The Spoils of War
It is sad when even now, some hundred or so years have passed since the British Empire basically finished plundering and building an empire at everyone's expense, that the traces of colonialism still rear their ugly wafts like some putrid pungent smell. Amid the declarations of civil rights, of human rights, of a war on terror in the name of democracy, the old disdain that the only civilized people who know better are not obviously people of colour.
What am I saying? When I was doing research on the the creation of nation states, in fact Canada's federation and what used to be the colonies that now comprise America, there was the old adage of "spoils of war" or the disdain that by force "Manifest Destiny" has chosen the "great white race" to rule the world. And that the losers, basically all of Canada's and the USA's native people, not so much Canada but the implication that by signing a treaty the natives have given themselves up...that all of a sudden sovereignty, identity, humanness which identifies Europeans, is taken away from natives. That is considered in war time, the victor decides and basically enslaves the losing party to terms and conditions as they relate to nation states.
Ergo, the spoils of war mean that despite international declarations such as the UN Charter of Human Rights, nations that practice war are still practicing spoils of war. The Geneva Convention reserved only for those Europeans who declare war on Europeans, minorities be damned....
It was this notion, that the Japanese understood only too well in World War 2, that even though they were interned as Prisoners of War, the benefits granted to German POWs were greater than those afforded to the Japanese. As if being of some other color meant that you were not human.
And the Chinese wonder why in Canada, a head tax was imposed, and wonder why the Euro-Canadians did not consider the Chinese immigrants as human beings. Merely named under derogatory names like Coolies...forced to pay a horrible head tax.
Oddly enough the historical context for the background that provides the panorama of the Chinese experience in Canada, is the British-Sino War, where the British went to war to impose an Opium trade. As a result of the loss in the war, the attitudes towards asians particularly those of the Chinese became a perception throughout the empire that they were "spoils of war". In fact some of the historical documents in England point to the perception that Chinese by losing the war lose their status of full fledged international citizens afforded privelages.
When the Chinese came to Canada against the backdrop of being a nation that lost a war by the United Kingdom over imposing an Opium trade, it is no wonder that the history and attitude towards the Sino-Canadian immigrants are basically atrocious. You have a hundred years of debate whether the Canadian attitude towards imposition of a head tax was fair.
Similarly the American attitude towards anyone who is not of the European race was considered as inferior. It is sad that these attitudes derived during a war time in that era have similarly eery tones in today's modern world.
Canada's apology was not sincere in that it did not mention the atrocities committed against Sino-Canadians, or the hundred or so years of persecution and denial of full citizenship in spite of progress. Even today you still hear refrains of "slant-eyes" and other derogatory terms.
It affects not only the Chinese. In Canada people of Afghan origin basically have their civil liberties infringed upon with secret wire taps, secret mail intercepts, surveillance, all because of they are "spoils of war". In the name of another war, we are again repeating the same atrocity that Canada committed against Asians. This time around it is Muslims.
Guantanamo Bay and Canada's secret prisons are horrible realities of the "spoils of war".
What am I saying? When I was doing research on the the creation of nation states, in fact Canada's federation and what used to be the colonies that now comprise America, there was the old adage of "spoils of war" or the disdain that by force "Manifest Destiny" has chosen the "great white race" to rule the world. And that the losers, basically all of Canada's and the USA's native people, not so much Canada but the implication that by signing a treaty the natives have given themselves up...that all of a sudden sovereignty, identity, humanness which identifies Europeans, is taken away from natives. That is considered in war time, the victor decides and basically enslaves the losing party to terms and conditions as they relate to nation states.
Ergo, the spoils of war mean that despite international declarations such as the UN Charter of Human Rights, nations that practice war are still practicing spoils of war. The Geneva Convention reserved only for those Europeans who declare war on Europeans, minorities be damned....
It was this notion, that the Japanese understood only too well in World War 2, that even though they were interned as Prisoners of War, the benefits granted to German POWs were greater than those afforded to the Japanese. As if being of some other color meant that you were not human.
And the Chinese wonder why in Canada, a head tax was imposed, and wonder why the Euro-Canadians did not consider the Chinese immigrants as human beings. Merely named under derogatory names like Coolies...forced to pay a horrible head tax.
Oddly enough the historical context for the background that provides the panorama of the Chinese experience in Canada, is the British-Sino War, where the British went to war to impose an Opium trade. As a result of the loss in the war, the attitudes towards asians particularly those of the Chinese became a perception throughout the empire that they were "spoils of war". In fact some of the historical documents in England point to the perception that Chinese by losing the war lose their status of full fledged international citizens afforded privelages.
When the Chinese came to Canada against the backdrop of being a nation that lost a war by the United Kingdom over imposing an Opium trade, it is no wonder that the history and attitude towards the Sino-Canadian immigrants are basically atrocious. You have a hundred years of debate whether the Canadian attitude towards imposition of a head tax was fair.
Similarly the American attitude towards anyone who is not of the European race was considered as inferior. It is sad that these attitudes derived during a war time in that era have similarly eery tones in today's modern world.
Canada's apology was not sincere in that it did not mention the atrocities committed against Sino-Canadians, or the hundred or so years of persecution and denial of full citizenship in spite of progress. Even today you still hear refrains of "slant-eyes" and other derogatory terms.
It affects not only the Chinese. In Canada people of Afghan origin basically have their civil liberties infringed upon with secret wire taps, secret mail intercepts, surveillance, all because of they are "spoils of war". In the name of another war, we are again repeating the same atrocity that Canada committed against Asians. This time around it is Muslims.
Guantanamo Bay and Canada's secret prisons are horrible realities of the "spoils of war".
posted by joshie mitsima at
11:02 p.m.
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