Subject: Solutions?
Date: Fri, 28 Jul 2000 16:41:51 +0200


28th July 2000

Dear Pocolisters,

I get the impression that some of our listers think all the
world's problems with regard to race, migration and world
poverty are the fault of the British Empire and capitalism.

Fine, but is anyone going to come up with any solutions to the
problems I've outlined in my previous e-mails?

I'm not this time talking about how Britons of all ethnic
backgrounds are going to accept one another. I am talking about
how the countries in postcolonial state are going to solve
ethnic and economic problems without resorting to such solutions
as Communism and Fascism which seem to both put people in
concentration or labour camps, since they can't cope with
dissidence.

Let's assume a combination of the British Empire and US
capitalism are to blame for all the problems in the developing
world, including the present generation of corrupt leaders. If
the metropolitan countries intervene, such as in Sierra Leone,
they get accused of neo-imperialism. If they do nothing, they
are neglecting their colonial legacy and should feel guilty
about it. But the United Nations record of coping with real
problems is pathetic. Just like the United States had to rescue
Britain from World War II, the rich countries with their
highly-trained armies keep having to rescue the ex-colonies from
their own (Oxbridge and Sandhurst-educated) leaders.

Questions: how are people going to construct a world where
people don't migrate all the time out of desperation? How would
a non-capitalist solution to this problem actually work? Can the
economies of developing countries be planned to promote
self-sufficiency? Who does the planning? If all the "Third World
debts" are written off by the IMF, etc., will this prevent
people finding other excuses to murder one another? Will the
Seattle protests not prove as futile in the long run as the
radical Paris activities in 1968? If we get rid of economic
problems will we also get rid of racialism?

The British Empire is more or less over, but capitalism isn't
likely to collapse as quickly as all that, since no one has
managed to invent a system to replace it which takes account of
human nature and promotes equality at the same time.

Best wishes,

Eric Dickens



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