My my my. its been a few months and yes folks I am still alive. I returned to studying in November 2020 with the Conflict and Development (T879) course and am mightily disappointed.
Now I can apply myself to almost anything (swimming / skydiving etc skiing no thank you) and I cannot apply myself to learning this module. I am sure everyone means well, but Robin DiAngelo's words keeping ringing in my ear - no matter how much they may wish to aim to help, white people fail to achieve the aspiration as their own need to protect their 'society' gets in the way. She puts it much more succinctly but that is the gist in her book "white Fragility".
So when reading how over and over again intervention from the west in ANY situation has caused problems. I revert back to DiAngelo and the values which maintained the western society.
I have just finished the simulation on Northern Ireland and am disgusted with how the situation arose. I mean I live in England and should have been aware, I mean I am more informed as to the war in Palestine than I was about Ireland. But now I understand. The similarities are unmistakeable. In1641 English take land from the Irish and hand it over to other English and Scottish people; and make the Irish a second class citizen all because they maintained their catholic faith; and the Irish uprising and civil war began. To this day the Irish struggle to maintain their Ireland and have accepted partition North and South but continue to fight for someone, anyone to understand. And England did the same with Palestine. Taking land (which had been colonised and was not theirs and handing it over to Jews to form Israel because the Americans and ENglish did not want Jewish refugees.
So why do 'they' expect a different outcome - even with the Thatcherite lockdown on the media; and the huge (yes 'huge' not 'massive' as 'massive' refers to weight whereas 'huge' refers to size; and I'm not American) amount of money Israel is pouring into maintaining the philosophy that anyone who speaks out against what they are doing is anti-Semitic. Ummm starving children and leaving them without water and electricity is allowable as they deny access to the one aquifer Palestinians if there is a drought situation - yes Israel diverts water and partitioned the farmland into no-mans land so Palestinians cannot grow crops and over 80% of the aid is USAID which is driving Palestine into debt and reliance. BTW have you seen the plant Israel has which produces Vitamin B3??? how much water is diverted for that? How much money are they making? and how much artillery can they buy with the profits that bombs Palestinians as they try to farm their own land.
Why am I surprised. I can go back centuries and see this pattern of behaviour repeated. Spain practically took over the Caribbean and South America, (do correct me...) but noooo not content with taking land, the Colonialists fought each other for the land, ironically it was never theirs in the first place, to access the resources. Oooh lets talk about Iran / Iraq / Syria or Pakistan and India; China and Hong Kong. See - nothing but problems.
Why am I reflecting all this? Well apart from my contempt about the quality of resources on this course; I am contemptuous of an attempt to change the language around conflict and development; (conflict occurs all the time??? conflict is necessary for development; conflict transformation????) thereby re-contextualise historical accounts of colonial involvement (eg Sierra Leone). Conflict is bad, negative and not always necessary to enable development. ANd what development? To have institutions similar to that which we have in England? puhleeees. I think the question I am left with is - Is development necessary? Why are westerners demanding everyone in the world be as screwed up as them? Frankly living in a mud-hut may not be ideal but living in a concrete box 40 ft in the air with no access to a garden during this lockdown is no picnic. I would give anything for a mud-hut out in the open, with a well behind it. Access to fresh air (not polluted by modern methods of manufacturing) working on my loom, or stitching leather moccasins is waaay better than this modern way of life which causes road rage, isolation in a crowded inner urban 'modern' city and worse has resulted in an inability to share a hug.
As my brother would put it... 'they' created a demand and now make us pay for the 'supply' because really - who benefits from is walking around with a phone in our pocket? 24/7 work emails and calls....
Conclusive thoughts
My my my. its been a few months and yes folks I am still alive. I returned to studying in November 2020 with the Conflict and Development (T879) course and am mightily disappointed.
Now I can apply myself to almost anything (swimming / skydiving etc skiing no thank you) and I cannot apply myself to learning this module. I am sure everyone means well, but Robin DiAngelo's words keeping ringing in my ear - no matter how much they may wish to aim to help, white people fail to achieve the aspiration as their own need to protect their 'society' gets in the way. She puts it much more succinctly but that is the gist in her book "white Fragility".
So when reading how over and over again intervention from the west in ANY situation has caused problems. I revert back to DiAngelo and the values which maintained the western society.
I have just finished the simulation on Northern Ireland and am disgusted with how the situation arose. I mean I live in England and should have been aware, I mean I am more informed as to the war in Palestine than I was about Ireland. But now I understand. The similarities are unmistakeable. In1641 English take land from the Irish and hand it over to other English and Scottish people; and make the Irish a second class citizen all because they maintained their catholic faith; and the Irish uprising and civil war began. To this day the Irish struggle to maintain their Ireland and have accepted partition North and South but continue to fight for someone, anyone to understand. And England did the same with Palestine. Taking land (which had been colonised and was not theirs and handing it over to Jews to form Israel because the Americans and ENglish did not want Jewish refugees.
So why do 'they' expect a different outcome - even with the Thatcherite lockdown on the media; and the huge (yes 'huge' not 'massive' as 'massive' refers to weight whereas 'huge' refers to size; and I'm not American) amount of money Israel is pouring into maintaining the philosophy that anyone who speaks out against what they are doing is anti-Semitic. Ummm starving children and leaving them without water and electricity is allowable as they deny access to the one aquifer Palestinians if there is a drought situation - yes Israel diverts water and partitioned the farmland into no-mans land so Palestinians cannot grow crops and over 80% of the aid is USAID which is driving Palestine into debt and reliance. BTW have you seen the plant Israel has which produces Vitamin B3??? how much water is diverted for that? How much money are they making? and how much artillery can they buy with the profits that bombs Palestinians as they try to farm their own land.
Why am I surprised. I can go back centuries and see this pattern of behaviour repeated. Spain practically took over the Caribbean and South America, (do correct me...) but noooo not content with taking land, the Colonialists fought each other for the land, ironically it was never theirs in the first place, to access the resources. Oooh lets talk about Iran / Iraq / Syria or Pakistan and India; China and Hong Kong. See - nothing but problems.
Why am I reflecting all this? Well apart from my contempt about the quality of resources on this course; I am contemptuous of an attempt to change the language around conflict and development; (conflict occurs all the time??? conflict is necessary for development; conflict transformation????) thereby re-contextualise historical accounts of colonial involvement (eg Sierra Leone). Conflict is bad, negative and not always necessary to enable development. ANd what development? To have institutions similar to that which we have in England? puhleeees. I think the question I am left with is - Is development necessary? Why are westerners demanding everyone in the world be as screwed up as them? Frankly living in a mud-hut may not be ideal but living in a concrete box 40 ft in the air with no access to a garden during this lockdown is no picnic. I would give anything for a mud-hut out in the open, with a well behind it. Access to fresh air (not polluted by modern methods of manufacturing) working on my loom, or stitching leather moccasins is waaay better than this modern way of life which causes road rage, isolation in a crowded inner urban 'modern' city and worse has resulted in an inability to share a hug.
As my brother would put it... 'they' created a demand and now make us pay for the 'supply' because really - who benefits from is walking around with a phone in our pocket? 24/7 work emails and calls....
maybe I should have called this a rant....