tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post6041360818642073407..comments2024-03-29T05:33:43.878-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: Diasporan GuiltOvidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger6125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-4660147302783769092022-11-26T11:13:08.457-05:002022-11-26T11:13:08.457-05:00:-) Didn't mean to hijack your post. But good ...:-) Didn't mean to hijack your post. But good writing DOES spark lots of thoughts... :-)Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-22262213952994019972022-11-25T22:42:29.146-05:002022-11-25T22:42:29.146-05:00This is a wonderful piece, Kwei, touching on reall...This is a wonderful piece, Kwei, touching on really important topics that most people I know don't think about: the scramble for Africa and the Eurocentric borders it created; the ongoing brain drain; the debate about aid; and contemporary European attitudes towards desperate migrants. Apologies for not responding earlier - I've been travelling, and it's now 0400 in Denmark. And I'm wide awake. <br /><br />I suffered from guilt from my early teens, when I realised what was happening in South Africa with its huge differences of opportunity, wealth, and freedom, all based on race. That changed to diasporan guilt when I left SA in 1970 to study in the States. And it continues today. <br /><br />The pressing issue for me is what to do about it. When I was living in SA as a student, I became involved in a variety of anti-apartheid activities. However, when I left, I found a lot of similar activities in the States were well-meaning but didn't seem to me to do anything other than to tick a box for the activists. <br /><br />I remember well standing up to speak at a campus meeting at the University of Illinois, convened by the university president in response to student pressure that wanted the university to divest itself of stock in any company that was doing business in SA. The student activists immediately heckled me as being a pro-apartheid apologist. That hurt. Even though those who wanted to shut me up had almost identical goals to mine, namely end apartheid, my comments and suggestions were unacceptable because I was White. My proposal was that instead of selling those shares, the university should take all dividends from them and create an educational foundation for non-White South Africans. To my way of thinking that would actually help people suffering from apartheid and start building a cadre of educated people who might not otherwise have the opportunity. After all, the university's mission was to create educational opportunities. Needless to say, my proposal didn't prevail, largely because it was easier for the university to accede to the protesters's wishes and therefore keep them quiet.<br /><br />To some extent I agree with Dambisa Moyo's perspective. However, I strongly believe in helping individuals who have ambition but don't have the means to fulfil it. Even if those recipients of my support don't stay the their home countries, at least they have benefited from my support. <br /><br />Of course, there are many South Africans of all hues, living in South Africa, who do the same thing - provide focussed support not blanket aid.Stan Trolliphttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12608236210727280695noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-77157472674356138492022-11-25T18:30:41.841-05:002022-11-25T18:30:41.841-05:00Hmm, I think we might have gone a little off topic...Hmm, I think we might have gone a little off topic. The thrust of my piece was I wrestle with PERSONAL feelings of guilt about having a relatively luxurious life in the diaspora while the poor in Africa and numerous locations the world over have a rough time. My reference to the slave trade was in the context of how the diaspora came to be.Kweihttps://www.kweiquartey.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-82944582447744129972022-11-23T18:54:18.322-05:002022-11-23T18:54:18.322-05:00Absolutely, no argument there. But... where/when d...Absolutely, no argument there. But... where/when do you draw the line for guilt (and/or reparations). That's the tricky part. If you go back far enough (and it's probably not as far as you might think), every human alive today descends from someone who was moved (or enslaved, or murdered, or raped, or...). So, the gray area is "for how long" do we hold grudges or guilt. It would be hard to argue against a lifetime (at least, for some acts). Two lifetimes? Five? Ten? A hundred lifetimes? "Sins of the father" and all that.Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-32792850958695811192022-11-23T15:59:24.448-05:002022-11-23T15:59:24.448-05:00Moving people by coercion or trickery is surely im...Moving people by coercion or trickery is surely immoral.Kweihttps://www.kweiquartey.comnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-3027104101571953382022-11-23T12:53:16.701-05:002022-11-23T12:53:16.701-05:00Morality (from whence guilt originates) is a diffi...Morality (from whence guilt originates) is a difficult thing. I've thought a lot about native americans and the European 'conquest' of the americas, and what is, isn't, should be, or shouldn't be owed to some people or groups of peoples. At what point does the movement of peoples become immoral, or what behavior by those "moving people" make them moral or immoral? Originally, there were NO humans in the Americas. At some point, the first immigrant peoples arrived (and probably died). Then more arrived. Then another wave, and another wave. Tens of thousands of years later, there were "native peoples" in the Americas (and, yes, I'm aware of the ...irony... of use 'Americas' in this treatise, but sometimes shorthand is convenient :-). But, at what point did the arrival of new waves of people become 'invaders', 'conquerors'? The second wave? The third wave? The 300th wave? Or only when the Europeans arrived, bringing with them massive deaths and cultural changes, indirectly and directly? Is it just a matter of time? Sometimes, morality seems to be a very slippery eel.<br /><br />A similar, but related topic, that I think I've mentioned before, is: when does it become okay to dig up the graves of people? How old do the graves have to be for "desecration of graves" to turn into archeology? I suspect it has more to do with "written or living memory" than with some number of years. If the grave is for a KNOWN (remembered/recorded) person, then the number of years since they were alive must be much longer before disturbing their grave is acceptable (such as King Richard under the parking lot). But if the grave is for an unknown person, then the time frame is much shorter. Then, of course, cultural issues come into play: disturbing the graves of native americans (especially by non-native americans) is a much bigger problem than disturbing graves of non-native americans.<br /><br />Slippery eels...Everett Kaserhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/12371555243187874414noreply@blogger.com