Ass countries and me

What constitutes a "shithole", or in Russian, an "Ass Country"?


It's not the people- not all of them, by far.

Do they even exist?  Answer, sadly, yes.  Are they primarily non-white countries? Again, sadly, yes.

Maybe, but not the way you think.

A lot of people want to bring Haiti into this mix.  I don't necessarily see them as fitting all the criteria.

I haven't heard anyone actually bring up India.  They fit a good definition of an Ass Nation.  So does the Congo (Kinshasa), which we would have all been better off leaving it as Zaire.

Now, the problem with the Congo is that they had enormous, giant potential to make themselves a wealthy, powerful nation.  What makes them a shithole is that they have existed with corrupt government for years.  Never have they had anybody in charge that has any desire whatsoever to place "making the country great" over "making my wallet fat."  And so it is being torn apart- and the people suffering- because there are not only criminals in governments, but rebels whose only REAL cause for rebellion is that they want to be the criminals in charge.  All the ethnic this and that is just a convenient excuse for people who have nothing better to do with their lives than hate and kill, just like it used to be in Ireland.

So in my estimation, the Congo is an Ass Nation.


India?  They ARE wealthy ( unless you're low caste), they have potential they ARE achieving- and yet they have gangs of men who get their kicks raping anything that walks, and whole police departments that look the other way unless national media pick up the story;  they have Hindus killing Muslims who they even suspect of eating beef (AKA Grandpa); and in looking for an appropriate picture for the post (which I didn't find), I saw this:

That to me says Ass Nation.

Haiti, on the other hand, is a victim of geography.  On top of many questionable governments over the years (which may reach AN status), they have just a slice of an island- a slice with damn few resources to improve themselves with.  One resource they used to have was forest, and the lack thereof now, means every big rainstorm they get washes half the country into the sea- and you can bet it's not the part that the government lives on.  Now you might say, how did they get to that condition, and I will tell you, that in all three of these cases, there is more to the problem, which I will get to in a minute.


But as long as everyone has their pitchforks at the ready, let me bring up Mexico.  Mexico is not an AN, but it comes a lot closer than it needs to.  And I say that because of the drug lords they allow to terrorise the nation.  There is no reason that a well educated (for the most part) nation with a military that ISN'T in constant revolt, and awash in legal oil dollars, should be allowing this kind of behavior.    Well, you say, that problem is caused by the demand in the US of A, and I will reply, "I'm getting there."


I have one more stop to make before I start backtracking down the AN trail, and that is Venezuela.  If you have honestly looked into this situation at all, you know that while drugs and falling oil prices are a big part of the problem, it is not what has made Venezuela ascend to Ass Nation status.  And now, it is time to go back and fill in the blanks and maybe see what makes a nation an Ass Nation.


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Why is the Congo so much more dysfunctional than say, Nigeria?  Try reading Adam Hochschild's King Leopold's Ghost.  Leopold of Belgium ran the area- then known as the "Congo Free State"- as his personal slave plantation.  His abuses were so terrifically horrifying, that even in the dark ages of 1905 they revolted Europeans and Americans so badly that he was forced to turn it over to the nation of Belgium.  And where Britain and France at least tried to give the natives a foundation to build on for future independance, Belgium- and just about as bad Portugal- never did anything more constructive than loot the natural resources. And as a result, when they pulled out, it was like leaving a severely mentally-challenged child sitting on a pile of candy by themselves- and then came the Cold War Kids, us and the Soviets, happily giving them better guns to more efficiently kill each other if they'd but sign on the dotted line.  That last part also gives us the Ass Nation of Somalia.


India is bound up in what is quite possibly the dead worst religion in the history of mankind, of which many see fit to follow all the vile, disgusting, and evil parts of, while completely ignoring anything of use and value to it.  Thus they are more than happy to kill people who marry outside their caste (see BBC news story), butcher Muslims because of a rumor that "that truck is carrying butchered beef", and yet, when they tried to stop some of the stuff in the graphic I shared by painting murals of their gods in the places where that was going on, they just looked at the god, said, "Pardon me", and dropped their drawers anyway.  Even Islam, with its quaint way of not progressing since the 14th century, isn't this bad on a comparative basis.  Does this mean religion is bad?  No, it means ANY religion practiced the wrong way does its adherents more harm than good.  And really, do you have to go to Shiva to ask if gang-raping 9-year-old children is wrong?


What about Haiti?  Well, it was the inability of the supposed civilized powers (in this case France and Spain) to decide who got to loot civilize the island that left 90% of the island in one country and the leftover 10% in another.  Or made that split almost irrevocable because of the language difference.  As a result, both sides of the island have had their good governments and their bad ones, and every so often, governments so bad we had to step in and straighten things out.  Long story short, even the best, united government would have a hard time making ends meet.


Mexico?  Sure, you COULD blame it all on the US of A.  We have the drug hangup.  We took Texas and California from them (and God knows I'd love to give California back).  But let's face it- THEY let the drug lords get more powerful than the government, through a good deal of that same corruption.  THEY are creating a future that is forcing more and more of their best people north of the border.  They are at best complicit in their shitholery. (A word which, amazingly, I didn't get a red squiggle on.)

And Venezuela?  C'mahn, you know this story.  Hugo Chavez decided he was going to out-Castro Cuba.  He learned first hand of the poverty and waste of resources socialism brings.  Venezuela would not be an Ass Nation but for the fact that Hugo Chavez was an ass.


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And here is the thing, at last, about Ass Nations- some of them made their beds, some of them had their beds made for them.  But to REALLY fit my definition of Ass Nation, there is one thing for certain- whoever made the bed, they are lying in it.  Whether it is because nobody has the desire or wherewithal to change the government, or no one wants to take a good honest look at their societal norms, or whether it's just more convenient to pass both blame and problem to someone else, they are lying in it.

Was Trump right or wrong to say it?  Did he even actually say it?  Who cares, HE is not the problem.  If you are part of an Ass Nation, you need to do what you can to fix that.  Not wait for the world to fix it.  Because just sitting waiting is what makes people stop seeing you AS people, and see you like this: