{"id":40662,"date":"2025-02-14T23:44:21","date_gmt":"2025-02-15T07:44:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/?p=40662"},"modified":"2025-02-14T23:44:21","modified_gmt":"2025-02-15T07:44:21","slug":"colonialism","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/colonialism\/","title":{"rendered":"Colonialism??"},"content":{"rendered":"

Current Concept of Colonialism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u2018Colonialism<\/em><\/strong>,\u2019 defined as \u201cdomination of a people or a area by a foreign state or nation: the practice of extending and maintaining a nation\u2019s political and economic control over another people.\u201d[1]<\/a> Before any further discussion, I believe that \u2018colonialism\u2019 is embedded within the human nature; I would say that it comes from the human nature\u2019s basic instinct of survival, to have, to dominate or to control. And this practice, as known among the major countries such like Great Britain, Spain, Germany and the others, was also a practice among the small island tribes as well.<\/p>\n

In the history of the Micronesian Islands, even before the times it was discovered, claimed, or even colonized by Spain, Germany, and Japan, other smaller neighboring islands have claimed, or exploited the islands and its resources.[2]<\/a> Even during the colonization in the Micronesian Islands, the smaller Micronesian islands were still fighting against each other for domination or control.<\/p>\n

\u2018The War Against the Past\u2019<\/strong><\/p>\n

\u201cDr. Frank Furedi, author and social commentator is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Kent. Author of more than 26 books, Furedi\u2019s studies have been devoted to and exploration of the cultural developments in western societies. In recent years he has published several studies on the impact of Culture Wars on family life, socialization, education and public life\u2026.\u2019The War Against the Past, mounts a fierce defence of the past and calls for a fight back against the delegitimization of its ideals and accomplishments.\u201d [3]<\/strong><\/a><\/em><\/p>\n

From the inspectional reading, several statements have caught my attention, however, I would like to share couple in this posting. First, the goal of the book, which is to give the reason why the \u2018the war against the past\u2019 must be overcome. Secondly are the concepts of \u2018anachronism\u2019 and \u2018presentism.\u2019 In his arguments, the western\u2019s cultural history, gives meaningful presents. \u201cFor when the past is contaminated, it becomes, it becomes near impossible to endow people\u2019s life with meaning in the presents.\u201d [4]<\/a><\/p>\n

Secondly are the concepts of anachronism and presentism. Anachronism as defined, \u201c(1.) error in chronology, (2.) a person or a thing that is chronologically out of place, and (3.) the state or condition of being chronologically out or place.\u201d[5]<\/a> For example, in the current time, others looked to the past histories or events, and claimed the bases of categories of gender, identity, queering, and even racism.[6]<\/a> Presentism is defined as, \u201can attitude toward the past dominated by present-day attitudes and experience.\u201d[7]<\/a> One example of this was during Canada\u2019s 150th<\/sup> birthday celebration that the plan to honor their first prime minister John A. McDonalds was opposed by signed petition by several representatives of the native organization, citing the reason for which he was racist against the aboriginal people.[8]<\/a><\/p>\n

Relating to My Current Concept of Colonialism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Empire of Japan was also one of the major colonialists of the Micronesian islands. After Germany, after the seizure of the Micronesian islands in 1914, the Japanese moved into Micronesia to explore what they could be beneficial to them. It was during the early period of Japanese rule (1914-1922) that they began to explore the Sugar Industry and the Fishing Industry.[9]<\/a> Later during the occupation, by the mid-1930\u2019s, Islanders were outnumbered by Japanese; on the eve of the war, there were more than 80,000 Japanese compared with 50,000 Micronesians.[10]<\/a><\/p>\n

My tiny Island, Satowan Atoll, was made into a military base. It was an airfield for the Imperial Navy war planes. My grandmother told us stories of how they and many families were forced to leave their home and fled to neighboring small islands for safety. Whenever, I heard the story, it brings tears, my grandmother was pregnant with my mother. So, whenever I heard colonialism, I always dwell on the negative aspects of it. Nowadays, people from my Island celebrates a day that commemorated the returned of our people to their Island as the World War II ended in the Micronesian Islands, and it was always time of mixed emotions.<\/p>\n

Conclusion<\/strong><\/p>\n

Dr. Furedi encouraged the West to prevail against the \u201cWar Against the Past\u201d<\/em> and gives the reason for the West to keep its history. When I looked into the history of my home, Micronesia, it was filled with colonialization. Then I asked myself, is the called to fight for (their) history only for the colonists and not the colonized?<\/p>\n

Then within the perspectives of \u2018anachronism and presentism,\u2019<\/em> should I say that it was appropriate back then? And that I see it \u2018inappropriate\u2019 now because this was a different time and if it was back then, this would be, ok?<\/p>\n

[1]<\/a> Meriam-Webster. Definition of Colonialism. https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/colonialism<\/a>. Retrieved February 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

[2]<\/a> Hezel, Francis X. Early Encounters. https:\/\/micsem.org\/video-listing\/history-i-early-encounters\/<\/a>. Accessed February 13, 2025.<\/p>\n

[3]<\/a> Furedi, Frank. https:\/\/frankfuredi.org\/<\/a>. Accessed February 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

[4]<\/a> Furedi, Frank. The War Against the Past: Why the West Must Fight For its History (p. 6). Polity Press. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[5]<\/a> Merriam-webster Dictionary. https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/anachronism<\/a>. Accessed February 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

[6]<\/a> Furedi, Frank. The War Against the Past: Why the West Must Fight For its History (p. 140). Polity Press. Kindle Edition.<\/p>\n

[7]<\/a> Merriam-webster Dictionary. https:\/\/www.merriam-webster.com\/dictionary\/presentism<\/a>.<\/p>\n

[8]<\/a> CBC Radio. https:\/\/www.cbc.ca\/radio\/sunday\/the-past-is-not-the-present-do-food-animals-have-rights-alberto-manguel-s-curious-mind-the-great-hunger-1.3497315\/the-allure-and-the-dangers-of-presentism-1.3497463<\/a>. Accessed February 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

[9]<\/a> Hezel, Francis X. A Brief Economic History of Micronesia. 1984. https:\/\/micsem.org\/article\/a-brief-economic-history-of-micronesia\/<\/a>. Accessed February 14, 2025.<\/p>\n

[10]<\/a> Poyer, Lin. https:\/\/scholarspace.manoa.hawaii.edu\/server\/api\/core\/bitstreams\/cc07ced7-8639-405d-bf3a-bcdc40eb2d63\/content<\/a>. Accessed February 14, 2025.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Current Concept of Colonialism \u2018Colonialism,\u2019 defined as \u201cdomination of a people or a area by a foreign state or nation: the practice of extending and maintaining a nation\u2019s political and economic control over another people.\u201d[1] Before any further discussion, I believe that \u2018colonialism\u2019 is embedded within the human nature; I would say that it comes […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":181,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-40662","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized","cohort-dlgp03"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40662","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/181"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=40662"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40662\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":40663,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/40662\/revisions\/40663"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=40662"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=40662"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.georgefox.edu\/dlgp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=40662"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}