au1929 wrote:
I am under the impression that they believe we the US invented the concept of slavery.
That's surely a misinterpretation of history: you only stuck still to it, as others became civilized and established human attitudes towards others.
The United States and it precursor British North America had very little direct involvement in slave capture or direct importation from Africa. It bought most of its slaves in the Caribbean. But it was deeply involved in slave transportation, particularly Rhode Island. New England, the center for much of this, made its money in the slave trade through shipping ie the middle passage. It was the Spanish who did much of the dealing in slaves. This is not to diminish the involvement of Americans it simply demonstrated how complex and international the business was.
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What scares me about Africa is the HIV-AIDs issue. The infection rate is incredibly high. We don't care because (1) Africa is a long way away (2) We have no strategic/economic interests there and (3) They don't look like (most of) us. In addition, we all "know " that AIDS is transmiitted through (4) aberrant sexual behavior.
(1) through (4) are pretty much where we are at.
I think the argument can be made that that continent, or at least a part of it, is going to die because of AIDs. The ramifications for the
rest of us could be significant.
