The tragedy of these empires was due to three big blunders in Europe, namely, the First World War, communism, and Nazism. These had to be liquidated much too early.
Even (and especially) in Latin America, it was a tragedy that, at the beginning of the 19th century, they had overthrown the Spanish. Brazil became independent but had the very good idea of remaining a monarchy with one Austrian archduchess playing an important role as Empress. This empire abolished slavery and its monarchs went about a lot of rational, enlightened reforms. But guess what? Some latifundistas revolted and founded the republic. Sad – very sad.
It would have been good for Africa and its people to have remained under colonial rule for more time, at least one hundred years more.
Who abolished slavery? The European powers, at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.
Who fought the Arab slave hunters – who had, in fact, been the biggest slave hunters through centuries in Africa?
At least the European traders paid the local potentates for the slaves sold. The Arabs just robbed them. Have you heard about any compensation claim directed against the oil-rich Arab states? They must have good attorneys, or they just bribed the representatives of the toiling masses.
I do not intend to say that all was merry, soft and nice. Uppish and rebellious natives had been shot, native labour was abused – I would not have liked to be in a gold mine 100 years ago. That is all admitted. English and French soldiers plundered the imperial Chinese summer palace in 1860 and ran roughshod over China and East Asia. But you have to see the overall input and the tendency. The investments, the medical doctors, the teachers, the missionaries, the infrastructure. To undergo the changes to a modern industrial civilisation was also not easy for the Europeans. It cost blood, sweat and tears, some generations toiled heavily so that we – their heirs – can enjoy wealth and prosperity. Due to lack of character some forget that, become degenerate, and develop silly nihilist ideas. So it goes.
“I am an admirer of the parliamentary system of the West. The Magna Carta, the petition of rights and the bill of rights are documents held in veneration… throughout the world. I have great respect for British political institutions and for the country’s system of justice.”
That was said by a certain Nelson Mandela. Surprise, surprise.
Look, ladies and gentleman of the DA. Your task is not to make a policy which the progressive crowd of makers, shakers and formers of political and social opinion agree with, like the ANC does. Just be more efficient. ANC slogans minus 20 percent and the whole thing, a few years later, is not a recipe for success. In their opinion you are ‘coconuts’ and ‘Uncle Toms’ and ‘sell-outs’ anyway. So please enjoy the invectives and make a rational, proudly counter-revolutionary policy.
But the whole business it is not only about political domination. It is about culture and the essence of civilization. Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians – whoever – have no problem with adapting to the technologies, science or methods of the West. Many Japanese adore classical (European) music, especially classical Austrian music. Have they stopped being Japanese by doing that? No. A lot of Asian nations adapted and adopt European instruments and techniques, sometimes to our disadvantage. They know it assists them in becoming stronger. They do not complain – at least not too much. They just assimilate and learn and work. That might be quite a good recipe; except for the eternally-annoyed crowd in socialist, communist, nihilist, and academic ranks and realms. Or does anyone really believe that the billions of non-Austrian listeners to the Viennese New Year concert are endangered in their cultural stability?
The result of systemically anti-imperialist thinking can be seen in Haiti.
Independent since 1802, Haiti has thrown off the joke of French colonialism and plantation slavery. The result? As poor, as inept, as bankrupt, as miserable, as dependent on aid as ever. But very good in complaining about a certain ‘legacy’. The Japanese and the Germans after 1945 did not complain; instead they started anew, raised from horrible ruins and disaster. But that must have been an imperialist racist conspiracy. Or constipation? Whatever…
Sure, this crowd does not fight a certain political domination or philosophical domination. By the way, why do these ‘progressives’ orientate themselves on Karl Marx and other revolutionaries and enlightened progressives? Aren’t those also ‘dead white European men’? The most poisonous legacy of Lenin and the early Bolshie rule was to galvanize the Oriental (later called the Third World) masses, recognizing that they would be the real revolutionary proletariat serving the power greedy needs of those intellectuals as the European workers had lost revolutionist impetus due to the many social reforms in Europe and the influence of the reformist wing of the socialist movement.
This crowd of nihilist intellectuals are fighting culture, especially the European culture as it developed and evolved on the fundamentals of Greek philosophy, Roman law, Christian faith, and ancient techniques blossoming especially from the Renaissance onward. They just hate it. Full stop. That they are themselves products of the very system they hate does not factor in their minds. I do not know why. The last bimbo walking out of the bush into town to get a job there and make a living has more sense and respect for culture and more industry and productivity in himself than they have. Why this self-hate, this longing for a common cultural suicide exists – I do not know; maybe psychologists have an answer for that.
Nihilists are approaching us and academic cowards throw away their defences at the slightest show of arms, or are behaving as enemies and traitors (or even commanders?) intra muros.
