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Colonialism is Alive and well
TheNomadicCircle
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Registered User, __BANNED USERS regular
Where do you see colonialism at work and do you realize it? I certainly do. I see it happening in China and Russia in Inner Asia or commonly called Central Asia. Regarding China, they still occupy 2 areas which aren't Chinese in History at all and on top of that they are bringing in mass waves of Han Chinese to change the demographic and then claim that they were "Chinese" all along. Uighur nationalism and separatists are trying to free this realm alongside the Mongols who are trying the same in Inner Mongolia. Both of these separatist groups have been fighting for 50+ years to try and free themselves.
In Russia, mainly after the Soviet Union collapsed, one would think that the USSR would have ended. Not so. What we currently have is a bunch of government headed by former Soviet lackey's still asking Moscow to call the shots. This is especially true in Kazakhstan which has changed its demographics so much that almost half of its population is Russian. Especially in Siberia and east of the Urals, their colonialism has not ended and not only is it political domination but language domination is hugely evident with the continually loss of independent languages in the face of Russian. There are even large swaths of land which do not have any Russians but are still dominated by them. Religious colonialism has affected them so much that they have in effect "lost" the religions of the land in return for Atheism.
So what can we do to help them? I would say support the Uighur, even in covert operations if need be and separate Russia long the Ural borders. We should also support an "Arab Spring" sort of revolution in Central Asia so at least the people there can be free of these tyrannical rulers. The question is quite clear, what can we still do to finally kill colonialism and bury it for good? How should locals be empowered to fight off foreign powers so that their lands remain secure for themselves?
In Russia, mainly after the Soviet Union collapsed, one would think that the USSR would have ended. Not so. What we currently have is a bunch of government headed by former Soviet lackey's still asking Moscow to call the shots. This is especially true in Kazakhstan which has changed its demographics so much that almost half of its population is Russian. Especially in Siberia and east of the Urals, their colonialism has not ended and not only is it political domination but language domination is hugely evident with the continually loss of independent languages in the face of Russian. There are even large swaths of land which do not have any Russians but are still dominated by them. Religious colonialism has affected them so much that they have in effect "lost" the religions of the land in return for Atheism.
So what can we do to help them? I would say support the Uighur, even in covert operations if need be and separate Russia long the Ural borders. We should also support an "Arab Spring" sort of revolution in Central Asia so at least the people there can be free of these tyrannical rulers. The question is quite clear, what can we still do to finally kill colonialism and bury it for good? How should locals be empowered to fight off foreign powers so that their lands remain secure for themselves?
TheNomadicCircle on
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What exactly do these mean? Is the Russian government remotely forcing them to speak Russian and be Atheists? If they're choosing to do it on their own then I don't think anything particularly needs to be done. I'm all for global linguistic decomplication and the abandonment of mystical thinking.
They are also investing heavily in Latin America and dipping their toes into the Middle East. And while I haven't seen anything on this, I'd be shocked if they weren't doing the same thing in Southeast and Central Asia.
I think TNC is from somewhere in the middle east and lives in Canada, so I'm honestly not sure who his 'we' is. Unless he's calling for the D&D forum-goers to mobilize in defence of Russia and Central Asia.
At least we serve our soda cold.
Attempts to naturalize or otherwise assimilate a population which is actually older in an area are hardly new, and are hardly restricted to Central Asia, even now.
Invariably it involves frequent injustice. Rarely is it effectively resisted. The PRC is already well aware of separatism within its territory; while Russia now prefers to encourage separation of disputed areas along its own border (whilst the separated territory's government remains in the Russian sphere of influence), the PRC is still very hot on territorial integrity. Hence all the moving around of ethnicities.
It is certainly the case that the West would not support expulsion of ethnic Russians from Kazakhstan or Han Chinese from western China, especially after a generation or so, regardless of whether it was imperialist or unjust to move these ethncities there to begin with.
Given that there is very little reason to believe that restoring a multiple-decade-old ethnic claim to a national territory is actually crucial to material welfare, and that there is every reason to think that a confrontation with the PRC in this area would be potentially very expensive, I doubt anything will be done.
Which no country is going to in the foreseeable future. Perhaps a vast reserve of oil might be suddenly discovered, or perhaps something regarding Taiwan might heat up and then parts of West China are used as bargaining chips, but I don't really regard either as likely...
Rigorous Scholarship
Pretty sure Tibet has first dibs on any support before the Uighurs since they've been dealing with China claiming their stuff for longer. Guerilla operations on the part of the Tibetans don't exactly have the best success rate either looking at history so advocating it for the Uighurs is really a nonstarter. Covert operations on the West's part also have been a mixed bag at best looking back at the attempts to bolster the Nationalist Chinese after WWII ended but their civil war was still going. The communists in China have gotten more than just a tad stronger since then too. The Chinese themselves tried a Jasmine revolution after watching early Arab Spring activity. Note how you don't hear a peep about this anymore. It got crushed really, really fast and this is with a group that doesn't stick out ethnically. I don't see an attempt at something similar by a minority having any greater chances of success.
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It's incredibly likely that China is funding various political campaigns, and nobody seems to really give a shit about that
As near as I can figure it, we're the Zerg to Russia's United Earth Directorate.
They don't like us, but they don't like the Russians even more.
Aren't you the guy who is really into your home country's caste system? Like, I remember you from the discussion of tipping about how your clan is on top, everyone under you owes you some sort of fealty and such.
So, are you advocating the West support a democratic movement to free people under tyranny or are you just hoping for Western support to put your clan back on top? Cause if that's so, I don't think you are going to get many takers.
In the thread about anti-colonialism, this is the winner.
Jeff, Will, somebody lock 'er down.
Attaching to the infrastructure of a larger nation is probably the #1 way for them to `keep up' with the rest of the world.
Lets look at Tajikistan, which geographically is in the centre of most future shitfights for power that political theorists come up with. Its all pointy, pointy mountains and poor people and not much else. I just can't see them getting together the resources/support to stay independent when push comes to shove, even with `secret' support. Hard to see what could possibly be done.
That's pretty much the history of every war in that region, ever, and kinda why they're 17 different flavors of fucked up today.
Ripping out the natural resources is OK, but in essence that really just means they're trading Russia for China (who would be the logical non-Russian trading partner, given proximity). Additionally the technology and infrastructure to exploit those resources is primarily going to be imported, which greatly reduces the actual benefit to Tajikistan itself. Might get a few more good roads built though.
Yeah but if we're talking about them going up against Russia or China, quantity is going against them - not to mention resourcing.
The Mongols ruled the largest empire in recorded history, and the Ottomen empire ruled a sizable chunk of the ancient world for about 600 years. To cite them as being Subject to colonialism is at the very least ironic.
Further, you seem to be making a considerable stink about how the UN should be moving to protect these people (because it has a long and storied history of intimidating china and russia?) while ignoring that it and the rest of the world did fundamentally dick to help Darfur, which was subject to far worse actions by the Sudanese government.
Really? You don't think territorial tribalism has had something to do with the political problems of central Asia?
What's unique about Soviet lines in the sand? What do you think the Great Game was all about? Do you think that the modern borders of, say, India have any intrinsic validity?