Full text of the item on recolonisation ideology at
http://www.diagonal.demon.nl/recolonisation.html
This is the comment on the media image ...
A western media stereotype of interventions has emerged in the last few years
(the BBC is an extreme example). It is clearly a new version of colonial
racist attitudes, with the western countries (approximately the OECD member
states) in the role of coloniser. The media stereotype includes the following elements:
- the world outside the western democracies is presented as a sea of
barbarity, chaos, and atrocities: the area presented in this way includes most
of Africa and Asia
- the "native" population is depicted as either violent and oppressive
(warlords, militiamen, torturers), or as victims (refugees, children, corpses
at mass graves)
- the victims are depicted as passive, powerless, and incapable of
independent action: a typical image is of "native" women weeping at a grave
- in contrast, "white" soldiers and aid-workers are presented as forceful and
active, capable of responding to the situation
- the "white" soldiers and aid-workers are depicted as helpers (for instance
bringing food) : the "native" population is not shown in this role
- the "native" population is depicted as grateful, usually in a childlike way
(clapping, singing, dancing): a typical image is the native population
cheering as 'white" troops enter a town (or performing a circle dance, as in a
BBC report from Dili port)
- in contrast, the western post-intervention reactions are in the form of
measured statements (from leaders and spokesmen).
I put the words "white" and native in quotation marks: many of these TV
stereotypes emerged during Balkan intervention, where all the war parties were
white Europeans. However in the Timor coverage, the images are sharply split
along race lines: the intervention really is run by "white soldiers", and both
the Timorese and the Indonesian army are clearly not European.
--
Paul Treanor
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