Throughout time there has been countless thoughts and opinions on how certain aspects of our history has came to be as knowing the history of something in the past can better predict what we can achieve in the future and how to prevent potential situations from reoccurring. History allows us to look back into time and view the upbringing of certain conflicts and through Kevin McIntyre’s article examines how the Khmer rouges came about and how they conducted mass evacuations all through Cambodia. He explains their approach and how this regime was the fundamental reason for Orientalism during this period of time.
Kevin McIntyre out of the University Of Wisconsin- Madison attempts to educate readers on the understanding of Orientalism by
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(p.730) This way of life fit a pattern closely relatable to the Khmer Rouges as they felt that they were truly on a mission to fix Cambodian society. Another one of McIntyre’s main points he touches on is that the removal of the town-countryside dichotomy was key in eliminating alienation as this produced the creation of what was thought to be truly human life with socialism.(p.736) This is what the Khmer Rouges did in many towns and cities in Cambodia as they felt that their mission to evacuating and executing so many were for the greater …show more content…
The main points of where he is talking about the Khmer Rouges and how they sought out ways claim land and social level parts of Cambodia did not resonate well with me. When the author claims that this was for geographical gain I believe based off the way they handled their business with the brutal killings of innocent people to not be worth it. Mcintyre claims throughout that these principles that were acted out on were for the greater good of society as he claimed in the beginning of the passage that Khieu Samphan and the Khmer Rouges were trying to get the Cambodians out of their “backwardness”.(p.730) What I do not understand from this passage is how that was the “right” way of going about things in terms of mass execution for the goal of eventual world peace. Personally in my ideology i do not agree with the way it went about and how McIntyre talks about this concept. I find the evidence convincing in the way that eventually this did solve a lot of issues with what was going on before and this lead to progression and a build for a better future. Throughout the paper you can make a claim that Cambodia today is much better off as a country despite what they had to endure in years prior. Through this paper I feel that the Khmer Rouge may have had a big influence in how
Throughout the years 1975-1979 the Communist Khmer Rouge Regime party held control of the Cambodia and instituted the Angkar government system. In this system evolution and change was frowned upon. Intellectuals like students, teachers, monks, government officials, military workers, etc were considered corrupt. In the eyes of the Angkar, a model citizen was a peasant farmer who lived in the countryside and did not own any type of technology or possess any Western influence. Intellectuals (i.e. people who lived in cities like Phnom Penh) were forced to evacuate their homes and move into villages in the countryside. These villages were controlled by village chiefs and soldiers from the Khmer Rouge regime. The new villagers were forced to work long hours in the rice fields and the community gardens with
Pol Pot believed that Cambodia could be a great country without the helps from the United States. After a long and hard series of thoughts and arguments, he decided to kill people that lived in farms or places that were far away from Phnom Penh. But it is incorrect to say that Pol Pot started the genocide because hundreds and thousands of Cambodians were captured and arrested by GR UNK. It started at 1966, when Lon Nol believed that people who disagree with their idea should be executed. “Right here in Amsterdam everyday hundreds of Jews disappear”(“The Diary Of Anne Frank” play, collections book. Page 306) The genocide caused by the Khmer Rouge is still recorded as one of the most deadliest genocide in
Orientalism, which became famous as a term after Edward Said’s book written in 1978, explains a power relation between the Orient and the Occident inspiring from the Foucault’s The Archeology of Knowledge and
Expressions of Cambodia: The Politics of Tradition, Identity, and Change. By Leakthina Chan-Pech Ollier and Tim Winter. London: Routledge, 2006. 86-100. Print.
The Cambodian Genocide was a trial and error of someone trying to make all people equal. Khmer Rouge had approximately 1.7 million people executed attempting to equal everyone out and make the world a “better” place. Although he tried very hard at this, he of course failed and and all of his attempts were, in the end pointless.
Vietnamese invaded Cambodia in December of 1978, resulting in nearly 130,000 more Cambodians to migrate into California, catching the atten...
A genocide can be classified as the deliberate killing of a large group of people, especially those of a specific ethnic race or or group. All genocides start with certain beliefs. These beliefs grows as they spread to large groups of people. If taken too far these beliefs can negatively impact the lives of many as well as all the future generations to come. When one thinks of genocide they usually only think of the suffering inflicted on the different ethnic groups as well as the devastating losses that ensue. Most do not consider the effects of genocide on countries and people after it happens. Genocide not only impacts the group of people who are persecuted but also the generations of people who come later. The Cambodian Genocide was one
In Orientalism, Edward Said argues the countless aspects of the term “Orientalism”, as well as its roots, the principal philosophies and arguments behind it, and the influence that Orientalism has had on the relationship between the West and the East. Several reasons including political, economic, moral, and cultural justify the necessity for conquest of the Orient. Said’s concept of Orientalism analyzes the concepts that offer the political, economic, and cultural motives for imperialist actions by more powerful nations like the United States and Europe.
