![\"\"](\"https:\/\/wp-media.patheos.com\/blogs\/sites\/307\/2014\/02\/iStock_000010334613Small.jpg\" "\\"Earth")
<\/a>A few\u00a0weeks ago, I was discussing the themes of Occident and Orient, Edward W. Said\u2019s classic study on\u00a0Orientalism, as well as colonialism, post-colonialism and\u00a0globalization with a group of\u00a0friends.\u00a0A couple\u00a0of my African colleagues encouraged me to repost the substance of the following\u00a0entry from my\u00a0blog at consumingjesus.org.\u00a0I had made use of this entry titled \u201cAvatar Revisited at Out of Ur\u201d<\/a> during our discussion.<\/em><\/p>\nThe\u00a0post that reappears here\u00a0is a response to a question concerning an\u00a0article I wrote for\u00a0Out of Ur regarding Pastor Mark Driscoll\u2019s critique of the movie Avatar.\u00a0\u00a0For\u00a0the original article in Out of Ur, please refer to the following link:<\/em> http:\/\/www.outofur.com\/archives\/2010\/07\/driscoll_avatar.html<\/em><\/a>. At one point\u00a0in the article, I write: \u201cThe movie Avatar was not simply a movie to Pastor\u00a0Driscoll. Nor was his critique of this movie simply poor cultural critique to\u00a0me. It was a symbolic statement of total blindness to what the Western powers\u00a0have done and continue to do in our day to indigenous peoples and their\u00a0habitats globally all in the name of progress.\u201d \u00a0This statement gave rise to\u00a0the following comment by \u201cMelody\u201d in the comment section for the article at\u00a0Out of Ur:<\/em><\/p>\n \u2018\u2026total blindness to what the Western\u00a0powers have done and continue to do in our day to indigenous peoples and\u00a0their habitats globally all in the name of progress.\u2019 \u00a0Paul, could you give\u00a0three specific examples of this?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Here is my response to Melody\u2019s comment:<\/em><\/p>\n Hello, Melody. \u00a0Thank you for your question. \u00a0I will seek to provide numerous\u00a0examples past and present, and from different angles, after first outlining\u00a0different aspects of what I mean by oppression in this context.<\/p>\n Oppression takes place in various ways, including the following: first,\u00a0through direct military confrontation by Western powers that involves\u00a0annexing domains and taking resources, as in the colonial period; second, through Western powers\u2019\u00a0fostering dependence among indigenous peoples and developing countries\u00a0coupled with enticing developing countries to open their doors to foreign\u00a0markets, which at times leads these developing countries to take lands and resources from\u00a0their own indigenous peoples to build industry; and third, by failing to\u00a0overturn the structures of evil that carry on from the past into the present.\u00a0When I speak of \u201ctotal blindness to what the Western powers have done and\u00a0continue to do in our day to indigenous peoples and their habitats globally\u00a0all in the name of progress,\u201d I have this multi-faceted view of what I call\u00a0\u201doppression\u201d in the blog article in mind. \u00a0In what follows, I will engage\u00a0these three points.<\/p>\n The way in which the Western powers function today is often quite different\u00a0from previous times\u2013here and abroad (as I stated in my Avatar article, the\u00a0movie is a \u201cpage right out of American history\u201d; while there are multitudes\u00a0of pages to American history, the Manifest Destiny ambitions often present in\u00a0US expansion fill scores of pages\u2013see for example the video \u201cHow the West\u00a0Was Lost: A Good Day to Die\u201d {1993}). \u00a0 One church leader in a developing\u00a0country told a friend who\u2019s worked with indigenous peoples internationally\u00a0that \u201cThey used to come with machine guns. \u00a0Now they come with briefcases.\u201d<\/p>\n My friend mentioned to me recently that in places like Rwanda and Cambodia\u00a0indigenous people are displaced from land for the sake of big business.