Empire's Ongoing Burden
The ambitions of 16th, 17th, 18th and 19th Century Western nations in occupying far-off countries for the extraction of their natural resources to enrich themselves, and to manipulate their societies to better reflect the superiority of their own, is not forgotten. Many of those same countries, long since torn loose of the restraints of colonialism and having embarked upon their long and painful process of social, political and economic maturation, claim they remain under-realized as a direct result of having been held back in a normal process of advancement.During Durban I, the anti-racism conference held under United Nations auspices, African countries floated the idea of the ongoing guilt and responsibilities of Western imperialists, insisting that it was imperative that their former masters make just amends. Fervent apologies should be forthcoming, along with majestic cash payments to ameliorate the conditions of dependency and dis-empowerment the freed colonized countries faced upon realizing their freedom and independence.
There was much hope, hype and expectation assayed by the sad, but stolid imperialists as they departed their second homes in countries halfway around the world, to let the colonized nations get on with their emergence as fully independent, functioning-to-aspire first world countries. Fifty years later they're still aspiring to function, and many of them barely functioning. Between successes and recidivism where home-born liberators promised the earth, then left it scorched by their looting of their nation's resources, they're still scrambling to catch up.
President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga, whose disagreement over personal aspirations sacrificed their country's well placed position as one of the more enviably developed and capably-governanced countries of Africa, have finally been coaxed by a patient Kofi Annan to shake hands and shake off discord. The huge cost of lives lost to tribal butchery and the immense displacement of tribal villages through ethnic cleansing just another chapter in the ongoing struggle to succeed. Funded anew by yet another colonial power; the U.S. pledging to fund reconstruction for Kenya and the re-settlement costs of people displaced.
South Africa succeeded in battling the horror of Apartheid, only to replace it with a horror of their own. The incapability of governing, to ensure law and order in a country now boasting the most violent incidents of crime anywhere in the world. A country incapable of instructing its population in health and social mores that will not target its defenceless women and children for deadly AIDS, because even their highest elected officials remain wilfully ignorant.
So certain they could do a far better job than their Afrikaan Boer overseers against whom they so long struggled. Rich in gold and diamonds the African National Congress is now able to redeem the riches of their country's natural resources for themselves, their country, their people, to ensure better lives for all. Unfortunately, the mines have had to shut down. The country's state electrical monopoly can no longer provide the power required and power rationing has become a reality, where once South Africa enjoyed the world's cheapest electricity, with a 40% capacity reserve. The Rand has fallen by 14%, investors are pulling out; white emigration is rising.
A peculiar reflection of Zimbabwe's implosion under Robert Mugabe, with his grandiose plans of re-claiming vast tracts of white-owned farmlands responsible for maintaining the country's prestige position as a cornucopia of agriculture, for home consumption and valuable export. Now the population starves as the country reels far beyond bankruptcy, and Mr. Mugabe lives a grand lifestyle closely emulating how he imagines the white colonialists lived.
Afghanistan and Kosovo have invited the Imperialist West to intervene in their travails with their tribal enemies, having reached the inevitable conclusion that they had not, within themselves, the required internal resources to look to their own advantage. Bloody squabbles in post-colonial countries erupt time and again; from Rwanda to Somalia, from Haiti to Uganda, to former Soviet satellites, all re-awakening to still-simmering ethnic and tribal conflicts. All, from time to time, appealing to their former rulers to aid them.
The collapse of the world of Empire was supposed to usher in a perfect world of self-rule and self-realization, bringing harmony and peace everywhere. Yet where has it succeeded? In the Middle East? In Asia? Eastern Europe? In Africa? What was left out of the Utopian equation was the nature of humankind, ceaselessly bickering, endlessly entitled, forever failing.
Labels: Realities, World Crises
posted by Pieface @ Tuesday, March 04, 2008
<< Home