Message-ID: <199612152137.QAA31901@jericho.american.edu> Date: Sun, 15 Dec 1996 16:37:37 -0500 From: Yvonne Sobers <mailto:asante@COLIS.COM> Subject: Re: Colonialism To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
At 12:53 AM 12/13/96 -0500, Dave Johnson wrote: >
>"There has never, in history, been a former colony which has
>risen from the third world to take its place among the developed nations
>in the first world".
This sounds like the basis of a party game, in which the fun is to take a statement apart. For example:
1. Never. When did "never" start? With the first human beings located in Eden for Christians and in Tanzania for anthropologists? With the enrichment of nations of/from Europe, at the expense of people of colour, from the time of Columbus to the time of Clinton? With Europe's nineteenth century gang-bang of the African continent?
2. History. Whose history? Written by whom and with whose viewpoint and biases?
3. Former colony. Where are these former colonies? Countries at any time overrun by ancient Egypt? By ancient Rome or Greece? By the Moors of Africa? By empires of Ghana, Mali, Songhay, Benin, Kongo, the Ashanti, the Zulu, Turkey, Austria, Britain, the Soviets?
4. Third world. What are the criteria by which a country qualifies? Care for the young and the elderly? Levels of crime, violence, homelessness, criminal gang activity, drug sales and addiction? Use, sales, and availability of weapons of war? Capacity and willingness to manipulate or attack weaker nations? Capacity to resolve internal conflicts related to race, religion, ethnic origin? Levels of literacy and analytical skills for those at the lowest levels? Access to consumer goods?
5. Take its place. If a warm-water swimmer is placed in freezing water, gagged, blindfolded, bound and weighted, what place is that person likely to take in a race?
6. Developed countries in the first world. Who qualifies? On what basis? Who set the criteria? How did these countries get to be termed "developed"? What do they have to do to remain "developed"? How much does their development cost those that are termed "third world"?
If your question is part of a game, Dave, who wins? How?
Yvonne McCalla Sobers
mailto:asante@colis.com > A very carefully worded statement. Do you agree? Why do you think
>this is? Has it just been too recent or is there something about the
>colonial experience which so shatters a nation that it can't recover?
> Note that by stating "risen from the third world" excludes the US
>and Australia, Canada etc. You can maybe argue about Singapore but that
>is really a nation state. The point of the exercise is not to find
>possible exceptions but to ponder the reasons, if any, for the vast
>majority. Dave Johnson
>
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