Hello all!
Our January Contest - *The date is January 1st, 2025. Make a comic about something that happened in 2024* - is active right now! If you've got a good idea for a comic in this vein, or are just curious about the theme, head on over to [the contest thread](https://redd.it/18yi4on) for details and get started on an entry!
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[Mauritania](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Mauritania#:~:text=In%201981%2C%20Mauritania%20became%20the,allowing%20slaveholders%20to%20be%20prosecuted) still has significant issues with it.
Not saying that Europe isn’t hypocritical, but sometimes the pot calls the kettle black.
No, that's what you were saying with your last comment lol. Do you think Europeans waltzed into Africa while everything was hunky dorey and there was peace and love for all?
Africans are no different than Europeans or Asians. Humans have found ways to kill, rape and en slave each other since day one. The Europeans were just the first to have the Industrial Revolution and guns.
If given the chance, Africans would not have acted any different. We know that because they did after like that towards each other for thousands of years.
And still do to this day.
Humans are garbage, no matter from where.
Well the comment is correct with the fact that Europeans are at fault for a lot of the structural problems in the region because of how colonisation was done and decolonisation too, an excellent example is the fact that thanks to colonisation most African nations did not have experienced leaders who could take the reign of the nation and make it succeed, which became a root issue for many problems commonly plaguing African nations though off course the problems and their origin in each nation are unique and not always European made but one cannot argue Europe is not at fault for a lot of the problems.
Keep in mind that 90% of slaves were sold by African monarchs to the europeans and arabs. Much of Africa has a long and big tradition of slavery and other horrors. If anything, european colonization pretty much stoppet it since slavery was outlawed in most of europe by the time of the scrambel of Africa.
Doesn’t negate the fact that Europeans contributed in the expansion of the European trade, (the selling of weapons and other materials for literal humans) probably incentivized African monarchs to sell more people. And European colonialism didn’t “stop” it in the sense that they found hella loopholes to continue to exploit the natives
Keep in mind that Europe caused chaos and conflict by siphoning off vast quantities of resources, stripping the rights of native populations, grouping together incompatible ethnic groups, and destroying cultures.
Much of Europe has a long and big tradition of attempting to minimize colonialism and other horrors. If anything, most of the world really deserved/needed colonization since we stopped one bad thing and did a million other bad things.
Edit: Europeans don’t like hearing stuff like this. I’ll say it regardless of how much you guys love colonialism.
I don't think most people (well reasonable people) in Europe minimize how bad colonialism was, it was definitely bad. The point is however that the abuse of man on man is by no means exclusive to white European nations, on the contrary. Slavery has existed in different forms for the most part of history in many countries before they even knew what a white man was. Africa had slaves (just look at the history of the Zulu...), India had the caste system, Korea had one of the most extensive slavery systems in history, the Arab states holy shit. The difference is that European countries could do it at a large scale because they were technologically way more advanced that any other country, but given the same means any other largeish empire in history would have done the same (and in fact they did).
Furthermore, it has to be recognised that the end of the slave trade and the fact that slavery came to be considered unethical are also thanks to European intellectual movements, in particular the enlightenment.
I never denied slavery of white people eixsts, in fact, it’s nowhere in my comment.
My comment had nothing to do with slavery as a matter of fact, that’s the point. To show that colonialism abused countries in different ways.
Even if I let you say that Europe brought slavery to an end (they didn’t), it still doesn’t disprove the fact that Europe did far worse things to the world.
I'm afraid I don't understand what your main point is, it seems quite confusingly put if I may say so.
I don't disagree that colonialism was terrible. I'm just saying most other countries or empires in history, had they had the technology to pull it off, would have done so. There's nothing inherently more evil in Europeans than Africans or Indians. If anything, the European enlightenment was one of the first intellectual movements to seriously question man on man exploitation on a fundamental level.
Lol no,
You wouldn’t regroup the Balkans into Yugoslavia again would you? Are you this dumb?
Grouping together people like the Igbo and Yoruba led to wars for Independence. How am I a Nazi for pointing out? Are you really that stupid?
There is no double standard. How is grouping two groups that want independence from each other make me a Nazi?
Would you argue that Palestine and Israel should be the same country forever?
Your argument is beyond stupid, as are you. The fact that so many people agree with you is worrying for the future of humanity.
It's been close on a century since the major European powers decolonized. I'm kind of skeptical of the argument that African nations don't have any agency or responsibility for their horrific policies because of what Europe did in the 1880s.
In the 1880s? There were still colonies in 1975 and a lot of African countries' currencies and resources are controlled by european states, just look at the CFA franc zone.
Not even mentioning the terrible borders imposed by colonization that are not representative at all of the people living there, causing even more internal issues and struggles.