It would be quite interesting to know why – with all the real challenges and real poverty we have to deal with – the productive ones shall suffer under a nihilistic class – the most useless class in history:
It is the power mad political waltz of the “autistic liberated from being talented possessing matric certificates desired by school statistics” [17]
“The nihilists consists of matric proletarians, of half baked people, the surplus which is donated by the high schools to civil life without that being able to digest this surplus … it is the over production of half educated people which has the … nihilistic effect. After having dreamed of a life on the top their stipends run low and they can be glad to become night watchers or something similar … Look at these persons . No real worker among them … partly well educated people among them … Anyway corrupted students, unspoiled fantasists … and quite rich ones … [18]
The dirty foam of European Nihilism and Communism touching South Africa coasts under the mask of – you won’t believe it – Anti-Colonialism and anti-Imperialism. It would be funny if not so potentially dangerous and obnoxious.
Nobody said it better than the great Austrian literate and philosopher Egon Friedell [19]. As the French revolution and psychoanalysis – the world wide attack on what is basically the Occidental European culture – is done by the typical representatives of the scum of any revolution or radical and speedy evolvements, it is a pale, parasitic underworld assassination attempt by ideological vampires on anybody and anything which is straight, clear, rational, elegant, dignified and industrious. It is the paranoid and fanatic slave revolt against culture.
Summarized the whole anti-colonialist outcry is just a fake; it is not about political independence or freedom. It is a power play; a systematic moralistic blackmail. It is the revolt of the eternal low-life gutter boys (and sometimes g-girls) against all that is elitist, superior, advanced, and structured. This is what you get if half-witted guys visit half-done schools receiving a half-baked matric certificate and are then let loose on universities and real life. There, they can exhibit their system of jargon as a science clothed in a lot of phrases. Out of a correctly-stated inferiority they make their resulting resentments then a measurement for all others. Professional complainers then turn into professional politicians being the ‘scourge of modern times ’. [20]
Look scum and assorted rabble, if you want to retreat to the caves or the huts, so be it. Do it. But please leave us alone and do not destroy, destruct, and diminish valuable work done by generations. Out and off you go and shut your mouth. Dixit. Fuori il barbari!
1) For the definition of essence please study Thomas Aquinas “De ente et de essentia” and you will find a precise definition. Read it in Latin. You cannot ? Little, silly barbarian you are out. Return to your bloody hut and feel ashamed.
2) A nice term used by Carl Schmitt in the forward to his famous book “The essence of politics” meaning giving it shape, form, meaning and limits. And then have something useful which might serve as a fundament for a meaningful debate.
3) That was under the cold sun of the Hapsburg rule (this word coined by the novelist Joseph Roth) who since Empress Maria Theresa in the mid of the 18th century ordered to build up a school and university system which was at its time world class.
4) Stowasser, Latin-German dictionary, 1971, p 114
5) As Churchill pointed out in his “History of the English speaking people,” the standard and the comfort of living was for many many centuries below the standard in Roman times.
6) You surely find this hilarious scene on Youtube and if not I do not care … take the video out.
7) Come on. Do not always think automatically of the bad bad Nazis …
8) Essad-Bey, Oil and blood in the Orient, DVA, Leipzig 1930, p 151f
9) Goergen, 500 Years Latin America, LIT, 2nd edition, 1993 and Hugh Thomas, The conquest of Mexico, Pimlico 1993. All right, you have to study and read about 1,000 pages. So what? Beyond your brain capacity? Get a few bottles of South African wine, relax, take a timeout, catch a babe and start living.
10) Theodor Mommsen, World Empire of the Caesars, Buechergilde Guttenberg, 1955, p 450
11) Long walk to freedom, Abacus 1995, pp 436,437
12) but I may just refer to the Nubian High culture of Meroe, the kingdom of Kush, some centuries B.C. ago located in what is now Northern Sudan. Interesting that the super-uber-ultra African ideologues do not know too much about that interesting culture, very similar to the Egyptian one. By the way: dug out by European and North American archaeologists. What would they know if we would not have worked with the spade. But envy only sees the blossoming garden, never the spade…
13) (No, not Charles Darwin but) Friedrich August von Hayek, Evolution and spontaneous order, lecture at Zurich, 1983
14) You would be surprised how ingenious they had been. Just look at the aqueducts and start thinking how they got the water moving …
15) The usual suspects hate it. Look at Gillian Schutte (I deliberately don’t help you with contact details, find out for yourselves) how she defines ‘racism’ in her nice little polemic spittle about “All whites are racist”.
16) An amusing book about that phenomena I may recommend is “The Comet” telling the story of Europe without a 1st and 2nd World war, with the institutions and monarchies intact and with Stalin and Hitler just being obscure figures.
17) Not formulated by me but nevertheless definitely witty. Source: “Maerchenwaldzwerg”” in the blog www.sezession.de , 28th of May 2015.
18) this coined by Otto von Bismarck, another “great white man”, speech before the Reichstag, 9th of May 1884, quoted by Hans-Joachim Schoeps, Bismarck, Ullstein, 1981, 304.
19) in his book: The Culture history of modern times, C.H. Beck, Muenchen 1974, pp 866f and 1518.
20) recommend in this regard is the analysis by Paul Johnson, A history of the modern world, J Ball paperbacks, Johannesburg 1985, especially chapter 14 ‘The Bandung generation”
Tim Crowe
I won’t comment at great length on Dr Sitta’s ‘rumbles in the jungle’ because I find them extremely biased and racist at best and historically fallacious at worst. Also, he misrepresents me and spells my surname – CrowE – incorrectly. [At least that’s better than hate-speaking, Shackville Fallist Simon Rakei who refers to me as “Jim Crow”.]
