Unify Action - He Blamed American Companies for Africa’s Suffering - I Had To Push Back

00:00:00.000 As someone that comes from Ivory Coast, we technically don't really own our own currency.

00:00:06.080 Like you can be walking out of like this huge building that some dude might live in.

00:00:12.320 You can just walk two blocks and you just see like straight up slums just right there.

00:00:19.120 Yeah like as someone that comes from Ivory Coast and I've seen like what I guess most

00:00:25.760 western like european i guess like first world country need to do in order to like keep that

00:00:30.720 status because i guess most countries the way i see it run like run on a machine and they're

00:00:35.920 gonna need a lot of fuel and the way to get that they're gonna have to take it in some ways because

00:00:41.440 it's just not gonna work out unless they do like for example in ivory coast like we technically

00:00:51.360 don't really own our own currency like our own currency is not really set by us like it's not

00:00:57.440 even like it's not even printed in our own country what do you use we use a cfa which is mostly used

00:01:04.160 by like most west african countries so ivory coast burkina faso or not burkina faso we're

00:01:09.600 trying to get away from that but at the moment burkina faso mali etc countries from like the

00:01:15.040 west african union whatever and determined in terms of that it's like it's printed in europe

00:01:21.160 and it's given to them technically it's not really a currency it's more of a loan

00:01:25.040 that's interesting yeah it's like it's a funny thing i can't read about it it's kind of like

00:01:30.140 a loan given to those countries to use as currency meaning that they have to pay like a five percent

00:01:35.840 like deposit to it and they have to give for example they've given all their gold is not

00:01:43.000 stored in their country it's actually stored in like the what's it called what are they called

00:01:47.180 the big central central banks in reserves yeah like big reserve or central bank in europe and

00:01:52.860 like in mostly france so it kind of shows you like you're not really seeing that being covered

00:01:58.260 seeing that being talked about unless you actually live through that that's where you kind of see

00:02:02.160 like what's it called a huge gap in uh coverage not not coverage but a huge gap in like like a

00:02:10.600 Disparacy in money, I guess money from citizen to citizens, like you kind of see that everywhere

00:02:18.820 on the wall, there's like homeless and all that stuff.

00:02:21.100 But like the whole country and all that stuff, you see it on a grander scale, like economic

00:02:25.240 disparity between the rich and the powerful.

00:02:28.240 Like you can be walking out of like this huge building that some dude might live that $1

00:02:33.780 billion, and you can just walk two blocks and you just see like straight up slums just

00:02:39.200 right there.

00:02:39.700 so yeah so in terms of like we talk about like how china is and all that stuff you kind of have

00:02:47.600 to really look at how like these western european countries got to where they are and it's just by

00:02:53.260 stepping onto other smaller countries and doing all that but that's not at all talked or covered

00:02:58.460 about so in terms of seeing like one is like a bigger evil lesser evil i don't really see a

00:03:04.120 difference between the two, from a country that was actually at the bottom of all, I guess, their growth in a term.

00:03:16.120 Okay. So, I will say though, the United States doesn't really have a lot of colonies,

00:03:22.120 and they certainly don't reap a lot of reward off other countries.

00:03:26.120 The most of their economic growth is from them, and they're the biggest economic power in the world.

00:03:32.120 So obviously, having colonies and having people send their wealth to you, obviously that is not a requirement for becoming the greatest power in the world, right?

00:03:43.620 Yes, but as you say, they may not have any colonies, but the driving force in the American economy comes from their private industries.

00:03:52.740 You have their big companies like Microsoft, Google, everything, and all those companies have most of their headquarters in places where they pay less taxes.

00:04:02.120 places where they can just do as much dumping and everything for example uh are you familiar with

00:04:08.040 the company shell you mean the oil company yeah the gas company we are like go down the street

00:04:14.040 and get some gas from shell right one of their biggest one of the countries that they do operate

00:04:19.400 is nigeria okay and if you've ever been to nigeria or know anything about like nigerian history

00:04:26.680 Shell kind of basically runs that country as a whole as Shell uses like pumps a bunch of oil from like Nigerian countries and they leave the land basically devastated, desolated.

00:04:40.740 Like with the amount of runoff that they use and everything, you physically cannot live there anymore.

00:04:46.560 I know like people talk about nuclear fallout and everything.

00:04:51.080 Look out how big oil companies leave like some of these countries, some of these places that you barely hear about.

00:04:56.680 And it's like, it is just atrocious.

00:05:00.180 And in terms of that, they have such a pool

00:05:03.000 because they provide jobs to these countries and everything.

