Never in a Thousand Years

This is just a little comment in response to an article posted in "The Guardian" on June 9Th by George Monbiot, the British social commentator. The title of Mr. Monbiot's piece was entitled, "Outsourcing Unrest", and it was about how the British elites have lived off the fruits of their colonial - and post colonial - endeavours for three hundred years. This is what I had to say to that:
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The extraction of wealth from India is well-documented, but the colonial powers really grew rich from their exploitation of Africa. The exploitation of Congo by the Belgians is an extreme example. Portugal became a non-entity after it lost its African colonies, and the French political elite lie awake at night wondering what would happen if the neo-colonial arrangement with their ex-colonies unravels.

Another quick point: Cecil Rhodes and other colonial thinkers thought that civil war in Britain could only be averted if the "lowly hordes" were sent to the colonies in Southern Africa, Australia and New Zealand. It was for this reason why these colonists were so tenacious in their refusal for black majority rule. The ex-Rhodesian Prime Minister, Ian Smith, was a product of that policy.

Ian Smith's father had been a butcher in Scotland, and there was no way that Smithy could conceive of returning back to that life. Being a butcher in Scotland would have been untenable after tasting the fruits of the good life in - what was then - Rhodesia. When he said, "Never in a thousand years", he truly meant it. Smith and his co-horts truly did mean to maintain their colonial privileges for another thousand years.