Yes, the “debate [about race, racism, colonialism, Apartheid, decolonization etc.] is [far, far too often] so superficial, so silly, so filled with ideological blackmail, so dominated by bullies, so populated on the other side by cowards and sissies eager to …”
But, these concepts and historical events do warrant discussion, if only to prevent the extremists’ views from prevailing. One thing that is certain is that the five examples listed above are all steeped in ignorance and evil. Sure, elements of even the most repressive oppression may be keystones for a liberated post-world, but can never be used by apologists or recidivists, like Dr Sitta, to hanker for the ‘good old days’.
No number of Nobel prizes can justify empires or enforced colonial assemblages of nations that yearn for independence.
Yes, an “irritating element of this anti-colonialist rumble is that the term [decolonization] is not even defined”. This is certainly true in the case of the University of Cape Town, now hell-bent on a terrifying
inchoate path towards ‘deconstruction’. Of course, this is not true for “decolonization” sensu lato. Many people have offered definitions, almost all of which involve academic ‘cleansing’.
One can investigate the etymological origins of the word ‘colonialism’ to death. But, in the end, it just means taking over a people and the land they occupy without their consent and to their detriment –
or much, much worse.
Use of terms such as “gutter boy” for those with whom you disagree or disrespect does you no credit.
There is nothing wrong with “small nations”, even if they are “slightly barbaric” – in your undefined terms – for wanting to control their own destiny. Things go ‘pear-shaped’ when they start forming bigger and bigger entities through conquest – England being the best/worst example.
“Culture” is something that just “is”. It’s the bigots who decide which ones are “advanced”, “productive”, or “organized” – with or without “cavemen”.
“Is an empire bad, as such?”
YES! Some may be less repressive than others, e.g. British vs French, but they’re still all bad.
I greatly enjoyed Monty Python’s film Life of Brian, but would not have liked to live in Judea under Roman occupation.
Ranking the Mongols, Spanish and British according to how ‘bad’ they were as colonists/conquerors
may be an interesting scholarly exercise, but it doesn’t make the British look any better.
Yes, “small nations can prosper within an empire and gain significance beyond their numbers”. Ireland is a very good example. But, please don’t pretend to know what I think about my ‘Irishness’ or the role the Roman Catholic Church played in its retention of Irish national identity.
Also, please reconsider talking about the “tremendous cultural work done [any] colonialists and empire-builders”. By and large, all they “spread” was misery.
Characterizing European imperialism as “stupid” is disingenuous at best. The great capitals of Europe would be bereft of their magnificent architecture without it.
What’s in a country’s name? Perhaps South Africa should be called “Sania” (or maybe “Insania”), after its original people, who have been hanging around this part of Africa for more than 100000 years. But the San would probably object to this because “San” is a name (meaning ‘foreigner’) imposed on them by Khoekhoe ‘settlers’ who only ‘arrived’ in southern Africa a few thousand years ago. In any event, this
is not possible since, sadly, none of the many KhoiSan languages are ‘official’ according to the current government.
As much as you might like to dream, pre-colonial Africa was anything but “dark or disorganized”. Ask any mummified Pharaoh.
Now to Part ‘deux’
I’m not sure that many Brazilians share your fond memories of rule by an “Austrian archduchess”, as much as I admire the era of rationality and enlightenment.
All I can say about:
“It would have been good for Africa and its people to have remained under colonial rule for more time, at least one hundred years more.”
is: which ones?
With regard to:
“Who abolished slavery? The European powers, at the Congress of Vienna in 1814.”
is: Why? Not out of the goodness of their ‘hearts’, but because it was necessary to replace it with colonialism to keep making money.
With regard to “Arabian” slavery, some argue that it was relatively much more benign that that by your fellow Europeans, and possibly even the working conditions in mid-19th Century England!
Was Nelson Mandela an “uppish and rebellious native”?
If, by ‘coconuts’ and ‘Uncle Toms’ and ‘sell-outs’ you mean people of ‘colour’ with self-generated dignity and economic independence, let’s have lots more of ‘them’!
Yes, the “Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians – whoever” have co-opted ‘Western’ “technologies,
science or methods”. But, they have retained their own national identities, and the co-option should be working in both ways.
With regard to Austrian music/dance, there is, of course the “godless”, “shameless”, “indecent whirling-dance” – the Waltz.
Now to Haiti, the richest of all the colonies.
First, you fail to mention the ‘perfectly extreme’, vicious, soul-destroying and ruthless form of slavery that developed there after the Spanish and French imperialists eradicated the indigenous Taíno people.
Then, of course, the Napoleonic French colluded with the vicious and illiterate former slave, Jean-Jacques Dessalines, to betray the ‘George-Washington-like’, liberator Toussaint Louverture. This set the precedent for hundreds of years of internal strife (including genocide and mass rape) promoted by rapacious imperialists, the most recent being the USA. There was no Marshall Plan for Haiti. It just isn’t in the imperialists’ ‘interests’.
The Haitians have no need for “European culture” or “religion”. They have their own – a fascinating mosaic.
