Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Use this forum to discuss the December 2021 Philosophy Book of the Month, A Dream For Peace: An Ambassador Memoir by Dr.Ghoulem Berrah
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Sushan
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Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Sushan »

This topic is about the December 2021 Philosophy Book of the Month, A Dream For Peace: An Ambassador Memoir by Dr.Ghoulem Berrah



Dr.Ghoulem Berrah says,
We the people of the Third World neither feel the need, nor harbor a desire in all honesty, to switch places with the wealthy nations. We do not wish to see them become impoverished while we become rich. But the wealthy nations must understand that we refuse to let ourselves bleed to death while they sit back nonchalantly and enrich themselves on our backs.
Is this what the world feels like at the moment? Do rich countries exploit the poorer ones for their own gain? Are they the predators and the third-world countries are the prey?

Or is it a problem within these third-world countries alone? Is the corrupted local politics the reason for their remaining as poor countries forever?
“There is only one thing a philosopher can be relied upon to do, and that is to contradict other philosophers”

– William James
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by JackDaydream »

@Sushan
The power balance between the rich and poor may be complex, especially with the way in which the third world countries may be the 'prey". It may be worth asking how much suffering may it take to bring human beings to the point of seeing and experiencing compassion and being able to comprehend wider global perspectives of the human condition and life.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Ariparkhurst »

What a wonderfully accurate metaphor. If we limit each group's identity (country, state, or tribe) to that of a single organism/species, this model acts as a microcosm for globalization dating back to colonization by Europe of the "New World."

Historically, our perspective is much more honest. The brutality of that conflict is just like a hunter species feeding directly upon prey caught in its death grip. Yet over the centuries, richer nations have taken a more sustainable approach to hunting resources. Sharing and squabbling over the pool of poorer nations, rich nations seem to have domesticated them into farms instead of hunting grounds. As war has became too costly, the need to manage poorer nations has become ever more important.

Modern tools including political polarization, social media, investment banking, and corporate feudalism have created a machine-like Rhizome (the idea by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari) that governs this relationship. This strange industrial complex functions as the vehicle for rich nations to prey on poor nations. Like vampires sipping from goblets instead of ripping out their victims' throats, rich nations still take what they need. Although there is little or no overt violence, rich nations' systemically farm poor nations for their lifeblood.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Ariparkhurst »

JackDaydream wrote: December 4th, 2021, 1:23 pm @Sushan
The power balance between the rich and poor may be complex, especially with the way in which the third world countries may be the 'prey". It may be worth asking how much suffering may it take to bring human beings to the point of seeing and experiencing compassion and being able to comprehend wider global perspectives of the human condition and life.
I have asked myself this exact question for many years. How much suffering must humanity endure before we mature as a species and feel compassion and kindness to all, not just those we experience? Currently, humans don't seem capable of this perspective. Our consciousness is too limited to the ourselves. It seems clear to me that humanity can't grow up, until we perceive all others as parts of ourselves.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by LuckyR »

Sushan wrote: December 4th, 2021, 12:48 pm This topic is about the December 2021 Philosophy Book of the Month, A Dream For Peace: An Ambassador Memoir by Dr.Ghoulem Berrah



Dr.Ghoulem Berrah says,
We the people of the Third World neither feel the need, nor harbor a desire in all honesty, to switch places with the wealthy nations. We do not wish to see them become impoverished while we become rich. But the wealthy nations must understand that we refuse to let ourselves bleed to death while they sit back nonchalantly and enrich themselves on our backs.
Is this what the world feels like at the moment? Do rich countries exploit the poorer ones for their own gain? Are they the predators and the third-world countries are the prey?

Or is it a problem within these third-world countries alone? Is the corrupted local politics the reason for their remaining as poor countries forever?
No doubt the powerful exercise that power on the weak, expressly to increase their power differential.

