Living Imperialism

We, superior westerners, do not care that a teenager in Indonesia, a worker in the factory producing trainers we wear, might have starved to death

by Dejan JOVIC

Slobodna Dalmacija, Split, Croatia, September 7, 2002

Even though I supported Robert Mugabe while he was one of "Yugoslav friends" in the non-alignment movement, today he is certainly not among my favorite politicians. His conservativism is notorious, his style of governing is autocratic (although Zimbabwe has several political parties and elections), and his attitude with respect to journalists of any kind is totally unacceptable. However, I could not resist a guilty smile when I saw Mugabe lecturing without any diplomatic concern Britain and Tony Blair for their contribution to poverty in the world, especially in Africa.

Prisoners Of Fake Images

Just like all other nations, the British do not like being reminded of dark spots from their past. With possible exception of Germany (for very specific reasons), the process of dealing with and facing past has not made much more progress in the Western part of Europe than in its eastern reaches. The British have dominated the world for centuries, just like the Americans today. Their empire stretched from Canada to New Zealand, and from the north of Scotland to South Africa. Until the end of two world wars they were precisely what the United States is today: the largest and (seemingly) invincible great world power. Just like every other empire, this one perpetuated itself through violence and subjugation of other cultures and peoples.

Just like all other empires, the British empire was based on racism, on the idea that there are superior and inferior cultures and that the whites, due to their "superiority", had the "calling" to rule others. The principle of cultural and racial superiority was rejected only after WWII when the whole world realized its ultimate consequences. The defeat of Nazism was in a way a defeat of every form of racism - racism in the United States, as well as global racism. Besides, the break up of the British empire, which started in earnest with the declaration of independence of India (in the late nineteen forties) and finished with the fall of racism in South Africa (only in the early nineteen nineties), is only a consequence of that defeat. The world still hasn't dealt with the consequences of that several-centuries-long institutionalized racism. Economic backwardness and poverty in Africa and Asia, brutal ethnic conflicts (for example the one in the Middle East or between India and Pakistan), existence of weak states and strong dictators are only some of them.

However, the problem is that the powerful most frequently do not see (and if they do see, they seldom understand) that there are problems after all. Almost like the former autocratic leaders from Eastern Europe, the current global rulers simply cannot understand how someone can dislike them. Living isolated in their own world, they frequently do not notice anyone else, and especially those who suffer as a consequence of their policies. Rulers of the world are frequently prisoners of their own narratives about that world; and those stories have only superlatives for their role in the past and present. It is true that the current British authorities do not believe that the British empire can or should be rebuilt. They respect (as much as a great power can) formal independence of newly created states. But, isn't it true that these same authorities organized only a few months ago the spectacular celebration of the Queen's "golden jubilee", reminding on that occasion (without much concern regarding the perception of that event in the former colonies) that once upon a time Britain ruled land and oceans. What sort of message was that supposed to send to African states, whose flags were displayed below the Queen's balcony that afternoon? How could such a spectacle (with a gilded carriage and stunning fireworks) be received in countries where people daily die from hunger and where the best salaries continue to be paid by the British (or American) embassy? However, it would be less of a problem if everything ended with symbols. Every nation needs myths about its own past. And myths, by definition, contain only grains of truth, used as foundations for fairytales. However, the problem is that the imperialist way of thinking and acting is still alive and kicking in the economic, political and military sphere. Things that are not acceptable in the "capital" are still considered tolerable In "colonies". The "center" still, in a way, lives from economic exploitation of the "colonies". The British media have several times so far emphasized examples of clothing and shoes companies such as GAP and Nike.

Virtually all products of these two global mega-companies (and they are only an example as almost all other global corporations are similar in that sense) are produced outside Britain and America. Very little production remains in Europe. Labels on their products reveal that they are produced in Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, Sri Lanka, or Vietnam.

Hidden Injustice

The reason for this shift of production are not the newly discovered sewing skills of Indonesian or Vietnamese workers, which reduce production costs and increase profits (these days even the British publishing houses print books in Malaysia, which increases delivery times but increase their profits). Workers in these poor countries (and only Nike employs about half a million workers in 55 countries) earn sometimes less than 50 cents for one pair of trainers they make. Average production costs for one pair of trainers (sold in Britain for between 40 and more than 100 pounds [$80 to $200]) are only between $5 and $6. The difference, of course, is pocketed by owners of global companies, media that advertise their products, countries in which all of them pay their taxes, and that means - ultimately (though the taxation system) - to all residents of Western countries.

The injustice and exploitation are hidden from the eyes of the modern West in the same way the brutality of the imperialist colonial system was hidden from the eyes of the Europeans a century or two ago (the Europeans also developed the narrative in which they portrayed victims of their brutality as brutal barbarians, violent bullies and savages, while they portrayed themselves, brutal exploiters, as civilized educators. That narrative survives until today). Does anyone care today that an Indonesian teenager who physically made the trainers we proudly wear might have starved to death, or was brutally beaten by local policemen for complaining about his excessive working hours, between five in the morning and midnight? Not only the British and the Americans, but also we, junior members of the white, culturally and economically "superior" Western civilization, do not care about that at all.

Mugabe's criticism of Blair and recent boos welcoming Collin Powel to Johannesburg, are not only directed at the British and the Americans, although due to their present and past power they are mostly responsible for the injustice. These protests are also directed at us.

Translated on June 1, 2004