maozedongisnotcool:

mehreenkasana:

• Ashis Nandy’s The Intimate Enemy: Loss and Recovery of Self under Colonialism.
• Vinay Lal’s The Concentration Camp and Development: The Pasts and Future of Genocide
• Vijay Prashad’s Droneland
• Chapati Mystery’s The E Word
• A historical truth deliberately ignored: America’s midwifing of violent transnational Jihad during the Cold War.
• Beyond Power/Knowledge: An exploration of the relation of power, ignorance and stupidity.

From my post on Wordpress: Challenging the Empire’s Narrative.

Recommended!

oogishkamaanisee:

We need to have a little talk about the ideology of terra nullius. I see a lot of people using some form of it when discussing Indigenous rights, and even if unintentional, it is wildly problematic.

Basically, terra nullius is the idea that the land, Turtle Island, was essentially empty. But wait, weren’t there millions of peoples here in hundreds or even thousands of diverse nations and empires? But, according to the colonizers, motivated by the desire for our resources, Indigenous peoples didn’t have a concept of property rights so the land is still empty and available for colonizers. This idea is founded on a false dichotomy between “civilized” and “savage”. As we all know, Indigenous peoples are obviously savages, so we can’t understand any forms of ownership, so we can’t own or have rights to land, which is absolutely essential to the existence of some nations. 

So if you’re going to use terra nullius, explicitly or implicitly, as an argument you’re a white supremacist colonial piece of shit. Terra nullius is an outdated, racist, incorrect concept that has already been rejected but is, unfortunately, still the foundation of Canadian sovereignty. Indigenous peoples in Canada weren’t conquered, but made treaties and yet most of the land was swallowed up anyways because apparently we’re too uncivilized to know that the land is ours. 

it’s ridiculous that this even needs to be said. 

codelens:

Dr. Frances Cress-Welsing, author of The Isis Papers: The Keys to the Color and founder of the Cress-Welsing Institute of Psychiatry and Social Research

fuckyeahethnicwomen:

dank-potion:

“This is a very complex and misunderstood topic. Before answering, it is important to note that “Africa” is not a political or economic entity, and therefore addressing this issue must be done on a nation-by-nation basis. In fact, some African countries such as South Africa, Kenya, and to some extent Morocco and Egypt have relatively high standards of living. The question is also posed poorly, as Africa as a whole does not contain an even spread of gold and diamond resources, and often nations have additional resources or less (such as oil in Nigeria but desert in Chad). 

Effects on most African nations’ wealth include, among other things, (1) residual effects of colonialism, (2) current exploitation of poor nations by wealthy nations, (3) a pervading lack of strong political institutions to manage the economy, and (4) Western ignorance in their interventionist strategies such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank. 

Colonialism forced African peoples into regimented and incredibly foreign manners of government. Warring tribes were often “placed” in the same nation while other tribes were split by these artificial boundaries. Also, colonizers placed certain tribes in positions of power which has caused uprisings in areas such as Rwanda. 

Pertaining to the question about natural resources, these are often extracted by wealthy nations, who take the wealth from those resources back to their already wealthy countries. This has been the case in oil-rich Nigeria and diamond-rich South Africa. Wealthy nations also often trade extraction rights for vast amounts of extorted “dirty money”. 

Historically, the world has not seen a well-developed economy without a corresponding strong government. In contrast to a Western-style political institution of checks and balances, traditionally African tribes were not organized in such a way. Many argue that in addition to easy access to education, healthcare, and natural resources, a strong government that can balance its own power by virtue of the bureaucratic structure of itself is essential. 

Lastly, the IMF, World Bank, and other international aid organizations have created massive problems by failing to understand the social and political contexts of the African countries within which they work. They lend money to nations, henceforth focusing on repayment of the loan, rather than the efficacious use of that loan. They require structural changes in the government that detrimentally weaken the local and federal governments. Furthermore, aid organizations normally focus on distributing birth control and food, which benevolently helps the people, but it ameliorates the symptoms without tackling the sickness, such as establishing and funding schools or citizen advocate groups.”

