French Cuisine, Ivory Coast Style

[roo_ster]

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE73A01F20110411?sp=true

Since the French have given the old tyrant over to the new tyrants fine specimens of democratic liberality and civic virtue, I wonder if they'll do as Liberia's then-new cannibal-in-chief personification of anti-colonial triumph did with Liberia's previous leader: hack off his genitalia and eat them raw.

Or, will they feel obliged to tip their hats to French haute cuisine and make the effort to sauté them up in a cream sauce and serve them with a side of asparagus & almonds?

[makattak]

Nothing like allowing a bunch of illegal immigrants to overwhelm the voting so they can subjugate the existing population. Of course, it was UN sanctioned, so I'm sure there was nothing untoward in the voting.

Oh, wait, but the immigrants are muslim and the subjugated population is Christian. Never mind! Move along, nothing to see here!

[MicroBalrog]

And if they do, do we care? He is a tyrant. Tyrants are not human beings. Kill them, roast them, I don't care at all.

[MicroBalrog]

Fact: Ouattara's RDR party is a member of the Liberal International (that's classical liberal).

[cambeul41]

Fact: Ouattara's RDR party is a member of the Liberal International (that's classical liberal).

"Classical Liberal" as similar to Libertarian?

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Classical_liberalism

[MicroBalrog]

Yes, but a sadly far more moderate version.

This is the organization the RdR is a member of:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberal_International

[seeker_two]

African tyrants being arrested by the French is a lot like Boss Hogg being arrested by Roscoe P. Coltrane.....  

[Perd Hapley]

And if they do, do we care? He is a tyrant. Tyrants are not human beings. Kill them, roast them, I don't care at all.

[Scratches head.]

[roo_ster]

African tyrants being arrested by the French is a lot like Boss Hogg being arrested by Roscoe P. Coltrane.....  

Does that make the USA Cooter?  I think I'd rather be Flash.

[Scratches head.]

Yeah, me too.

[Lee]

The arrest of Gbagbo and the lifting of European Union sanctions on the two main ports in the world's top cocoa-producing nation mean cocoa exports may be possible by next week. Cocoa prices, which had earlier risen sharply on reports of fighting, fell back when Gbagbo's arrest was announced.

There ya go.  There had to be some reason for a European country to commit troops.  Don't mess with oil or chocolate supplies.

[MicroBalrog]

Tyrant overthrown by help of French troops and liberally-minded armed citizenry. Film at 11.

[MicroBalrog]

http://af.reuters.com/article/topNews/idAFJOE73A01F20110411?sp=true

Since the French have given the old tyrant over to the new tyrants fine specimens of democratic liberality and civic virtue, I wonder if they'll do as Liberia's then-new cannibal-in-chief personification of anti-colonial triumph did with Liberia's previous leader: hack off his genitalia and eat them raw.

Or, will they feel obliged to tip their hats to French haute cuisine and make the effort to sauté them up in a cream sauce and serve them with a side of asparagus & almonds?

Sadly, this did not turn out to be the case.

He will likely not even swing.

[MicroBalrog]

Meanwhile, he was extradited to the ICC custody.

[MicroBalrog]

The tyranny Roo_Ster has predicted seems to have failed to materialize. The economy grew 9.8% in 2012, a fair election transpired in 2011, the country improved its economic freedom score.

Where is the mass-cannibalism we were promised?

[roo_ster]

It helps when their 4billion dollar debt to the imf is forgiven and first world taxpayers foot the bill.  Also when sanctions are lifted off their imports and they can again sell what they produce.

When can we expect microbalrog to repatriate to the ivory coast to partake in the flowering of liberty and prosperity? 

Given africas track record i would not bet against horror atrocity and degradation.

[MicroBalrog]

It helps when their 4billion dollar debt to the imf is forgiven and first world taxpayers foot the bill.  Also when sanctions are lifted off their imports and they can again sell what they produce.

When can we expect microbalrog to repatriate to the ivory coast to partake in the flowering of liberty and prosperity? 

Given africas track record i would not bet against horror atrocity and degradation.

You have, in this case, bet on atrocity and degradation.

Mind, I stick by my original opinion, that had the Ivorians (Ivorese?) eaten their tyrant, they would be fully justified.

[MicroBalrog]

It helps when their 4billion dollar debt to the imf is forgiven and first world taxpayers foot the bill.  Also when sanctions are lifted off their imports and they can again sell what they produce.

