Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP Posting-Version: version B 2.10.2 9/3/84; site teddy.UUCP Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!seismo!bbnccv!harvard!talcott!panda!teddy!lkk From: lkk@teddy.UUCP Newsgroups: net.flame,net.politics Subject: Re: The role of America in world hunger & red spread Message-ID: <1145@teddy.UUCP> Date: Wed, 14-Aug-85 17:16:01 EDT Article-I.D.: teddy.1145 Posted: Wed Aug 14 17:16:01 1985 Date-Received: Sun, 18-Aug-85 23:45:56 EDT References: <295@SCIRTP.UUCP> <1068@ihlpg.UUCP> Reply-To: lkk@teddy.UUCP (Larry K. Kolodney) Distribution: net Organization: GenRad, Inc., Concord, Mass. Lines: 39 Xref: linus net.flame:10652 net.politics:9784 In article <1068@ihlpg.UUCP> tan@ihlpg.UUCP (Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL) writes: >> [Todd Jones] >> Au contraire, I stated the primary reason for poverty is the >> resource drain from these countries to America and Europe. >----------------------------------- >The above statement is WRONG! WRONG! WRONG! >Boy, we sure have impoverished Saudi Arabia and Kuwait by draining their >resources. Even if we exempt oil producing countries, the least poor >third world countries tend to be those with the most per capita exports >to the developed world. The very poorest countries have little to export. >I suppose if Bangla Desh and Upper Volta stopped their already meager >exports to the West they would blossom overnight. >-- >Bill Tanenbaum - AT&T Bell Labs - Naperville IL ihnp4!ihlpg!tan If I remember my history correctly, this was not always the case. The change happened around 1970, when Quadaffi overthrew the pro-western king of libya, and renegotiated the concession with Occidental Petroleum. Others followed suit. The case of the arab oil kingdoms is quite anomalous. They are nations with few people and tremendous resources. Upper Volta and Bangladesh have problems that resulted from natural disasters, and the lingering results of prior western imperialism. Current U.S. imperialism is mainly evident in in the Western Hemisphere and the Far East. Africa and the Middle East were exploited by EUROPEAN imperialists for hundreds of years in the past. Even if no exploitation is currently taking place, the scars left by past actions have created very sick societies as a result. -- Sport Death, Larry Kolodney (USENET) ...decvax!genrad!teddy!lkk (INTERNET) lkk@mit-mc.arpa