Belgian control of the Congo was rife with pretty extreme abuse -- the obvious, often horrifying consequences of conquest. But the influx of ambitious businesspeople and capital which they claim started the wider outbreak of HIV, is a curious case. Often people will hand-wring about vague cultural factors, but this seems like one of the most concrete major international disasters caused by rapid gentrification and international investment.<p>In many ways, whether you support e.g. more direct foreign investment areas in India and China or not, I&#x27;d prefer the conversations about costs to be as well formulated as this (I also suspect free trade and foreign investment in China and India has done a lot more good than HIV has done bad, even if you just count lives saved).