00:05:05.960 But it's kind of like a chokehold on them

00:05:09.160 because there isn't really an alternative, right,

00:05:13.380 for them to, like, work with Shell.

00:05:15.320 It's like, you either work with Shell,

00:05:17.740 so you're treated badly, but you get some rewards or something,

00:05:21.120 or you don't work with them,

00:05:23.040 and they lobby against your government,

00:05:24.800 which is the story of the, I don't know what their name anymore,

00:05:28.480 but it's like the Igbo 5 or something,

00:05:31.040 were a group of people that were protesting against Shell

00:05:33.440 to try to tell them, stop destroying our land, stop taking our resources,

00:05:37.240 you pay us a fraction of how much you're making from all that,

00:05:41.460 you're taking our resources, you're taking basically our government as a chokehold.

00:05:46.780 And these people were sentenced to death for speaking against that,

00:05:51.760 for speaking against him.

00:05:53.640 Even though they had a bunch of eyewitnesses

00:05:56.360 that they weren't violent,

00:05:57.820 the protest was fully calm, it wasn't violent.

00:06:01.800 They were just trying to get the words heard.

00:06:04.060 They were trying to maybe switch up the government,

00:06:05.880 maybe get a new government in place.

00:06:08.020 But then, straight up, they were found guilty in the court

00:06:12.260 with a 100% vote from the jury to get them basically killed.

00:06:18.600 These fine people were just trying to do good

00:06:20.800 for their country basically there's some of the things you don't see right you might like you need

00:06:25.860 like a different political system yes honestly one that's more based on freedom like the united

00:06:30.500 states like american constitution like and honestly like the moral values too like i feel

00:06:39.420 like there needs to be like almost a value change that people realize that honesty is more important

00:06:44.760 than you know political power or something like that yes i agree with that but at the same time

00:06:51.160 i don't think it's feasible like you can't really have all these good things all these great system

00:06:57.280 that we have without i guess somebody losing because that's how that's how capitalism is right

00:07:02.720 we all say that capitalism is like this evil virus whatever evil eyes for satan or whatever

00:07:08.200 communism is better but at the end of the day it's kind of like this machine needs to run on

00:07:13.700 something whether it be workers whether it be people whatever and it's just always going to

00:07:19.100 have a winner and so it's going to have a loser and we can't really change it because it's like

00:07:24.400 the rewards that we get from it is like extremely great like if you had to blame all the world's

00:07:31.540 misery on one person for everybody to be happy you would definitely do it right and we already

00:07:36.480 we've already done it we've been doing it for like the past century and that's how we've been

00:07:40.440 getting able to get this growth but that's not really like seen you know if you go to china and

00:07:45.600 you say something like if you try to like see how their system works they're going to tell you the

00:07:49.220 opposite if you try to go over to the west of america they'll also tell you the opposite

00:07:53.500 you know like for one in one example that was like in school because i was raised in like a

00:07:58.960 french school if you ever talk about like world war ii they'll tell you like it's a whole different

00:08:03.420 history talk about like how the french fought violently they fought violently not violently

00:08:08.940 violently yeah they fought with valor all that stuff they didn't give up they

00:08:13.960 weren't cowards if you look over here they're like oh they gave up they're

00:08:16.560 cowards they let Hitler step on them we have Coco Chanel straight up a Nazi

00:08:20.680 many French big luxury companies that did stand today had to comply with

00:08:26.260 Hitler's had to be Nazis you look at it from their side it's like no they were

00:08:30.000 fighting they were maybe going double agents helping the allies and it's like

00:08:33.900 it's he shade they say but if you stand in the middle you kind of see like they're

00:08:38.520 both right but i'm saying they're both wrong in a sense you know that's actually the importance

00:08:43.400 of free speech though that everyone you can hear both sides right um that's actually one of the

00:08:48.800 things that really needs to happen in the african countries and well actually china too um that they

00:08:54.600 need they need free speech for their citizens it's just like if you don't respect someone's

00:08:59.760 speech and their opinion then you really don't respect them and if you think opinion is wrong

00:09:06.140 and then it should be your duty to go and actually expose that opinion

00:09:08.980 and tell people about it and have them weigh it, right?

00:09:11.580 That's the importance of free speech.

00:09:12.840 But I wanted to go back to something you said about capitalism

00:09:15.800 because I think capitalism is misunderstood,

00:09:18.940 and we have seen that it has resulted in more prosperity

00:09:24.080 and more people being raised out of poverty

00:09:26.620 than any other economic system that we've had, right?

00:09:30.600 The sheer amount of wealth that has been created through capitalism

00:09:34.280 has been amazing,

00:09:35.620 And it hasn't just benefited a few elites.