In his book Orientalism, Dr. Edward Said wrote about the influence of material culture – journalism, literature, art – on how people perceive the “Other”. Specifically, he focused on the way that people from the “West” view the “Orient.” He wrote, “The phenomenon of Orientalism as I study it here deals… with the internal consistency of Orientalism and its ideas about the Orient… despite or beyond any correspondence, or lack thereof, with a real “Orient” (Said 71). Dr. Said wrote about how Orientalism, through material culture, encouraged, legitimized and even enabled the British domination of great portions of the East by emphasizing, exaggerating and distorting differences between Arab peoples and the cultures of the North America and Europe (Said 69). Orientalism often portrays Arab culture as mysterious, exotic, backward, uncivilized, or dangerous, creating stereotypes that have been reinforced throughout recorded history.
The Cambodian Genocide has the historical context of the Vietnam War and the country’s own civil war. During the Vietnam War, leading up to the conflicts that would contribute to the genocide, Cambodia was used as a U.S. battleground for the Vietnam War. Cambodia would become a battle ground for American troops fighting in Vietnam for four years; the war would kill up to 750,00 Cambodians through U.S. efforts to destroy suspected North Vietnamese supply lines. This devastation would take its toll on the Cambodian peoples’ morale and would later help to contribute that conflicts that caused the Cambodian genocide. In the 1970’s the Khmer rouge guerilla movement would form. The leader of the Khmer rouge, Pol Pot was educated in France and believed in Maoist Communism. These communist ideas would become important foundations for the ideas of the genocide, and which groups would be persecuted. The genocide it’s self, would be based on Pol Pot’s ideas to bring Cambodia back to an agrarian society, starting at the year zero. His main goal was to achieve this, romanticized idea of old Cambodia, based on the ancient Cambodian ruins, with all citizens having agrarian farming lives, and being equal to each other. Due to him wanting society to be equal, and agrarian based, the victims would be those that were educated, intellectuals, professionals, and minority ethnic g...
The Cambodian Genocide started because the Khmer Rouge wanted to create a pure Communist society in Cambodia. In order to do this, they decided to deconstruct the entire country back to its peasant beginnings and eliminate anyone who was above the status of a peasant or was not Cambodian. The Khmer Rouge’s dream of perfect communism ultimately failed, however, because it was impossible for a society to succeed with only one profession. Even rural peasants needed doctors an...
...ho lynched those who would dare to act as though they were citizens. There becomes a top down understanding of how to treat people, and when those in power have no regard for anything other than power humanity suffers.
Settled in the end of the fifth century, two groups established themselves in what is now present day Cambodia. The Champa controlled the central and southern part of Vietnam and the Funan is the southernmost part Vietnam and present-day Cambodia. Influences from both China and India were obvious as dance and music spread throughout the area. Ruling on its own till 1864 when the French absorbed it into French Indochina Along with Laos and Vietnam. For nearly a century, the French exploited Cambodia commercially, and demanded power over politics, economics, and social life. It was not until a leader Norodom Sihanouk proclaimed Cambodia's independence in 1949 which was later granted in 1953. Cambodia fell into chaos during the 1970’s as General Lon Nol and his connections to the Khmer Rouge brought Cambodia into a genocidal age. For a decade Cambodia was surrounded by despair and carnage until the reign of the Khmer Rouge ended in 1979. Slowly rebuilding of the nation began as outside countries and organization such as the United Nation helped to get Cambodia back on its feet. Plans were made for general elections by 1993 which lead to the constitutional monarchy that the country has today. With its cyclical and oppressive history, Cambodia future is optimistic with the economy growing rapidly due to industries such as tourism, textiles, oil and the traditional farming. Slowly the nation reaches to find its place among the other powerhouses in Southeast Asia and around the world.
When in 1978 Edward W. Said published his book Orientalism, it presented a turning point in post-colonial criticism. He introduced the term Orientalism, and talked about 2 of its aspects: the way the West sees the Orient and the way the West controls the Orient. Said gave three definitions of Orientalism, and it is through these definitions that I will try to demonstrate how A Passage to India by E. M. Forster is an Orientalist text. First, Said defined Orientalism as an academic discipline, which flourished in 18th and 19th century.
…My idea in Orientalism is to use humanistic critique to open up the fields of struggle, to introduce a longer sequence of thought and analysis to replace the short bursts of polemical, thought-stopping fury that so imprison us in labels and antagonistic debate whose goal is a belligerent collective identity rather than understanding and intellectual exchange…