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Latvia PM: Let EU countries with no colonial past lead diplomacy with BRICS+ (www.politico.eu)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

17 comments fedilink hide all child comments

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.zip/post/1898633

Archived version: https://archive.ph/tr6Gv
Archived version: https://web.archive.org/web/20230825181700/https://www.politico.eu/article/latvia-krisjanis-karins-eu-latin-americapm-let-eu-countries-with-no-colonial-past-lead-diplomacy-with-brics/

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[+] [email protected] 36 points 1 year ago* (last edited 10 months ago) (4 children)

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[–] severien 4 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

So, these days states forgo colonies only because they lack the resources? Does this apply to e. g. slavery as well? I don't like this line of thought.

[–] SheeEttin 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Mostly because all land is claimed by some country or another, and the current occupants could raise enough of an international stink that people come to their defense.

One might argue that what Russia is doing in Ukraine and Georgia is the modern equivalent of colonialism.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 1 year ago (1 children)

And China's belt-and-road initiative is basically modern day colonialism as well. And the 9-dash line.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

Yes, all international development is colonialism. 🤡

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I mean the British had a huge role in ending slavery, not because it was the right thing to do but because other countries were doing it better and so it was better to invest in stopping others than doing it themselves

The US and USSR similarly ended most colonialism because they were the most powerful nations in the world and yet couldn't compete in that field

As countries become powerful, they seek to destroy whatever the previous symbol of power was and replace it with whatever they're good at until the next newly powerful country comes along

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Neocolonialism is just colonialism with a hat.

[–] [email protected] 2 points 1 year ago

Yes pretty much really using the right definitions, however there's different types of colonialism - the type where you make your own cities and push out the natives (eg Australia, most of the Americas) is gone, as is the type where you find a (nearly?) uninhabited area/island and use it to expand your influence in the area (eg. Mauritius and Singapore with 0 and 150 population at colonisation respectively) leaving only the type where you take over and control the administration of the existing population, eg in India, most of Africa, the USSR in Central Asia (among other places) and in neocolonialism

It's also hard to group them all together as "evil colonialism" too though as the 1st and 3rd are of course pretty evil, there's not a whole lot wrong with the 2nd

[–] febra 2 points 1 year ago

So going by that logic, countries that were colonised before by western powers would’ve done the same thing if they had the same resources? Not that I don’t agree with that, I’m just trying to figure out what you mean

[–] [email protected] -2 points 1 year ago

It’s not about morality, it’s about having a damn clue. Shared traumas matter.

[–] [email protected] 12 points 1 year ago

It’s not a horrible idea.

[–] [email protected] 11 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Historical sticklers could also note that Latvia had a brief past as a colonial power. The Duchy of Courland, an antecedent to Latvia, held territory on the island of Tobago in the Caribbean and on the Gambia River in West Africa in the mid-1600s.

lol

[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Yet nowhere in that statement they said that Latvia should be the one to lead the talks. So it's just shifting the focus.

[–] [email protected] 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

There are a few obvious wrinkles in his plans. Poland, for example, is probably the most significant European country without a past as a colonial power in Africa, Asia or South America but politicians from around the world will not be blind to some of Warsaw’s latest pronouncements on migration. Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki recently said he wants to hold a referendum asking citizens whether they support the arrival of “thousands of illegal migrants coming from the Middle East and Africa.”

So which European country that isn't racist and doesn't have a colonial past?

[–] Nefrayu 2 points 1 year ago

Ireland doesn’t have a colonial past, except in the being colonised sense. While no country is completely without racism, Ireland doesn’t have any racist policies or prime ministers calling for referenda on immigration. Fairly small population though.

[–] [email protected] 0 points 1 year ago

lol

Latvia wants to join BRICS now

[–] aluminium -3 points 1 year ago

Please let me talk with them for whatever arbitrary reason