WhiteElk: You want to talk about disgusting greed? Lets talk about the Cochabamba Water Wars of 2000 and how western greed has gone so far as to claim ownership over the rain. The world bank required Bolivia to privatize it's water services. A western multi-national corporation took over municipal water districts. They drastically raised the price of water. The working poor couldn't afford it so they harvested their own. The corporation didn't want mother nature competing with them, so they pushed the government to make the harvesting of water illegal. People went to jail for catching the rain! Those who couldn't pay their water bill, had their homes and assets seized on behalf of the company. These are hardworking people whose local economy cannot provide incomes that meet the basic cost of living. A cost of living raised by western greed.

Well of course the people wouldn't take it! They organized and politicked the legal way. But the resources of the western company was too great. Their need for profit superseded the peoples need of life sustaining water. So naturally the people rioted and shut the city down. Many people died, and many suffered horribly. Imagine being so greedy that you'd rather people die of thirst than catch the rain which falls from the sky!

I was surprised to learn that in some states in the US, it is also illegal to harvest your own rainwater. This makes sense to me when the practice is of such a scale that it affects watersheds. But this isn't about that. Even in my rainsoaked coastal region, I'd have to compete with big companies for the water rights to collect the rain which flows into my raingutters and off to sea. Bah!

There is much much more could be said about the ill effects of western greed and depravity. But this rainwater thing astounds me. But reading posts like yours really pisses me off! The Nigerians are not genetically inferior to you. Your race commits atrocity and causes human suffering on a far greater scale than they. //

Red_Avatar: Nigerians seem to have a certain genetic trait that makes their conscience go totally crazy and blow up before they're 5 years old. If you see all the scams they pull, all the honest people whose lives they screw up ... it's disgusting. Nigeria is also very very dangerous to work in - a lot of Caucasian workers get kidnapped for ransom. It's really a disgusting country morally - and they can't blame the West for that - it's greed and nothing but greed.

Red_Avatar: Neither was I lying when I said that Caucasian workers get kidnapped all the time

orcishgamer: This isn't unique to Nigeria, I know they're a favorite whipping boy and all, but it's pretty hypocritical to single them out.

Red_Avatar: Nigerian scams (which account for billions of $) are said to be very wide spread through their culture - tens of thousands (if not more) who live on ripping off regular people - that, in my eyes, is worse than a government doing shit because, while you can kick a government out, getting rid of a bad moral mentality in a country is much harder. The extent of their lies is baffling and the total lack of guilt when they scam even the poorest of their money ... it's utterly disgusting. A few years back, a lady with a very ill husband fell for the scam, told the scammers how much she needed the money to pay for the medical bills, and that didn't stop them from taking every penny from her - don't compare that to shit like that. This is the greed of corporations (which are greedy by default) vs regular people.

Dragobr: Crime appears when there is opportunity

orcishgamer: One nitpick, crime actually grows very quickly when there is very little opportunity for a large subset of a population. Crime doesn't just show up when there's opportunity for crime, it shows up when there's very little opportunity outside of criminal activity.

Dragobr: I see your point, and it's almost exactly the same as mine. As I said after that, when there really is need for crime (which should be equivalent to being very little opportunity outside it), there will be lots of it.

Still, even if at a smaller scale, there probably will be crime where there is opportunity for it, even if there is no real need. For many, it seems like an easier path than just being a honest worker.

GameRager: Yes, this is true, but for some it isn't about it being easier rather than there being virtually or literally no other choice.....due to things like lack of experience, lack of jobs, bad economy causing layoffs everywhere, etc.

Arteveld: On one hand, it gives me an idea, for an evil economy game, where You sell kids, scam people and bribe the authorities. On the other side, makes me want to play a Jagged Alliance in Nigeria.

VisualDarkness: I already tried to be an evil dictator in Tropico, and I sucked at it.

VisualDarkness: Africa got the problem that the continent jumped too quickly to the "imperial age" when they were used as colonies. Before being used as soldiers and slaves (yes, even the ones that wasn't labeled as one) by imperialistic industrialized countries the Africans lived in simple tribe communities. During that conversion the communities learned the way to success was utter greed and slavery. Sadly it's still is a strong mentality in many African societies and will live on for a while.

Ever even thought why Africa is divided in squares and why there is so many weapons?
Rich western people divided the African people simply by drawing lines on a paper and without consideration of how the tribes "nations" looked like. After that they provided their newly created countries with firepower and had them fighting like a game of chess. Those weapons are still around and with the old tribe mentality still around they often get used for genocides and other kinds abuse.
VisualDarkness: I already tried to be an evil dictator in Tropico, and I sucked at it.