00:09:37.760 It has benefited everyone.

00:09:38.800 I mean, look at us.

00:09:39.800 We're all well-fed.

00:09:41.000 We're all clothed.

00:09:41.500 Look at these buildings.

00:09:42.360 I mean, this is all like a result of innovation that came from capitalism, right?

00:09:46.720 And capitalism isn't a zero-sum game where one person benefits and the other doesn't.

00:09:52.360 And when you think about it, like I use this example a lot when I'm talking about capitalism.

00:09:57.380 So say you went, you bought your lunch.

00:09:59.380 Like who benefited there?

00:10:01.000 What did your answer be?

00:10:02.700 I did, and the guy was slowing me to lunch, dude.

00:10:04.620 yeah so both benefited right so that's the same with trade that's the same with anything like

00:10:09.740 one they both benefit it's not just one person right that's like the whole idea of capitalism

00:10:14.740 that you both mutually agree on a set price and you both benefit from it right you reach an

00:10:21.880 agreement together and it's capitalism is based on the freedom of choice that is literally like

00:10:26.860 the very fundamental basis of capitalism that you have the freedom to choose right and so it's not

00:10:33.640 i would argue that it's not exploitation and that it actually minimizes exploitation

00:10:39.720 and i just feel like capitalism is like giving this bad rap but i yeah no i agree with you

00:10:48.720 in the sense that what you said about it's a it's an idea of choice that both sides can

00:10:54.960 benefit literally the lunch one i was like a great example and i totally agree with that

00:10:59.380 but that can only be seen as like a micro level compared to like a macro level is what I would

00:11:06.020 agree because choice can only be given if both sides are equal in that choice like as you mentioned

00:11:13.640 the person went to the store they got their thing the other person that was selling the product

00:11:18.180 they're both on like uh equal playing field in a sense but if we change that narrative

00:11:24.080 comparative compared to like the person selling the bread this is like maybe his last piece of

00:11:31.280 bread that he's trying to sell you like he doesn't have anything else and also he needs to eat too

00:11:35.240 right so he'll be probably willing to sell you that bread at a lower price than what it's probably

00:11:41.740 worth for you to be able to purchase it because let's say he hasn't been getting too much customers

00:11:47.100 He hasn't been getting anything

00:11:48.340 Supply and demand

00:11:49.700 Yeah, I'm saying like

00:11:51.580 Your idea is what capitalism should be about

00:11:56.100 But I guess in how things are going on today

00:11:58.780 It's not really as it's going about

00:12:01.080 Have you ever watched What's It Called King of the Hill?

00:12:04.540 No

00:12:04.940 Such a stupid example

00:12:06.640 But I remember you were talking about something

00:12:08.320 And it's like

00:12:09.080 If we both have a gun

00:12:10.820 Then we could talk about laws

00:12:12.140 If we both have a knife

00:12:13.240 Then we could talk about this

00:12:14.540 But if you have a gun

00:12:15.960 and i have a knife then we can talk we can't we can talk about reason but if you have a gun

00:12:21.660 and i have nothing then you basically have my life you can basically dictate how it's gonna go

00:12:26.760 and that's why i go back to that point about like the only reason why capitalism is the way it is

00:12:32.200 today because it's not an equal playing field if for example we ran to that lunch example like i

00:12:40.280 was saying that guy doesn't have a choice but to sell you this for a lower price saying live for

00:12:44.340 one day the buyer can just keep coming back and being like well we can get you some we can get

00:12:49.960 you some supplies you can get more stuff however although we as we as we can get you that healthy

00:12:54.700 business to keep going for us as like your main customer that can like get you this you're gonna

00:12:59.520 have to sell it to us at two dollar sandwich can pressure a regular eight dollars or like five

00:13:04.980 dollars a sandwich and you'll have no way to say no because it's either you take that tiny portion

00:13:11.220 to survive and get by or you take nothing and you're kind of just left to die that's the example

00:13:17.640 i was trying to bring back with like as those other companies because shell as a company is

00:13:24.280 like well we give you the jobs we'll take everything else but you'll have at least

00:13:29.300 something to survive on maybe a few and then you're gonna be like well one of the people

00:13:33.320 fighting back well they are they're trying but when the bigger person comes and it's just we're

00:13:40.960 just kill you or mow you down or whatever there's nothing you can do by just accepting it or going

00:13:46.600 somewhere else really is the only is the only thing i would say like microsoft maybe microsoft

00:13:52.540 100 definitely does that with how they put an nvidia does that how they get their chips and

00:13:57.000 everything from like cheaper manufacturing in like asia or how um now you're basically talking

00:14:03.600 about monopolies right yes and no well i'm not talking about monopoly in a sense as competition

00:14:09.500 with, like, the removing competition.

