The UK Independent characteristically highlights the changing status of Asia and Africa in world diplomacy, nonetheless pointing out the Eurocentric nature of technological advances. In the last few years, technology has progressed in amazingly fast, creating what is known as a global village. Ironically, few notice that this village is sustained by servers essentially situated in the First World. And the outsourcing of work from these nations is what sustains developing economies. This is why; the British Foreign Secretary David Miliband recently told a group of more than 350 ambassadors and Foreign Office officials that Europe is ultimately what matters to the world at large. His approach is classically that of a neo-colonialist. First he waxed eloquent about the fast developments of both Africa and Asia and then rapidly went into a white supremacist stance. It is Europe which sustains the world economy. He further contends that the internet has revolutionized the way in which international relationships can be maintained.
It is passé that the web has changed the ways we trade, the ways in which we learn and the way in which information is disseminated to a huge audience in nano-seconds. Yours truly literally writes this report from the outskirts of a forest in interior India. The net has its advantages but then it robs us of the human factor. Though First World leaders point out how there is no dearth of on-ground personnel, yet there is no substitute for two races inter-mingling. This dialogue has been a cornerstone of International Diplomacy. It is one thing for people to chat on the net, another thing entirely for them to meet face to face and shake hands. History repeatedly proves that personal charisma often wins over national prejudices.
Other nations have been quick to respond to the British endeavor to digitalize diplomacy. The French President, Nicolas Sarkozy has already announced his country’s new strategies for dealing with old colonial subjects. He too feels that fixed embassy staff needs to delegate responsibilities and also be mobile within a nation. That is, when they need to be physically present at all.
All this sounds fantastic and is also inevitable. But history has a way of repeating itself. The Early Modern philosopher Vico and the Modernist Nietzsche both had proved how there occurs a repetition of events, though always couched in newer veils. Indologists like Max Mueller did not even bother to visit India but specialized in our country. They felt with disdain that we are a race which can be codified in the pages of a book. Nothing has changed, now we are to be digitalized and codified via superior technology. The caveat being, now everything is so hi-fi that the Third World nations will be more eager to embrace technology than the First World will be willing to deliver!
Source: Independent
Image: YIMG.COM
Comments
White supremacist? Eurocentric? You really are a nutjob. Talk about learning about the ”enemy” from a far.
Europe is fundamentally important to the world economy - especially now with the declining USD and strong Euro. It has nothing to do with racism - and everything to do with Industrialism and economy. Get over yourself!
And don’t deny the fact that India, like many other countries, is heavily reliant on remittances and outsourcing. In fact your economy has taken a turn for the worse lately thanks to the US recession (ref. The Economist on India).
And what technology specifically has the First world denied the Third?
Hi Andrew,
I did not know that you were assiduously commenting on my posts. Thanks for taking the time...now coming to some of the questions you raised:
a) Am I a nut job? My wife tells me yes I am, but then she does that out of affection. But I’d rather think that the marginalized when they say anything against the powerful of this earth, the latter’s hackles are raised. And labeling someone crazy is the best way to trivialize any negative discourse about one’s own self.
b) Which technologies are being denied?
First, think of the paradox ur question poses: how would one know of those technologies if you have never shared with us to begin with. And secondly yes, tonnes of biological and nuclear research stuff is systematically denied us.
c) How have you come to the conclusion that I have never been to Europe? Simple, you just resumed that since I write from India , I have never been to Europe due to poverty or lack of opportunities.
d) India has to depend on outsourcing because of the way we were systematically robbed for over 200 years by white women and men. Heard of the Raj, buddy?
Yours truly,
A Subaltern from one of the nations you robbed.
You are of course most welcome to my comments. I enjoy a good fight.
Sane people question their mental state. I see you have no opinion on the matter? Oh, well, I will consider it an open issue to be resolved later.
Yet again accusations of having robbed your nation? Did we not already cover this? We plead innocence and have committed no robberies. Do you wish to present counterclaims and evidence?
