Crosswords2 mins ago
This Is Much Serious Than Bongo Bongo Land, Don't You Agree?
74 Answers
While they try and lead us down the path of offensive words, this is what the real and much more serious problem is, that they try to avert our eyes from.
http://
/// Last night a spokesman for the Department for International Development said spending aid money in Nigeria would help cut crime and illegal immigration in Britain. ///
And how does he think that?
http://
/// Last night a spokesman for the Department for International Development said spending aid money in Nigeria would help cut crime and illegal immigration in Britain. ///
And how does he think that?
Answers
SP, he wasn’t referring to Africa per se. He was referring to corrupt regimes in Third World countries. Whilst I agree that politicians should be guarded in what they say, frankly as far as corrupt administrati
12:08 Fri 09th Aug 2013
FredPuli43
/// Not generally no, Naomi. Nothing to do with feeling I belong to a superior race or country though. ///
So lets get this right Fred, don't you really think that you belong to a much superior country than some others on this planet, who are far behind us both technically and culturally ie standard of living?
/// Not generally no, Naomi. Nothing to do with feeling I belong to a superior race or country though. ///
So lets get this right Fred, don't you really think that you belong to a much superior country than some others on this planet, who are far behind us both technically and culturally ie standard of living?
AOG
What does 'much superior country' mean?
Countries are geographical locations. No country is superior to another in terms of intellect or advancement. Mineral deposits, perhaps but I don't understand what you mean when you say that a country could be superior to another.
Are you referring to the people who live in the aforementioned countries.
What does 'much superior country' mean?
Countries are geographical locations. No country is superior to another in terms of intellect or advancement. Mineral deposits, perhaps but I don't understand what you mean when you say that a country could be superior to another.
Are you referring to the people who live in the aforementioned countries.
some countries and their people have not had some of the advantages we have had, so in terms one can say that some more developed countries are in a better socio/economic situation than others. Whilst we see ourselves as modern, democratic and have free elections, some countries, peoples it's not like that.
sp1814
/// Countries are geographical locations. No country is superior to another in terms of intellect or advancement. Mineral deposits, perhaps but I don't understand what you mean when you say that a country could be superior to another. ///
I am not sure what you are trying to get me to say, but you are wrong if you think all people in all countries are equal in terms of intellect or advancement, just as one could say that the vast majority of the students at Oxford, Cambridge, Eton collages etc, are more superior in academic studies that the average pupil in a state school.
Or that the majority of black athletes are more superior in their sporting achievements that white athletes, or that white swimmers are more superior than black ones etc, etc.
And don't you, yourself class yourself more superior than a paedophile, or a serial killer perhaps?
/// Countries are geographical locations. No country is superior to another in terms of intellect or advancement. Mineral deposits, perhaps but I don't understand what you mean when you say that a country could be superior to another. ///
I am not sure what you are trying to get me to say, but you are wrong if you think all people in all countries are equal in terms of intellect or advancement, just as one could say that the vast majority of the students at Oxford, Cambridge, Eton collages etc, are more superior in academic studies that the average pupil in a state school.
Or that the majority of black athletes are more superior in their sporting achievements that white athletes, or that white swimmers are more superior than black ones etc, etc.
And don't you, yourself class yourself more superior than a paedophile, or a serial killer perhaps?
It comes from a thread in R&S, Emmie. I'd mentioned paedophilia in a post and Khandro replied quoting Godwin's Law ( "the first one to bring up Hitler in a debate is losing the argument" [my paraphrase]) as proof of my disputational inadequacies. Another correspondent labelled this twist on the delightfully named Godwin's Law as "Khandro's Corollary".
No AOG, I don't think myself , or my race, superior in any way from any other. You evidently do think so, from the curious examples you give. Given the right circumstances, any race would produce an Einstein or an Artur Rubinstein. What do you think went wrong with the people of Egypt? One moment they were producing architecture and art superior to ours, the next they weren't. Did they degenerate racially, genetically ? Or did circumstances deny them?
Yes, Naomi, it is about corrupt regimes. The side issue is why someone who uses an expression long regarded as referring to black Africans, and not in a particularly complimentary way, has defenders who say that the expression has suddenly become a term of art meaning "corrupt leaders of countries that receive our aid" ! Methinks such people would have difficulty getting that answer past the Interpretation Acts.
@FredPuli43
//Unfortunately, Naomi, when he said Bongo Bongo land, the one thing he hadn't in mind was shorthand for 'corrupt regimes in third world countries'. It would been self-explanatory without more, and he could have stopped there. What he had in mind was a, perhaps jocular, description of people who , en masse, he regarded as inferior and who, as he explained, also had leaders who misspent the money. Such an expression would play well with his audience. It doesn't play quite so well elsewhere. //
And there's the -really- worrying thing. He *was* (IMHO) just being a politician and playing to his audience. If he's guilty of anything, it's guilt for using terminology which all those in his audience -didn't need explaining to them-.
