Volpri, you seem to be suggesting that any person has the power to change their situation, and although that is true to an extent, you simply don't want to acknowledge that the start you have in life makes makes perhaps the biggest difference to where you end up. What some of us are trying to argue against is that this biggest difference is usually out of your control. You don't choose your parents, you don't choose your skin color, and you don't choose where you are born. Although you can't see it from this perspective, let me ask you this. Why do you think it is that kids from the ghetto, be it some American city, or perhaps people in some other part of the world that has been left behind, tend to vastly under perform people who come from a more gifted environment? You seem to say that its all a matter of how hard you work. Now if this was the case, you would expect a fairly normal distribution of hard working people all over the world. Surely you can't say that people born in Africa are generally less hard working that people born in California or New York. Smart people are everywhere, as are motivated individuals, and I would bet the percentage is roughly the same from country to country. But what we have is that in America, its vastly more likely that you have millionaires and billionaires. If environment had nothing to do with it, and hard working/motivated people are everywhere, why don't we have more rich people in Africa? If this doesn't convince you, here is another example. Lets look at China. In the last 30 years, China has exploded with the number of millionaires. We can't assume that its only in this last 30 years that people started to work hard. Why didn't all the hard working people in the 50's and 60's attain such riches? Are you suggesting that 30 years ago they didn't work hard enough or were motivated enough to change their situation?
In short..W.V..... Beliefs...thinking...habits..discipline..lifestyle...I have lived in the jungles of Panama, Belize, Mexico, Honduras...years and years not just a tourist visit...environment should NEVER become an excuse. In short people do what people want to do. They can transcend their environment if they want to bad enough. More can be said but gotta go eat...at Taco Bell because I WANT TO save money...LOL and i just like it and I have a habit..one taco..one bean burrito..one glass of water.
I absolutely..vehemently..110%...disagree with this. But if a body believes this then that is how they WILL most likely end up ....affected..defined...influenced...and limited by their starting point.
Good question. Does Africa have resources? Does Africa have intelligent people? Does Africa have hard-working people? Have any Africans transcended their environment? These are rhetorical questions. I think we all know the answers to the questions.
Did anyone (normal not born rich...maybe even born in extreme poverty) in the 50’s and 60’s in China attain riches? There might be an answer hidden in an investigation into those concepts..or facts? If so, did those that were successful somehow transcended placing blame on others for their unfortunate environment they found themselves in as their starting point in life?
We're all human beings, and we all have the same brain make-up. An "African brain" is no different from a "WASP brain". Sheesh!
Well, if you were born behind the iron curtain in USSR or in certain places now where massacres are occurring or extreme poverty and crime. You lived in Honduras, you know. Then it still not impossible, but much harder. The problem is that humans are stubborn and do not dare to accept that we are choosing our parents, place of birth, colour of skin, each single component of our life is exactly what we need to make this life experience. We certainly can do better in terms to offer more possibility to each inhabitant of our planet to progress. But firstly it had to be no excuses for ourselves - be happy who you are, persist, meditate, be profitable, set up the charity for the cause you have at heart and bring the change instead of investing time in discussing what is unfair in the world "be the change you want the world to be", as Mahatma Gandhi, beloved teacher and inspiration of Martin Luther King, stated.
You had the choice to leave whenever you wanted to. Do you not see this? You had a country that provided you a comfortable life to go back to. Suppose your starting point is that you're Jewish on a train to Auschwitz. Do you have inspirational quotes about determination that could help you out? Belief is many times simply not enough. This has nothing to do with blame and you keep dodging the question. If China wasn't the country that the west used to mass produce things, there would be no rich Chinese. It has less to do with hard work and motivation than sheer opportunity. The article in the first post is something you perhaps didn't read because you're discrediting it's entire premise.