tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10523517.post114889316016989272..comments2023-09-09T17:38:22.939+08:00Comments on Blogging... Walk The Talk: Colonialism and Liberal HorrorDave and Stefanhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/03374243021807086912noreply@blogger.comBlogger3125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10523517.post-41469026871570295552007-03-16T18:04:00.000+08:002007-03-16T18:04:00.000+08:00Dave or Stephan:This is not on point, but I am try...Dave or Stephan:<BR/><BR/>This is not on point, but I am trying to research whether there was a policital relationship between Macau and the Malay States around the 1900s? If you know can you steer me to any reference materials, in Engliash. I'm in Portugal where the English language libraries are nil. Thanks in advance. Don David Price ddprice98@hotmail.com March 16,2007Anonymousnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10523517.post-1148983861358989442006-05-30T18:11:00.000+08:002006-05-30T18:11:00.000+08:00Hi Fred,Thanks for Napier's comment, I seem to rem...Hi Fred,<BR/><BR/>Thanks for Napier's comment, I seem to remember a John Keay book expressing what a colorful character he was. <BR/><BR/>That was a hilarious quote, especially if you imagine the deadpan, stiff-upper-lip delivery of it. It also gets to the heart of my entry yesterday - use of force by a colonial power to root out practices it cannot tolerate.<BR/><BR/>Ultimately I guess I come down on the side of the colonizers, mostly, because to contemplate the opposite, that is, them having stood by while practices that they consiidered a gross injustice were being systemically perpetrated, is I think even worse. In any case, the French, British and Americans could be quite tolerant of other practices that deviated from their own societal mores as long as it was not a gross violation (like bigamy, which some colonizers seemed by their actions downright in favor of!).<BR/><BR/>I think what was much more problematic was when such practices were used as a pretext for invasion or a more explicit form of colonization. Like democracy today, the eradication of despotism was in idea that would be pursued by imperial means. By bringing modern market forces to bear upon the colonies, it was thought, a 'civilizing' influence would be exerted upon natives that would bring them to a more enlightened state.<BR/><BR/>Sadly, they did not think about how they would gracefully withdraw once many of the native elite achieved that 'enlightened state', or indeed to have any set parameters to judge that enlightenment, after which the colonial power woould presumably no longer be necessary...and so history repeats itself.Dave and Stefanhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/03374243021807086912noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-10523517.post-1148972898909410612006-05-30T15:08:00.000+08:002006-05-30T15:08:00.000+08:00Apropos your thoughts on slavery, vaginal mutilati...Apropos your thoughts on slavery, vaginal mutilation, and the West, I proffer this statement attributed to General Sir Charles James Napier (British commander-in-Chief in India), concerning the Hindu practice of throwing living widows upon the funeral pyre of their dead husbands:<BR/><BR/>"You say that it is your custom to burn widows. Very well. We also have a custom: when men burn a woman alive, we tie a rope around their necks and we hang them. Build your funeral pyre; beside it, my carpenters will build a gallows. You may follow your custom. And then we will follow ours."<BR/><BR/>Fred Jacobsen<BR/>San FranciscoAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com