Ubuntu

This piece of literature was extremely complex, and had my head spinning. All I can really do with it is pick out a thing or two that I find intersting or challenging.

One of the foremost things that grabbed my attention was the final paragraph of the text. In this paragraph, Said is talking about the fact that divisions are just that, divisive. They are ways that we draw lines between each other, and allow ourselves to think that we are better than someone else. One person that has fought this kind of mentality is Bishop Desmond Tutu. He created an entire theology around the interconnectedness of all of humanity named Ubuntu. To get the first layer of meaning out of it you only need one brief statement, "i am because you are." It was this statement that helped to keep peace in South Africa after the fall of apartheid. As one of the more recent events involving division, I think that it is something that Said would care very much about. He seems to be very adamant about the fact that we distance ourselves from one another around the world. He says it very well when he describes that we have limited our view to just black white, indian american. Who and what we are is so much more than that, but is so little cared about by the institutionalized hatred, anger, and fear that plagues the world today.

Said also talks a little bit about immigration. I love the quote that he has by Ali Shariati. It talks about how all of us are immigrants. It levels off all of humanity and puts them in a constant state of flux. It reminds me that there is never any real end to life, just movement, with the rest of humanity, toward our ultimate goal, whatever it may be. I also thought that it was important when Shariati asked the question, "Who can ever fix a standard?" This, to me, is an extremely important question in today's society. Everyone everywhere is constantly being held up to some standard. Whether it be girls feeling like they have to be twigs to be pretty, children being subjected to unattainabletest standards, or governments around the world being held up to our standard of democracy.

Another part of the article that grabbed my attention is on page 557 paragraph 15. In this paragraph, Said is referring to the long history that the United States has of siding with dictators and other tyrants around the world. I agree one hundred percent with his example, and it prompted me to think about the way that imperialism has been exercised by the United States in Latin America. Ever since the beginning of the Cold War, the United States began to protect its interests in Latin America from the "communist threat." What this really meant was training, supplying and funding dictators all throughout Central and South America. With all of the dictators that we supported, we wrote it off as "protecting our interests," when what it was really about was being able to control their "friendly" leaders.

Finally, I thought the part where Said was talking about how imperialism leads to exterminism was very interesting. It made me begin to think about why we attempt to smother, or "assimilate" other cultures into our own in the post-colonial world. Is it right to practice this exterminism? Do we practice it for love of our country, or fear of someone elses? I don't know, just posing a few questions.

So, to finally wrap it up, Said said (ha) many things that touched not just on the political situations of the early nineties, but also was able to connect to many of the things that we still experience in our culture today. Does this mean that we've learned nothing in the last ten years?