I originally intended to pen an article on Japan’s COVID efforts, but while doing so decided that there is something far more important to note from an American perspective.
Most Americans have little knowledge of overseas. It is hardly surprising. The United States is big and isolated enough that most Americans do not know nor really care about what is going on overseas beyond the broad strokes, and few of us ever actually go overseas besides an occasional two-week vacation.
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I spend way too much time playing the WW2 strategy game Hearts of Iron IV, and most of that time is spent using the Kaiserreich alternate history mod. In Hearts of Iron IV and Kaiserreich, you start with the world as it is on January 1, 1936, and can play as any country. In Hearts of Iron IV, that can mean playing as large countries such as Nazi Germany or the USA, or smaller countries like Hungary or Turkey. In Kaiserreich, an alternate history where the Germans won World War I, that can mean playing the syndicalist Union of Britain or the restored Qing Empire.
My favorite country to play is the French Republic, better known as National France. Mainland France fell to syndicalist revolution after being defeated by the Germans, but republicans and reactionaries, led by General Petain, fled to Algeria and dream of retaking the home country from the syndicalists. The country can go in a wide variety of directions, ranging from a democratic republic to an integralist monarchy.
But what all of those paths have in common is that it’s a country for white people, for those who moved to France either under the colonial regime or who fled the syndicalists. The actual Algerians or West Africans have little or no rights, and in fact are forced to undergo forced labor. In fact, it is the monarchy which actually provides the most rights for the Africans, though it really is the most rights for the African chieftains who serve the French kingdom.
The point which I’m driving at is that there are two different types of racism which animate National France. On the one hand, republicans declare that the Africans are inferior, and so must be ‘civilized’ to become proper civilized Frenchmen. On the other hand, the monarchists declare that the Africans are inferior, and so should be left alone to do as they please under their fellow African rulers. In neither situation are Africans thought of as equals.
(more…)I have owned this blog for a number of years, but have restarted it over the past few months. This is because I have determined that it is time for me to really consider Asian, particularly Japanese studies. And it is for that reason that I decided that it was best for me to go over Edward Said’s famous book on Orientalism.
I first was required to read snippets of the book in college, and recall viscerally disliking it. I do think that some of it was due to emotional immaturity, though I hardly wholly agree with Said’s thoughts. But having finished the first part today, there are two things which I would like to note down for the record.
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East Asia Thought 