As to why are weak countries weak, the majority of the answer is geographic chance, historically. There are other contributors but cumulatively they are minor in comparison.
"As usual... it depends."
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Sy Borg »

As observed in the relationship between horse and rider by Douglas Adams in Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency:

“It is difficult to be sat on all day, every day, by some other creature, without forming an opinion on them.

On the other hand, it is perfectly possible to sit all day, every day, on top of another creature and not have the slightest thought about them whatsoever”.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Sculptor1 »

This is so obviously true. And China is now managing to step in to exploit the West's total mismanagement and disregard for the welfare of the poor countries they have exploited.
Laos
What has Laos ever got from the west? They received the largest dropping of bombs on a single country in history in an undecalred war from the USA. Since then the USA has patted itself in the back for its paltry theatrical efforts to clean up the UXB. But since more bombs were dropped on Laos, many designed to remain unexploded, than Germany recieve in WW2 the bombs continue to kill and maim 50 years later.
What has Laos got from China? Hospitals and an electrified rail link
Barbados
The newly elected PM of Barbados has recieved flack for becoming a "pawn" of CHina. Yet under British "protection" it has not received the help it needs, being deficient in coastal patrol, schools and many other facsilities.
Bardados has given the Queen the scak and become a republic. CHina has provided a Arts and CUltural Centre, and a new road that Bardados was in dire need of. 2 Rechargable buses, a srudent exchange programme and much more besides.

Africa.
China is widely investing in several infrstructure projects in Western neglected countries, and is doing so in ways that make it look good compared to the more exploitative and ecologically damaging ways in the west. Cases are far too numerous and though the investment is not great in monetary terms it has the potential to gain far more kudos.
The west tends to exploit and destory then they send in th AID workers to mop up the damage. China seem to be builders, not wreckers. They tend to build up counturies with a view to making markets in the future. The west is short term.

At the moment the west is demonising China for its "tentacles", ramping up a new cold war. But poor they are loosing the battle with poor countries and are going to be left behind.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Belindi »

Ariparkhurst wrote: December 4th, 2021, 3:00 pm What a wonderfully accurate metaphor. If we limit each group's identity (country, state, or tribe) to that of a single organism/species, this model acts as a microcosm for globalization dating back to colonization by Europe of the "New World."

Historically, our perspective is much more honest. The brutality of that conflict is just like a hunter species feeding directly upon prey caught in its death grip. Yet over the centuries, richer nations have taken a more sustainable approach to hunting resources. Sharing and squabbling over the pool of poorer nations, rich nations seem to have domesticated them into farms instead of hunting grounds. As war has became too costly, the need to manage poorer nations has become ever more important.

Modern tools including political polarization, social media, investment banking, and corporate feudalism have created a machine-like Rhizome (the idea by Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari) that governs this relationship. This strange industrial complex functions as the vehicle for rich nations to prey on poor nations. Like vampires sipping from goblets instead of ripping out their victims' throats, rich nations still take what they need. Although there is little or no overt violence, rich nations' systemically farm poor nations for their lifeblood.
Read and understand the above post , and learn.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Belindi »

LuckyR wrote: December 5th, 2021, 2:38 am
Sushan wrote: December 4th, 2021, 12:48 pm This topic is about the December 2021 Philosophy Book of the Month, A Dream For Peace: An Ambassador Memoir by Dr.Ghoulem Berrah



Dr.Ghoulem Berrah says,
We the people of the Third World neither feel the need, nor harbor a desire in all honesty, to switch places with the wealthy nations. We do not wish to see them become impoverished while we become rich. But the wealthy nations must understand that we refuse to let ourselves bleed to death while they sit back nonchalantly and enrich themselves on our backs.
Is this what the world feels like at the moment? Do rich countries exploit the poorer ones for their own gain? Are they the predators and the third-world countries are the prey?

Or is it a problem within these third-world countries alone? Is the corrupted local politics the reason for their remaining as poor countries forever?
No doubt the powerful exercise that power on the weak, expressly to increase their power differential.

