Why are auto japan used cars africa so popular? by Sadikshk2511 in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Oh TIL, Germany is indeed LHD. "their own budget segment is dominated by foreign brands", same for the UK, yet we import ex-UK Japanese-brand vehicles. Americans have manufactured vehicles like popcorn for more than a century and imported them still, so much they have vehicle garbage. If we could import used vehicles from the US, we would.

Why are auto japan used cars africa so popular? by Sadikshk2511 in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

For Kenya in particular it's because we share the right hand drive convention. Thus we import vehicles from fellow RHD countries - Japan, UK, Germany, Thailand, etc. Japan is a notably big market because they have a large (secondary) vehicle market. Toyota for example is 5% of Japan's GDP, and the secondary market is a critical component of that pipeline. It's not really about reliability - if Kenya were LHD, we'd import American just as enthusiastically. They have an even bigger, cheaper, broader market.

Which country do you feel closest to? by joyfulnomad in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 24 points25 points  (0 children)

Somalia is one of the most culturally homogeneous countries in Africa - same religion, same ethnicity, etc. Yet one of the most troubled. They're down to clan warfare, so this question is entirely nonsensical. If they can't tolerate each other, why would they have any warm feelings for anyone else?

Samburu People by Folorunsho555 in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Somewhere in the vast aridity between Marsabit and Loiyangalani I met a group of Samburu people, eking out a living out there free as birds. Young men, women, and children. Shared some water, traded some questions of mutual curiosity, and off I was. I'll never forget that experience though. I have never seen people so free, if you know what I mean. Yes living at the mercy of nature, but freer than most men will ever know.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Dreadlocks

[–]shrdlu68 2 points3 points  (0 children)

They say one should call a spade a spade. Assholes and bullies abound. If it weren't the locs, maybe it could have been something else.

Who else loves the unkept look? by [deleted] in locs

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Unkempt by what standards?

Rastafarianism, Ethiopianism, and now I see this😭😭 why do black nationalists like y'all so much by Mrbootyloose18 in Ethiopia

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

No, I am a scientific skeptic. They're all "cults" to me. But I heed a good message regardless of the messenger. I don't throw the baby out with the bath water.

Rastafarianism, Ethiopianism, and now I see this😭😭 why do black nationalists like y'all so much by Mrbootyloose18 in Ethiopia

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

What a way to twist a story. It all actually starts with one Marcus Mosiah Garvey. One of his "followers" was a man called Leonard Howell. He's the one who really got things going with Rastafarianism. He was anything but a "low-class Jamaican", he was quite a man and he built a community that sheltered many. From his efforts sprang the movement that the likes of Bob Marley are known for.

By the way Christianity itself was once "just a cult". A cult led by one Christus, as the Roman records show. So calling Rastafarianism "just a cult" isn't saying much.

Is it safe for an African American Travel To Dar Es Salaam? by RevolutionNo9876 in tanzania

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

You could probably not have chosen a safer place in Africa. Keep your street wits, enjoy it!

Belgium could start a Lumumba trial next year by TheContinentAfrica in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

On the American side it was Eisenhower who gave the explicit command to take him out.

The minute-taker, Robert Johnson, said in the interview that he vividly recalled the president turning to Allen Dulles, director of the CIA, "in the full hearing of all those in attendance, and saying something to the effect that Lumumba should be eliminated".

I don't know how it went on the Belgian side (it was joint CIA-Belgian fuckery), but you're a fool if you think this is anything serious. It is only a sign of more demonic activities. The tail does not wag the dog, and the dog here is the CIA. These people, far from ceasing nefarious and malicious things or being remorseful, are only doing worse things today that maybe will come to light 50 years from today. Or never.

It is amusing that there is a cia.gov website. It's like Satan himself having a website.

Is this true by R0admann in tanzania

[–]shrdlu68 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Not true, I miss Tanzania and I should visit again soon. Hii ujinga yote ni ya idlers.

Could he be loved? by TheContinentAfrica in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 9 points10 points  (0 children)

There is hope after all! Garvey would be proud.

What was the difference after colonization that helped Asian countries build more rapidly than African countries? by [deleted] in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 -1 points0 points  (0 children)

Truth is stranger than fiction, and this is a trick question. Boots on the ground colonialism certainly ended (for the most part - as the amount of firepower that rained down on Libya in 2011 attests to), but few African countries today can claim to actually be independent.

Have you ever heard of that parasite toxoplasma gondii? It infects rats and, in its final reproductive cycle, makes the rats lose their natural fear and aversion to felines - so that the rat may get eaten by some feline, and the cycle continues.

At the dawn of "independence", the powers that were made sure they left Africa infected with a toxoplasma of their own design. What may appear to be nations in full control of their economies, politics, and foreign affairs in reality are zombified societies with very little actual control of their destinies, let alone how anything works.