With regard to:
“The last bimbo walking out of the bush into town to get a job there and make a living has more sense and respect for culture and more industry and productivity in himself than they have. Why this self-hate, this longing for a common cultural suicide exists – I do not know; maybe psychologists have an answer for that.”
Shame on the editors for allowing it to be published.
With regard to Fallists, whom you describe variously as “half-witted guys”, “professional complainers”, “scum and assorted rabble barbarians”, whom you “want to retreat to the caves or the huts”, I ask you to
consider my favourite Lyndon Johnson quote:
“When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your block off.”
Harald Sitta
Sorry for misspelling. Rather a mis-typing. Will answer in a personal mail. Have a nice weekend.
Harald Sitta
Dear Sir,
Thank you for the time and industry
you invested in my two articles. To be
criticized is better than being ignored and as I like to hit out I must also
accept some blows. This said I may just make some comments.
I won’t comment at great length on Dr Sitta’s ‘rumbles in the jungle’
because I find them extremely biased and racist at best
My style is polemic ( see ‘Polemos’ ,
the Greek God of conflict and dispute) and sardonic, I admit. Please take it cum grano salis as certainly such an article
cannot present the whole history of
colonialism and imperialism. The term “Racist” I do not even comment. Maybe the
use of that term should be taxed, this might then balance the bugdet.
and historically fallacious at worst. I do
not think so. But a 2,000 page
history of imperialism was not intended. But maybe this is my next book J
Also, he misrepresents me where ??and
spells my surname – CrowE – incorrectly. I
do apologize, a typing error. The “typing error devil’ is one of the most obnoxious. But I have also in many,
many times experienced a wrong typing of my quite simple and short family name.
That happens… [At least that’s better than hate-speaking,
Shackville Fallist Simon Rakei who refers to me as “Jim Crow”.] I guess that was a deliberate joke like ‘sell
out” ….
Yes, the “debate [about race, racism, colonialism, Apartheid, decolonization
etc.] is [far, far too often] so superficial, so silly, so filled with ideological
blackmail, so dominated by bullies, so populated on the other side by cowards
and sissies eager to …”
But, these concepts and historical events do warrant discussion, if only to
prevent the extremists’ views from prevailing. One thing that is certain is
that the five examples listed above are all steeped in ignorance and evil. I don’t know to which one you refer. Sure, power always has
a dark side. My point is, that empires existed which had also a lot of
constructive, cultivated, developing elements. Hapsburg rule for example in
Bosnia-Herzegowine from 1878-1918 was
doing a very good job. The Bukovina, acquired end of the 18.century a more or
less devastated land was developed and German, Polish, Ukrainian, Rumanian and Jewish
cultures could prosper. The capital, Czernowitz was a cultural jewel. From the
17th century on a lot of Irishmen came to Austria to serve ‘Emperor
and empire’ and made their valuable contribution.
that Sure, elements of even the most
repressive oppression may be keystones for a liberated post-world, but can
never be used by apologists or recidivists, like Dr Sitta, to hanker for the
‘good old days’. What is a ‘recidivist’?
Derives what word, which I will respectfully bag into my treasure of ‘political lingo neo-logismen from ‘recidivus’ meaning to come into a new
existence? What is gone is gone but before we destroy something it is better to
think about and re-form something old. “Good
ol’ days’ never really existed but we shall have a fair and balanced view of
the past.
No number of Nobel prizes can justify empires Of course it may. There are a
lot of criteria with which to judge an empire: Peace, order, infrastructure,
cultural and economic development, schools, hospitals …..
enforced colonial assemblages of nations that yearn for independence. Who is deciding who is “yearning’ for
independence? The usual suspects, being radical power hungry intellectuals and
petty party professional politicians wanting a place on the trough? Any referendums
to quote BEFORE independence? From 1942 on the Japanese and Subhas Chandra Bose , prominent INC politician who
defected to the axis tried to recruit soldiers among the many, many Indian pow’s
for their INA (Indian National Army), even
using torture. No chance, nearly all of them remained faithful to “Imperator
and Rex”. That I call a referendum. And 1959 all French parts of the ‘Communite Francaise’ – with the
exception of Guinea under the influence of the later blood thirsty tyrant Sekou Toure voted to stay within the CF although with a greater
degree of autonomy. De Gaulle then for reasons not even explained by his biographer
Lacouture decided to drop the whole
thing.
Yes, an “irritating element of this anti-colonialist rumble is that the term
[decolonization] is not even defined”. This is certainly true in the case of
the University of Cape Town, now hell-bent on a terrifying
inchoate path towards ‘deconstruction’. That
is my point: decolonisation means deconstruction or destruction because it is a
revolt against culture. Of course,
this is not true for “decolonization” sensu lato. There is no ‘wide’ sense only a strict sense. Many people have
offered definitions, almost all of which involve academic ‘cleansing’.
One can investigate the etymological origins of the word ‘colonialism’ to
death. No, with all due respect: Working
hard on getting the terms right is the essential prerequisite for a meaningful
debate. But, in the end, it just means taking over a people and the land
they occupy without their consent That might be but this is political history
since the beginning and to their detriment – No, definitely not always.
or much, much worse.
