Decolonization Is Not A Metaphor Analysis

In his essay titled “Climate of Denial”, Al Gore, a well known environmental advocate and former vice president, verifies the reality of climate change and global warming. The piece is an attack on corrupt companies and news outlets that attempt to persuade the public that global warming is not a critical issue. Gore also earnestly conveys our environment’s current state and offers possible solutions that would increase awareness about global warming and begin to revert the planet back to a healthier, more sustainable state. The overarching purpose of Gore’s work is to call attention to the widespread climate change that is occurring. However, he also focuses on the corruption and bias within the media, and their attempts to conceal the truth about global warming. Writing to those who are conflicted about who to believe, he makes a valid argument that defends the beliefs of he and his fellow activists and encourages others to become more active in the climate change issue.

In The Colonizer and the Colonized, Albert Memmi’s essential argument is that the collapse of colonialism is inevitable. According to Memmi, there are only two answers for the colonized to disrupt the system of oppression. The two possible “solutions” are assimilation and revolt. In response to the marginalization of the colonized, both answers carry a high price. In Memmi’s eyes, neither will work in the end. The first of two answers on the road to collapsing colonization is assimilation. Imitation and compromise are not the answer to decolonizing, for neither the colonized nor the colonizer.

During the end of the nineteenth century, the United States had formed policies which reduced land allotted to Native Americans. By enforcing these laws as well as Anglo-American ideals, the United States compromised indigenous people’s culture and ability to thrive in its society.

Settlers move to innocence to demonstrate the consequences of the “metaphorization” of decolonization used by white settlers. The authors wrote,”

Resurgence in the Indigenous context is crucial because it is the resurrection of indigenous life because there is a “danger to allow colonization to be the only story of Indigenous lives”; but more than that it recognizes that the story of resistance is not the only one that matters, Indigenous people have their own history. (Salah, “Seeing & Speaking”). Moreover, it is a movement to address the “harms done to indigenous peoples” with the focus being: reclaiming traditional knowledge, renaming the histories of the colonial state, and reoccupying the land and space that was taken. (Concordia University, “What can Universities do”). Then, identity is the sense that a person has about themselves. It is made up of the various characteristics that can include but is not limited to gender, sexual orientation, ethnicity, and class. (Salah, “Intersectionality”). In creating and labelling identity people “draw on culturally available resources… which is why an individual may find difficulties describing the source and nature of [their] identities.” (Mullay, 146). Meanwhile, decolonization put simply is “getting rid of colonization” however, it is more than that. (Google) Decolonization is a goal, but it is a never-ending process as it exists as a reframing of Indigenous thought to understand in addition to dismantling colonization while rediscovering historical

In Fredrick Douglas’s essay on the convict lease system, he purposely does not use words like “racism,” nor does he outright blame the whites for the situation. Instead, he uses gentle language to state the injustices done, allowing the reader to guilt himself. He says that white people have “done little to prevent the Negro becoming a criminal” (Douglas 1), condemning their inaction, rather than their actions. Douglas talks about injustices such as exclusion from churches and schools, as well as unfair trials, but does not talk about the convict lease system’s “legal” slavery because he wants the reader to come to the realization of his guilt on his own. He avoids talking about unwarranted lynchings and unfair incarceration in order to draw attention to the metaphorical “elephant in the room”. The more he avoids talking about it, the more the reader thinks about its blatant absence and about their actions, subtly making the reader feel guilty for actions done in the past.

She explains what they are, and some terms associated with those schools. Elgersma also addresses the colonialism and the associated mindset that it brings. Elgersma then moves on to current events, and the acts that the government is attempting to do to reconcile the past events of the government. Elgersma lists some of the issues that may arise, and those that have risen in the past, and ways that it can be changed to benefit everyone, not just the non-indigenous viewpoints. She then goes on to explain that decolonization is one of the better ways to diverge and pass this stage in Canadian history. Elgersma speaks about how decolonization would apply to the Canadian populace, both Indigenous and non-Indigenous, and what that would mean to future generations and future progress as a

In her book, Lose Your Mother, Saidiya Hartman challenges Jerry Rawlings’ notion of freedom by responding with “Had Rawlings asked, “‘Are we yet free?’ most Ghanaians would have answered with a resounding, ‘No.’ This ‘no’ resonated on both sides of the Atlantic”(pg 126). The capitalistic spirit that possessed the Europeans enabled them to disrupt the untouched country of Africa and capture its children to satiate their wealth aspirations. In the meantime, the Europeans took the land from the Native Americans through genocidal practices and claimed it as their gift from God. Although some claim that the capitalist ventures of the Europeans during the colonial period and the 19th century were beneficial for all and rooted in innocence, it ultimately caused the physical and cultural death of the Native Americans and African-origin peoples and has led to the day to day suffering of their descendants.