As to why are weak countries weak, the majority of the answer is geographic chance, historically. There are other contributors but cumulatively they are minor in comparison.
"Geographic chance" is undeniable. The natural resources of Africa and the Amazon can't be denied. The Highlands of Scotland are good for grazing sheep is a geographical fact. Individuals' will to power can't be denied.

A lot of people have learned from the pandemic that men live in one world but apart from The United Nations Organisation politicians are slow or unwillling to recognise one world and continue tribal.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by GE Morton »

Sushan wrote: December 4th, 2021, 12:48 pm
Is this what the world feels like at the moment? Do rich countries exploit the poorer ones for their own gain? Are they the predators and the third-world countries are the prey?

Or is it a problem within these third-world countries alone? Is the corrupted local politics the reason for their remaining as poor countries forever?
Wrong questions. The first question you need to ask is why some countries are poor, and some rich, to begin with. Today's poor countries were poor long before Europeans arrived on the scene. Most of them are somewhat less poor today. And keep in mind that ALL countries were poor at some point.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Pattern-chaser »

Sushan wrote: December 4th, 2021, 12:48 pm Do rich countries exploit the poorer ones for their own gain?
Apparently so, although, to me, it isn't so much "rich countries" as Capitalist countries and other commercial Capitalist entities. We need only consider the many countries in poorer areas of the world that are mired in debt traps from which they cannot escape. Often, these 'debts' are owed to former colonial empires, that might even have caused the need for those debts by their imperial occupations.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by Sculptor1 »

GE Morton wrote: December 5th, 2021, 12:12 pm
Sushan wrote: December 4th, 2021, 12:48 pm
Is this what the world feels like at the moment? Do rich countries exploit the poorer ones for their own gain? Are they the predators and the third-world countries are the prey?

Or is it a problem within these third-world countries alone? Is the corrupted local politics the reason for their remaining as poor countries forever?
Wrong questions. The first question you need to ask is why some countries are poor, and some rich, to begin with. Today's poor countries were poor long before Europeans arrived on the scene. Most of them are somewhat less poor today. And keep in mind that ALL countries were poor at some point.
Most countries were doing fine before the white man came with his guns, and enslaved them, brought them disease. IN fact they were so rich they did not even need an economic system.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by GE Morton »

Pattern-chaser wrote: December 5th, 2021, 12:16 pm
Apparently so, although, to me, it isn't so much "rich countries" as Capitalist countries and other commercial Capitalist entities.
Rich countries and "capitalist" countries are one and the same. There are no rich, non-"capitalist" countries.
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by GE Morton »

Sculptor1 wrote: December 5th, 2021, 12:18 pm
Most countries were doing fins before the white man came with his guns, and enslaved them, brought them disease.
I suppose that depends upon what you consider "fine." If you mean regular famines, constant inter-tribal warfare, high childbirth and infant mortality, regular outbreaks of malaria, cholera, typhoid, sleeping sickness, and other diseases, and an average lifespan of ~ 30, I suppose you're right. As for slavery, African and North American tribes were enslaving each other long before Europeans entered the game.

https://ldhi.library.cofc.edu/exhibits/ ... eforetrade
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Re: Rich countries are the Predators and Poor countries are the Prey, Do you agree?

Post by LuckyR »

GE Morton wrote: December 5th, 2021, 12:12 pm
Sushan wrote: December 4th, 2021, 12:48 pm
Is this what the world feels like at the moment? Do rich countries exploit the poorer ones for their own gain? Are they the predators and the third-world countries are the prey?

Or is it a problem within these third-world countries alone? Is the corrupted local politics the reason for their remaining as poor countries forever?
Wrong questions. The first question you need to ask is why some countries are poor, and some rich, to begin with. Today's poor countries were poor long before Europeans arrived on the scene. Most of them are somewhat less poor today. And keep in mind that ALL countries were poor at some point.
Exactly. This ancient differential is what I referred to as geographic chance.
"As usual... it depends."
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