fodders Posted August 4, 2002 Watching the Commonwealth Games hosted in my local city Manchester, I was struck by the actual number of countries in the British Commonwealth From Africa:Botswana, Cameroon, Gambia, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Mauritius, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Seychelles, Sierra Leone, South Africa, Swaziland, Uganda, United Republic of Tanzania, Zambia, Zimbabwe. From Americas:Belize, Bermuda, Canada, Falkland Islands, Guyana, St Helena From Asia:Bangladesh, Brunei, India, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Singapore, Sri Lanka Caribbean:Anguilla, Antigua and Barbuda, Bahamas, Barbados, British Virgin Islands, Cayman Islands, Dominica, Grenada, Jamaica, Montserrat, St Kitts and Nevis, St Lucia, St Vincent and the Grenadines, Trinidad & Tobago, Turks & Caicos Europe: England, Cyprus, Gibraltar, Guernsey, Isle of Man, Jersey, Malta, Northern Ireland, Scotland, Wales Oceana:Australia, Cook Islands, Fiji, Kiribati, Nauru, New Zealand, Niue, Norfolk Islands, Papua New Guinea, Samoa, Solomon Islands, Tonga, Tuvalu, Vanuatu. The British Commonwealth is massive :P 0 Share this post Link to post
Spike Posted August 4, 2002 Bloody weird when u think about it, innit? Perhaps it's because we're reminded of the fact that the British lost the USA all those years ago. We've still got plenty left over :) 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted August 4, 2002 What the Hell? I know England has a lot of control over countries like Scotland and Gibralter, and a bit of control over countries like Canada, but how much does it manipulate in a lot of those other countries? I thought India had been autonomous for the greater part of a century. 0 Share this post Link to post
pritch Posted August 4, 2002 The idea of the commonwealth isn't control anymore it's mutual progress. Anyway I hope the members vote to expel Zimbabwe. 0 Share this post Link to post
Sharessa Posted August 4, 2002 pritch said:Anyway I hope the members vote to expel Zimbabwe. Yeah, those Zimbabweians...they're always saying stuff. I remeber one time- 0 Share this post Link to post
fodders Posted August 5, 2002 Zimbabwe president Mugabe has re-ordered all white farmers to leave their farms, this is in the middle of a famine caused by his burning of white owned farms, now I hear we (ENGLAND) are sending food aid, something is wrong with this fact! 0 Share this post Link to post
Wobbo Posted August 5, 2002 the problem isnt white people, its capitalism. The farmers cant afford to just give away to the starving and poor, but they get wealthy and fat selling food to richer places while the people in the immediate area slowly die horrible deaths. African people see white people as the problem because britan enslaved the entire continent to make new markets for industrialization (imperialism). But its pointless to blame a certain race for doing what is excactly correct under an political/economic system - in this case profit motive. This is going on in other countries as well anyhow, this just showes HOW FAR of an empire britan once had 0 Share this post Link to post
gatewatcher Posted August 5, 2002 New England is way better than England. Less crowded, too. I don't know about friendlier though. Are people in England really mean? I once talked to a girl from England. Has anyone seen my tuna sandwich? I'm gonna go play some GTA3. And that's all i have to say about that... 0 Share this post Link to post
Little Faith Posted August 5, 2002 The problem with capitalism and food is that the demand for food always stays the same. It doesn't wax or wane. People always need food. There is no way to change that fact. 0 Share this post Link to post
Naked Snake Posted August 5, 2002 lament said:who cares about the commonwealth anyway? My guess is that England cares about the commonwealth. 0 Share this post Link to post
mmnpsrsoskl Posted August 5, 2002 The Commonwealth is weird...being a part of it is weird, and we are kicking arse in the medal tally :D But yeah. 0 Share this post Link to post
cph Posted August 5, 2002 Xian said: the problem isnt white people, its capitalism. The farmers cant afford to just give away to the starving and poor, but they get wealthy and fat selling food to richer places while the people in the immediate area slowly die horrible deaths. My understanding is that the problem is mostly the western world exporting too much food because we've got more advanced farming methods and over-subsidise our farming industries, putting poor 3rd world farmers out of business. Which makes Zimbabwe's response even more absurd - cutting up all their big farms into tiny subsistence farms that are far less efficient and have such a low overall output they can't even feed their own country anymore, let alone sell to anyone else. Way to shoot yourself in the foot, that. All so Mugabe can score political points by beating on whites and ranting about imperialism. 0 Share this post Link to post
cph Posted August 5, 2002 the_Danarchist said: I know England has a lot of control over countries like Scotland and Gibralter, [...] Perhaps you don't know as much as you think? Gibraltar is not a country, its a colony. An England doesn't control Scotland; England and Scotland are united to form Britain. Any clearer? 0 Share this post Link to post
