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furyofvissarion) wrote2009-05-10 08:29 pm
furyofvissarion) wrote2009-05-10 08:29 pm
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The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World - Vijay Prashad. This book is part of the People's History series, edited by Howard Zinn & obviously inspired by his People's History of the United States. One thing I loved about Zinn's book was its focus on ordinary people, ones we aren't likely to have heard of; it's not just about politicians & war heroes. On the one hand, I wish Prashad's book was more like that; there are few ordinary people. On the other, perhaps his point is that the entire Third World is viewed as made up of little people.
But anyway... onto the book & my reaction. The whole premise was embarrassingly new to me, as a product of the US school system. We were taught in school that the Third World basically meant the poor countries of the world; then we were taught that we were the First World, & it wasn't for years that someone said, hey, what's the Second World? (the USSR & associated nations) We weren't told that the Third World, as a project, was a group of formerly colonized nations—the Non-Aligned Movement—that sought a way to improve the lives of their people & exist independently of the spheres of influence of the US & the Soviet Union. I know now, obviously, about the effects of colonization & racism on countries, but I didn't know that the Third World was more than a term imposed externally—a big shameful gap in my knowledge!
Prashad explains, in detail, how the various Third World countries (also referred to as the darker nations, as in the title, & as the bruised nations) came to work together, & how their political philosophies evolved from the independence period to the present day, resulting in the failure of the Third World project. A lot of it had to do with multi-class alliances working together to kick out the colonizers, but then these movements, having failed to change the inherently problematic nature of their societies, fell back on old hierarchies with class elites—or the new governments, having mobilized the people to resist colonizers, then tried to demobilize them, instead of bringing them into the work of creating their own independent nation.. Or they tried to change things too quickly without doing adequate work to get buy-in from all sectors of society.
Another factor is the change of the image of the nation to rely on membership in specific racial, ethnic, language or cultural groups—which has often resulted in tension or bloodshed. Institutions like the World Bank, & multinational corporations who want to reap all the profit from the Third World they possibly can, had a lot to do with it all as well, of course. I'm leaving out so much—the library will kill me for how many corners I dog-eared reading this—but overall the book was just a revelation. There were times I glazed over, especially in some discussions about economics, I must admit, though. It's a complex subject at times!
Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang. Brilliant SF short stories. Occasionally I felt a bit bogged down in technical detail, but generally Chiang avoids that nicely. Really, not a bad story in the collection. Standouts: "Hell Is the Absence of God," a totally twisted piece about our world, except with periodic angelic visitations (that leave people dead or injured) & random glimpses into Hell; "Tower of Babylon," about building a tower up to Heaven in order to break in; & "Liking What You See: A Documentary," which I'd read & loved before; it's about whether or not we'd choose to recognize people as beautiful, if we had the choice, & how that might affect society.
Shanghai Tango: A Memoir - Jin Xing. Jin grew up as a talented ballet dancer in the Chinese army & went on to international fame; the nature of this fame changed when Jin transitioned from male to female. I found the bits about growing up in the pressured atmosphere of a military academy--having to learn how to throw grenades in addition to perfecting dance techniques--really interesting, & was fairly engaged by Jin's story of moving to different parts of the US & Europe, & figuring out sexual & gender identity. That said, Jin doesn't think much of trans people who haven't had surgery (for whatever reason) or have had only certain surgical procedures; there's also a few comments about the essential nature of women that made me squirm a bit.
Chinese Whispers: The true story behind Britain's hidden army of labour - Hsiao-Hung Pai. Incredibly depressing account of undocumented Chinese immigrants in the UK. While most people in the UK probably feel quite removed from the lives of such people, this shows how they are almost certainly connected: if they've bought leeks, prepackaged salad, used a microwave. I myself was particularly shocked by the discriminatory, illegal practices of a temp agency that regularly recruited undocumented farm labor. This was an agency with whom I myself had registered (in a different part of the country) & it made me sick to think that I had given my time to such a place... though quite possibly the agency I ended up working for had similar practices in place.
I also appreciated that the responses of the various gangmasters & companies accused of labor violations were published, & blatantly contradict the stories that have just been laid out plainly for the reader. I think this would work fairly well as an intro to the subject of undocumented labor, sweatshops, etc. for someone new to the subject--in addition to the heartbreaking stories of life in the UK, the economics of why undocumented Chinese would take the risk to come to the UK is laid out, as well. I really hate the title of this book, I have to say, & wonder if it was pushed by the publishers.
Mixed Feelings: The Complex Lives of Mixed-Race Britons - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I tried to read another book of Alibhai-Brown's, on race in the UK, & kept bouncing off it before finally returning it to the library when I'd gotten about halfway through it. One of the things I noticed, though, was that she seemed quite insistent on the fact that POCs could be discriminatory too. Which, well, duh, but her repeated forceful mention of this annoyed me (it felt like she was trying not to be Too Angry or something). Anyway, in this book she repeats that POC communities can be just as resistent to mixed-race relationships as whites. Which, again, duh, & it's not good when they do it either.