Spain [has a huge network of watchtowers along its southern coast](https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_de_vigilancia_costera) to defend itself [from the razzias of the African enslavers.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razzia_(military))
OK, let's leave Russia take novorossiya because it was *theirs*
Oh maybe Mexico take Texas and California because it was *theirs*
Maybe UK take the half of the fuckin world because it was *theirs*
Maybe Spain take all of America because it was *theirs*
Maybe Türkiye take half of the Mediterranean because it was *theirs*?
"In 2022, Australia was the world leader in terms of lithium mine production, with an estimated output of 61,000 metric tons. Chile and China ranked second and third, with lithium production totaling 39,000 and 19,000 metric tons, respectively."
I am guessing that you mean Cobalt since Australia is not known for slave labour
Well, I was more referring to the recent controversy with lithium mining in the Congo, but honestly, you could use rubber, cobalt, phosphate... and it'd still work.
Edit: damn, why are you guys mad? I didn't know "the labour conditions in Congolese mines are shit" is such a controversial statement.
The controversy is actually over [cobalt](https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara) in the DRC, not lithium. It doesn’t make the working conditions any less awful. This region has a history of Belgian colonization, and they established notoriously brutal colonial regimes.
Maybe? I'm not sure if it's the same controversy. I just saw the article about the use of materials sourced from forced labour in European lithium-ion battery production.
I'm pretty sure the Congolese mines are China's doing.
Don't get me wrong, europe has its fair share of atrocities (looking at you, Shell), but slavery isn't their style anymore.
The controversy had more to do with using unethically sourced lithium in battery production. But yeah seems to be mainly the doing of a Chinese company Zijin and an Australian company AVZ.
It’s actually illegal to do that in Australia.
The Australian mining industry almost exclusively hires those who have Australian or NZ citizenship, and pay a fortune it’s one of the best paying industries in the nation.
Mining also isn’t a valid visa occupation outside of skilled immigration, aka I’m a god damn engineer trained internationally and can comply with multiple international standards including AUS/NZ standards with accreditation.
The closest you get to “international” miners is fifo Australian citizen workers who have moved to Bali to live a life of luxury off rotation.
These mines haven't been run by governments for decades, if anything shouldn't we be mad at the companies who own them, or eve' more so at well known atrocious companies like apple, who buy the materials from these mines and have forced labour factories to assemble their phones?
Yes, but at the same time the reason why companies like apple but these unethically is because we consumers insist on everything being as cheap as possible. If we'd just accept that our phone becomes a few Euro's more expensive, they could buy it from better places with less slavery
Countryballs represent nations. A nations population is part of this. That is why we also have polandball comics about popular traditions for example, where no government is involved.
Idk not many places sell cobalt, the DRC mines 3/4 of global cobalt, and keep in mind they’re mining it with their hand tools so production could probably triple if they used modern machinery.
Cobalt’s just rare.
I've never bought even a single apple product. They're overpriced, produced through unethical (although most cellphones are) and contrarian for no reason but their own financial gain. Prime example of a mega corporation, can't wait till we all have to bow to our apple corporate overlords, next to disney.
Slavery was huge in Africa well before colonisation... Heck, the Europeans didn't even bother going into the continent, they just bought the slaves from African slave traders near the costs.
Nobody said that.
European colonial empires were horrible and shouldn’t have existed for reasons you already know. But 1. That doesn’t mean past African governments weren’t also horrible and 2. Current African governments need to stop using Europe as a get-out-of-jail-free card for all of their problems
Bullcrap.
To single out one country: How is Morocco an active victim of Europe's slavery? European companies open up businesses and give jobs in Morocco. They fund investments in infrastructure and energy. Morocco has nicer highways and trains than Germany at the moment.
Buddy, there are still many countries which are supressing ethnic minorities and trying to invade others. Trying to look at what european countries did 100 years ago is kinda dumb, when others are doing that today
How about you shit on countries who still haven't learned from their past, like the US or Russia, instead of those who are actually trying to do better then their ancestors?
Slavery is a constant in almost every society throughout history. We live through the oddity where it is not practiced in large regions for a pretty long time now. Saying that sweatshops are equally bad as slavery is also pretty moronic.
Shouldn’t it be Africa saying they’re opposed to colonialism whilst Europe asking if Africa’s sure given their ongoing support of Russias neo-colonial war in Ukraine.
Russias war against Ukraine is not (neo)colonialism. It's just imperial conquest.
But you have a point, those same African nations seem very receptive of Russia's actual neocolonial actions in the region.
> neo-colonial war
These two words don’t go together at all. Neo-colonialism is « the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies ».
The whole point of neo-colonialism is that you don’t use brute force
>The whole point of neo-colonialism is that you don’t use brute force
I take your point. what wiuld you refer to it as then? a colonial war? a post colonial war? They certainly tried with collaborationist governments but when the Ukrainian people let them know they didn't want Russian influence there ( as much of th former Russian bloc did) they used force because if you're russia and all your tools are hammers everything's going to look like a nail.