Use of terms such as “gutter boy” for those with whom you disagree or
disrespect does you no credit. I used this
term for hooligans and nitwits like the EFF students, BLF and assorted sweet-hearts
who terrorize others and burn works of arts etc ..
There is nothing wrong with “small nations”, even if they are “slightly
barbaric” – in your undefined terms – for wanting to control their own destiny.
This is what I said >> please
read!! I may commit the scandalous crime of quoting myself>>> “Look, I
do understand the strong .. Well done” ”Things go ‘pear-shaped’ when they
start forming bigger and bigger entities through conquest – England being the
best/worst example.
“Culture” is something that just “is”.
No, with all due respect ‘just being’ is not enough. It’s the bigots who decide which ones are
“advanced”, “productive”, or “organized” – with or without “cavemen”.All right, I got the message: Beethoven’s
symphonies are as good as didgeridoo playing. If you say otherwise you are a
bigot. I am a bigot! And of course Roman
and Hellenistic culture was superior to the culture of Celtic & Germanic &
Illyric tribes – my distant forefathers ( – and mothers) .Not that it was
valueless but I definitely thing in hierarchies.
“Is an empire bad, as such?”
YES! No!!!! Some may
be less repressive than others, e.g. British vs French, but they’re still all
bad. I may repeat that I am a confessing
Imperialist especially if the empire
is Catholic and Hapsburg. Next time I am in CT we go for a beer and you tell me
personally how BAD the Hapsburgs had been.
I greatly enjoyed Monty Python’s film Life of Brian, but would not have
liked to live in Judea under Roman occupation. Me too. Still the wrong climate. But living in the province of Africa for
example was for that time surely quite fine.
Ranking the Mongols, Spanish and British according to how ‘bad’ they were as
colonists/conquerors
may be an interesting scholarly exercise, but it doesn’t make the British look
any better.I admit it takes a lot to
make the – I guess you meant the –
English look better J
and believe me in the tragic history of Ireland my heart is on the Irish side. See
also the many Irishmen who served for “Emperor and empire” See above!)
Yes, “small nations can prosper within an empire and gain significance
beyond their numbers”. Ireland is a very good example. No in my humble opinion it is not a very good example. But, please
don’t pretend to know what I think about my ‘Irishness’ or the role the Roman
Catholic Church played in its retention of Irish national identity.I do not pretend to know what you think but
the Catholic faith and Church structures in my humble opinion helped the Irish
to preserve their identity and substance.
Also, please reconsider talking about the “tremendous cultural work done
[any] colonialists and empire-builders”. By and large, all they “spread” was
misery. Surely not. Misery was spread by
all kind of Bolshie and Nazi empires of the 20th century ..
Characterizing European imperialism as “stupid” is disingenuous at best. I said some political acts of Europeans had
been stupid. The great capitals of Europe would be bereft of their
magnificent architecture without it.
Without what ????
What’s in a country’s name? A lot !!!
Perhaps South Africa should be called “Sania” (or maybe “Insania”), after its
original people, who have been hanging around this part of Africa for more than
100000 years. But the San would probably object to this because “San” is a name
(meaning ‘foreigner’) imposed on them by Khoekhoe ‘settlers’ who only ‘arrived’
in southern Africa a few thousand years ago. In any event, this
is not possible since, sadly, none of the many KhoiSan languages are ‘official’
according to the current government. “Insania’
is a good one especially for some universities. “ Insane University of Insania”
would fit well. As much as you might like to dream,
pre-colonial Africa was anything but “dark or disorganized”. I wrote in general about disorganized parts
of the planet. Ask any mummified Pharaoh. Egypt was only a small part of the continent. But referring to the high
cultures of Meroe, the Kingdom of Kusch ( today’s Sudan) and Abyssinia would be
a much better argument. Read my FN 12! The thing is: all those ancient and
old cultures had been digged out by
European and North American archaeologists. They preserved and analysed all
those cultures.
Now to Part ‘deux’
I’m not sure that many Brazilians share your fond memories of rule by an
“Austrian archduchess”, Well, we can ask
them. In general Austrian and Hapsburg rule is well remembered. as much as
I admire the era of rationality and enlightenment. Me too and this is endangered by a barbarian mob. See >> EFF, BLF
etc
All I can say about:
“It would have been good for Africa and its people to have remained under
colonial rule for more time, at least one hundred years more.”
is: which ones? It would also have
been good for the peoples of the Western part of the Roman empire if it had not collapsed. Surely a step by step
de-colonization would have been fine from the 50’s on but the rapid break down
of the empires was destructive.
With regard to:
“Who abolished slavery? The European powers, at the Congress of Vienna in
1814.”
is: Why? Not out of the goodness of their ‘hearts’, Well, if we look at the ‘anti-slavery’ movement there had been
idealistic and realistic considerations. In any way the Europeans had been the
first to abolish slavery, in other cultures that institutions remains and we
may sadly notice a comeback ( human trafficking with so called refugees, trade
with prostitutes) but
because it was necessary to replace it with colonialism to keep making money. No, it was not. Economically, slavery like plundering
or raiding is bad business. Maybe a few
profit but the economy and the population makes no gains. At the end of the 18th
and beginning of the 19th century European powers lost a lot of
colonies. Africa was still not interesting, beside some ports. A new wave of colonialism
started after the Europeans powers became strong and wealthy through
industrialization. Most new territories had been gained from the 70’s on.
