By Lubna Abdel-Aziz Where do you find it? Justice? Equality? Liberty? Lead me to them, to that idyllic, ideal, wonderland, for I have yet to find it. Has this world not always belonged to the high and the mighty? The strong, the wealthy, the artful forever rule, overtaking the weak, the needy, and the defenseless. So it is, so it always has been, so it always will be. Humans have exploited all their earth's resources, plants, animals, even their fellow man. This strategy has assumed many names, colonialism, imperialism, expansion, progress, civilisation, humaneness, beneficence; by whatever name it remains the subjugation of one group by another -- it remains shameless and deplorable. This historic phenomenon is nothing new. It stretches across the globe and across time, and seems unstoppable. Despite redefining and redesigning its names, aims and intentions, it is the same denigrating, degrading act that one human inflicts upon another. For over six decades the UN, founded when 50 nations signed the UN Charter (1948) included a statement declaring its respect for the principles of equal rights and self determination of peoples. Its very existence was contingent on preserving the "inherent dignity of the equal and inalienable rights of the human family based on the foundation of freedom, justice, and peace in the world." In fact by 1970 it declared imperialism, in one form or another as a crime. Despite all that, colonial control persists in one form or another, the rule of the strong over the weak is tolerated by one and all. While some believe the British invented colonialism, it has existed for thousands of years. The British certainly took it further, wider, longer, and stronger in modern times. Long before the British fleet conquered the world, together with other sea faring nations like the Portuguese, Spanish, and the Dutch, there were the imperial powers of the ancient world. The Hittites, the Incas were mightier and wealthier than their neighbours -- what a temptation! The Mongols n Central Asia created a vast empire during th 13th and 14 centuries, controlling the territory of the Ural mountains in Russia, across Asia to the Pacific. The Vikings established colonies in Greenland and Newfoundland. Christian Europeans launched their crusades from the 11th to the 13th century in an effort to recapture the Holy City of Jerusalem and other Christian sites. They were the first military expeditions of Western Christians carrying their culture and religion outside Europe. It is said that the primary motives behind imperialist claims are the three Gs, Gold, God and Glory. Gold always dominates. The economic incentive surpasses all others. The rate of colonisation accelerated during the last centuries. Trade, oil, wars, were major reasons. The colonial maps of Europe, Asia, and Africa were drawn and redrawn regularly. The policies and ideologies of Europe's powers added 23 million Kilometres to their overseas colonial possessions. Following the defeat of Germany in WWI, their greedy eye turned to the Middle East. In 1916 a secret 'Sykes-Picot' agreement, partitioned the Middle East between Britain and France, and the 1917 Balfour Declaration promised to the international Zionist movement their support in creating a Jewish homeland. The bulk of the Arabian Peninsula, rich with their newly-discovered oil reservoirs helped preserve Western hegemony over the region. The term "Third World" was coined by demographer Albert Sauvy, distinguishing a group of nations that aligned themselves with neither East nor West. This group bolstered its power in 1955 at the Bandung Conference led by Nehru of India, Nasser of Egypt, and Tito of Yugoslavia. The conference was represented by 29 nations, comprising over one half of the world's population. This led to the creation of the non-aligned movement in 1961. Now, they are stronger and far more numerous, yet imperialism continues unabashed. It took Algeria almost a decade of torture and bloodshed to gain its independence from France, and prior to that France easily exercised a free hand in the Indo-China war until the US came to the rescue! Once a victim of colonization, the US would have nothing to do with robbing a sovereign people of their inalienable rights. No, not the creators of the world's greatest democracy, the authors of the most humane of all human rights constitutions, but human nature being what it is, always submits to human temptation. The US preferred to use other names, such as "territorial acquisitions," or "annexations." Like others, they expanded their power overseas with Puerto Rico, Guam, Cuba, the Philippines, the Pacific Guano Islands, the Republic of Hawaii, and the US Virgin Islands. The Trust Territory of the Pacific Islands was a UN Trust Territory following WWI. These islands became independent Republics, but not before signing a compact of Free Association with the US. The mighty hand still dictates! Although the US voluntarily left many of its overseas territories, the culture, the economy, the interest and dominance linger on. The exercise of power tolerated by the subjugated peoples is often considered by colonials as a great act of charity, of civilisation, democratisation, elevation, enlightenment, sometime admittedly of 'national,'even 'international' interests. America's influence grew around the world to a great extent during the last century. Analysts spoke of a Pax Americana or an American Empire. How could the Middle East be overlooked? Its map, always changing by imperial hands, but never the hand of the greatest democracy in history. That was then, this is now. How will the US deal with the Middle East now? How more of its rights be abused? How will it be divided, fragmented, minced, and mashed? What is next for Iraq, Palestine, Lebanon, Sudan? Who do we go to for answers, for mercy, for justice? What happened to all those dreams of equality, liberty, fraternity? Where is justice to be found! Is it only an irridescent dream, frail, improbable, impossible? What is wrong with dreaming? It is human to dream, and we must continue to dream, even as the high and mighty continue to rule. Nothing is politically right which is morally wrong David O'Connell
