Comments on: French vs. Anglo-American “Imperialism”

By: Tunde

Tunde — Sun, 08 Oct 2006 16:59:50 +0000

While some of your sentiments are hopefully heartfelt. I am sorry to say that the British and French are pirates. They pillaged and continue to pillage their former colonies.
As a Nigerian, the premise that any country that enslaves (yes I said it ENSLAVES) a group of people in their own land (the land of their forefathers) and then "Voluntarily" should be given any credit for how stable or unstable these colonies are.
As Europeans you taught Africans the art of corruption on a grand scale. The most un-African thing to do is to steal from your people/family. But look at our continent today. The Abachas, Mugabes, Mobutus and others.
While your blog is a form of dialogue. I do not think you understand the position of the African in this situation. You can say whatever to appease yourselves but tell that to the Camerounian that is taught in grade school that he/she is a decendant of the Gauls or the Nigerian busboy I observed calling a white person "master" just last year at a restaurant on Eleke cresent (the street the American embassy is on).
You can talk about Gross Domestic Product all day but you all need to check yourselves and then talk about the way your ancestors robbed us of our humanity.
--- Nigerian in the U.S.

By: Indio Man

Indio Man — Tue, 11 Jul 2006 02:13:08 +0000

Hurray!!! to the colonizers,

first you rape them
then you leave them poor
now they are you're bitch because you told them that they owe you lots of money.

You even give them a group them,
What you called them? Yeah! "Third World".

By: french monkey

french monkey — Thu, 04 May 2006 13:42:03 +0000

France, led by napoleon, conquered almost all europe. Why not count them as former french colonies in your wonderful, very true and absolutely not directedf analysis.

Sorry if i made mistakes (you know french children are so dumb they can't learn any other language).

Have a good day, ladies and gentleman, and my the Entente Cordiale between England and France live long.

PS: Please, can americans understand that we, french, don't want the end of the USA, but just that the american people start to ask themselves some questions.

By: Dutchboy

Dutchboy — Tue, 21 Feb 2006 15:17:57 +0000

The Irish potato famine never happened.
Our good Irish friends just forgot where they planted them. ( pretty easy to do if you've ever
had Irish whiskey).

Too bad New Amsterdam was taken by the British from the Dutch and renamed New york. Just imagine,a red light district and legal pot smoking in New york, now that's freedom.

By: Evil Otto

Evil Otto — Mon, 13 Feb 2006 02:17:37 +0000

iliketodoitdoit babbled:
“The British did do a lot of good in the various colonies they occupied. Nigeria and Ghana are not the same back water type like Ivory Coast. They are very poor African nations but relatively compared with other west african nations (french occupied) they are much better off in terms of development and gdp per capita. Mugabe screw Zimbabwe not the British… All in all, Britain’s african colonies are better off than French or Portugese territories. The biggest indication that Britain did something right is that all these countries choose to be members of the commonwealth, a voluntary association. Britain can be attacked for various things, but we should remember the comparatively they were better than other Europeans.”

What a load of utter horsecrap. Selective citation is the commonest refuge of a scoundrel, an idiot, a loser or all three. Funny how you seemed to have left out the former British African colony of Sierra Leone, which is among the very worst, war-ridden, crime-ridden, poorest, devastated countries on the African Continent. As bad or worse than Ivory Coast or any of the French colonies. Or how ’bout Uganda, ruled for years by one of history’s worst thugs who– oddly enough– was helped by the British on his road to power. (Idi Amin served among the British forces.) Or Zimbabwe, led by the enlightened Robert Mugabe. In fact, if you’re comparing British and French ex-colonies in Africa, by many measures the Brits come out much worse– e.g., the British colonies are by far the ones hardest hit by the AIDS crisis, the French colonies far less so.

Even elsewhere in the world, the British record is checkered at best– Burma and Pakistan are led by dictatorships, Bangladesh is dirt-poor. Even in the British “successes” like Australia, the British made those countries in large part by almost exterminating the native populations. In Ireland, the British brutally killed millions in the population over centuries, while in India, estimates are that up to 40 million Indians died due to British forced famines in the late 1800′s. To the extent that *some* (definitely not all or even most) British colonies thrive today, it’s by dint of the native peoples, not something special about the British system imposed there.

By: I

Fri, 18 Nov 2005 17:47:33 +0000

"The biggest indication that Britain did something right ..."

I am always dumbfounded when I read comments like this...for you to think that any of the former colonists actually "did something right" amazes me. You clearly have no clue how significant the effects of colonialism are. Much more than economics, the loss of a significant aspect of african culture, and the haphazard delineation of african countries, are the roots of so many issues in africa today.

And just to point out, there is no basis for comparing Nigeria and Ivory Coast, have u even considered the size and population of both countries? The resources available? do you know how much oil Nigeria produces daily?

And just to confirm, do you really think that Ghana is significantly more advanced than Ivory Coast? Based on what? GDP per capita? or your personal visits to both countries?

Check your facts...check your facts!and please do some more research, before you jump to the defense of Britain...

By: sibhi

sibhi — Sat, 05 Nov 2005 14:18:42 +0000

being an indian, i take serious offence when people go about praising british colonialism. my country was one to suffer under the colonial government. The very existance of pakistan and the atrocities commited in punjab and other states of india are glaring examples of divide and rule which the british used against us and turned our own people against each other. on the other hand, pondicherry was an island of peace in india. when india achieved independance, the french sensing the change, offered to relinquish the colony back to india. so much for sily anglo saxon bias... it certainly doesn't convince us here!!

By: Tronzilla

Tronzilla — Thu, 08 Sep 2005 10:41:56 +0000

Every country seeks power no matter what.But different countrys seek different power.Example france wishes to be a equal counter part to the usa you need power to do that and the french dont have much influance on the world.Another example is Brittian would like power but its not going the against usa approach.The brits would rather work with americans to gain influance in the world regardless everybody wants power.I wish i had the power to be invisible.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 11 Aug 2005 07:47:33 +0000

Whatever the bad connotations surrounding Colonialism, being French, British, Portuguese, Spanish or Dutch, the thing remains that the whole world and the organisations brought in to its “orderly sustainability” is an astounding vivid legacy of colonisation as a social phenomenon. We need to live with its influences which are not restricted to the only negative aspects that we always refer to. Can we dare to advance that Tourism is one of the legacies of the Colonial system?

By: M

Thu, 07 Jul 2005 04:47:42 +0000

Long live independant Quebec!