Image:cleveland
The United States, having invaded and militarily occupied
Afghanistan, imagine it then enforcing the English language upon the
Afghani people, facilitating a mass colonization of that country with
American settlers, imposing draconian restrictions on religious freedoms
and practice, establishing a regime that governs through martial law
and denying political and civil freedoms, decides in Washington DC to
construct an ethnological theme park to enable tourists to ogle at
traditional Afghan culture. Such a scenario would invite charges of
racist colonialism and inevitably draw parallels with the
‘model villages’ set up by Hitler to convince international opinion that Jewish culture was respected and flourished in Nazi-Germany.
Nazi Propaganda Village-Theresienstadt In Then Czechoslovakia
Image:archivenet
There was of course a troubling period during the establishment of
the United States which witnessed a brutal assault upon the cultures of
indigenous peoples, marginalized, oppressed and under siege from
westward expansion, their lands stolen, traditions and culture
suppressed. Similar colonial aggression and racist intolerance was
imposed upon peoples within the British Empire during the 19th Century.
Such actions derive from a darker side of humanity, which now thankfully
have been consigned to history by progressive liberal nations. The
chaotic aftermath of the Second World War, and emergence of human rights
and international law, along with the creation of the United Nations
(UN) was to seek an end to colonialism and the suppression of peoples.
Cold War Cartoon
Image:archivenet
Unfortunately in drawing up UN charters and statutes, during the highly polarized and politically charged climate of the
Cold War,
definitions and agreements as to what constituted ’colonialism fell
into two basic camps, one defined by former colonial powers such as
Britain, whose empire was an overseas possession, and communist powers
such as the Soviet Union and China, who argued forcibly to ensure
political control and sovereignty over peoples and lands they had
subjugated, such as Tibet and East Turkestan. They were happy to agree
to an end of olonialism, but only the
blue-water variety, where
the dominant power controlled nations overseas. On that dubious basis
they were unwilling to accept that their annexations and rule over
Tibetans, Uyghurs, Mongolians, or Kazakhs, and all the occupied nations
of Eastern Europe and Central Asia, were colonial. It was not in their
ideological, political and economic interest to acknowledge that
reality.
This resulted in subsequent UN Charters on colonialism and the rights
of peoples, in terms of national self-determination (independence)
essentially supporting the political and territorial integrity of
states, in which peoples were not afforded the right under international
law or UN Charter the right to independence per se, but were granted
minority rights such as autonomy. This left both the Soviet Union and
China in complete, unchallenged control of territories that had been
annexed an beyond international or United Nations interference.
Colonial Propaganda Staged In 1960's Occuped Tibet
Image:meltdowntibet
With the collapse of the Soviet Union the world was left with one
last great land empire, communist China. Under the socialist flag of
communist China the expansionist aggression of colonialism continues to
suppress formerly independent peoples, such as Tibetans and Uyghurs,
while colonialist policies exploit and erode those cultures. Like other
empires there is a racist component to Chinese rule, in which the
professed superiority of Han China presides with arrogant and violent
patronage over so-called minority peoples. One very nauseating example
of that attitude, and not too removed from the imaginary scenario that
opened this post, is the so-called
‘National Ethnic Minorities Park’
in Beijing. Supposedly designed to protect so-called ethnic heritage,
at this claimed anthropological museum, Tibetans, Uyghurs and others
peoples are employed to daily perform, against a culturally themed
architectural backdrop, various traditions for the benefit of tourists.
Directions For Communist China's Cultural Zoo
Image:archivenet
Sitting there, watching the sickening burlesque of propaganda
performance, are visitors aware of the manipulation and distortion they
are exposed to? Is there any recognition that the very cultures on
display are violently imprisoned and abused by the same communist regime
which claims to be protecting such peoples. Anyone possessed of
intelligence and integrity would of course not endorse this obscene
mockery of Tibetan and Uyghur culture, and be opposed to any action that
may legitimize China’s colonialism and exploitation of occupied nations
such as Tibet and East Turkestan.
Source :
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