With regard to “Arabian” slavery, some argue the oil sheiks ?? that it was relatively much more benign that that
by your fellow Europeans, and possibly even the working conditions in mid-19th
Century England! I have learned about
vast slave hunts, mass killings, castrations, rape and so on. Don’t sell me the
Muslim Arabs as cultivated and benign .
Was Nelson Mandela an “uppish and rebellious native”?Now you are acting demagogic. I clearly wrote, that “not all was merry
and soft and nice.”.I clearly made my point, on one than more place in the articles, that our
colonialism also had dark sides.
If, by ‘coconuts’ and ‘Uncle Toms’ and ‘sell-outs’ I quoted that terms as invectives used by the fanatics against all kind of people-o-c who do not obey to their narrow minded
ideology. Should have been very clear. You turn the meaning around. Don’t do that, please. you mean people of
‘colour’ with self-generated dignity and economic independence, let’s have lots
more of ‘them’!
Yes, the “Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, Indians – whoever” have co-opted
‘Western’ “technologies,
science or methods”. But, they have retained their own national identities, That was exactly my point !! and the
co-option should be working in both ways. That
goes without saying, European cultures – and that was one essential element of
their success- had always be ready to learn and adapt.
With regard to Austrian music/dance, there is, of course the “godless”,
“shameless”, “indecent whirling-dance” – the Waltz. I do not get that one. I know from my musical studies that in the
beginning the waltz was criticised also
in Austria by some reactionaries. But then it triumphed … like good classic jazz
or tango. So what is your point?
Now to Haiti, the richest of all the colonies.
First, you fail to mention the ‘perfectly extreme’, vicious, soul-destroying
and ruthless form of slavery that developed there after the Spanish and French
imperialists eradicated the indigenous Taíno people. Leyenda negra ?? Anyway,
surely the slave economy in Haiti was horrible. If all stories told are correct
we may be sceptical in the sense of Popper.
Then, of course, the Napoleonic French colluded with the vicious and
illiterate former slave, really ? he was
quite a gifted military tactician. Jean-Jacques Dessalines, to betray the
‘George-Washington-like’, liberator Toussaint Louverture. Toussaint-Louverture ( a double name) please if you are strict in
typing!! The war of independence was cruel, Napoleon
sent General Leclerc against him and that war was a disaster for all. (see Jacques
Presser, Napoleon, DVA 1977, pp 356 ff) . Dessalines was a black general who
continued to fight until victory over the French 1803. My point is that the indigenous
elites did not do better. Nobody would have stopped them governing fairly
adequate. This set the precedent for
hundreds of years of internal strife (including genocide and mass rape)
promoted by rapacious imperialists, the most recent being the USA. There was no
Marshall Plan for Haiti. You mean mr
Marshall paying directly into the Swiss bank account of Mr Duvalier? It just isn’t in the imperialists’
‘interests’. Sure, Haiti was completely
uninteresting. So what ? Free of bad imperialist interest and intervention they
could have done better like many nations and states out of the scope of
imperial interest ( Norway, Sweden, Switzerland, …). But they did not. And why did
Siam despite being an object of British and French imperial ambitions doing quite
well ???
The Haitians have no need for “European culture” or “religion”. They have
their own – a fascinating mosaic. Voodoo
?? Voodoo economics? A mosaic ? especially after an earth quake when they are
not even able to clean up the rubble for years !
With regard to:
“The last bimbo walking out of the bush into town to get a job there and
make a living has more sense and respect for culture and more industry and
productivity in himself than they have. Why this self-hate, this longing for a
common cultural suicide exists – I do not know; maybe psychologists have an
answer for that.”
Shame on the editors for allowing it to be published. Pure demagoguery from your side.NOW I get
angry! I criticised the crowd of nihilistic intellectuals ( mostly “white”!!)
who work on decomposing our culture and compared – AS A GOOD EXAMPLE – people from
the bush coming into town to make a living. The sense is clear: I have more respect
for ‘darkies’ wanting to climb up than “whiteys’ degenerating and falling down.
If that is racist for you I could not care less. Full stop.
With regard to Fallists, I referred
in general to cultural nihilists, that includes the ‘Fallsitas”. whom you
describe variously as “half-witted guys”, “professional complainers”, “scum and
assorted rabble barbarians”, whom you “want to retreat to the caves or the
huts”, actually with them we all will
walk to the caves. See Theodor Adorno “Minima moralia”. I ask you to
consider my favourite Lyndon Johnson quote:
“When you put your foot on a man’s neck and hold him down for three hundred
years, and then you let him up, what’s he going to do? He’s going to knock your
block off.” I do not get it. It is
not part of Austrian culture to put a foot on a man’s neck for 300 years, maybe
for thirty J but to constantly work
on the improvement of culture and general conditions as most of our European
forefathers ( and – mothers, of course) did for themselves and for others.
