They call Imperialism beneficial, is it really?

“Modern Progressive Nations” has listed a number of benefits that according to them outweigh the burdens and miseries that Imperialism has brought to the poor nations. Making something better can never get equivalent to introducing it in the first place, it just follows a simple term ‘improvisation’ and that really is what the British Empire did in India.

 

I am not saying that their rule did not contribute at all but then taking the entire credit is not justice as well, claiming that they built the roads and introduced agriculture is not correct in any sense because South-East Asia was not starving or deprived of travelling before the British arrived.

 

Introducing better medical facilities and aiding increased production is no good when the Empire later waged a war when the people asked for their rights. A similar example for present times is that what is the point of ‘helping’ us out during floods and earthquakes when you have destroyed an entire province of ours through the drone attacks. What good is the concept of global village, technology and modern weaponry when these miserable souls do not have means to protect their houses and families of the never ending attacks?

 

How really have the economies strengthened when the profits and job opportunities get ploughed and injected back in the ‘donor’ countries. They have very successfully paved the routes and roads for brain drain by weakening the foundations of the third world economies. This they have achieved by burdening them with loans and their endless interest recoveries.

 

They talk about spread of technology and culture, how about suppressing the native cultures and treating the populace as inferiors and second class citizens? How can providing of better medical facilities be countered with the epidemics and the diseases that spread due to slavery back then?

 

Imperialism can never be justified just because of the bricks that it lays here and there in a wall that it demolished on its own and always leaves the other party at the short end of the deal. The so called benefits have always failed to balance the drawbacks in the least let alone overweighing them.

Posted by Anita Khalid on Oct 18 2011. Filed under Editorial, Opinion. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry