is nothing wrong with this term, friend. As for your view on Nigeria, I absolutely agree that we need radical reform but I disagree that we need to split as a country. What we need is constitutional reform and for more federalism and also increased economic liberalism. As for the north, yes, their political class is largely corrupt and inept when compared to ours in the south, in terms of modernity and democratic rule. That being said, we have our own inept and incompetent and terrible leaders in the south and middle too. Also, the north does have some very good and competent politicians and statesmen and people overall too, as we do in the south. Was it not Yar'Adua (a Fulani) who improved on the work of Obasanjo (a Yoruba) and made Nigeria one of the fastest growing economies? And was it not during his tenure that national unity was increasing, security and standard of living were improving? Finally, even if we did split, how would unity be maintained among us in the south? And would other regions/countries like Togo, Benin, Cameroon, and Ghana even be willing to engage productively with us? Average consensus among most Nigerians is that we don't want to split as a nation. Nigeria can work because it already did. Post 99 after democratic rule returned and economic reforms by Obasanjo came and fixed many of our problems like high debt and inflation, our national unity increased. Once buhari and APC are gone and better people come into power, the good times will come again.
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