Sorry, dear Professor, you did not
get the essence of my articles. But maybe over some beer next time in CT we can
prolong our nice discussion… And you will
surely enjoy reading my coming book “Cross haired” Part 1: Of quacks,
horse-dealers and spin-doctors and Part 2: The end of bluff and dazzle.
I may remain always affectionate
Harald Sitta
Tim Crowe
Dear Harald,
Thank you for replying to my comments on your ‘Rumbles in the Jungle’ pieces. It’s a
rare event indeed for public intellectuals to engage in debate, let alone discussion.
Here are my ramblings.
“My (your) style is polemic …”
I know what polemic means. Provocatively confrontational. BUT, by literally denigrating some people as hut-dwellers and barbarians, gutter boys and bimbos, you go too far. This plays into the hands of extreme ‘black’ racists and Fallists who would destroy aspects of the civilization you and I cherish.
I understand why you abhor the endless debates on race and racism.
BUT, any serious commentator on the matters we discuss cannot avoid dealing with the
‘concept’ of race and its roles in racism. By not doing so, one cedes the high ground to those who take pride in their meaningless racial existence and deny ‘members’ of ‘other’ races their human rights.
I really took no offense relating to your misspelling my surname. It is also often misspelled/pronounced CROWIE. BUT, I react in that manner because some individuals I criticize can do little beyond jumping on people who mispronounce their names.
“I don’t know to which one you refer. Sure, power always has a dark side. My point is, that empires existed which had also a lot of constructive, cultivated, developing elements. Hapsburg rule for example in Bosnia-Herzegowine from 1878-1918 was doing a very good job …”
Yes — Words like “empire” and “colony” cannot escape the causative processes of
conquer and occupy vis-à-vis the conquered and occupied. Yes, there may be ‘positive’ consequences emanating from conquest. BUT, most of them are indirectly beneficial and emanate from general policies or ones deemed necessary to keep the conquered ‘in line” and the colonists wealthy and happy. It all depends on how the conquered are treated. Perhaps the Austrians were somewhat/sometimes/in-some-ways benevolent to the Balkan peoples they ruled. That was not the case with the English, French, Spaniards. Belgians and Germans. Some of my Irish relatives would still kill certain Englishmen if they could get away with it.
When I described you as an “apologist/recidivist”, I intended to characterize you as someone who longed for the resurrection of empires and imperial domination. This,
to my mind is an indefensible position.
Yes, statutory empires are pretty much gone. BUT, Martinique is still literally part of France and a referendum on independence might not keep it that way. With regard to Africa, I’m not even confident that Zimbabweans, even destitute ones, would vote en masse to revert to being a British colony, however sure of that Boris Johnson might be. Most imperial masters jettisoned their colonies when they stopped benefitting financially by keeping
them.
Oh yes, the “Good old days’ really existed for merit-deficient privileged colonists. The only way to balance such privilege is to eradicate it. The Fallists at have cottoned on to the fact that, as long as they can sell their unreasonable demands as necessary for that eradication, they will continue to do so.
So, please don’t give them articles like the “Rumbles” that they might use to ‘socially justify’ their nefarious acts.
You respond to my statement: “No number of Nobel prizes can justify empires”. By saying, yes it can. Just think a bit. Hitler’s ‘greater’ Germany, including Austria and other bits and pieces of Europe, by far won the most gold medals at the 1936 Olympic games and would lead in Nobel prizes but much, much more. Yet he and it perpetrated the most heinous of
war crimes and genocide in history.
What is needed in this globalized world are metrics of success that are linked only to an individual’s inherent ability and willingness to work to make the most of it. There are basic human rights and there really is meritocracy. What we don’t need are anarchists, Fascists,
Fallists and neo-colonialists who resolutely pursue fixing the rules to suit ‘them’.
Your “Of course it may” would require the colonized to confirm that in a free and fair referendum.
Your use of prisoners of war choosing to stay with King and Empire rather than subject themselves to a new Japanese one carries little weight. This referendum involved choosing the lesser of two evils. With regard to the French colonies in 1959, the conqueror made them a better NEW offer to stay on board that persuaded locals to abandon dubious
‘liberators’.
DeGaulle “dropped the whole thing” probably.because he re-did his sums and realized that France could not deliver on the new deal. So, better cut bait than have another Vietnam.
“That is my point: decolonisation means deconstruction or destruction because it is a revolt against culture.”
Decolonization could potentially be constructive. In the case of ‘my’ academic institute (FitzPatrick Institute of African Ornithology – http://www.fitzpatrick.uct.ac.za/), our team of staff and students decolonized it from a quasi-British backwater centre for bird natural history into one of the world’s top centres of avian and conservation biology in less than three decades.
Of course, this is not true for “decolonization” sensu lato. There is no ‘wide’ sense only a strict sense. Many people have offered definitions, almost all of which involve academic
‘cleansing’.
One can investigate the etymological origins of the word ‘colonialism’ to death. No, with all due respect: Working hard on getting the terms right is the essential prerequisite for a meaningful debate. But, in the end, colonialism is just nothing more than taking over a people and the land they occupy without their consent.
