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[Mick Dempsey]

What difference is there between ‘variations’ and ‘race’ apart from making the word ‘racism’ redundant? 
 

Wouldn’t it just be replaced by ‘variationism’?

[Mark J]

28 minutes ago, Mick Dempsey said:

What difference is there between ‘variations’ and ‘race’ apart from making the word ‘racism’ redundant? 
 

Wouldn’t it just be replaced by ‘variationism’?

Good question. I suppose that race and racism are befitting descriptors.

[kevinjohnsonmbe]

That was like listening to the 3 wise men, watching the sun go down and having a chat over a beer ?

 

’Race’ and ‘discrimination’ as per the current topical debate are entirely man-made constructs. 
 

1 race = human race within which there are extreme variations of aesthetics, capacity, capability, intellect, physiology, etc, etc, etc. 
 

World would be a much calmer place if folks could live with the fact that some are better than others at different things. 
 

I don’t cry and bleat about a Gurkha being able to breath at an altitude where I couldn’t or a Maasai having a massive schlong. 
 

It’s just the way it is. 
 

All the current circumstances demonstrate to me is that multiculturalism is ultimately doomed to fail on the basis that some bastard is always going to assume the mantle of ‘the hard done by’ and it will always be somebody else’s (rather than their own) fault. 

 

 

[Khriss]

Eloquently put Kev, the his dinner is bigger than mine is from childhood and our hippocampus jumps at any slight or desire. Motivating yes but in modern civilisation a nightmare.  K

 

 

( still enjoying the pace on this thread now *tumbleweed n dust covered handbags in other corner* )

[donnk]

race is a red herring really. Culture is the driving factor.

 

Take an African out of any of the dumps in Africa at birth and raise them in any of the western countries and they do no better or worse than any white european. Colour really doesnt matter.

 

Politicans need to change cultures abroad to make them like the successful ones. Historically this used to be done by war, invading killing their leaders and replacing them.

 

Not sure how this is to be done now with failed states like pakistan. The yanks are dabbling with it by droning people.

[difflock]

55 minutes ago, donnk said:

race is a red herring really. Culture is the driving factor.

 

Take an African out of any of the dumps in Africa at birth and raise them in any of the western countries and they do no better or worse than any white european. Colour really doesnt matter.

 

Politicans need to change cultures abroad to make them like the successful ones. Historically this used to be done by war, invading killing their leaders and replacing them.

 

Not sure how this is to be done now with failed states like pakistan. The yanks are dabbling with it by droning people.

Funny enough I was earlier tempted to refer to "breeding" as being more important than race, always imagining falling in with a well-bred Nigerian lassie, at Uni fer instance, and her parents reaction to moi, when she took me home and introduced me.

"Get that white trash out of here" would be about the gist of it.

But I can find that amusing and not be offended by the underlying rationale.

[Stere]

 Western wealth  is built on offshore cheap labour and cheap natural resource extraction from rest of the world driven mostly by China nowadays.

 

Seems like having a country with alot of valuable natural resources is  often a a curse rather than an asset with bad governace.

 

Cosumerism driven wealth like the "americain surburbian dream"  can't work for whole world as there isn't enough resources for everyone to "lvl up"

 

 

 

 

 

[Khriss]

1 hour ago, Stere said:

 Western wealth  is built on offshore cheap labour and cheap natural resource extraction from rest of the world driven mostly by China nowadays.

 

Seems like having a country with alot of valuable natural resources is  often a a curse rather than an asset with bad governace.

 

Cosumerism driven wealth like the "americain surburbian dream"  can't work for whole world as there isn't enough resources for everyone to "lvl up"

 

 

 

 

 

Venezuela is a good example there.  K

[donnk]

1 hour ago, Stere said:

 Western wealth  is built on offshore cheap labour and cheap natural resource extraction from rest of the world driven mostly by China nowadays.

 

Seems like having a country with alot of valuable natural resources is  often a a curse rather than an asset with bad governace.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

saudi, kuwait, dubai etc etc dont seem to have a problem with cash. They have a problem with culture.

 

Norway on the other hand, oil rich, doesnt seem to be causing problems to the rest of the world in the same way.

[Youngstu]

7 hours ago, donnk said:

Take an African out of any of the dumps in Africa at birth and raise them in any of the western countries and they do no better or worse than any white european. Colour really doesnt matter.

This certainly should be the case all other things being equal, but the current global protests are in response to the fact that unfortunately it doesn't always work this way, as getting the same opportunities isn't always possible for people from different backgrounds for many reasons and "race" can be very influential on the opportunities available. 

 

7 hours ago, donnk said:

Politicans need to change cultures abroad to make them like the successful ones. Historically this used to be done by war, invading killing their leaders and replacing them.

 

which politicians should be doing this, those of the countries in question or politicians of "successful" countries? In recent years the attempted changing of politicians by western powers doesn't seem to have had a particularly successful outcome. Some really nasty dictators are now gone but the countries are still in chaos. 

7 hours ago, donnk said:

Not sure how this is to be done now with failed states like pakistan. The yanks are dabbling with it by droning people.

What has caused Pakistan and similar countries to be a "failed state"? If it's their culture, what has caused that culture to develop in that way? 

My thinking is that the culture of many of these countries is massively influenced by their history and for a lot of them it is a colonial history, which unfortunately involved the colonial powers taking everything they could from their colonies and transferring the resources and wealth back to Europe. Many of the countries did make some gains in term of development, but I doubt that many benefited in terms of wealth as when the colonisers went the wealth generated went with them.