This book has a good history of mixed-race couples in Britain, going back as far as the Crusades to show how attitudes towards the Other were shaped. The parts about contemporary Britain, & how violently mixed couples were often treated, were familiar in that a lot of the same rhetoric (& violence) were used in the US, though I don't think I'd read that much about this specifically about the UK previously.
What I found most interesting in the book were all the snippets from the people she interviewed, who were either in mixed-race relationships or the product of them (sometimes both). I think the interviews dispel the notion that being mixed-race automatically dooms you to an angsty life--though certainly a lot of the people quoted have issues (whether identity-based, safety-based, or both) with their backgrounds, it's by no means an inevitable thing. Another issue that comes up a lot is how mixed people identify. Many professionals, academics, & community groups automatically class mixed people as being of color, whether or not that's how the person in question identifies. I found the discussion about this challenging, because it bumped up against some ideas I have about myself as a mixed person & I guess about mixed people generally. It was a good reminder that not everyone identifies the way I do, of course!
Other topics covered include how gender & race dynamics intersect in mixed-race relationships (there are some really creepy quotes that I think are fetishistic, & that seem to go a bit unchallenged) & transracial adoption -- some research reporting positive outcomes of transracial adoptions is cited as a reason to dismiss concerns about transracial adoption, but really, given books like Outsiders Within, I wasn't convinced that caution should be dropped.
The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain - Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe. Good accessible starting point; the book combines historical segments with excerpts from interviews -- or, presumably they're interviews; they don't say, which is a bit irksome because I would've liked to have had that bit more context. I mean, usually the woman's context was made clear by the quote (single black woman living in a substandard council flat in London, etc.), but still. That doesn't detract from the informative & persuasive nature of the book, & the interview bits were some of the most compelling & moving, to my mind.
Historical examples of black women's organizing & resistance are linked with modern examples of the same; it's all v. inspiring. The book gives a real sense of the incredibly virulent racism faced by black communities from the 1950s up through the '70s & '80s (when the book was published). While some of this I knew something of already, lots of it I had never read about before: for example, how the NHS was in desperate need of workers in the '50s & thus recruited Caribbean women to come & work as nurses, who then faced intense discrimination both from patients & in terms of what job & training opportunities they were given. The book also talks about the complicated relationship with feminism & with black male organizers. This book is out of print, but I would recommend finding a copy for anyone interested in the subject.
But anyway... onto the book & my reaction. The whole premise was embarrassingly new to me, as a product of the US school system. We were taught in school that the Third World basically meant the poor countries of the world; then we were taught that we were the First World, & it wasn't for years that someone said, hey, what's the Second World? (the USSR & associated nations) We weren't told that the Third World, as a project, was a group of formerly colonized nations—the Non-Aligned Movement—that sought a way to improve the lives of their people & exist independently of the spheres of influence of the US & the Soviet Union. I know now, obviously, about the effects of colonization & racism on countries, but I didn't know that the Third World was more than a term imposed externally—a big shameful gap in my knowledge!
Prashad explains, in detail, how the various Third World countries (also referred to as the darker nations, as in the title, & as the bruised nations) came to work together, & how their political philosophies evolved from the independence period to the present day, resulting in the failure of the Third World project. A lot of it had to do with multi-class alliances working together to kick out the colonizers, but then these movements, having failed to change the inherently problematic nature of their societies, fell back on old hierarchies with class elites—or the new governments, having mobilized the people to resist colonizers, then tried to demobilize them, instead of bringing them into the work of creating their own independent nation.. Or they tried to change things too quickly without doing adequate work to get buy-in from all sectors of society.
Another factor is the change of the image of the nation to rely on membership in specific racial, ethnic, language or cultural groups—which has often resulted in tension or bloodshed. Institutions like the World Bank, & multinational corporations who want to reap all the profit from the Third World they possibly can, had a lot to do with it all as well, of course. I'm leaving out so much—the library will kill me for how many corners I dog-eared reading this—but overall the book was just a revelation. There were times I glazed over, especially in some discussions about economics, I must admit, though. It's a complex subject at times!
Stories of Your Life and Others - Ted Chiang. Brilliant SF short stories. Occasionally I felt a bit bogged down in technical detail, but generally Chiang avoids that nicely. Really, not a bad story in the collection. Standouts: "Hell Is the Absence of God," a totally twisted piece about our world, except with periodic angelic visitations (that leave people dead or injured) & random glimpses into Hell; "Tower of Babylon," about building a tower up to Heaven in order to break in; & "Liking What You See: A Documentary," which I'd read & loved before; it's about whether or not we'd choose to recognize people as beautiful, if we had the choice, & how that might affect society.