Nothing good (except inadvertently) can come from colonial oppression. If the Fallists have their way at UCT, factions within them will fight for yet another repressive hegemony once they have vaporized ‘whiteness’.
There is nothing wrong with “small nations”, even if they are “slightly barbaric” – in your undefined terms – for wanting to control their own destiny. Things go toxic when power is used to become much bigger by conquering viable alternative small nations. No number of residual ‘good things’ can justify the Spanish, French, British and Soviet Empires.
“Culture” REALLY is something that just “is”. Once you assume your self-admitted bigoted stance that some are more civilized or beneficent, you’re in the gutter with the radical Fallists, Verwoerd, Hitler and (I hope I’m wrong) Donald Trump. There is no gold medal for the best culture. Each stands on the shoulders of those that came before it and should avail itself of desirable attributes of those with which it co-exists. The really viable
cultures ‘interbreed’ and evolve.
“Is an empire bad, as such?”
Although, it is theoretically possible for conquerors to be benevolent, the reality (epitomized by the great civilizer Belgian King Leopold) is that they are not, even your beloved Hapsburgs.
YES! Let’s get together when you’re next it Cape Town to chat face to face. I’m in the telephone book and the editors can give you my e-mail address.
With regard to my ‘Irishness’ and the role that the Roman Catholic Church played in its retention, you just need to look at the massive, self-serving religious infrastructure and consult the children and women exploited by rapacious clerics.
“Surely not. Misery was spread by all kind of Bolshie and Nazi empires of the 20th century.”
Wrong again. You can trace massive “misery” back to the Mongol Empire of the 13th Century, the largest contiguous land empire in history. It emerged entirely from the subjugation, wholesale destruction on an unprecedented scale, widespread disease and famine, often resulting in the genocidal deaths of the majority of ‘imperiialized’ populations – through killing men and raping women. That’s why so many of the world’s men carry Genghis Khan’s genes. http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/gnxp/2010/08/1-in-200-men-direct-descendants-of-genghis-khan/#.WXbaeYSGPIU
The great capitals of Europe would be bereft of their magnificent architecture without it. Without what ???? The billions of $$$$ conquerors derived from their conquered subjects.
“Surely a step by step de-colonization would have been fine from the 50’s on but the rapid break down of the empires was destructive.”
Sorry, you’re being massively naïve. No emperor or imperial hegemony will cede power
if maintaining the empire remains in their ‘interests’. They must be thrown out by revolutionaries or leave because of economic reasons. The South African CODESA and Constitution were virtually historically unique. Fallists and their political masters would
undo them in a heartbeat.
With regard to slavery, it is alive and well in Mauritania, but the African Union does nothing.
“Don’t sell me the Muslim Arabs as cultivated and benign.”
Probably the last and only “benign” people weremthe San – >100000 years ago, until the more ‘civilized’ Khoi and Bantus ‘conquered’ them.
Colonialism doesn’t “have dark sides” it IS the Dark Side.
With regard to, ‘coconuts’, ‘Uncle Toms’, ‘sell-outs’ and cultural co-option, individuals should forage amongst the broadest range of cultures and pick what suits them INDIVIDUALLY. The last thing one should do is blindly ‘self-identify’ with any group or ideology.
The “point” of my ‘waltz’ story was to emphasize that some (maybe many) people, within and outside Austria, initially described it negatively.
The same happenede-Washington-like’, liberator Toussaint Louverture. Toussaint-L’Ouverture( a double name) please if you are strict in typing!! The war of independence was cruel, Napoleon sent General Leclerc against him and that war was a disaster for all. (see Jacques Presser, Napoleon, DVA 1977, pp 356 ff) .
With regard to Haiti, Dessalines was a megalomaniac who perpetrated genocide and whole-scale rape on the remaining whites. He then became a dictator. When he attempted to reimpose slave-like working conditions, he was slaughtered by his buddies.
With regard to General/Secretary-of-State/Defence/Nobel-laureate George Marshall, I know of no involvement between him and Papa Doc Duvalier. The Marshall Plan was much, much more than something “in the imperialists’ interests”. It saved West Germany and Berlin and
resuscitated Europe.
With regard to Siam, Singapore and the rest of SE Asia, they did fine for themselves after they dumped Britain and France.
With regard to Haitian Voodoo, it’s probably as good a religion as any other. It has
nothing to do with economics, other than some politico linking the two words. Haiti’s tragic collapse especially after an earth quake was due to its racially rotten socio-political
system. At one stage, some crazy sociologist listed more than 100 racial variants within its island!
Fine for criticizing the crowd of nihilistic intellectuals (mostly “white”!!) who work on decomposing our culture. BUT, shame on you again for feeling the need to characterize
people as “from the bush” and ‘darkies’.
By using these terms, you enable the Fallists and anti-‘white’ racists.
With regard to my Johnson ‘foot-on-neck’ quote, I cast no aspersions on Austria. Perhaps your volk were amongst the least oppressive conquerors.
Once again, let’s chat face to face.
I too remain always affectionate.
Tim Crowe
Harald Sitta
To all hundreds of thousands of followers of the exchange of opinion between Professor TC and myself we have agreed to meet in CT over a beer !No blood on the floor 🙂