Monday, September 20, 2010
Lingering Discussion Thoughts
A point that I found interesting in the discussion was the fact that Leopold disregarded his homeland to the point that at one point, in the 1890's, he was spending over 50% of the national GDP on his mercenary army: le Force Publique. How did the parliament let him get away with this? Were their powers that minimal that they had no control over Leopold's expenditures.
Wednesday, September 8, 2010
King Leopold's Ghost Pgs 1-32
Open ended discussion questions:
1) What do forgotten genocides such as the one described here say about the historians which recorded it as well as modern society for forgetting such an atrocity?
2) Could King Leopold II's lack of direct involvement be one of the first intentional uses of plausible deniability?
Reaction:
This book, honestly, isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The topic is interesting, primarily because it is something significant in history which is an either forgotten or unfamiliar topic among most people. What I find to be intriguing in this chapter is in the Introduction. At the time of its occurrence, it largely went unrecognized on the mainstream media until a prominent, white man brought it to light. What I find so interesting is that nearly a half-a-dozen people prior to him had either hinted at the topic or come out with it outright, only to be forgotten both by history. The difference? The ones who were never recognized were black. Now I am perfectly aware the racism was still alive and well in the 1900's, but could people really not set aside their differences when 4-8 million Congolese are being systematically enslaved, mutilated and executed? Those are holocaust-type numbers.
1) What do forgotten genocides such as the one described here say about the historians which recorded it as well as modern society for forgetting such an atrocity?
2) Could King Leopold II's lack of direct involvement be one of the first intentional uses of plausible deniability?
Reaction:
This book, honestly, isn't nearly as bad as I thought it would be. The topic is interesting, primarily because it is something significant in history which is an either forgotten or unfamiliar topic among most people. What I find to be intriguing in this chapter is in the Introduction. At the time of its occurrence, it largely went unrecognized on the mainstream media until a prominent, white man brought it to light. What I find so interesting is that nearly a half-a-dozen people prior to him had either hinted at the topic or come out with it outright, only to be forgotten both by history. The difference? The ones who were never recognized were black. Now I am perfectly aware the racism was still alive and well in the 1900's, but could people really not set aside their differences when 4-8 million Congolese are being systematically enslaved, mutilated and executed? Those are holocaust-type numbers.
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Imperialism: End of class thoughts.
In today's class about imperialism, I noticed some disturbing similarities concerning the production, sales and allocation of goods. Looking back into the rise of America, our exportation versus importation ratio was very similar to modern China. Our current importation and inability to produce for ourselves resembles that of Europe at the end of their glory years.
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