When interviewed, he goes on to say that "I said what a lot of people already think".
Naturally, we then take offence that he thinks anyone outside of the room in which the speech was videotaped could even think like that.
For me to claim 'I know what he meant', it's only because of past useage by the likes of 'Phil, the Greek' and Boris, as mentioned earlier in this thread and the lampoonery which inevitably follows.
Meanwhile, are we really saying that Foreign Aid is basically like sucking up to various countries because of oil/mineral wealth?
p.s.
Space program expensidure is justifieable if it's about putting satellites up that can assist them with irrigation plans, where to deploy fertilisers, where soil quality suits some crops and not others, guidance for hi-tech tractors and so on. All technological advances that help, you know, actually feed people and so on.
If it's only about weapons delivery systems, then stuff 'em.
//Unfortunately, Naomi, when he said Bongo Bongo land, the one thing he hadn't in mind was shorthand for 'corrupt regimes in third world countries'. It would been self-explanatory without more, and he could have stopped there. What he had in mind was a, perhaps jocular, description of people who , en masse, he regarded as inferior and who, as he explained, also had leaders who misspent the money. Such an expression would play well with his audience. It doesn't play quite so well elsewhere. //
And there's the -really- worrying thing. He *was* (IMHO) just being a politician and playing to his audience. If he's guilty of anything, it's guilt for using terminology which all those in his audience -didn't need explaining to them-.
When interviewed, he goes on to say that "I said what a lot of people already think".
Naturally, we then take offence that he thinks anyone outside of the room in which the speech was videotaped could even think like that.
For me to claim 'I know what he meant', it's only because of past useage by the likes of 'Phil, the Greek' and Boris, as mentioned earlier in this thread and the lampoonery which inevitably follows.
Meanwhile, are we really saying that Foreign Aid is basically like sucking up to various countries because of oil/mineral wealth?
p.s.
Space program expensidure is justifieable if it's about putting satellites up that can assist them with irrigation plans, where to deploy fertilisers, where soil quality suits some crops and not others, guidance for hi-tech tractors and so on. All technological advances that help, you know, actually feed people and so on.
If it's only about weapons delivery systems, then stuff 'em.
AOG
Superior is contextual.
You can judge superiority a number of ways. America is the richest, most powerful country in the world, but does that make it superior to the UK? How do you judge superiority objectively?
By income? Standard of living? Technological achievements? Political stability? Or do you judge it by the contentment and happiness of the population?
The term 'superior country' is woolly and vague. And difficult to properly define.
Superior is contextual.
You can judge superiority a number of ways. America is the richest, most powerful country in the world, but does that make it superior to the UK? How do you judge superiority objectively?
By income? Standard of living? Technological achievements? Political stability? Or do you judge it by the contentment and happiness of the population?
The term 'superior country' is woolly and vague. And difficult to properly define.
Doesn't need "properly define", sp. It's like 'nation'. You can't define that beyond "a group of people who think of, see, themselves, as a nation". Superior here means "I think I, and/or my people, are better than them"
AOG has ventured into that dangerous territory. People at Oxbridge are superior to the rest, well, some of the rest, of us, he thinks (I hope I do him justice). Reading Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard, might give him and us pause for thought, Gray writes of "Some village Hampden with dauntless breast" taking up against "the little tyrant" of his village, of "Some mute, inglorious Milton" who was unheralded, and "Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood" . All might be buried in that small plot. But as Gray says "Their lot forbad". We only know of what is achieved, and by whom. We never know of what could have been, and by whom, but for circumstance whether here or in any other place and time. And that is as true of the world as it is of one village.
AOG has ventured into that dangerous territory. People at Oxbridge are superior to the rest, well, some of the rest, of us, he thinks (I hope I do him justice). Reading Gray's Elegy in a Country Churchyard, might give him and us pause for thought, Gray writes of "Some village Hampden with dauntless breast" taking up against "the little tyrant" of his village, of "Some mute, inglorious Milton" who was unheralded, and "Some Cromwell, guiltless of his country's blood" . All might be buried in that small plot. But as Gray says "Their lot forbad". We only know of what is achieved, and by whom. We never know of what could have been, and by whom, but for circumstance whether here or in any other place and time. And that is as true of the world as it is of one village.
Fred, Very philosophic I’m sure - but see the word ‘land’ there? That’s the operative word - and it wasn’t put there five seconds before he said it. It’s always been there. Had he spoken of people from Bongo Bongo Land, your criticism, and your philosophic rambling would have been justified – but he didn’t. You are condemning the man for quite rightly criticising corrupt regimes and our continuing financial support of them. And actually I too think this country is superior to those he’s referring to. I’d rather live here than under Mr Mugabe’s rule – but perhaps you wouldn’t.
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