00:14:12.080 I'm talking monopoly in the sense that, like,

00:14:14.260 they monopolize the choice of capitalism itself.

00:14:18.460 Everyone won't.

00:14:19.600 See, if there was another choice, they can't monopolize it.

00:14:22.960 Right?

00:14:23.640 Yes, but there is no other choice.

00:14:25.880 Like, most people tend to say, like,

00:14:30.520 we have all these different choices.

00:14:32.820 We have all these places we can go at.

00:14:34.400 We have all these things we can do.

00:14:35.500 a lot of that choice is like given to us in a sense compared to us having to like being able

00:14:42.580 to choose to get that choice in a sense because if you've ever traveled to like other places in

00:14:48.200 the world or i'm not going to say less fortunate places like different places in the world you

00:14:52.280 kind of see like those choices that you have here are non-existent there and those choices that they

00:14:59.860 have there is a reason why you have so many choices here you know you're only benefiting

00:15:05.040 from their struggle in a sense i don't know necessarily like i mean if they had the ability

00:15:16.320 to innovate then they would but right if they had like the government and like the

00:15:22.620 the actual like well basically they would just need the government to open up and let them

00:15:28.920 be innovative and better themselves but if they don't have if they have a government that's

00:15:34.880 constantly chasing off investment and no telling them no or over regulating them like what we see

00:15:42.740 in canada there's just so much regulations like this some of the slowest permits in the world

00:15:46.620 and it's chasing off investment right so that's one of the reasons that like western like african

00:15:53.040 countries and some asian countries are just less off because they just they don't have the investment

00:16:00.160 they don't have the safe government the government that's actually based on like individual liberty

00:16:05.380 to have people be able to actually better themselves without you know government interfering

00:16:12.240 in any way right and if they had that government then i think they would be far better off and

00:16:20.080 they'd be able to compete with western countries right because like the amount of wealth that

00:16:25.400 capitalism produces it doesn't take that long to really get that innovation going

00:16:29.680 so if there was like some reprieve in these countries i think the explosion in wealth would

00:16:36.480 be very quick i i agree with that that would be like the perfect scenario but i would but i would

00:16:44.940 also like to point out like how you mentioned about like they had that they had like that change

00:16:50.060 said it were reprieve right am i saying that right sorry i was like it's a long day yeah but if they

00:16:57.260 had these changes in their governments or country get their voice heard things would change but it's

00:17:02.180 kind of hard to i would say like for example you know how like over here constitution you know

00:17:09.100 you have more than two terms four years you get your you do your your campaign under four years

00:17:15.420 you get reelected and then you're not allowed to do it again like they seem like in america

00:17:19.100 and most special countries but in like other places they do have these laws and everything

00:17:25.180 but it's just not i don't want to say it's not implemented or respected but it's like

00:17:31.340 Like, there are work around it to, like, make it so that, like, they're not going to happen, in a sense.

00:17:39.560 Like, for them, in my country...

00:17:41.020 So, basically, corruption?

00:17:42.580 Corruption, yes. Like, corruption runs deep, yes.

00:17:45.080 But even if you, like, try to, like, change that corruption or try to, like, reprise from that corruption...

00:17:53.080 Sorry.

00:17:56.300 I think it's so destructive.

00:17:57.360 When you're trying to like repair that corruption, you kind of really can't do it.

00:18:02.560 You kind of just can't go through with that because it's like, I would say, like you kind of can't really go through that.

00:18:13.300 Not just because of corruption, how the status quo is, but because that's like, I guess that's like all you can do in a sense.

00:18:22.940 Because, like, let's say they do, like, I guess the only country that's been doing that so far are, like, Mal, I don't know about Mal, I know Burkina Faso has, with, like, the recent coup that they did, and now we have this new leader, charismatic guy, he's trying to, like, remove lots of, like, the control that was given away from, due to the corruption and everything.