Shanghai Tango: A Memoir - Jin Xing. Jin grew up as a talented ballet dancer in the Chinese army & went on to international fame; the nature of this fame changed when Jin transitioned from male to female. I found the bits about growing up in the pressured atmosphere of a military academy--having to learn how to throw grenades in addition to perfecting dance techniques--really interesting, & was fairly engaged by Jin's story of moving to different parts of the US & Europe, & figuring out sexual & gender identity. That said, Jin doesn't think much of trans people who haven't had surgery (for whatever reason) or have had only certain surgical procedures; there's also a few comments about the essential nature of women that made me squirm a bit.
Chinese Whispers: The true story behind Britain's hidden army of labour - Hsiao-Hung Pai. Incredibly depressing account of undocumented Chinese immigrants in the UK. While most people in the UK probably feel quite removed from the lives of such people, this shows how they are almost certainly connected: if they've bought leeks, prepackaged salad, used a microwave. I myself was particularly shocked by the discriminatory, illegal practices of a temp agency that regularly recruited undocumented farm labor. This was an agency with whom I myself had registered (in a different part of the country) & it made me sick to think that I had given my time to such a place... though quite possibly the agency I ended up working for had similar practices in place.
I also appreciated that the responses of the various gangmasters & companies accused of labor violations were published, & blatantly contradict the stories that have just been laid out plainly for the reader. I think this would work fairly well as an intro to the subject of undocumented labor, sweatshops, etc. for someone new to the subject--in addition to the heartbreaking stories of life in the UK, the economics of why undocumented Chinese would take the risk to come to the UK is laid out, as well. I really hate the title of this book, I have to say, & wonder if it was pushed by the publishers.
Mixed Feelings: The Complex Lives of Mixed-Race Britons - Yasmin Alibhai-Brown. I tried to read another book of Alibhai-Brown's, on race in the UK, & kept bouncing off it before finally returning it to the library when I'd gotten about halfway through it. One of the things I noticed, though, was that she seemed quite insistent on the fact that POCs could be discriminatory too. Which, well, duh, but her repeated forceful mention of this annoyed me (it felt like she was trying not to be Too Angry or something). Anyway, in this book she repeats that POC communities can be just as resistent to mixed-race relationships as whites. Which, again, duh, & it's not good when they do it either.
This book has a good history of mixed-race couples in Britain, going back as far as the Crusades to show how attitudes towards the Other were shaped. The parts about contemporary Britain, & how violently mixed couples were often treated, were familiar in that a lot of the same rhetoric (& violence) were used in the US, though I don't think I'd read that much about this specifically about the UK previously.
What I found most interesting in the book were all the snippets from the people she interviewed, who were either in mixed-race relationships or the product of them (sometimes both). I think the interviews dispel the notion that being mixed-race automatically dooms you to an angsty life--though certainly a lot of the people quoted have issues (whether identity-based, safety-based, or both) with their backgrounds, it's by no means an inevitable thing. Another issue that comes up a lot is how mixed people identify. Many professionals, academics, & community groups automatically class mixed people as being of color, whether or not that's how the person in question identifies. I found the discussion about this challenging, because it bumped up against some ideas I have about myself as a mixed person & I guess about mixed people generally. It was a good reminder that not everyone identifies the way I do, of course!
Other topics covered include how gender & race dynamics intersect in mixed-race relationships (there are some really creepy quotes that I think are fetishistic, & that seem to go a bit unchallenged) & transracial adoption -- some research reporting positive outcomes of transracial adoptions is cited as a reason to dismiss concerns about transracial adoption, but really, given books like Outsiders Within, I wasn't convinced that caution should be dropped.
The Heart of the Race: Black Women's Lives in Britain - Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie and Suzanne Scafe. Good accessible starting point; the book combines historical segments with excerpts from interviews -- or, presumably they're interviews; they don't say, which is a bit irksome because I would've liked to have had that bit more context. I mean, usually the woman's context was made clear by the quote (single black woman living in a substandard council flat in London, etc.), but still. That doesn't detract from the informative & persuasive nature of the book, & the interview bits were some of the most compelling & moving, to my mind.
Historical examples of black women's organizing & resistance are linked with modern examples of the same; it's all v. inspiring. The book gives a real sense of the incredibly virulent racism faced by black communities from the 1950s up through the '70s & '80s (when the book was published). While some of this I knew something of already, lots of it I had never read about before: for example, how the NHS was in desperate need of workers in the '50s & thus recruited Caribbean women to come & work as nurses, who then faced intense discrimination both from patients & in terms of what job & training opportunities they were given. The book also talks about the complicated relationship with feminism & with black male organizers. This book is out of print, but I would recommend finding a copy for anyone interested in the subject.
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