Aluminium boat out of one piece - self casted, one big mold...

Discussion in 'Boat Design' started by congoriver, Jun 23, 2010.

  1. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    The reality is that infrastructure along the Congo River, including steamer travel and the railroads that bypass the falls, has gone to Hell. One 'solution' is to sneer at the people who are trapped in that situation, and smugly talk about how it's their own fault.

    A smarter approach might be to figure out how to encourage inexpensive, localized alternatives to the failed infrastructure. You know...stuff like coming up with designs for simple, inexpensive boats that are cheap to operate. Which I think was the intent of this thread....
     
  2. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    Why did the infrastructure "go to Hell?" The people are still there. The tools are still there, or did everything get looted so the "beloved leaders" could all drive Mercedes at the expense of the populace? If the government doesn't want people to thrive, as they obviously don't in the Congo, no matter how hard the people try, their efforts will be swept away. Big Government = Big Problem.
     
  3. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    It might have something to do with the fact that colonial powers controlled the area for generations, fiercely rooting out any symptoms of independent thought or self-government, before pulling out without bothering to train the locals to run things they'd been forbidden to touch for a hundred years or more.

    What did you think? That expertise in self-government would just automatically pop up out of nowhere, after a history like that? Americans who are so smugly proud of our ability to successfully govern ourselves after breaking free from the British tend to forget that we had a couple hundred years practice in self-government beforehand. What triggered our revolt was the Crown's attempt to squelch that tradition of self-government, and impose centralized control from London.

    Spare me the rant about big government; save it for your tea-party buddies. I've often noticed that the right has no trouble at all with big government, as long as it's pushing the stuff they want shoved down people's throats. Didn't you ever notice how quickly the Republicans went from wanting to abolish the Education Department to using it to cram a standardized curriculum down the entire country's throat with the No Child Left Behind Act? Or how they passed the Defense of Marriage Act to override the right of individual states to define and regulate marriage?
     
  4. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

  5. hoytedow
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    hoytedow Carbon Based Life Form

    There hasn't been any colonial government in Congo since 1960. Colonial powers controlled us for generations also. The difference is we didn't start our nation's infancy with a leftist government. 50 years into our independance we had railroads, steamboats and Miami. Politically it has only had leftist governments since the Belgians departed. We had the abolitionist Whigs fighting for the rights of men of all colors, even red. So many political parties and nothing gets done. Get that straightened out so government will get out of the way of entrepreneurialism. It hurts there. It hurts here. Good luck.
     
  6. SheetWise
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    SheetWise All Beach -- No Water.

    Stop conflating the "right" with Republicans. Conservatism has very little to do with the Republican party. It's only because conservatives are offered the dubious choice between socialism and socialism "light" that they are identified with the Republican party. I know very few Republican voters who actually like the Republican party -- we're not voting for Republicans, we're voting against Democrats.
     
  7. Marco1
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    Marco1 Senior Member

    Congo is not Vietnam.
    Precisely my point, thank you.

    Just waiting.
    Also my point.

    One farmer can not afford a boat right? How about 100 farmers?
    The problem in Congo and any other country like it is not the "poor" circumstances or the "bad" government" or the lack of "courageous" investors or any other external factor but the people themselves. People ultimately create their own environment, friends or enemies and government and suffer or enjoy their creation.
    From your post and replies I can see you are part of the problem.
    Good luck seeing that.
     
  8. SheetWise
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    SheetWise All Beach -- No Water.

    A system of property rights and courts that allows 100 farmers to collectivize their resources and protect their interest is fundamental.

    It's not immediately apparent how much cooperation this requires. It's one reason churches were so important in the growth of the West. Until there is a credible deterrence to graft and theft, there will never be the cooperation necessary to attract capital investment.
     
  9. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    I'll stop conflating the 'right' with Republicans when it stops being true. Right now the Republican Party is the right's mouthpiece, and the vehicle carrying its economic, social, political and religious agendas. It's ridiculous to claim otherwise.

    For example, how many Democratic tea baggers are there running for office this year? Zero, as far as I know. A few of them claim to be independents. But most of them are registered Republicans, running in Republican primaries.
     
  10. hoytedow
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    Amen Brother.
     
  11. hoytedow
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    Tiresome.
     
  12. hoytedow
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    Amen. Halleluyah.
     
  13. kach22i
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    kach22i Architect

  14. troy2000
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    troy2000 Senior Member

    Not as tiresome as the nonstop barrage about socialism and big government.

    It's getting to where a man can't even take a leak in peace, without hearing a rant from the guy at the next urinal about socialism and big government--and how the cure is passing even more federal laws, cluttering up the Constitution with petty amendments, and eliminating any rules and regulations that get between big business and the consumers it wants to screw.

    Apparently, 'freedom' is mostly for banks and multinational corporations. The rest of us are supposed to shut up, march in lockstep while hypocritical preachers and politicians call cadence, watch what we say in public, and only assume government-approved positions in our own bedrooms.

    Your turn....:p
     

  15. SheetWise
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    SheetWise All Beach -- No Water.

    You must hang with a lot of bi-polar people.

    Yup. Now you're on track. Those are the two parties I was talking about. You're representing the one to the left of left -- right?
     
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