As I have often noted here, I have uber-schadenfreude over the Brexit problems in the UK because I hate so much how the Bastard Raj ruined lives forever. It is such an anger that has also made sure that my travels have not even included a pit-stop in the island that has increasingly become irrelevant on the global stage--as it should be!
“No man ever went to the East Indies with good intentions.” As in no British man. Over two centuries, Britain royally fucked up a good chunk of the world. The effects of all that raping continues to manifest itself from Hong Kong to Kashmir to ... Cameroon.
I was compelled to quickly catch up on how the bastards messed up Cameroon, thanks to new people that I met. I suppose the more I meet new people, the more we understand how much we are all in the same boat. Or, as MLK put it: "We may have come on different ships, but we’re all in the same boat now."
"We have over 200 languages back in Cameroon," he said. The colonial history has pretty much driven those languages to extinction. His pain about the dying languages, especially his own, was evident. When the colonizers exited, after plundering the lands, English and French became the official languages. Those language divisions are also today's political divisions.
The story of the United States is also one of colonial settlement by those islanders, whose king eventually lost the fight to retain his hold over the territory. Whatever propelled the pale-skinned to trot all over the world and remake the places and peoples is one I can never understand, how much ever I intellectually engage with those topics.
Unlike the past that is filled with colonizers eradicating and enslaving the "others," the future looks infinitely better only because of the young.
At the Thanksgiving gathering, as we sat with plates loaded with food, the host said her young teenage daughter had one thing to say. With a smile, the girl said, "I want us to recognize that we are on the land of the Kalapuya people."
The kids are alright!
Showing posts with label cameroon. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cameroon. Show all posts
Friday, November 29, 2019
Friday, October 16, 2015
Cameroon: The latest attempt to educate Americans about the world
Remember that old Mark Twain quote about the geographic illiteracy of Americans? What? You don't?
But then, we try our best to learn about the countries and people in different parts of the world by bombing the shit out of them. In the past seventy years, since the ending of the world war that followed the world war that was supposed to end all wars, the US has bombed an impressive list of countries:
Awesome, right?
How many Americans will be able to accurately identify all those countries on a world map, and say something substantive about those countries and the people? We try our best but Americans still don't care. (BTW, a special note on Syria: for the first time since the end of WW II, the US and Russia will be bombing the same country!)
In this important task of continuing education, we are dispatching the next set of teaching assistants--armed with the latest gadgets, of course--to Cameroon. Hey little boys and girls, do you know Cameroon?
Sometime soon we will have to start educating Americans about the planetary system and outer space, given our scientific illiteracy. Maybe we should think in terms of bombing those Martians?
God created war so that Americans would learn geography.Are you not impressed that he said that a long time ago? And, therefore, are you not mighty relieved that our collective ignorance about the rest of the world, and the apathy, is not anything new? I suppose if there is one thing that we can hold on to as a truly American trait, it is that we don't know much about geography and we don't care either. After all, that ill-informed view was what led to the formation of these United States, thanks to Christopher Columbus stumbling upon "India"!
But then, we try our best to learn about the countries and people in different parts of the world by bombing the shit out of them. In the past seventy years, since the ending of the world war that followed the world war that was supposed to end all wars, the US has bombed an impressive list of countries:
Awesome, right?
How many Americans will be able to accurately identify all those countries on a world map, and say something substantive about those countries and the people? We try our best but Americans still don't care. (BTW, a special note on Syria: for the first time since the end of WW II, the US and Russia will be bombing the same country!)
In this important task of continuing education, we are dispatching the next set of teaching assistants--armed with the latest gadgets, of course--to Cameroon. Hey little boys and girls, do you know Cameroon?
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said the mission would be "part of a broader regional effort to stop the spread of Boko Haram and other violent extremist organisations in West Africa".More details, please?
The force, which will be 300 strong, will conduct airborne intelligence, surveillance, and reconnaissance operations in the region.I am sure "until "no longer needed" means that the US forces will be there only for a couple of months, Like how our forces came back from Japan after the war ended and how we no longer have military bases there. Yeah, right!
Cameroon and Chad have been targeted by the Islamist militants from northern Nigeria.
Mr Obama said the forces would remain in Cameroon until "no longer needed".
Sometime soon we will have to start educating Americans about the planetary system and outer space, given our scientific illiteracy. Maybe we should think in terms of bombing those Martians?
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