Sunday, July 12, 2015

WW Ch 22 & 23


“Decolonization signaled the declining legitimacy of both empire and race as a credible basis for political or social life. It promised not only national freedom but also personal dignity, abundance, and opportunity.”(1088) Have national freedom really given all peoples’ these things? There are still many nations that are fighting for freedoms.

“Conjuncture…at the international level, the world wars had weakened Europe, while discrediting any sense of European moral superiority. Both the United Sates and the Soviet Union the new global super-powers, generally opposed the older European colonial empires, even as they created empire-like international relationships of the own.”(1091)Are the new empires (political structures) better than before? Maybe for some however there are nations still struggling for stability in current unstable economic times.

Independence comes with responsibilities that peoples of these new nations struggled with, identifying who they were, their culture, political structure and what are their economic resources in order to establish themselves as a viable nation is taking time for some nations.  

Two famous leaders emerged from these new nations, both of these men believed in non-violent reform of their nations and established movements to unify the nation yet both nations were divided even further. In India – Mahatma Ghandi made an impact on the nation for a peaceful Hindi ways of living yet faced opposition from the Muslim believers. The effect was the division of the nation into Muslim Pakistan and Hindu India. And in Africa – Nelson Mandela serviced time in prison for his attempts to unify the nation, was released from prison after twenty-seven years and became President of his nation. Africa also became divided by “race, ethnicity, and ideology that generated dissension and sometimes violence. “(1101)



“suffering is a common and bedrock human experience …derived from our own actions in the shape of war, racism, patriarchy, exploitation, inequality, expression and neglect. Is it possible that some exposure to the staggering sum of human suffering revealed in the historical records can soften our hearts, fostering compassion for our own suffering and for that of others?” (1170)

Let’s hope so. 
                                                        Cause and Effects of Actions



No comments:

Post a Comment