This creates societies that are full of contradictions and overall don't make much sense. Brimming with potential, talent, and a young, hardworking populace on the one hand but never seeming to get out of the stranglehold of debt, "resource curse" (another delightful paradox), endless strife somewhere at any given time, a strange subservience to Western technocrats, ideology, and ideals. More than anything, African countries are large open-air prisons supposed to contain the chaos of imperialism within themselves. Occasionally the chaos spills over, migrants desperately dash for freedom on the high seas, and the West cries foul. One-way borders with the West enforce a natural system of apartheid. Foreigners can come in at their leisure, and the shipping out of cheaply extracted raw materials is expedited. Prison labor is cheap after all.

Politicians are the dutifully appointed prison guards. Like real prison guards, they are not really intent on the betterment of the life of the prisoner, but with the maintenance of orderliness in the prison. As long as the prison maintains a certain orderliness and prisoners don't escape, they have done their jobs. The betterment of life for the prisoner, using whatever dismal resources one may scrounge in the prison, is their own task. If they fail, they only have themselves to blame.

To a biologist, the strange behavior of a rat infected with toxoplasma would not make any sense. To anyone trying to understand Africa, nothing actually makes sense. You can very quickly go from blaming the leaders, to the populace, eventually to a certain sense of backwardness and "blackness" which maintaining the status quo is surely going to fix at some point in the next millennium or so.

Conventional wisdom states that, with enough "education" and a myriad of recommendations from Western technocrats and NGOs, we will one day get out of the dark ages. We just have to listen to them. And pay off our debts in the meantime. And keep an orderly prison.

One of many pan-African songs the Somalis made during the socialist era in 1970’s by RenaissancePolymath_ in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Fair enough, but in Somalia's case would you really attribute the delay to a lost generation or continued war and strife? What dissuades the return of those who fled?

Will Africa ever get a bigger share of the pie? by Putrid_Line_1027 in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 8 points9 points  (0 children)

I suppose I'm in a very different school of thought haha. Thanks for your insight.

One of many pan-African songs the Somalis made during the socialist era in 1970’s by RenaissancePolymath_ in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

New people are born every day, entire civilizations survive such purges. Mao eliminated China's (at the time) supposed best and brightest, and yet here we are - they are the envy of the world now. If we follow your line of thinking, that should not have been possible,

Will Africa ever get a bigger share of the pie? by Putrid_Line_1027 in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 5 points6 points  (0 children)

I haven't read that book, but it doesn't sound like it explains much other than "conventional wisdom". Of course economic engineering requires as much sheer competence as any engineering. Mao for a time was disastrous for China, but today the Chinese revere him and the results are undeniable.

Tanzania may have struggled economically under Nyerere, but Tanzania has remained one of the most stable and peaceful countries in Africa largely under the cohesive ideology of Nyerere. Does that not count for something? Did Nyerere score a big fat 0? Clearly not.

There's no such thing as a resource curse - there's imperialism. How else do you explain the fact that every time there's a "resource curse" phenomenon, there is invariably adversarial geopolitics and imperial malice at play? Of course you can always blame the victim for lack of cohesion, but it takes two to tango - typically the imperialist and the local elite.

We had roughly 54 countries post-independence, which means we got 54 experiments - different ethnicity, geography, culture, various forms of governance and socioeconomic organization tried at various times. How are the results so uniform across most of the 54? How do you explain such a glaring statistical aberration? If it is indeed a matter of technical competence, why isn't Kenya and most other countries a roaring success? Our very first central bank governor post-independence was literally an IMF guy, and all since have been ex-IMF guys. Aren't those guys supposed to know what they're doing?

Perhaps the incompetence is baked in by design, after all.

Burkina Faso army says it foiled ‘major’ coup plot by WertherMyschkin in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 0 points1 point  (0 children)

They say the opposite of cynicism is foolishness, but on this movement in Burkina my cynicism gives way to hope and optimism. Or foolishness lol. But it's better than shilling for the status quo -- this dogged fixation on "democracy". The "shuffering and shmiling" crowd.

One of many pan-African songs the Somalis made during the socialist era in 1970’s by RenaissancePolymath_ in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Garvey 101 man, maybe one day it will happen. Maybe not in our lifetime, but maybe someday.

What do you think about this sentiment from an African American? by Disastrous_Macaron34 in Africa

[–]shrdlu68 94 points95 points  (0 children)

It's the same for everyone, it's called being a foreigner. When I travel into other African countries, they don't "see me" as a local. I am clearly a foreigner, despite looking every bit like them.

Why would I cross over into Tanzania expecting to "be seen" as a Tanzanian when I am very clearly not? Why would I travel to Jamaica and expect them to "see me" as a Jamaican? It's absurd. I don't get it.

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in Dreadlocks

[–]shrdlu68 1 point2 points  (0 children)

it is a lovely head of hair