\u00a0While it may be locals displacing the indigenous people, it is often bound up\u00a0with efforts to cater to Western businesses and expansion of markets, as well\u00a0as historic patterns of influence by the West that have inspired local\u00a0manifestations of the drive to control weaker or more vulnerable populations\u00a0and use their resources for one\u2019s own good. \u00a0While I favor international\u00a0trade and affirm God\u2019s calling on humanity to steward and cultivate creation,\u00a0it is also important that we are intentional on protecting the rights of the\u00a0poor and marginalized as we pursue trade that is truly free. \u00a0Trade that is\u00a0truly free ensures that the poor and marginalized do not fall through the\u00a0cracks in the pursuit of ecomonic development.<\/p>\n I should say at this point that Western powers are not simply military\u00a0powers, but also corporate business powers. \u00a0Globalization has strengths and\u00a0weaknesses, and it is extremely important that governments have in place\u00a0safeguards that protect the marginalized and weaker parties here and abroad.\u00a0Given the biblical, orthodox doctrine of original sin and total depravity, we\u00a0should never favor unregulated free trade: power corrupts, and absolute power\u00a0corrupts absolutely.<\/p>\n Recent movies draw attention to the reality of how Western powers put\u00a0pressure on developing world countries, and in a variety of ways. \u00a0Highly\u00a0regarded film critic Emanuel Levy writes of the movie Blood Diamond, \u201cThough\u00a0mostly set in Sierra Leone in 1999-2000, \u2018Blood Diamond\u2019 clearly wants to\u00a0draw attention to broader issues and other locales, namely, the exploitation\u00a0of Third World countries by Western powers such as the U.K. and the U.S.\u00a0While the scarce resource in this tale is diamonds, the same exploitation\u00a0could be depicted in the case of other scarce natural resources, such as\u00a0rubber, gold, oil, which more often than not results in a tragedy for the\u00a0country in which they are found.\u201d http:\/\/www.emanuellevy.com\/search\/details.cfm?id=5195<\/a><\/p>\n The movie Hotel Rwanda draws attention to the post-colonial situation in\u00a0which Western powers largely abandoned Rwanda when the conflict between the\u00a0Hutu and Tutsi people erupted into civil war and genocide (According to the\u00a0BBC, the Belgian colonialists were responsible for increasing tensions\u00a0between the groups:\u00a0http:\/\/news.bbc.co.uk\/2\/hi\/africa\/1288230.stm<\/a>). \u00a0The\u00a0movie also intimates that a sense of dependence was created, and when the\u00a0Western powers exited Rwanda, the infrastructure collapsed still further.<\/p>\n It is not simply Western political powers and market forces that create such\u00a0dependence; churches do as well, as when largely white mega churches speak of\u00a0\u201dadopting\u201d villages in Africa or inner city African American churches. \u00a0In\u00a0contrast, John M. Perkins rightly charges that we must replace charity with\u00a0community development. \u00a0Community development involves working among people,\u00a0drawing from their experiences and looking to support them rather than drive\u00a0them, helping but also being helped by them, ministering relationally in a\u00a0particular region together with them. \u00a0A friend of mine from Africa who is\u00a0ministering in Haiti with a North American ministry providing holistic care\u00a0is challenging North Americans and others from the developed West to minister\u00a0with a Christ-centered approach that views the Haitian people as being as\u00a0valuable as people from developed Western countries. \u00a0This more redemptive\u00a0approach that my African friend espouses entails asking Haitians what they\u00a0believe is necessary to effect change and not patronizing them. \u00a0\u201dPatronizing\u00a0them\u201d involves telling them what they need to do rather than partnering with\u00a0them to confront the crisis. \u00a0The Haitians have told my African friend that\u00a0they often feel as if they are treated as projects by Americans and other\u00a0people from developed Western countries, and that the end game is producing a\u00a0product that can be exhibited as a trophy back in the developed West. \u00a0This\u00a0is a subtle form of oppression\u2013not like the overt hostility of Avatar, but\u00a0nonetheless still dehumanizing.