fodders Posted August 5, 2002 The Welsh are gonna beat on you for forgetting them now. 0 Share this post Link to post
fraggle Posted August 5, 2002 Heh, a lot of Americans seem to be under the impression that the whole of England is under the control of the Monarchy and the Queen runs the country. There was an episode of "sliders" where they went to a parallel world where America lost the War of Independence and was run by the "Sheriff", Robin Hood style. Crazy. 0 Share this post Link to post
Spike Posted August 5, 2002 Ruled by the monarchy?? Retarded! Younger people of today would barely blink if the entire Royal family was wiped out in a heartbeat. At least then taxpayer's money wouldn't be blown by all-expenses paid trips across the world >:( 0 Share this post Link to post
gatewatcher Posted August 5, 2002 fraggle said:Heh, a lot of Americans seem to be under the impression that the whole of England is under the control of the Monarchy and the Queen runs the country. There was an episode of "sliders" where they went to a parallel world where America lost the War of Independence and was run by the "Sheriff", Robin Hood style. Crazy. there was also an episode of sliders where the US was communist, heh. If you think that England is still a monarchy, you have to be retarded. i think maybe smaller children might think it is, but that's about it. England now is a constitutional monacrchy, which means the royalty has one job, that's to open parliament. 0 Share this post Link to post
fodders Posted August 5, 2002 Spike said:Ruled by the monarchy?? Retarded! Younger people of today would barely blink if the entire Royal family was wiped out in a heartbeat. At least then taxpayer's money wouldn't be blown by all-expenses paid trips across the world >:( The Queen God bless her. /me raises a glass. 0 Share this post Link to post
læmænt Posted August 5, 2002 bigbadgangsta said:My guess is that England cares about the commonwealth. Well yeah, that's the problem. Of all commonwealth countries, only England actually cares. 0 Share this post Link to post
fodders Posted August 5, 2002 72 nations turned up in Manchester to compete, they seem to care. 0 Share this post Link to post
fraggle Posted August 5, 2002 gatewatcher said:England now is a constitutional monacrchy, which means the royalty has one job, that's to open parliament. Actually, do we even have a constitution? Edit: Apparently Not. Not a written constitution anyway. Britain is still technically "a monarchy with a democratically elected representative parliament" 0 Share this post Link to post
Wobbo Posted August 5, 2002 Little Faith said:The problem with capitalism and food is that the demand for food always stays the same. It doesn't wax or wane. People always need food. There is no way to change that fact. But it also a fact that people can grow enough food to eat food, even during famine. but your right, allowing "market forces" to interfere with the basic necessities of life is bad 0 Share this post Link to post
fodders Posted August 5, 2002 It's along the same vein that America isn't a Democracy but a Republic. 0 Share this post Link to post
cph Posted August 6, 2002 Xian said: But it also a fact that people can grow enough food to eat food, even during famine. but your right, allowing "market forces" to interfere with the basic necessities of life is bad Most of the interference is political, i.e. Mugabe's antics, African civil wars and corruption, and Western subsidies. Market forces aren't the cause here. 0 Share this post Link to post
Little Faith Posted August 6, 2002 Oh, sometimes they are. Much of the blatant corruption and inefficiency is due to reforms towards free market economy forced by the IMF due to national bankrupcy. While free market economy can function brilliantly these countries lack many factors to make this specific economic model work. The problem is worst in the agricultural sector. The majority of farms are small farmsteads supporting a family with a meagre surplus. They're not really geared towards market economy. Especially transport remains a problem. Often transport fees are larger than the income that selling the goods would generate. The whole mess is worsened manifold by the european surplus grain that floods the town markets pushing the price way down. Often buyers would rather import grain than buy it from local markets because the transport fees renders it economically infeasible. This has resulted in the fact that almost noone in the agricultural sector grows staples (grain, corn, rice et.c) contributing even more to the marginalization. The reason of Mugabes seizure policy against white farmers is pure populism. The black farmers with their small farmsteads which makes up the majority of the Zimbabwan population is full of envy against these white farmers who seems to be able to economically cope while they cannot. While the white farmers may be decent enough they do have a bit of an advantage. Coming from rich countries with plenty of resources to begin with they have been able to put up economically feasible large scale farms. This is not possible for the vast majority of black farmers who barely possess any resources beyond what is needed for food and shelter. 0 Share this post Link to post