This is a great response. But people, if you want to learn, please further your reading. There are no easy or quick responses. 

ayiman:

so long as our traditions can be denounced as sexist by western feminists who examine our cultures through their colonial lenses, assaults on these traditions are perfectly justifiable and even welcomed.

I think one of the things that is most problematic about KONY’12  is that people seem to think that this is a benign issue. There is a failure to recognise that there is a load of historical and institutional stuff going on that has been enabled by the society we live in. And there is this hesitance in wanting to get a history lesson heaven forbid be we all acknowledge that colonialism is still a Thing That Happens.

And I know people are well meaning and it’s fantastic that they care. But it is very much a failure in our system that for those who benefit from such a detrimental history (whether you like it or not) are very very uneducated about it. Hence facilitating groups like Invisible Children to pull of the shit they are currently getting applauded for.

idk- lot of wishy washy going on here. It’s just sad seeing so many well meaning and good people hopping on a campaign which probably isn’t so good to hop on to if you take a good look at what activism such as this has done to other places around the world who still suffer from colonialism

racismfreeontario:

The chairman of Canada’s truth and reconciliation commission says removing more than 100,000 aboriginal children from their homes and placing them in residential schools was an act of genocide.

Justice Murray Sinclair says the United Nations defines genocide to include the removal of children based on race, then placing them with another race to indoctrinate them. He says Canada has been careful to ensure its residential school policy was not “caught up” in the UN’s definition.

“That’s why the minister of Indian affairs can say this was not an act of genocide,” Sinclair told students at the University of Manitoba Friday. “But the reality is that to take children away and to place them with another group in society for the purpose of racial indoctrination was — and is — an act of genocide and it occurs all around the world.”

About 150,000 First Nations, Inuit and Metis children were forced to attend the government schools over much of the last century. The last school closed outside Regina in 1996.

The $60-million truth and reconciliation commission is part of a landmark compensation deal between the federal government, the Crown and residential school survivors. It is about halfway through its mandate and has visited about 500 communities, where it has heard graphic details of rampant sexual and physical abuse.

The commission has taken 25,000 statements from survivors so far and has heard from about 100 people who worked in the schools, Sinclair said.

Their legacy has left an indelible impact on Canadian society, he added. The commission has heard stories of survivors continuing the cycle of abuse with their own children.

Even those who worked at the schools are not immune. Many of them were victims, too, and suffer lingering guilt and shame.

“We’ve had teachers come forward to us and spoken to the commission … about how they so hated the experience of teaching in a residential school that they quickly left,” Sinclair said. “They never put the fact that they worked at a residential school on their resume and they always kept that fact hidden from everybody, even from their own families.”

Just as children of school survivors suffer with their parents’ pain, so, too, do children of those who worked in the schools, Sinclair said. Children of staff members also attended the schools and still grapple with what they saw and experienced there. Some watched their parents become deeply depressed later in life as they came to realize what they had been a part of.

“In many ways, they also feel victimized by having been in residential schools. There is a great mixture of experiences here.”

The commission is expected to release an interim report shortly about what it’s heard so far. But even halfway through its mandate, Sinclair said, it’s clear work will take much longer to complete.

There are between 200 million and 300 million government documents on residential schools policy and about 20 million photographs. The commission has only managed to copy about 14,000 photos for the record, he said.

Canada will have to work hard to undo the damage done by the schools long after the commission has finished its work, Sinclair suggested. Generations of children — both aboriginal and non-aboriginal — have been brought up on a curriculum that dismissed aboriginal culture and history as worthless and inferior.

Another consequence is that there is a spiritual void in many aboriginal communities, Sinclair added. Churches that once had strong congregations in aboriginal communities have moved out and elders who could pass on traditional spiritual teachings are no longer living.

“It took 130 years to create this problem. It’s probably going to take us 130 years to undo it.”

Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/Canada/20120218/commission-chairman-residential-schools-120218/#ixzz1mqbRY8wu

Not a form, it is genocide.