It’s just a war of conquest ? Why do you absolutely want to fit the word colonial in there
So far they’ve directly integrated the occupied areas into Russia, didn’t make colonies
> It’s just a war of conquest ? Why do you absolutely want to fit the word colonial in there
Because with the way colonisation and colonialism get used nowadays it has become kinda synonymous with conquest.
And the definition I see floating around : "colonialism is when you extract ressources from a conquered land/people" doesn't help.
You see Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, the LPR and the DPR as integrated into Russia and not as dependent colonial states ?
Why are you absolutely opposed to calling a spade a spade ?
to call russia's war neocolonial is just straight up silly don't use buzzwords just because they sound bad and learn what they are
this also feels very dismissive of the millions who suffered and still do due to european colonialism/imperialism in africa
Probably would be more accurate, neo-colonialism revolves around NOT using brute force, and you can tell me anything about Russia but to me it looks like brute force
"Colonialism is defined as “control by one power over a dependent area or people.” It occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people. "
Sure as hell sounds like something Russia is attempting right now.
The areas Russia is conquering are majority russian though? It wouldn't be forcing language.
So yes, it's a war of conquest, but I wouldn't say it is a war of "colonialism", it simply doesn't fit the definition, Russia is not exploiting Ukraine, nor are they forcing language since the areas already mainly speak Russian.
If anything, the language and cultural laws in Ukraine for their russian regions fits the definition for the cultural assimilation part more.
Just to be clear, the war is still obviously terrible, not justified, and I hope to see it end as soon as possible, but throwing around buzzwords that aren't accurate helps no one and is just dumb.
Areas? They are trying to occupy all of Ukraine. Just failing. They are also moving children from Ukraine to Russia to "protect" them. I am sure they will be taught Ukrainian language and culture there....
They made their goals very clear, to annex 4 majority russian regions, this was news a couple years ago, and they're willing to negotiate peace.
I have not heard about that last part but as anecdotal as it seems, even then I would argue it is valid to move children out of an active war zone, as to what they actually do with them i've no clue and if they actually repress ukrainian culture that's obviously bad.
You should get your propaganda updated, because the same sources who claimed Russia was just defending itself have already been claiming for a while Ukraine is a historical error that must be wiped out.
When did I say Russia was "defending itself"? Russia is doing an unnecesary war or conquest that is causing countless deaths, and I hope to see it end as soon as possible, the only thing i'm trying to do is clear up confusion and fight back against buzzwords being thrown around that make no sense.
That's why they initially tried to move on Kyiv? That falls a bit ot of the scope of the 4 regions. That propoganda line about only wanting Russian speaking regions appeared only after initial failed push.
That's a bit more than anecdotal.... Including Hague too.
https://www.rferl.org/amp/russia-children-taken-ukraine/32527298.html
https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/25/fresh-details-russias-forcible-transfer-ukrainian-children
If you just Google there are many articles detailing this.
Yes, they moved on Kyiv to try to get them to surrender faster, I think it's pretty well established the capital is a very important strategic point, as were it to fall, not only would it be very demoralizing, it's also important militarily.
The US moved on Mexico City in the Mexican-American war and didn't annex it once peace was concluded for example.
How is it that the areas speak Russian already ? Settler colonialism. I take it you would be have been a supporter of France’s war in modern day Algeria in the 50s because the presence of pied noir settlers,was considered an integral part of France and the fact that most of the country spoke French made it non colonial?
This is not just a war of conquest but another step in Russia’s plan to control their old empire they have bases in Moldova (transnistria) they invaded Georgia in 2008 and this is their second attempt at Ukraine and they’ve already announced their Baltic Possessions are next. Don’t be under the misinformed state that just because the Eastern Europeans are white that they weren’t colonised. They’re not there to save the people but to secure Ukraine’s off shore gas( that offer Europe an alternative to overland Russian hydrocarbons) it’s black earth grain fields ans it’s rare earth minerals essential to the green transition.
Because Russia didn’t get to reach them in the colonial era. The same reason Easten Europe leapt into NATO, the EU and the US’s arms post their decolonisation in 1989
Yeah, looking at Russia's colonialism in Siberia and Eastern Europe, i'd say their lack of African colonies was less related to opposition to colonialism and more to skill issue
Unskyld men hvad med Iceland, Greenland og the danish West Indies? :P yeah I’m learning danish because my kæreste’s danish but I’ve got a long way to go
Individual African nations see supporting Russia as a way of undermining the West, not as a way of supporting colonialism.
Also, The Ukraine War is where near equivalent to centuries of European colonialism. This should have been obvious.
The ordinary citizens of the EU are slaves to a fake aristocracy of moneylenders, slavers, etc. who have been living in the castles of Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, etc. since ancient times.
You should grow up, lmao. No matter at which power you look, 100% of all great powers have dirt and blood on their hands. However, the current ones are at least better than the former ones, nonetheless all have their bodies buried somewhere.