<\/p>\n Like in Avatar, the Haitians may not have the technological and technical resources, but they do have\u00a0strong relational bonds\u2013they have one another. \u00a0In addition to my African\u00a0friend, a pastor from a mega church that has a significant ministry in Haiti\u00a0has conveyed the same point to me. \u00a0Both individuals have claimed that they\u00a0have rarely if ever experienced such profound relationality. \u00a0My African\u00a0friend said that he did not need to be known to be loved in Haiti\u2013he was\u00a0sucked in and loved and ministered to, even though he had come to minister.\u00a0We have so much to learn from such people, and so should not go trying to fix\u00a0them, but to partner with them, joining them in our shared search for\u00a0significance and life in the midst of horrific suffering.<\/p>\n Mention was made above of the need to overturn longstanding structures of\u00a0evil. \u00a0Native peoples in what became the United States were often forced onto\u00a0some of the poorest land, and some reservations are on land used as key sites\u00a0for storing nuclear waste. \u00a0See a recent AP discussion on the storage and\u00a0cleanup of nuclear waste that bears directly on Native peoples today at http:\/\/www.google.com\/hostednews\/ap\/article\/ALeqM5iM3xkapqBxYkFxJyYO4QIGDf4TK gD9GV63180<\/a>.\u00a0Also, see an earlier article on a related topic at\u00a0http:\/\/www.umich.edu\/~snre492\/kendziuk.html<\/a>. \u00a0To the extent we benefit from\u00a0the evils committed in the past and present against such indigenous people,\u00a0to that extent we ourselves are culpable.<\/p>\n Lastly, Western consumers\u2013myself being one of them\u2013find it very difficult\u00a0not to fall prey to furthering oppressive structures in impoverished\u00a0communities worldwide, where sweatshops are created to produce goods at far\u00a0cheaper costs and at far greater benefit to American consumers\u2013and at great\u00a0cost to the employees in those lands. \u00a0While one may say the people there are\u00a0better off than they would otherwise be because they have these jobs, their\u00a0well-being is certainly not up to the humane standards we prize. \u00a0Nike,\u00a0Wal-Mart and other companies have had to face front and center these\u00a0concerns, and these issues require resolution and reform in many spheres of\u00a0industry and business worldwide (see the following articles: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/07\/27\/business\/global\/27nike.html<\/a>\u00a0and http:\/\/www.businessweek.com\/bwdaily\/dnflash\/content\/oct2008\/db2008109_219930. htm<\/a>).<\/p>\n I should add that the West is not alone in this and related problems. \u00a0See\u00a0the following article for a multi-faceted discussion of China on the\u00a0environment: http:\/\/www.foreignpolicy.com\/articles\/2009\/11\/13\/think_again_green_china<\/a>. See also the articles on worker abuse in China: http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2008\/01\/05\/business\/worldbusiness\/05sweatshop.html<\/a>\u00a0and http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/07\/06\/opinion\/06tue2.html<\/a>. Lastly, see the\u00a0article on ethnic minority oppression in China: http:\/\/www.guardian.co.uk\/commentisfree\/2009\/jul\/08\/china-protest-uighur-deaths<\/a><\/p>\n While the West, and America in particular, has done much good across the\u00a0globe at various times through such efforts as world relief in times of\u00a0crisis and in restoration of devastated countries after times of war as in\u00a0the Marshall Plan for the restoration of Germany and also parallel efforts in\u00a0Japan after WWII, our history is nonetheless a checkered one. \u00a0We must be\u00a0alert to both dimensions if we are to further good practices and guard\u00a0against destructive patterns and tendencies\u2026.<\/p>\n ************<\/p>\n Question to the readers of this republished post: What are some concrete ways in which we can become more alert to\u00a0the good and bad in global dealings so that\u00a0we can further good practices and guard against destructive patterns and tendencies today?<\/p>\n +++++++++<\/p>\n