East vs. West
This is another age-old debate, and much longer than anyone of us can imagine, just like the battle of the two sexes. There is a fundamental difference between the two, one has arisen very naturally because of the differences in physiology, psychology etc. and the other is completely a man-made problem. For a moment just let go of all preconceived notions about "east" & "west" and "us" vs. "them", now delve on this for a bit, that who really decided what part of the world is going to be "east" and what part "west"?
Here's a thought-experiment (an hypothesis or argument that can be implemented using simple logical and deductive powers and the answer is still quite simple, just like the one I pose below as well) place a globe in between two people directly facing each other. Make one person face the globe where he can see distinctly "east" on his right side and "west" on his right side i.e. the first person will have countries like India, China, Japan on their right and countries like USA, England, Germany etc. on the other side. Now to one person it is very clear which is east and which is west but to the person who sees the other half his, "east" and "west" is quite different! His "east" will have the US, England, Germany etc. and his "west" will have India, China, Japan! Wow! Mind-blowing isn't it? I have mentioned somewhere on this blog before how things can be quite different when we change our perspective (click here).
Not convinced? Well then, if there is a geographical answer to this then my argument is; since the British Isles are also considered to be "west" then what about the countries further west of the UK but at the same time south of it? I'm talking about countries in Africa like Mauritania, Senegal, and parts of Morocco. What then of those countries that lie directly south of the European continent? Look it up in a map and you will realise what I'm saying.
Like I mentioned this problem has been with the human race for quite a long time, as there has always been a reluctance on the part of the human race to accept anything remotely "foreign". This also gives rise to racism as I have already dealt with my views on that in my other posts (click here --- click here --- click here ). Who's to blame then? Why us of course! Human beings. We are so frightened of anything foreign, that we always have to label it. I got to thinking of this thanks to Edward W. Said's landmark work Orientalism, wherein he postulates that this "us" and "them" problem came out due to European imperialism in Africa, and most of Asia. His prime examples were of the French and British empires and their colonies and the effects this conlonisation had on the indigenous peoples. In its basic essence his argument is quite correct and I agree with him wholeheartedly.True the imperialists being powerful would want to assert their authority and give the colony a distinct identity but that identity would also have deliberate elements of the colonising power. For instance, many northern-African nations speak French alongside their native tongues and to this day it is almost a requirement in most schools to learn it. The armies in the Indian subcontinet use English as their official language. So colonisation has had lingering after-effects without a doubt.
He blames mostly, the imperialists for doing this to the native people but I would like to say that the colonised people have a responsibility unto themselves to preserve their identity. Seeing the power and might of this new dominating force most of these people gave in and let themselves be used. Both the dominator and the dominated are to blame in this situation, one more than the other without a doubt.
Now that we have come so far in our development as a human race and we have enough knowledge that even the average unschooled person can be presented with this material and he would agree, I think it is time to stop this debate because the World is round and like Phileas Fogg if you keep going east you will always be traveling east but in the process you will encounter "the west" but you would still be on an eastern path. The world is round and not flat anymore, so too should our thinking be. There are no lines on a sphere, just ask a mathematician how many lines of symmetry a sphere/circle has and the answer will always be an emphatic, infinite. So let us draw the line here and drop this useless and pointless argument the label only helps us get there and once we are there the label is no longer useful as Bruce Lee had said once regarding the name of Jeet Kune Do.
Here's a thought-experiment (an hypothesis or argument that can be implemented using simple logical and deductive powers and the answer is still quite simple, just like the one I pose below as well) place a globe in between two people directly facing each other. Make one person face the globe where he can see distinctly "east" on his right side and "west" on his right side i.e. the first person will have countries like India, China, Japan on their right and countries like USA, England, Germany etc. on the other side. Now to one person it is very clear which is east and which is west but to the person who sees the other half his, "east" and "west" is quite different! His "east" will have the US, England, Germany etc. and his "west" will have India, China, Japan! Wow! Mind-blowing isn't it? I have mentioned somewhere on this blog before how things can be quite different when we change our perspective (click here).
Not convinced? Well then, if there is a geographical answer to this then my argument is; since the British Isles are also considered to be "west" then what about the countries further west of the UK but at the same time south of it? I'm talking about countries in Africa like Mauritania, Senegal, and parts of Morocco. What then of those countries that lie directly south of the European continent? Look it up in a map and you will realise what I'm saying.
Like I mentioned this problem has been with the human race for quite a long time, as there has always been a reluctance on the part of the human race to accept anything remotely "foreign". This also gives rise to racism as I have already dealt with my views on that in my other posts (click here --- click here --- click here ). Who's to blame then? Why us of course! Human beings. We are so frightened of anything foreign, that we always have to label it. I got to thinking of this thanks to Edward W. Said's landmark work Orientalism, wherein he postulates that this "us" and "them" problem came out due to European imperialism in Africa, and most of Asia. His prime examples were of the French and British empires and their colonies and the effects this conlonisation had on the indigenous peoples. In its basic essence his argument is quite correct and I agree with him wholeheartedly.True the imperialists being powerful would want to assert their authority and give the colony a distinct identity but that identity would also have deliberate elements of the colonising power. For instance, many northern-African nations speak French alongside their native tongues and to this day it is almost a requirement in most schools to learn it. The armies in the Indian subcontinet use English as their official language. So colonisation has had lingering after-effects without a doubt.
He blames mostly, the imperialists for doing this to the native people but I would like to say that the colonised people have a responsibility unto themselves to preserve their identity. Seeing the power and might of this new dominating force most of these people gave in and let themselves be used. Both the dominator and the dominated are to blame in this situation, one more than the other without a doubt.
Now that we have come so far in our development as a human race and we have enough knowledge that even the average unschooled person can be presented with this material and he would agree, I think it is time to stop this debate because the World is round and like Phileas Fogg if you keep going east you will always be traveling east but in the process you will encounter "the west" but you would still be on an eastern path. The world is round and not flat anymore, so too should our thinking be. There are no lines on a sphere, just ask a mathematician how many lines of symmetry a sphere/circle has and the answer will always be an emphatic, infinite. So let us draw the line here and drop this useless and pointless argument the label only helps us get there and once we are there the label is no longer useful as Bruce Lee had said once regarding the name of Jeet Kune Do.
posted by rehanmalick | 6:33 PM
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