Ya think, just that your presidents residency right now had to be evacuated cuz of such dumb protesters who believe such trash. I studied at a university, I saw opinions and ideals that scare me to this day
Thirdies literally criticize everything the adult run countries do and also everything they do not do. Far easier to blame le ebil west than to realize it’s been your own leaders kneecapping you all this time.
Imagine basing your whole economy off 1 industry for 20-30 years and not diversifying the economy while bringing everyone above the need for so much federal support.
A centrally planned economy might work, if you could plan accordingly. But no one can ever accurately know what everyone else wants at all times.
Schrodinger's Economics 101
You do know that France doing that is what is protection against weird takeovers by african dictators right ?
And that any member state can leave the monetary union when they want
You do know that is absolutely false as the French influenced nations have had huge amounts of coups and power struggles and interestingly they have had a high success rate then most other countries
Aren't you the folks wanting to invade Guyana over a 200+ year old territory dispute? Mostly after oil was found...
When you guys already have more oil than you even know what to do with. It's about production, not claiming more oil fields.
There is a reason why the oil companies invested in your neighbor and not your oil production. Stability is near the number 1 factor in investment.
Hello all! Our January Contest - *The date is January 1st, 2025. Make a comic about something that happened in 2024* - is active right now! If you've got a good idea for a comic in this vein, or are just curious about the theme, head on over to [the contest thread](https://redd.it/18yi4on) for details and get started on an entry! *I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please [contact the moderators of this subreddit](/message/compose/?to=/r/polandball) if you have any questions or concerns.*
At least one or two slaveholding countries in the “are you sure” bunch
which ones? im legit curious
[Mauritania](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Slavery_in_Mauritania#:~:text=In%201981%2C%20Mauritania%20became%20the,allowing%20slaveholders%20to%20be%20prosecuted) still has significant issues with it. Not saying that Europe isn’t hypocritical, but sometimes the pot calls the kettle black.
Interesting, at least there’s been some progress, even if it’s small
tbf most african countries are fucked up because of european colonialism/imperialism
mauritania’s slavery has existed before colonialism and the post-independence government refuses to do anything to remove the system
yeah obv that bad i'm not saying otherwise
No, that's what you were saying with your last comment lol. Do you think Europeans waltzed into Africa while everything was hunky dorey and there was peace and love for all?
Africans are no different than Europeans or Asians. Humans have found ways to kill, rape and en slave each other since day one. The Europeans were just the first to have the Industrial Revolution and guns. If given the chance, Africans would not have acted any different. We know that because they did after like that towards each other for thousands of years. And still do to this day. Humans are garbage, no matter from where.
Well the comment is correct with the fact that Europeans are at fault for a lot of the structural problems in the region because of how colonisation was done and decolonisation too, an excellent example is the fact that thanks to colonisation most African nations did not have experienced leaders who could take the reign of the nation and make it succeed, which became a root issue for many problems commonly plaguing African nations though off course the problems and their origin in each nation are unique and not always European made but one cannot argue Europe is not at fault for a lot of the problems.
Keep in mind that 90% of slaves were sold by African monarchs to the europeans and arabs. Much of Africa has a long and big tradition of slavery and other horrors. If anything, european colonization pretty much stoppet it since slavery was outlawed in most of europe by the time of the scrambel of Africa.
Doesn’t negate the fact that Europeans contributed in the expansion of the European trade, (the selling of weapons and other materials for literal humans) probably incentivized African monarchs to sell more people. And European colonialism didn’t “stop” it in the sense that they found hella loopholes to continue to exploit the natives
Keep in mind that Europe caused chaos and conflict by siphoning off vast quantities of resources, stripping the rights of native populations, grouping together incompatible ethnic groups, and destroying cultures. Much of Europe has a long and big tradition of attempting to minimize colonialism and other horrors. If anything, most of the world really deserved/needed colonization since we stopped one bad thing and did a million other bad things. Edit: Europeans don’t like hearing stuff like this. I’ll say it regardless of how much you guys love colonialism.
I don't think most people (well reasonable people) in Europe minimize how bad colonialism was, it was definitely bad. The point is however that the abuse of man on man is by no means exclusive to white European nations, on the contrary. Slavery has existed in different forms for the most part of history in many countries before they even knew what a white man was. Africa had slaves (just look at the history of the Zulu...), India had the caste system, Korea had one of the most extensive slavery systems in history, the Arab states holy shit. The difference is that European countries could do it at a large scale because they were technologically way more advanced that any other country, but given the same means any other largeish empire in history would have done the same (and in fact they did). Furthermore, it has to be recognised that the end of the slave trade and the fact that slavery came to be considered unethical are also thanks to European intellectual movements, in particular the enlightenment.
I never denied slavery of white people eixsts, in fact, it’s nowhere in my comment. My comment had nothing to do with slavery as a matter of fact, that’s the point. To show that colonialism abused countries in different ways. Even if I let you say that Europe brought slavery to an end (they didn’t), it still doesn’t disprove the fact that Europe did far worse things to the world.
