Message-ID: <VE+nlHAqpegzEw36@entebbe.demon.co.uk> Date: Tue, 20 May 1997 19:16:10 +0100 From: cherbert <mailto:cherbert@ENTEBBE.DEMON.CO.UK> Subject: Re: Boring To: mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU
>Is the slaughter and enslavement by Europeans of the various colonies
>taught over there? And the fact that the US perpetuates the inequalities
>founded in this way, by using their power to set up trade agreements and
>so on which exploit third world countries' resources and inhibit
>development?
Are you referring here to the European sons and daughters who murdered, enslaved and abuse Aborigines and are currently involved in fairly ferocious hate campaigns? And it isn't only whites who need to remember they live in glass houses. Empire building and colonisation are features of civilisation through the ages in every continent, so perhaps it is more helpful to find ways forward than to start laying blame. Joaquim, the originator of this thread, lives in a country where at least 80% of the population are mestiza, so in that case as the inheritors of many cultures, it becomes difficult to decide which part of oneself to blame.
That is true for so much of the earth's population that the whole conversation becomes fraught with difficulty. As the American Government represents an extraordinary cross-section of the human race, which parts of that nation are you asking to go down on their knees saying "mea culpa". Undoubtedly as many Americans as Australians condemn these activities.
One of the reasons of course, that Australian Universities are able to teach so much about American Government interventions and disinformation campaigns in places like Angola, is that so many ex-CIA agents went on record to admit to their misdeeds. So that is another aspect of the "American" character.
White Americans, Europeans and white Australians are all directly from the same arm of the human family, so arguments between them to place blame are ludicrous.
I think Mestiza Gloria Anzaldua best answers this question: "But it is not enough to stand on the opposite river bank shouting questions, challenging patriarchal, white conventions. A counterstance locks one into a duel of oppressor and oppressed; locked in mortal combat, like the cop and the criminal, both are reduced to a common denominator of violence."
On a lighter note, interviews with the recently arrived Australian cricket team in Britain has demonstrated that the next round in the cricket wars is on. Could somebody let these guys know it is just a game:-)
Creating a sustainable future can only be done by all people working together in an atmosphere that is free of all forms of racial prejudice.
cherbert