This is the definition of "the colonialist attitude."

The "white man's burden" was the justification for all manner of interventionist, abusive (and self serving) policies.

Countries can definitely improve without "our" help - that's not to say we shouldn't offer our help, but we definitely shouldn't go around assuming inherent superiority.

There are many ways to help, apparently "the colonialist attitude." is the only one being understood around here.

Ever heard of things like volunteer work, Engineers Without Borders,....?

In general Nepal and other similar 3rd world countries won't get better until the people over there make it so.

The people will need to want to organize a goverment which has the integrity, capacity and resources to improve the conditions. Work on the education system, social and economic structure and provide basic infrastructure. However most often than not these countries are full of corruption, no matter how much money you'd pour into it it'll just go for the benefit of the few.

It all begins with the local people and tbh, I'm not holding my breath.

And finally a personal anecdote, it's funny how the people in these 3rd world countries fail to organize even the simplistic things such as bus terminals. And one just has to wonder, if they can't organize a bus terminal what chance do they have of ever organizing a properly functioning goverment that could organize their country?

> And one just has to wonder, if they can't organize a bus terminal what chance do they have of ever organizing a properly functioning goverment that could organize their country?

As a resident of New York City[0], I am not sure how to respond to this observation.

[0] http://www.wnyc.org/story/surviving-port-authority-bus-termn...

I'm going to give you the benefit of the doubt and assume that you have good intentions at heart but are somehow misled as to how societies work. I will try to remedy that.

Nepal by no means has "failed to organize even a bus terminal". For god's sake, the Nepalese people organized a pretty successful resistance against their Monarchy[0]. So please get your facts straight before making such sweeping generalizations about 3rd world countries. In general, every country has a very unique set of circumstances for being in a state of social/economic/political backwardness.

[0]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2006_democracy_movement_in_Nep...

Well talk again once you've actually been to the main bus terminal in Kathmandu.

I will but only after you've actually been to the ghettos of inner city Detroit, Houston and South Side Chicago :).

That's all very easy for someone like yourself living in an already functioning country to say. What have you done?

While I don't think that you're advocating the same type of "help" that a colonialist would, you must be able to see the irony in calling someone a colonialist while also saying the exact same thing that all colonialists said — that "we must help them". The implication, of course, is that they are unable to help themselves.

You believe that — through your own luck and with your own privilege — you are able, and therefore should be willing to help people who — through no fault of their own — require some help.

A colonialist would say that — due to their innate genetic superiority — they are able, and therefore should be willing to help people who — due to their own innate inferiority, primal culture, and lack of intelligence — require some help.

I can hardly have a colonist attitude given that I work for an Asian company, so excuse my lack of English skills for expressing help.

I don't think being Asian somehow makes you immune to having a colonial approach =)....lol. (And yes, I'm Asian too).

If anything, as an ethnic Han Chinese myself, I know we are all too aware of how to conquer and colonise other places. And trust me, Chinese have no shortage of a superiority complex, regarding the barbaric hordes outside of the Middle Kingdom grins.

This isn't exactly like being Jewish, and getting away with anti-Semitic remarks like Sacha Baron Cohen.

I am Portuguese, working across Europe as employee of an Asian company.

To be honest your second sentence could be considered a pretty colonialist attitude

Not when by helping one understands working together with the people on those counties and provide them the means that they need to fulfill their goals.

Fair enough, but the original comment sounded to me like just a (brutally) honest opinion of life in Nepal. I can imagine people finishing that blog post thinking "that sounds idyllic" and if it's not strictly true then the comment you replied to may be a pretty useful reality check

Are you talking about the white mans burden?

No idea what you are talking about.

"The imperialist interpretation of "The White Man's Burden" (1899) proposes that the white man has a moral obligation to rule the non-white peoples of the Earth, whilst encouraging their economic, cultural, and social progress through colonialism.

"In the later 20th century, in the context of decolonisation and the Developing World, the phrase "the white man's burden" was emblematic of the "well-intentioned" aspects of Western colonialism and "Eurocentrism". The poem's imperialist interpretation also includes the milder, philanthropic colonialism of the missionaries:

"The implication, of course, was that the Empire existed not for the benefit — economic or strategic or otherwise — of Britain, itself, but in order that primitive peoples, incapable of self-government, could, with British guidance, eventually become civilized (and Christianized)."

source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_White_Man's_Burden

Thanks for the explanation.

My employer for the last ten years has been an Asian company, so I hardly agree with that.

I agree.