Stephanie Mott
NAS 332 Environmental Justice
2/1/10
Concerning Violence by Franz Fanon response paper
In the book, The Wretched of the Earth, Franz Fanon discusses the negative effects of colonialism in a thought provoking way while intertwining imperialism in the discussion too. Although Franz Fanon heavily focuses on colonialism, the imperialism that is intertwined can make the ideas that he writes about can apply today to places where the majority of people would say active colonization is not occurring. In addition, it seems like some of the ideas he writes about are related to basic human nature or the mentality that people have developed from living a society where they are frequently exposed to mainstream media.
When the previous settlers, the others, arrive to explore and examine the country that was colonized they are the most likely to be treated with discourtesy (Fanon 77). This usually happens because the “ex-native” thinks that the previous settler already has an opinion and agenda that is not going to be changed even if the “ex-native” receives the settler in a positive way; this makes the “ex-native” feel frustrated and unmotivated to act in a positive way (Fanon 77). I agree with this but I think that the term “ex-native” can be expanded to include anyone that has an idea that hasn’t been seen before, has been done before and failed or is not talked about within the mainstream culture. The next paragraph is going to describe a situation that would be an example of how the term “ex-native” could be expanded.
The Friends of the Dunes organization have a nature center that they are renovating it by adding an additional floor to the house. This requires deconstructing the first floor. There is an opportunity to put a heat pump system into this center because it is already being renovated in a way that is going to require the place where the heat pump system would be placed to be reconstructed. It may be possible to get a grant that would pay for the whole system or 80% of the system. However, since there is not easily accessible explicit information on how to do this like there is with solar energy, the Friends of the Dunes organization gives the person that isn’t a member of the organization, the other, an attitude of discourtesy when the others discuss the logistics of the project with the organization. In addition, the impression is given that even if the others found a cost effective way to install the heat pump system two things would happen. The report would already be written and it would say that the heat pump system is not a feasible option at this time. In addition, the Friends of the Dunes organization would say that the heat pump system is too expensive and the others would be treated with indifference and mild hostility.
Fanon gives more descriptions of the perspective that the nationalist leaders and people that are under control of nationalist leaders have of the others and reporters and the behavior that tends to result from these views. The report tends to not be written from an objective point of view and tends to make it seem that the “ex-natives” are not doing well since the colonial power departed (Fanon 77). Regularly reporters grumble that they feel a much more negative than positive atmosphere, are not given proper working conditions and are being constantly treated with indifference or hostility; this is not by accident and can sometimes be intentional (Fanon 77). The nationalist leaders know that international opinion is formed solely by the Western press (Fanon 77). Now, when a journalist from the West asks us questions, it is seldom in order to help us (Fanon 77).
This can happen in many types of conflicts even if they aren’t related to social or environmental justice. For example, I saw a documentary about a person who was a high school cheerleader coach and there was an accusation placed by a cheerleader on the squad (who was disciplined by the coach for having test notes written on her leg that she tried to cover by her shorts) and the cheerleaders parents against the high school cheerleading coach. The cheerleader coach was interviewed by an official who was interviewing the school officials also to help determine whether she needed to be fired. When the cheerleading coach first started being interviewed she was very hostile and indifferent. The interviewer noticed this and asked her why she was acting this way. She said that she felt like she was being badly received by him and being forced to interveiwed under bad conditions. One of these was because the interviewer was solely chosen by the school officials and she had no input.
In the Algerian war, for example, even the most liberal (state the facts from the natives pt of view) of the French reporters never ceased to use ambiguous (capable of being understood in more than one way) words when describing our struggle” (Fanon 77).
When we blamed them for not reporting from the natives perspective, “they replied in all good faith that they were being objective (Fanon 77). For the native, objectivity is always directed against him”/ used to describe the native in a negative way. In the examples above this seems to have happened too. The high school cheerleading coach said that she experienced this with the school officials and with the interviewer. The high school cheerleading coach said that her actions weren’t fully described and described the cheerleading coach in a negative way.
I think that ambiguous language can be used to prevent people from becoming involved in something in addition to making it easier to use a preplanned agenda to make a decision. I think that both of these statements could apply to The Friends of the Dunes example above. For example, if they just decline because it is “too expensive” this can make it very hard to determine how to solve this problem. It could be too expensive for many reasons. Two possible reasons are that they don’t have the money to pay for the system or they don’t have the money to pay for increased property taxes or some other type of tax. Another reason is that they don’t have the money to pay the architect to make a new plan that will include the drawing of the heat pump system. If it is hard to determine how to solve the problem then it much easier to use a preplanned agenda because it is usually much quicker to use a preplanned agenda than to figure out how to solve a problem that needs additional questions to be answered.
We may in the same way come to understand the new tone which” overwhelmed “international diplomacy at the United Nations General Assembly in September, 1960 (Fanon 77). The representatives of the colonial countries were aggressive and violent, and carried things to extremes, but the colonial peoples did not find that they exaggerated (Fanon 77). The radicalism of the African spokesmen brought the abcess to a head and showed up the inadmissible (unacceptable) nature of the veto and the dialogue between the great powers, and above all the tiny role reserved for the Third World (Fanon 78).
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