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Guess Who Isn’t Coming to a White House Dinner
My nominee for the Woman of the Year, or for the Woke, the Person of the Year is the Prime Minister of Italy, Giorgia Meloni.
Italy has their own migration crisis, and one hears the Democrat concern about the root causes of migration. I don’t think Joe and Kamala would enjoy an evening with this Italian dinner guest. I would enjoy that evening, especially if any number of CEO’s, Apple, Nike, any number of clothing manufacturers, solar panel, and wind turbine manufacturers were invited as well.
A big tip of the hat to my brother Brian for finding and sharing this story with me.
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Published in Politics
* Swoon *
** Thunk **
Normally I don’t pay much attention to those who decry colonialism, but Meloni has made me consider reconsidering.
Neo-Colonialism? Sure. I don’t like it either.
The real thing? Not so much.
Better late than never, and never mind the motivation :-)
I’d pay to see her debate Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, or Hillary Clinton. That would be something.
Is it her views or her delivery? Part of me suspects she’d get the same rave reviews if she was dunking on camembert.
Pretty much both.
But you repeat yourself.
:-)
I’m thinking maybe cottage . . .
As I like to repeat, if it weren’t for exploitation (buying votes and concentrating power), the Left would have no use for the poor (immigrants, minorities, gays, women with unwanted pregnancies, sexually confused kids, indebted students, . . . ) at all. It isn’t really about what leftists can do for the vulnerable and downtrodden. It’s what the vulnerable and downtrodden can do for the Left.
So, if Ms. Meloni is right in what she says, why does half of the money made in Burkina Faso end up in the coffers of the French state? Is Burkina Faso repaying loans? Are French companies running the gold mining operations that she referenced?
Does anyone know what she’s actually talking about?
Where are you child labor?
In third world countries, it’s a lot better than starving, isn’t it?
American kids would benefit from working a lot more, I think.
I think she’s talking about the West African franc – a currency used by 8 countries in West Africa which is pegged to the Euro and which used to be issued by France (now issued by some Central Bank in Dakar, still pegged to the Euro).
The gig was that each country had to deposit half its reserves in Paris – which was good for France.
The downside for these countries is that their currency is stronger than their economic fundamentals would dictate. This inhibits exports – too expensive compared to competitors with floating currencies – and inhibits industrialisation – imports are cheaper. They are some of the poorest countries in Africa.
The upside for local elites is they can import what they want with a solid currency, and can invest abroad (usually in France) for the same reason.
Basically it’s the Euro’s centre/periphery issue but kicked up a notch.
What makes you think they’re not going hungry?
Little kids working in gold mines, Jerry? Have you seen the pictures of 10-year-old boys in open pit lithium mines up to their hips in muddy water? All so rich westerners have the batteries to power our technology. You can’t mine here in the US and hire adult men to do the work. It’s dirty, icky work and creates unsightly scars upon the land. It’s okay if it’s done over there — out of sight — by children?!
I find it deeply repulsive how modern westerners exploit kids for their own enrichment and empowerment. And not just third world children. What was and is being done to kids here in the US because of COVID is criminal (masking toddlers and keeping infants from seeing the faces of masked adults) — and all to protect the “grown-ups.” We knew early on that the kids weren’t going to die from COVID.
Godless lefty parents gain status — of all the absurd and wicked things — by having kids who “transition” from one “gender” to another. Can you imagine? Allowing your child to be chemically castrated and surgically mutilated because your lefty peers approve of your “affirming” care?
It’s one thing to have kids delivering newspapers or mowing the neighbor’s lawn (boy, those are some anachronisms). But, working in mines? I don’t think so.
I believe Meloni said France prints their currency and, in return, this poor African country sends half the gold they mine to France’s treasury. If she’s right, it’s a nice tradeoff. For France.
Also:
Thanks for this explanation – very helpful.
Africa and the Middle East are the only places I never served and while I don’t regret missing them and find it impossible to have a sense of a place when only reading about it, there are keys everywhere which countries have to get right… the strength and price of their currencies. These are determined by politics, so that’s obviously central, but money must be right. I think Zafar hits a key nail on the head above.
Giorgia Meloni makes my other favorite woman politician (Kari Lake) look like a piker. Maybe it’s the Italian.
I find it pretty repulsive for you to sit in our rich country and criticize people in poor countries who are getting by as best they can. I find it unrealistic and naive to complain about “exploitation,” when the alternative is to not provide employment at all to those poor kids.
The world is a rough place. If you can’t handle it, live in your dream world, and leave policy to the grown ups. But if that’s your choice, stop it with the utopian griping — and the snide comments like the one that started this exchange.
