@alnite  I'm from Bulgaria

@mikeman    I'm not sure if they are still living on the wealthiness of before. The wealthiness was primly food and land to grow the food on. I look at the colonization (correct me if I'm wrong) as just war. The nations on the west needed food and land, and they found a way to get it, If they did not do that they wouldn't be here today, so they kind of did it because of survival reasons. I may be completely wrong about this, but this is how the things were presented to me.

My country did that back in the day, they've traveled to a new land and together the local Slavic tribes in order fought for land with the Byzantine Empire. They did this by spilling blood, trying to survive.

Chances are, if you are alive today you ancestors killed a lot for you.

What I hope that we are a species should learn is that we should not fight each other, and we learn"share the wealth" some how with destroy each other culturally, and the wealth to me is food and land to grow that food. Currently we are very very far from even trying.

 

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you're getting free money every week it's very hard to get motivated to do anything else.

In my country we've got the "free money" problem too(maybe not on the same scale, as we are a poor country by the European standards), these people usually become trouble makers.

While I do think the whole "transfer of wealth" thing has some merit (After all, the colonies DID get robbed of natural resources), and we haven't even touched yet on the whole story of slave trade and forced labour, the "The colonization is the reason for <insert current day problem here>" is way to easy to be the full truth.

Truth is, many countries in africa collapsed in the last few years. IF that happened because of bagage from their past, either because of inequality left behind by the abrupt end of the era of colonization, the radical revolutionary groups that formed because of colonization, arbritrary country borders or a society probably not ready for the technology and social structures left behind by the colonists, or if there is actually still older bagage to blame, like tribal structures that are still in effect today, or simply the usual problem of a continent with so many cultures and languages living in so many different countries next to each other, is anyones guess.

If you truly want to understand the struggle of modern day africa, you need to read WAY more than just the history of colonization. Reducing the african people to victims of colonization IMO is wrong. They deserve more than that.

Now, there are radicals in africa that still beat the "evil europeans" and "colonists took our wealth" drum.... and sure, at least there is some merit to the second one. And no matter the retoric, europe HAS to have a strong interest in africa being able to overcome the struggles and start to prosper, no matter what part of the political spectrum you are on.

But lets not forget this: radicals are EVERYWHERE. Just because there is some truth in someones arguments doesn't mean he does not try to abuse them for their own good. There has been a form of professional victimhood being fostered in some parts of africa, MAINLY among the wealthy politicians who try to extort money from europe the same way they steal the wealth of their own people. If I see an african millionaire bitch about how europeans are the reason africa is poor... well, are YOU really speaking for africa now? Is it not rather people like YOU who are the main reason african people have trouble earning enough money to feed their kids, with your 30 cars and shiny uniform?

Really... there have been wrongs in the past, not all of them ever got redeemed, but blaming the misfortune of african people today on that alone is like saying the romans are responsible for the dark ages. They and the downfall of their empire certainly contributed to that. But just like with africa, there are so much more factors going into this that I question the value of singling that one contribution out, unless there is a different agenda behind it.