You do however make a valid point with regards to the nuclear technology we have in fact denied you. You see? I am not unreasonable. However I know for a fact my country’s PM has just recently visited India and promised what support we can give towards that goal. It’s up to the US as you may well know. So even if it is currently denied, it is moving in the right direction.
However why was it denied? The world knows how well Pakistan and India used nuclear weapons technology... Please, don’t launch any nukes at each other for the sake of the rest of the world.
Oh, and if Pakistan would please stop selling the technology to just about anyone that would probably help too. Because Muslim terrorists would never attack India! Oh, no, they would never do that..
I never once said you were poor or lacked opportunities. It would seem I know far more about India than you know about my part of the world. Even if you belong to that rather large middle class I can reasonably assume you have never been to more than a few European countries. And even then you would NOT know European cultures. The British are actually not typically European.
India stopped being a developing country years ago in my eyes. We all know about the likes of Mittal, Tata and Wipro/Infosys. In fact my family’s business has traded cotton from India extensively (in modern times).
What do you have against outsourcing anyway? It gave your country a foot in the door. In fact the very same companies are now entering our home markets. The Chinese are dead envious of that position.
Of course I have heard of the Raj. My own country experienced the same. I find it highly amusing that you continue to accuse all white people of robbery. Can I do the same? You see when a criminal is accused of something here we usually don’t single out his family. If a colored immigrant rapes or kills someone here we don’t blame his entire race for the crime.
Phew: that’s a nice long post.
But what gives you the idea that having a few Tatas etc. makes past wrongs right. See how the Tatas got rebuffed ’cause they are dark by the hotel group they bid for in the US. White men all, and wherever they are, they create mayhem for the indigenous folks. Is that fish in lye Lutsfisk ( ?) your food? The US has its share of Nordish settlers. Surely the Europeans who make white America and Canada were not exactly innocent of spilling red Indian blood?
You know your response is typical of the eternal white response: shift to platitude gears!
I contend that after all that was stolen from our nations, all those who were beaten and killed by all whites, we should be allowed freely to take over Europe. No immigration nonsense for Europe is built on my ancestors’ blood.
On a lighter note: I read a brilliant thriller by Maj Waloo ( i might have the name wrong) about murders few years ago , believe it to be set in Scandinavia...brilliant work. & I’d like to visit Norway in bitter cold, just to see first hand the splendor of Norway’s winter. That is of course, before Norway becomes rightfully a part of India ;-)
Why do we have to right the wrongs of the past? At what point in time should we begin to calculate damages? What people truly belongs in their country? Migration and invasions are natural.
Not to mention the total lack of laws regarding the whole matter. It’s all a question of morals. I say we try to forgive and forget - and move on.
I hardly think there’s going to be voluntary reparations from any colonial power.
Perhaps together we can at least give the future generations an equal footing and equal share of the world’s resources. That would be fair, right?
I really don’t see why you single out White men as the Great Evil of the world. We are just the last in a long series of conquerors and wrongdoers. History is filled with the comings and goings of empires. And no race is innocent of it. Granted we Europeans have been more successful than most in this regard - but that’s just a coincidence and a question of the tools and technologies that were available.
Oh, and regarding the Americas. Plenty of Nordic people settled in the US for sure. But they arrived a bit late for them to be responsible for that genocide (late 1800s). They might possibly have occasionally fought some of the remaining natives in the northern states. It’s not something they are known for. But you do seem to have a penchant for the collective guilt theory.
—
Yeah, lutefisk is sort of our food. It’s only eaten at Christmas and only by those foolhardy enough to try it. It’s an acquired taste according to those in the know.
You should come visit Norway regardless of the season. The fjords are spectacular during summer. And if you come during the winter you should see some of the national parks. However don’t go to Oslo, visit cities like Bergen or Tromsø instead. And do it soon before we have to learn Hindi ;)
Again, I rest my case on wishing to know you personally...visit me at
www.dailylight.wordpress.com and leave a comment there. I’ll know your gmail and we can chat thence on.
Incidentally I have excellent white friends and my mentor was a white man.
& incidentally I tasted lutefisk and it tasted yak!
& i am a bit tired insulting you.
Happy to know you and I write with a smile...