The legacy of colonialism still lives on for the simple fact that the colonial institutions are yet mostly in place: European missionary schools, banana “republics”, colonial banks, unfair agreements between the Western powers and their ex colonies, and so forth. The local elites of the Global South play an intermediary role between the West and the Global South. They are first taught Western values and ideologies by prestigious Western institutes then sponsored and brought to power by either “international” financial institutes like the IMF and the World Bank or foreign political bureaus, in order to act in the service and interest of the West. Their entire pedagigical and political formation is brewed outside their respective nation and tailored in way that is suitable for the West to continue its hegemonic role in a more discrete manner.

And the cold war leaders you mentioned (Amin and Suharto) further prove my point, both being dictators that were propped up by the British colonial army and the United States, respectively, and both having led crackdowns against (leftist) native uprisings. (And please do not conflate historical personalities from different historical periods with their own specificities that cannot be liberally contrasted with the modern era.)

I say all of this not because of some ancient, historical hatred to the West, nor as an apologia for our corrupt, western-backed governments. This is just the reality we third world citizens are still experiencing to this day. To quote Michel-Rolph Trouillot:

Injustices made to previous generations should be redressed: they affect the descendants of the victims. But the focus on The Past often diverts us from the present injustices for which previous generations only set the foundations.

And yet you’re adamant on ignoring the demands of the Herero and Nama communities. As if your utilitarian nonsense can measure what good compensation for ethnic cleansing is.

The article clearly states that the Herero and Nama people, the ones who were victims of the genocide refused this settlement because it adds insult to injury (1 billion euros aid over a thirty year period).

Furthermore, from Wikipedia:

Negotiations between the German and Namibian governments led to a deal in 2021 in which the German government agreed to contribute 1.1 billion euros (USD$1.3 billion) in the form of ex gratia development aid, while rejecting any legal responsibility for the genocide.[129]

The deal was vocally rejected by most of the organizations representing Herero and Nama people, who had demanded their own right to negotiate directly with Germany over any settlement.[130] In 2023, the Landless People’s Movement and traditional leaders from the Herero and Nama communities sued in Namibian court to nullify the National Assembly’s resolution of approval for the settlement.[131] Although favorably contrasting the deal with more limited British and Dutch efforts at confronting past colonial crimes, German sociologist Henning Melber refers to the joint German–Namibian statement as “a soft version of denialism” that “offers no true reconciliation”.[130] International law expert Matthias Goldmann suggested that the deal may not have been as selfless as it initially appears, while it “seemingly confirms [Germany’s] civilizational superiority”.[132]

Edit: I should’ve clarified in my original comment what I meant with reluctance in acknowledged and compensation is failure to take actual accountability and pay out fair reparations, not merely bribing an African government and calling it a day. This is the same government that has sent billions in aid to Israel over the years.

That’s similar to what Sweden has been doing with the children of refugees.

Yes, and Canada and South America as well. They are simultaneously an extension and exacerbation of European imperialism.

The point is, there is rarely any acknowledgment to the colonial legacy nor to the continued subjugation of the third world by the West. Germany remains reluctant to formally acknowledge and compensate for the Herero genocide in its former African colony; Western museums still hold the many artefacts colonizers stole from other cultures; Canada and the USA commited many massacres against indeginous populations even throughout the 20th century through the residential school system, deplacement and expropriation; Romani populations deal with abhorrent discrimination in Europe, and so forth. Despite all that, your governments and people still have the nerve to claim virtue against the rest of the world, boasting about human rights when they’re the number one perpetrator of violations in the global south.

Old ways? France was removed by force from West Africa only a few years ago. European corporations still largely control the economies of their former colonies and some even outsource their labor to third world countries in order to avoid labor regulations in their respective countries.

I believe so. From my experience, using it with TOR proxy made it somewhat unreliable.

I think TOR would be more suitable than a VPN

Where did you source your information on Islam and the Caliphates from? Disney’s Aladdin? You don’t realize how much of our conception thereof is shaped by 18th and 19th century white supremacists pretending to be intellectuals.

It’s alright! I’m glad you’re enjoying it. Also, new developers stepped up to maintain vimusic.

Gravity’s Rainbow was a tough read. Took me about two months to complete it, and that’s with the help of the companion wiki and a few chapter summaries whenever I didn’t understand a single sentence no matter how hard I tried.

How so? From the getgo, and even before its inception, Israel was designed to be a setller colonial project, resting on the myth that "no one occupies these lands” just like the United States, the British empire, Spain and Portugal justified conquering the entire American continent and massacring its native population to replace it with their own.

You could argue he was ignorant, but absolutely not right. Malcolm X was more aware of the ills of the Zionist project and he rightly condemned it.

Try asking on gun-related communities.

I’m lost, what would it look like?

Ah, my bad. On my client the tag isn’t showing.

deleted by creator

Ah, unsurprisingly.

Unfortunately when people criticize socialist countries for the lack of “free speech,” even if with good intentions, they are usually parroting the talking points of Western, bourgeois media and only serves as to justify imperialist intervention against them.

These criticisms however derive from an ignorance of the way politics work in such countries whose only perception comes from behind the iron curtain and only through the lens of fascist and capitalist media.

In historically socialist countries, democracy had always been principally practiced on the local and communal stages, where individuals had the most capacity to take decisions regarding their daily lives and the situation of their neighbourhood, locality or commune. I highly recommend reading on this topic:

Local Communities, a Yugoslav Take on Direct Democracy.

Soviet Democracy by Pat Sloan.

She deserves it as much as Kissinger and Shimon Peres deserve it.

https://lemmy.ml/comment/21562742

Communism has always been the ideal. However, we have to take into account that we do not live in a bubble insulated from everyone else. We are facing the real, global and continuous threat of imperialist invasion by the capitalist forces. See Cuba and Venezuela, for instance.

It’s really hard to not be an ultra-militaristic society when the CIA and the enemies of the proletariat are always lurking in the shadows and looking for any miniscule gap to breach socialist countries from within. Regardless, we need to diffuse a proletarian, anti-bourgeois culture among the masses in order to inhibit the possibilities of foreign intervention.