Blehhhsdjkfhdkj discussion stuff?

1. Lingering ideas/questions from discussion.

 What exactly was going on in Belgium at this time? Hochschild didn't really go into it, besides saying that some Belgians were developing interest in the colonies. But besides assuming that the Belgians were once again arguing over their language, I have no idea what is going on.

2. Evaluate group discussion. What worked? What didn't? How can you improve?

Umm...it definitely was not the best conversation. We had moments where everyone was participating and moments where lots of people were definitely not paying attention. However, I also felt like we struggled with finding questions we could really talk about.

King Leopold's Ghost Reading #1

"Stanly cannily sprinkled his tale with picturesque chiefs, exotic sultans, and faithful servants, and he introduced it with the sweeping generalizations that allowed his readers to feel at home in an uncivilized world: "The Arab never changes"; "The Banyan is a born trader"; "For the half-castes I have great contempt"" (30).

I found this interesting not only because it shows the extreme lengths Stanley went to to protect his alter ego, but because of the striking similarities to the sort of touristic stereotypes that are considered very common now: "The French are snobs"; "Americans are fat, rich, and lazy"; "Muslims are dangerous." These are obviously the more offensive ones, but generalizations like this still exist today. Even the perhaps not so offensive ones -- the Canadian "Eh", the British sense of humor, the Texan drawl -- can still be very harmful and insulting. Even though today we probably have the best understanding of the other cultures on our globe -- and the best access to information -- many people still rely on these generalizations to "feel at home." Xenophobia is still common. I think it is shocking, considering how far we have come, that people today can still be just as unaware of other cultures as those at the end of the 19th century.

- What parallels can you see between tourism today and Stanley's stab at touristic literature here? What differences?

- Do you think that people still make these sorts of generalizations? Why or why not? What purpose would these generalizations have?

New Imperialism Intro Thoughts

I'm really interested in learning more about the relationships that developed between the colonizers and the colonized, and the cultural effects these had. How did countries react to being colonized? Were there any that were fine with it? Were there any that really fought back? What sort of relationships developed? How the colonized countries feel now about their current/ex colonizers? What were the cultural, economical, social, political effects? Also, how did it change the language? Afrikaans, Creole, what sorts of linguistic mixtures developed and how did they survive? English itself is a product of a colonization of sorts: by both the Vikings and the French. And, how did colonization effect European view points/culture?