My brief look found the same explanation, Zafar. Thanks.
I do think that your currency analysis is flawed. Based on what I know, this arrangement with the French keeps the West African currency from free-fall. Serious inflation is bad for people other than the elites. It tends to be bad for everyone.
Fundamentally, this appears to be an arrangement whereby this West African currency is pegged to the Euro, as Panama’s currency is pegged to the dollar (I think). It doesn’t look like exploitation, to me.
There may be a further explanation. My impression currently is that Meloni was grandstanding and spreading falsehoods about France, apparently to deflect criticism of Italian immigration policy. I find this disappointing. I think that it would be better if Meloni forthrightly stated that it’s not Italy’s responsibility to solve the problems of Africa.
As they used to say “I can’t even.”
I’m not criticizing people in poor countries. But, you knew that already.
A recent Skeptoid episode was spinning for electric vehicles. It claimed that the mining issue has improved over the last decade.
You know what, you’re probably right.
What you’re doing is childish virtue-signaling, in a put-down directed toward me for questioning Meloni’s rant, which you apparently liked even though it looks as if it turned out to be a bunch of nonsense.
You’re apparently criticizing me — and anyone else in a wealthy country — for not blaming Frenchmen for the sad conditions in Burkina Faso. Your apparent purpose is to blame African poverty on wealthy Westerners who don’t appear to be responsible. It ain’t a good look, WC. It seems to be the same sort of thing that AOC and the Squad do.
Frankly, if anyone is to blame for child labor in Burkina Faso, it is the people of that country. Not us, not the French. They are a sovereign nation. It’s their government’s job to protect their people, not ours.
You know what ain’t a good look to me? Being okay with children going down into mines to work.
You think the West is incapable of being a corrupting influence on third world nations? We probably even agree that most charity sent to Africa just enriches their corruptocrats and does little to aid actual poor people. I’m with the Acton Institute that it likely makes things worse. That puts me pretty far away from AOC and the Squad, but thanks for the comparison?
I think you’re mistaking me for a strict anti-colonialist. I can see many good things that came about through European colonization (not least the USA). But, I draw the line at sending children into mines with the effect of enriching and empowering the first world and, frankly, your defending it is unbecoming.
And Meloni’s other point is the European acceptance of vast numbers of illegal immigrants (often stopping off in Italy first) so that first worlders can virtue signal their “moral” superiority as “antiracists” is also immoral.
Where are you on illegal immigration and national sovereignty? I’m just asking questions here. We might even find agreement.
Just a thought, but it’s probably better for a low-income country if their children work on farms producing food for themselves and their neighbors, rather than going into mines to earn “more money” which is then used to instead buy food from elsewhere rather than supporting their own domestic food production.
Currencies need to fall to their proper value. An artificially inflated currency is disastrous for a country when it comes to industrialisation/industrial production and competitiveness – which is what lifts people out of poverty.
(Luridly illustrated by Lebanon, but I’m sure there are other examples.)
No, I agree – I don’t think it’s such a great deal for the majority in any country. I’m guessing France set it up because it retained many economic interests in the former French colonies after independence, and a stable currency would safeguard those. I don’t think they really thought through the implications for those countries – or worse, didn’t think those countries would ever be capable of running their own economies and currencies.
She did sort of say that, but she also recognised (with exaggerations) that Europe (she said France, but really the whole Euro zone) is complicit in maintaining conditions in West Africa (via the West African Franc, imho) that retard industrialisation, and thereby encourage illegal migration.
It’s a bad idea, they should get rid of it.
It’s quite convenient for African elites, however, so I have a feeling it’s here to say grace a inertia.
Edited to add:
Also, I think Macron just works Meloni’s nerves. At least some of it is personal.
Macron has a habit of making demands on other EU nations to accept more African and Middle Eastern immigrants. Poland built a wall because Belarus was flying migrants into Belarus and then pushing them into Poland. Poland has been criticized by the EU, as has Hungary for building walls and fencing on their borders.
The problem in the EU is countries like France that cannot mind their own business, one of the reasons for Brexit. We have the same problem on our southern border with Mexico.
As far as child labor is concerned citizens in the US do turn a blind eye to the abuses of child labor, and yes as Jerry says we live in a comfortable utopia, fat, dumb and happy. In spite of the fact that our addicts are pouring money into violent drug cartels, and we still cannot admit that we will have to support all those crossing the border with the exception of the human and drug smugglers that are getting rich at our expense.
My suggestion to Italy would be bus all those migrants to the French Riviera.