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May you rebuild Syria and your grandchildren's children enjoy the shade. I suppose war creates resilience in people to live with less and make do. That head-st

May you rebuild Syria and your grandchildren's children enjoy the shade. I suppose war creates resilience in people to live with less and make do. That head-strong mentality helps a lot.

mschuster91 6y ago
Half-Croat here. Unfortunately the only thing war and widespread poverty creates is a massive brain drain, as the most capable people flee for greener grass and, especially if the causal crisis goes on for longer than two or three years or widespread destruction takes place, emigrate permanently. What is left over is indeed a resilient population, but that's nowhere near enough to (re)build a country.
- MomoXenosaga 6y ago
  Yeah the Yugoslavian civil war and violent breakup was disastrous. War can destroy something in a year that takes decades to rebuild. And you touch on something very important: in our globalised econom the best and the brightest can just pick up their bags and move for greener pastures. Why stay behind to rebuild when you can move to Holland or Austria?
  - mschuster91 6y ago
    > Why stay behind to rebuild when you can move to Holland or Austria? That's why waging a war always needs some decent rebuild plan, similar to WW2's Marshall Plan. Never thinking further than "throw a shitload of money towards military contractors, NGOs and whoever we can find willing to serve as a government" is what led to the failed states of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. If the West had offered the people in these countries the clear offer "we give you X billion dollars, in exchange for actual democracy and stability", the results would have been way different...
    - jfengel 6y ago
      I don't see Mullah Omar, Saddam Hussein, or Moammar Gaddhafi willingly walking away from their jobs for a bribe, even a 10-figure one. Nor do I see their populations successfully revolting against them for 50 times that. I would love it if we could bribe our way to a more peaceful world, but I don't think it's that easy.
- hanselot 6y ago
  People always talk about brain-drain, and it seems such a nice way to phrase this. Rather than calling it a moron-mass.

May you rebuild Syria and your grandchildren's children enjoy the shade. I suppose war creates resilience in people to live with less and make do. That head-strong mentality helps a lot.

mschuster91 6y ago

Half-Croat here. Unfortunately the only thing war and widespread poverty creates is a massive brain drain, as the most capable people flee for greener grass and, especially if the causal crisis goes on for longer than two or three years or widespread destruction takes place, emigrate permanently. What is left over is indeed a resilient population, but that's nowhere near enough to (re)build a country.

MomoXenosaga 6y ago
Yeah the Yugoslavian civil war and violent breakup was disastrous. War can destroy something in a year that takes decades to rebuild. And you touch on something very important: in our globalised econom the best and the brightest can just pick up their bags and move for greener pastures. Why stay behind to rebuild when you can move to Holland or Austria?
- mschuster91 6y ago
  > Why stay behind to rebuild when you can move to Holland or Austria? That's why waging a war always needs some decent rebuild plan, similar to WW2's Marshall Plan. Never thinking further than "throw a shitload of money towards military contractors, NGOs and whoever we can find willing to serve as a government" is what led to the failed states of Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya. If the West had offered the people in these countries the clear offer "we give you X billion dollars, in exchange for actual democracy and stability", the results would have been way different...
  - jfengel 6y ago
    I don't see Mullah Omar, Saddam Hussein, or Moammar Gaddhafi willingly walking away from their jobs for a bribe, even a 10-figure one. Nor do I see their populations successfully revolting against them for 50 times that. I would love it if we could bribe our way to a more peaceful world, but I don't think it's that easy.
hanselot 6y ago
People always talk about brain-drain, and it seems such a nice way to phrase this. Rather than calling it a moron-mass.