Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Pastimes : The New Qualcomm - write what you like thread. -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Neeka who wrote (4607)	5/5/2002 8:47:58 PM
From: pheilman_	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 12231

This is right up the lines of a great book: Guns, Germs and Steel. Turns out the Eurasians were advantaged in any encounter due to their close cohabitation with farm animals. The people originally in the Americas and Africa had no resistance to the microbes thus generated. And were wiped out, not by Cortez, but by his illnesses. Seems rather like we were just the vectors for the microbes. Paul

To: Neeka who wrote (4607)	5/5/2002 9:16:05 PM
From: Maurice Winn	Respond to of 12231

M, that website is wrong. 1769 wasn't the year British rule of New Zealand began. It was 1840 when the Maoris agreed to British sovereignty in exchange for becoming British subjects with full British rights, the same as everyone else. They also were guaranteed their property and other than some exceptions where land was taken by the government under the Public Works Act and War Measures Act, the deal worked out fine for Maoris. Land has been returned in recent decades as recognition that Maoris have special rights which other New Zealanders don't has been recognized by courts. The non-Maori are second class citizens in New Zealand - apartheid didn't work in other places and it won't work here. The British diseases were mass killers and there was a large Maori population decline in the 19th century. Some tribes swapped land for muskets which they used to get more land [Hongi Hika being a genocide artist]. That helped the population decline. Today, the British lifestyle of bulk consumption of sugar, booze, cigarettes, fast food and similar damaging behaviour continues to mean seriously reduced life expectancies for Maoris who choose that way of life. There wasn't conquest of tribes and land as a rule. Mostly, Maoris used the British to defeat other tribes, just as the Kuwaitis and Israelis use Americans or their weapons to defeat competing tribes today. The USA has replaced the British as global hegemon, with troops in Japan, Korea and all over the place, with local tribes angling to get the USA on their side. It's the same old story. It doesn't mean the USA is bad. The locals like to have them help with people or weaponry. Taiwan would feel very vulnerable without American support. I think there's a mistaken American belief that the British stomped around the world subjugating a huge part of the world by brute force and mass murder. In fact, they mostly used rat bait and support of a group in internecine conflict. A better life appeals to people. I think the mistaken American belief stems from childhood propaganda about the evil British, Paul Revere, Boston's Tea Party, Irish conflict with the English and the war of independence. Now, the USA is doing a good imitation of the British - I've taken the bait, hook, line and sinker! I'm a modern Maori. Before and during the 19th century, the world ran by conquest. Even during the 20th century, conquest was the main method of deciding who was boss. Even now, in the 21st century, the number of people supporting rule of law is near zero. They are okay with it in their own tribal nation-states, but don't like the idea of it on a global scale, preferring anarchy and military success as the arbiter of what the law is. Very ugly and not a lot of fun for the victims, but that's what most people want. On righting the wrongs of the 19th century by giving money to some alleged descendants, that's absurd. They are not identifiable. Paying melanin-rich Americans because hundreds of years ago some of their ancestors were lucky enough to be taken as slaves out of the nightmare of African enslavement is absurd too. Mqurice