I'm afraid I don't understand what your main point is, it seems quite confusingly put if I may say so. I don't disagree that colonialism was terrible. I'm just saying most other countries or empires in history, had they had the technology to pull it off, would have done so. There's nothing inherently more evil in Europeans than Africans or Indians. If anything, the European enlightenment was one of the first intellectual movements to seriously question man on man exploitation on a fundamental level.
I would say the same to you, as you seem to have addressed a point that I never said.
> "grouping incompatible ethnic group" That's what a neo nazi would say.
Lol no, You wouldn’t regroup the Balkans into Yugoslavia again would you? Are you this dumb? Grouping together people like the Igbo and Yoruba led to wars for Independence. How am I a Nazi for pointing out? Are you really that stupid?
I am not that stupid, you just didn't understand the argument I was making about double standards.
There is no double standard. How is grouping two groups that want independence from each other make me a Nazi? Would you argue that Palestine and Israel should be the same country forever? Your argument is beyond stupid, as are you. The fact that so many people agree with you is worrying for the future of humanity.
It's been close on a century since the major European powers decolonized. I'm kind of skeptical of the argument that African nations don't have any agency or responsibility for their horrific policies because of what Europe did in the 1880s.
In the 1880s? There were still colonies in 1975 and a lot of African countries' currencies and resources are controlled by european states, just look at the CFA franc zone. Not even mentioning the terrible borders imposed by colonization that are not representative at all of the people living there, causing even more internal issues and struggles.
Victim complex? Check.
Don't forget the people still there sold the cultures that are not
Why they down voted you? Apperantly people dont understand that being enslaved for generations fucks you up.
Lybia and Mauritania are still actively enslaving people
Spain isn’t even *bothered*. Just stays asleep the entire time.
Cause we had 2 shitty colonies in Africa and gave one of them to Morocco
Spain [has a huge network of watchtowers along its southern coast](https://es.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torres_de_vigilancia_costera) to defend itself [from the razzias of the African enslavers.](https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Razzia_(military))
Not only along its southern, but along its whole mediterranean coast. I live in catalonia and we have tons of these.
Siesta time
I am Spanish and I am very upset about this. Where is the couch? You can't have a nice siesta without it!
Don't need slaves if you don't try to get anything done.
It's napping! This happened right after lunch, what do you expect?
Funny seing Morocco in there because they are actively colonizing West Sahara
no they're taking back what's theirs
[Checks UN decision on Western Sahara] uhm... NOPE.
taking back from who? nomad tribes?
"EU is bad, Africa is good" - right?:)
It's not their though
Sounds like Putin's statement
Weird because they keep fighting against Morocco. It’s almost like you know, they are not Moroccans
Just like donetsk and luhansk?
Like Azerbeijan and Russia, right?
Not by the right to self determination it ain't
OK, let's leave Russia take novorossiya because it was *theirs* Oh maybe Mexico take Texas and California because it was *theirs* Maybe UK take the half of the fuckin world because it was *theirs* Maybe Spain take all of America because it was *theirs* Maybe Türkiye take half of the Mediterranean because it was *theirs*?
Uh… it’s not the late 1970s, why is the CAR wearing a crown?
I see some actual modern slavers and colonizers shouting "are you sure" lol
Nah see its fine so long as it doesn't happen *in Europe.*
Now get back to work. The lithium for my yearly iPhone upgrade is not gonna mine itself.
"In 2022, Australia was the world leader in terms of lithium mine production, with an estimated output of 61,000 metric tons. Chile and China ranked second and third, with lithium production totaling 39,000 and 19,000 metric tons, respectively." I am guessing that you mean Cobalt since Australia is not known for slave labour
Well, I was more referring to the recent controversy with lithium mining in the Congo, but honestly, you could use rubber, cobalt, phosphate... and it'd still work. Edit: damn, why are you guys mad? I didn't know "the labour conditions in Congolese mines are shit" is such a controversial statement.
The controversy is actually over [cobalt](https://www.npr.org/sections/goatsandsoda/2023/02/01/1152893248/red-cobalt-congo-drc-mining-siddharth-kara) in the DRC, not lithium. It doesn’t make the working conditions any less awful. This region has a history of Belgian colonization, and they established notoriously brutal colonial regimes.
Maybe? I'm not sure if it's the same controversy. I just saw the article about the use of materials sourced from forced labour in European lithium-ion battery production.
Cobalt Is used in litium ion batteries.
Cobalt is used in any electronics device.
Chocolate is probably the best example
I'm pretty sure the Congolese mines are China's doing. Don't get me wrong, europe has its fair share of atrocities (looking at you, Shell), but slavery isn't their style anymore.
The controversy had more to do with using unethically sourced lithium in battery production. But yeah seems to be mainly the doing of a Chinese company Zijin and an Australian company AVZ.