00:18:44.180 but then with the way that he's trying to do that it's kind of seemed like

00:18:50.300 european countries are trying to like fight against that in a sense

00:18:54.740 yeah i don't know i don't know i can't really worry that properly because i haven't really

00:19:01.720 read too much about it as of recently it's just like i guess the story of like a year old as of

00:19:07.420 now two years old as of now since the coup happened i haven't really been looking back

00:19:13.920 on it so i haven't had too many views on it but i just it's kind of like hard for corruption to

00:19:19.880 like not happen if it's like a defining factor for like these places like continue to exist

00:19:27.460 in a sense yeah yeah like honesty honesty is probably one of the fundamental things needed

00:19:33.440 for capitalism though because i mean it's just essential like um i was reading thomas sowell

00:19:40.760 recently have you heard of him maybe so he's a pretty big economist he's uh quite well known and

00:19:47.220 he's extremely good but one of the things that he was saying that's absolutely fundamental for

00:19:52.640 flourishing economy is honesty and one of the reasons that the united states has the most

00:19:57.340 investment of any country most foreign investment of any country in the world

00:20:01.400 is because they have like so much honesty when someone invests they know that they're going to

00:20:06.740 get the return on that investment right and that's one of the reasons that there's not much

00:20:12.360 investment to like west like african countries in general is because people can't trust that

00:20:16.940 the government's not going to take the money right so yeah i think i mean i like to say that

00:20:23.560 capitalism must be mixed with a moral people and that you need both to have a truly flourishing

00:20:29.220 society and well any other any other economic system is just not going to be good but i mean

00:20:35.980 And you need both to truly have a good society.

00:20:39.540 And, like, John Adams, he was the second president of the United States,

00:20:43.220 and he was one of the founders of the United States,

00:20:45.200 like, the founders of the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.

00:20:49.520 And he said that the democracy that they had created

00:20:53.380 would only work with a moral and a religious people.

00:20:57.880 So, I mean, like, the solution probably to, like, the African countries

00:21:04.060 has got to be, like, a revival of, like, morals

00:21:08.640 and a return to, like, basically Christian principles.

00:21:13.500 That's what Western countries were founded on, was Christian principles.

00:21:16.960 And, like, those are principles that you should love your neighbor as yourself.

00:21:20.820 That's what we were founded on.

00:21:22.580 And that's basically the basis of, like, the American Constitution,

00:21:26.420 that the government has to, you know, remove those,

00:21:30.140 like, the government should remove those who don't love the neighbor as themselves

00:21:33.280 and harm their neighbor, right?

00:21:35.480 And, like, countries that don't have that strong emphasis on laws and morality,

00:21:41.540 they just don't do as well.

00:21:43.780 So, yeah, the solution to Western African, or just African countries

00:21:48.880 and Asian countries that aren't doing well has got to be a return to good morals.

00:21:55.500 Okay.

00:21:56.340 Yeah, and I would say a Christian revival would honestly really help.

00:22:01.100 um i want to agree to disagree to that the christian revival because christianity shouldn't

00:22:10.600 be seen as like a western belief yeah no it's not it's it's technically in asian yeah middle east

00:22:18.080 technically and the oldest living remnants that we have of like like the oldest bible that we have

00:22:25.640 is found in ethiopia and was it a retro i keep changing these borders these things

00:22:32.200 but it's high in ethiopia and those beliefs have been passed down to the people and they have

00:22:38.760 been going around for centuries as long as i guess jesus was walking the earth i would say

00:22:44.420 but i would say that the honesty part is not really is the part that's lacking in how we

00:22:54.300 and how like the system is right now like we're talking about honesty i don't think

00:22:59.160 canada has been very honest i don't think the u.s has also been very honest departing from those

00:23:06.400 principles like we call ourselves post-christian nations now yeah right so i mean we can't say that

00:23:13.040 we're holding on to those principles and like we're tossing away the religion and saying that

00:23:19.040 we're going to somehow keep the prosperity that's resulted from it.

00:23:22.660 Yeah.

00:23:23.580 Yeah, like, I would agree that honesty is sincere,

00:23:26.540 but I don't think honesty has been a big driving force

00:23:30.260 in the recent American economy and the recent boom.

00:23:35.120 They are certainly more honest than other countries.

00:23:40.640 I would.

00:23:42.480 I mean, like, there's still that social taboo that you shouldn't give bribes

00:23:47.940 and that you shouldn't steal.

00:23:51.120 That's, like, fine.

00:23:52.140 That's, like, in the, like, they don't have that problem with, like, bribing and all that stuff.

00:23:57.180 But the main idea of, like, the honesty of, like, how they're acquiring the large wealth and everything is not present.

00:24:04.960 Because if the driving force of, like, their economy is, like, their private sectors,

00:24:11.960 their innovations in tech, innovation in like, I guess, there's some future 500 companies, I know what's up in my head,

00:24:21.060 and their innovation in like tech, economics, etc., and like different services and different ideas is not truly being honest,

00:24:30.480 because if we look back at where these companies operate, at where they take their operations, at what lengths they have to do

00:24:39.980 to get to the point that they are, then it completely overshadows those righteous morals.

Unify Action - February 23, 2026

He Blamed American Companies for Africa’s Suffering - I Had To Push Back

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