When can we expect microbalrog to repatriate to the ivory coast to partake in the flowering of liberty and prosperity? 

Given africas track record i would not bet against horror atrocity and degradation.

Of course, Economists disagree.

[roo_ster]

Of course, Economists disagree.

About the only way Africa could get decent growth would be as colonies of greater powers whose main aim is natural resource extraction.  Oh, sure, you will see "growth" when local conflicts cool for a while, but that is merely the resumption of previous subsistence agriculture.  The talk in the article about an untapped market in Africa for financial services, IT, etc. is indication of heavy drug use or someone already invested in Africa who wants to hand off the bag of shinola to the next guy.

As in other developing regions, many Western companies, like their modern-day Chinese counterparts, originally set up in Africa to exploit the continent’s abundant natural resources. Now however, a growing number including those in the financial services industry, manufacturing and communications and IT are recognizing that the African market itself – particularly the consumer market – represents a largely untapped opportunity.

White Man's Burden, Yellow Man's Burden, same-same.  The West is still carrying Africa by making it "loans" that are never repaid by their recipients, but by western taxpayers.  Don't expect the Chinese to be as solicitous of the native's welfare as the Euros were.  Or as forgiving when the loans come due (unless the loans are merely bribes to the local tyrant).

http://legacy.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/kipling.asp

[MicroBalrog]

The talk in the article about an untapped market in Africa for financial services, IT, etc. is indication of heavy drug use

I have actual experience of working with the African IT market so I'll have to disagree.

[MicroBalrog]

P.S. Of course, the fact that Kipling wrote it doesn't make it true. The West has done more harm to India, for instance, than good. The UK dismantled, for instance, US-owned railroad companies that existed in India specifically because they were training locals in industrial skills, and later had policies that reduced the availability of industrial skills to Indians - the reverse of what Kipling imagined they were doing.

It's useful to read Herbert Spencer's exposition of how the colonial system was harming both the colonies and the metropoly in the long term.

[roo_ster]

Yeah, I'd think twice before investing in Africa.  Unless, perhaps, I had the PRC's PLA on speed-dial to extract my principal.

But go on ahead.  Tell us how it works out for you.

Take a gander at this:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_countries_by_GDP_%28nominal%29_per_capita#mediaviewer/File:BNPperhoofd2013.png

The three sub-saharan african countries with even Mexico-level GDP per capita are those with extractive economies that focus on gemstones or oil.  And those revenues do not get spread around.  S Africa & Botswana: gemstones; Gabon: oil.  The rest don't have a pot to piss in, let alone the need for financial services. 

You might as well pitch IT and financial services for Afghanistan and Haiti. 

The only place that danged poor with serious potential is N Korea.  If/when the Norks get rid of their lunatic tyrants, expect to see some gangbuster progress.

[MicroBalrog]

It worked out for me awesomely, as I've actually worked for a company that invested in Africa.

We know Africa is poor, the question is whether it is growing or not.

[AJ Dual]

Africa is a huge continent which is roughly the size of the U.S., China, Mexico, Europe, and Japan combined. There's a bunch of different countries with a wide variety of cultures and political realities.

http://static02.mediaite.com/geekosystem/uploads/2010/10/true-size-of-africa.jpg

Not all of them are basket cases.

[agricola]

P.S. Of course, the fact that Kipling wrote it doesn't make it true. The West has done more harm to India, for instance, than good. The UK dismantled, for instance, US-owned railroad companies that existed in India specifically because they were training locals in industrial skills, and later had policies that reduced the availability of industrial skills to Indians - the reverse of what Kipling imagined they were doing.

It's useful to read Herbert Spencer's exposition of how the colonial system was harming both the colonies and the metropoly in the long term.

That is nonsense though.  For a start, India's railways were built at the encouragement of and with investment by the British government.  Secondly there were Indians and (especially) Anglo-Indians involved at all levels (indeed it was two Indian merchants who first suggested building a railway network) but especially and increasingly at the bottom and middle where industrial skills were obtained and spread across a lot of Indian society. 

That there were policies later on which attacked Indians on the basis of their race and which harmed the economic development of the Raj is of course true, albeit they were imposed by a group of people who had contributed nothing (well, nothing apart from collecting money from the EIC in return for their investment) to establishing and protecting British rule up to that point and who did not know how to run the country as anything other than something to be exploited. 

[Hawkmoon]

I have actual experience of working with the African IT market so I'll have to disagree.

The African IT market?

So we have you to blame for all the Nigerian scam e-mails?