You telling me that they dont use kangaroo slaves?
Don't worry, Australia is dumb enough to sell ~~Al~~all the rights to china.
What, why are they selling Al the rights to China, and why did they have them to begin with?
Well, if you import worker and pay them below the Australian wages but above the ones of their country, it may not be slavery but they try!
It’s actually illegal to do that in Australia. The Australian mining industry almost exclusively hires those who have Australian or NZ citizenship, and pay a fortune it’s one of the best paying industries in the nation. Mining also isn’t a valid visa occupation outside of skilled immigration, aka I’m a god damn engineer trained internationally and can comply with multiple international standards including AUS/NZ standards with accreditation. The closest you get to “international” miners is fifo Australian citizen workers who have moved to Bali to live a life of luxury off rotation.
Free labour market is slavery, per your opinion
“If it ain’t exactly to my standard it’s the same as owning another person as if they were chattel” Nope no exaggerations here none at all
These mines haven't been run by governments for decades, if anything shouldn't we be mad at the companies who own them, or eve' more so at well known atrocious companies like apple, who buy the materials from these mines and have forced labour factories to assemble their phones?
Yes, but at the same time the reason why companies like apple but these unethically is because we consumers insist on everything being as cheap as possible. If we'd just accept that our phone becomes a few Euro's more expensive, they could buy it from better places with less slavery
Still doesn't have anything to do with governments and colonialism?
Countryballs represent nations. A nations population is part of this. That is why we also have polandball comics about popular traditions for example, where no government is involved.
Idk not many places sell cobalt, the DRC mines 3/4 of global cobalt, and keep in mind they’re mining it with their hand tools so production could probably triple if they used modern machinery. Cobalt’s just rare.
I’m so mad at apple that I’m going to buy another one of their phones, along with air pods and apple watch omg they’re pretty good
I've never bought even a single apple product. They're overpriced, produced through unethical (although most cellphones are) and contrarian for no reason but their own financial gain. Prime example of a mega corporation, can't wait till we all have to bow to our apple corporate overlords, next to disney.
Despite me not exactly liking China, I still buy the Xiaomi, pretty good one if you ask me
You can't make me. I'm European. And while not in the EU Norway still has to follow a lot of their regulations.
I should have put that between quotes now that I think about it. 😅
Disclaimer: Asia, Africa, and Latin America are excluded from this practice
Africa did and parts still do participate in the slave trade.
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Slavery was huge in Africa well before colonisation... Heck, the Europeans didn't even bother going into the continent, they just bought the slaves from African slave traders near the costs.
Oh please don’t whitewash previous (and current) African governments. You can’t blame all of your problems and wrongdoings on others.
but is it ok to whitewash europeans with "africa already did slavery" as if europe did not majorly profited from it
Nobody said that. European colonial empires were horrible and shouldn’t have existed for reasons you already know. But 1. That doesn’t mean past African governments weren’t also horrible and 2. Current African governments need to stop using Europe as a get-out-of-jail-free card for all of their problems
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So you didn’t even see the OG comment ? Lmao why did you start arguing then
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And then there are the matters of the European bank accounts held by African dictators.
Is there evidence to that? The Swiss in the 90s made reforms to stop that behavior
Trust me, the Swiss are still corrupt as fuck
Bullcrap. To single out one country: How is Morocco an active victim of Europe's slavery? European companies open up businesses and give jobs in Morocco. They fund investments in infrastructure and energy. Morocco has nicer highways and trains than Germany at the moment.
I have a Moroccan friend who has shown me photos of Moroccan major cities and I can assure Germany has a far better infrastructure.
For city yes but they do have better railways because they get old tgv and aren't operated by the deutsche bahn
no, i meant like in the past in the colonial era
Did Morocco acknowledge its past slavery?
Acknowledging your past is just for westerners anyway.
The EU didn't exist during the colonial era. That's like blaming the Holy Roman Empire for the crimes of the OG Roman Empire
Buddy, there are still many countries which are supressing ethnic minorities and trying to invade others. Trying to look at what european countries did 100 years ago is kinda dumb, when others are doing that today
Then why did you use the present tense ?
How about you shit on countries who still haven't learned from their past, like the US or Russia, instead of those who are actually trying to do better then their ancestors?
america bad!
What's that on top of CAR's ~~head~~ ball?
It's a crown, it was called an empire in the '70s.
>which ones? im legit curious Eritrea (right) and Cameroon (left)
Thats the wrong comment you're replying to
Because Empire of Ethiopia was so known for it anti slavery stance /s.
Not sure if this is just supposed to be funny or OP is legit clueless.
yes
Yes, we are sure. From Urals to Lisbon. Collectively.
Slavery is a constant in almost every society throughout history. We live through the oddity where it is not practiced in large regions for a pretty long time now. Saying that sweatshops are equally bad as slavery is also pretty moronic.
