Thank you for explaining what I meant <| sep |> Very simply , because the exploitation , and its effects are ongoing . Using the Vikings and the Romans as examples is disingenuous . Nowadays , neither of them are at the helm of world economics and power they aren ' t deposing democratically elected leaders , encouraging the installment of corrupt proWestern dictators , engineering regimechanges , or encouraging exploitative business practices . The Congo is a reasonable place to begin doing some research . It ' s one of the richest countries in the world in terms of natural resources , but do the Congolese people see any benefits ? First they were enslaved , mutilated and murdered in their millions by the Belgian King Leopold . Then when they elected an intelligent , honest leader who wished to govern Congo for the people , certain World States intervened , had him assassinated and the brutal Mobutu installed . This pattern is not , of course , unique to the Congo , or even Africa . It ' s easier and cheaper more profitable to do business with corrupt leaders there ' s also no risk of nationalisation of those precious industry profits . You talk about corrupt leaders , but someone has to offer the bribes in the first place or agree to pay them . This means western corporations are equally complicit in the corruption . At one point , corporations were even powerful enough to get military invasions greenlighted to deal with recalcitrant countries i . e Nicaragua . Some might say they still are . And there is no we . The we meaning white men is bull . Unless you ' re part of a generation of business enterprises that have profited from exploiting Africa , there ' s no need for guilt . In fact it ' s quite likely that many white people have been similarly exploited by corporations , by long hours , low wages until they complained and their jobs outsourced to cheaper and more compliant nations . The middle east is the current example . I DO feel guilty about the destruction and chaos inflicted on the peoples of Iraq , Libya and Syria because as a UK citizen I didn ' t do enough to stand up to the government against pursuing these illegal wars . We can help by first of all not interfering with their governments . We can help by criminalising international corporate corruption and enforcing it . We can help by ensuring corporations donate a part of their profits directly to improving the environments in which they operate to create infrastructure , promote the health and education of the local people , and even employ them on the same terms as a foreign worker matched skillforskill .