Temperatures are reaching a new high, snow and rainfall patterns are shifting, and more extreme climate events, such as drought, flooding, are taking place. It is not a forecast anymore; greenhouse gases are intensifying the global warming. In 2013, 81.2% of the energy consumption in the world are produced by fossil fuel (International Energy Agency). Could you imagine how much greenhouse gases are produced? Ever since 1980s, scientist has found that the emission of the greenhouse gases is the major factor contributes to the global warming, which intensify the climate change that the human civilization may collapse one day. In the book This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate, the author Naomi Klein describes that we are headed toward a catastrophic levels of warming. She suggests that the solution to climate change, in short, is to fight for a change in the economic model of capitalism and move towards a low-carbon economy. Making this adjustments will affect every aspects of our life--from how the energy generate, what we consume, and the technologies we use. “Change of this magnitude creates risks but also opportunities. There will be both winners and losers as the world moves towards a low-carbon economy (**).” One of the important aspects which many people care about is the impact of climate change policy on employment. Does the movement improve the employment? Klein suggests that climate change policy has a huge

Decolonization is the undoing of colonialism, where a nation establishes and maintains its domination over dependent territories. In the words of Fanon, in the reading The Wretched of the Earth, “National liberation, national reawakening, restoration of the na­tion to the people or Commonwealth, whatever the name used, whatever the latest expression, decolonization is always a violent event.” (Fanon, 1). Frantz Fanon was one of many authors who supported decolonization struggles occurring after World War II. He breaks down decolonization into two senses: one being the physical act of freeing a territory from external control of a colonizer, and the other being the psychological act of freeing the consciousness of the native from the alienation caused by colonization. Fanon particularly advocated that violence was justified by overthrowing colonial oppression. In his reading, The Wretched of the Earth, Fanon wrote on why and how colonialism must be stopped. Fanon argued that the colonial infrastructure must be destroyed. “Decolonization, which sets out to change the order of the world, is clearly an agenda for total disorder. But it cannot be accomplished by the wave of a magic wand, a natural cataclysm, or a gentleman’s agreement. Decolonization, we know, is an historical process: In other words, it can only be understood, it can only find its significance and become self coherent insofar as we can discern the history-making movement which gives it form and substance,”

The essay opens up with McKibben talking about how the political campaign against global warming is flawed because at our current point there is nothing much that can be done to fix it.(Mckibben,1) He then goes to state that humans are the biggest culprit behind global warming and supports this by giving examples such as SUVs and American ignorance.(2,9) He concludes by saying that if ten percent of America were to go green, it still would not save the planet, but ten percent could get the government’s attention to pass laws making everyone go green. (11)

The Western existence of modernization, especially technological and industrial development, economic growth, material prosperity, urbanization, and democracy, has been built upon a long line of industrial capitalism, an economic system predicated on the accelerating extraction and consumption of fossil fuels for energy (Clark & York, 2005). A major unintended consequence of the use of fossil fuels is an increase in the average temperature of the earth; known as global warming or climate change. Recognizing and responding to climate change, arguably the most challenging social problem of the modern era (Giddens, 2009), thus poses a fundamental critique of continued modernization processes around the world (Freudenburg, 2003). Climate change is a major issue that affects all life across the

Modernism represents an optimistic view of human impact on the environment that has been the dominant viewpoint for the last 200 years. The knowledge that mankind holds the ability to control the environment heavily stresses why climate change is not such a problem to worry about. One of the core beliefs of the modernistic perspective is that people have no need to fear future environmental disaster because the next technological advancement that will prevent it is right around the corner. Furthermore, those who share this view do not include themselves in their image of the ecosystem, believing they are detached from it. Lastly, a laissez-faire approach is taken to environmental problems, focusing on progression through technology, stressing that as long as progress is made in this area all problems will be fixed. For a modernist, climate change is nothing to worry about. This may be a real situation, but it will be solved with advancements in technology before one’s way of life is changed. What people should be worrying about is ensuring a laissez faire approach to the market with sponsorship to new technologies. As a result of reusable energy technology already existing, modernists believe that the problem of climate change has been solved and without disrupting free market system these technologies will be further implemented. As long as there are people given the opportunity to innovate, some will focus on and ultimately solve the concern of climate change. The issue of

‘Is climate change the new apocalypse? Are Western Nations too influenced by capitalism to effectively deal with the problem?’

Franz Fanon, in his seminal work The Wretched of the Earth, argues that decolonisation alias restoring nationhood is always a ‘violent phenomenon’: “To tell the truth, the proof of success lies in a whole social structure being changed from the bottom up…. If we wish to describe it precisely, we might find it in the well-known words: "The last shall be first and the first last." Decolonization is the putting into practice of this sentence.”