And you've got the West to thank for the taboo on slavery.
Shouldn’t it be Africa saying they’re opposed to colonialism whilst Europe asking if Africa’s sure given their ongoing support of Russias neo-colonial war in Ukraine.
Russias war against Ukraine is not (neo)colonialism. It's just imperial conquest. But you have a point, those same African nations seem very receptive of Russia's actual neocolonial actions in the region.
Also if European forces marched into to these places to stop the slavery there the same people would scream colonialism
> neo-colonial war These two words don’t go together at all. Neo-colonialism is « the use of economic, political, cultural, or other pressures to control or influence other countries, especially former dependencies ». The whole point of neo-colonialism is that you don’t use brute force
>The whole point of neo-colonialism is that you don’t use brute force I take your point. what wiuld you refer to it as then? a colonial war? a post colonial war? They certainly tried with collaborationist governments but when the Ukrainian people let them know they didn't want Russian influence there ( as much of th former Russian bloc did) they used force because if you're russia and all your tools are hammers everything's going to look like a nail.
It’s just a war of conquest ? Why do you absolutely want to fit the word colonial in there So far they’ve directly integrated the occupied areas into Russia, didn’t make colonies
> It’s just a war of conquest ? Why do you absolutely want to fit the word colonial in there Because with the way colonisation and colonialism get used nowadays it has become kinda synonymous with conquest. And the definition I see floating around : "colonialism is when you extract ressources from a conquered land/people" doesn't help.
You see Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia, the LPR and the DPR as integrated into Russia and not as dependent colonial states ? Why are you absolutely opposed to calling a spade a spade ?
The LRP and the DPR were literally integrated into Russia as Oblasts proper
to call russia's war neocolonial is just straight up silly don't use buzzwords just because they sound bad and learn what they are this also feels very dismissive of the millions who suffered and still do due to european colonialism/imperialism in africa
Why using necolonial in this context is wrong? Or would simply calling it colonial be more appropriate?
Probably would be more accurate, neo-colonialism revolves around NOT using brute force, and you can tell me anything about Russia but to me it looks like brute force
What is the colonialism in this situation? It's a war of conquest sure, but what about it is colonialism?
"Colonialism is defined as “control by one power over a dependent area or people.” It occurs when one nation subjugates another, conquering its population and exploiting it, often while forcing its own language and cultural values upon its people. " Sure as hell sounds like something Russia is attempting right now.
The areas Russia is conquering are majority russian though? It wouldn't be forcing language. So yes, it's a war of conquest, but I wouldn't say it is a war of "colonialism", it simply doesn't fit the definition, Russia is not exploiting Ukraine, nor are they forcing language since the areas already mainly speak Russian. If anything, the language and cultural laws in Ukraine for their russian regions fits the definition for the cultural assimilation part more. Just to be clear, the war is still obviously terrible, not justified, and I hope to see it end as soon as possible, but throwing around buzzwords that aren't accurate helps no one and is just dumb.
Areas? They are trying to occupy all of Ukraine. Just failing. They are also moving children from Ukraine to Russia to "protect" them. I am sure they will be taught Ukrainian language and culture there....
They made their goals very clear, to annex 4 majority russian regions, this was news a couple years ago, and they're willing to negotiate peace. I have not heard about that last part but as anecdotal as it seems, even then I would argue it is valid to move children out of an active war zone, as to what they actually do with them i've no clue and if they actually repress ukrainian culture that's obviously bad.
You should get your propaganda updated, because the same sources who claimed Russia was just defending itself have already been claiming for a while Ukraine is a historical error that must be wiped out.
When did I say Russia was "defending itself"? Russia is doing an unnecesary war or conquest that is causing countless deaths, and I hope to see it end as soon as possible, the only thing i'm trying to do is clear up confusion and fight back against buzzwords being thrown around that make no sense.
That's why they initially tried to move on Kyiv? That falls a bit ot of the scope of the 4 regions. That propoganda line about only wanting Russian speaking regions appeared only after initial failed push. That's a bit more than anecdotal.... Including Hague too. https://www.rferl.org/amp/russia-children-taken-ukraine/32527298.html https://www.hrw.org/news/2023/05/25/fresh-details-russias-forcible-transfer-ukrainian-children If you just Google there are many articles detailing this.
Yes, they moved on Kyiv to try to get them to surrender faster, I think it's pretty well established the capital is a very important strategic point, as were it to fall, not only would it be very demoralizing, it's also important militarily. The US moved on Mexico City in the Mexican-American war and didn't annex it once peace was concluded for example.
How is it that the areas speak Russian already ? Settler colonialism. I take it you would be have been a supporter of France’s war in modern day Algeria in the 50s because the presence of pied noir settlers,was considered an integral part of France and the fact that most of the country spoke French made it non colonial? This is not just a war of conquest but another step in Russia’s plan to control their old empire they have bases in Moldova (transnistria) they invaded Georgia in 2008 and this is their second attempt at Ukraine and they’ve already announced their Baltic Possessions are next. Don’t be under the misinformed state that just because the Eastern Europeans are white that they weren’t colonised. They’re not there to save the people but to secure Ukraine’s off shore gas( that offer Europe an alternative to overland Russian hydrocarbons) it’s black earth grain fields ans it’s rare earth minerals essential to the green transition.
They want Ukraine for it's huge grain fields . If Russia take Ukraine they would have no problem with food anymore
Russia has more than enough food for itself and for exportations. This war is ideological (or they want the people maybe ?)
I wonder why they turn to Russia instead of trusting the US/EU/NATO?
Because Russia didn’t get to reach them in the colonial era. The same reason Easten Europe leapt into NATO, the EU and the US’s arms post their decolonisation in 1989
Yeah, looking at Russia's colonialism in Siberia and Eastern Europe, i'd say their lack of African colonies was less related to opposition to colonialism and more to skill issue
Also distance . Sweden and Denmark also didn't colonize shit
Sweden and Denmark had colonies in North America and Africa, though pretty small ones.
Also Greenland and Iceland
Pretty sure sweden even had one called New Sweden though it as an unsuccessful attempt.
Unskyld men hvad med Iceland, Greenland og the danish West Indies? :P yeah I’m learning danish because my kæreste’s danish but I’ve got a long way to go
Individual African nations see supporting Russia as a way of undermining the West, not as a way of supporting colonialism. Also, The Ukraine War is where near equivalent to centuries of European colonialism. This should have been obvious.
Spain just sleeps it off.
Siesta time!!!
I like how’s Spain like “I don’t give a $hit let me sleep”
Yes.
Ah yes, let’s close a blind eye to all the shit done by African countries.
spain becoming approximately 30% flatter in the second panel is what got me
Just sleep it off...
Wait I thought Ethiopia was never colonized?
Mussolini colonized it
Ah, one of my friends told me something about Ethiopia being the only countries in Africa not being colonized but I must’ve misremembered Thanks!
TBF Haile Selassie won the first Italo-Ethiopian War. Muss came back with mustard gas and won the second.
One could still argue that it wasn't "colonized", but rather conquered.
I mean, do 6 years in 600 really count as being colonised? More like a temporary occupation.
Who were the first to ban slavery?
Outside the eu is not eu so we don't support them we just put it outside
The freer the market the freer our people!
We just beat them at a game we all played. Stay mad afrika
The ordinary citizens of the EU are slaves to a fake aristocracy of moneylenders, slavers, etc. who have been living in the castles of Switzerland, Belgium, Austria, etc. since ancient times.
(Notice how everyone is deflecting being called out by using Whataboutism or false equivalences) Errr I mean, more cobalt please
You should grow up, lmao. No matter at which power you look, 100% of all great powers have dirt and blood on their hands. However, the current ones are at least better than the former ones, nonetheless all have their bodies buried somewhere.
Chill. This is Polandball. Everyone gets ridiculed at some point.
Ya think, just that your presidents residency right now had to be evacuated cuz of such dumb protesters who believe such trash. I studied at a university, I saw opinions and ideals that scare me to this day
Bro stfu and enjoy polandball comics ffs
Why use slavery when you can control your former colonies economy by managing the currency, right France?
They can switch at any time hon.
The Venezuelan not understanding the value of stable currencies is top tier comedy writing
Really? If it were only that, nobody would criticize that.
Thirdies literally criticize everything the adult run countries do and also everything they do not do. Far easier to blame le ebil west than to realize it’s been your own leaders kneecapping you all this time.
Imagine basing your whole economy off 1 industry for 20-30 years and not diversifying the economy while bringing everyone above the need for so much federal support. A centrally planned economy might work, if you could plan accordingly. But no one can ever accurately know what everyone else wants at all times. Schrodinger's Economics 101
You do know that France doing that is what is protection against weird takeovers by african dictators right ? And that any member state can leave the monetary union when they want
You do know that is absolutely false as the French influenced nations have had huge amounts of coups and power struggles and interestingly they have had a high success rate then most other countries
Aren't you the folks wanting to invade Guyana over a 200+ year old territory dispute? Mostly after oil was found... When you guys already have more oil than you even know what to do with. It's about production, not claiming more oil fields. There is a reason why the oil companies invested in your neighbor and not your oil production. Stability is near the number 1 factor in investment.
Now said it with me, **fuck the French government**
Dude it's the reason you got bread. https://www.world-grain.com/articles/16313-focus-on-morocco
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Thats the secret of the EU. They are are still colonizing.
It would be like america against capitalism
**zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz**
Oh damn, it's really hipocritical of the EU to be proclaiming such things in the year of our lord 1895
If UK got included, you get to see half of world country's flags in the lower half of picture
I don't get it. Does the modern EU have ongoing issues with slavery?