Date: Fri, 04 Sep 1998 12:56:53 +1000
Subject: Re: Why Throw Americans Out of Middle East... by Taliban


David,
Thanks for being kind to my comments .... 

One of the things that I have tried to do in my writing is to respond to
the issues as I understand them, rather than take sides for essentialistic
reasons. I also share your frustrations at the way Clinton, and the rest of
what he stands for, make assertions about their duties to the world order,
security etc etc.

In fact I feel that if the Taliban was looking for 'legitimacy' to carry
out any kind of atrocities on any western targets, Clinton has handed it ot
him on a golden platter.

This brings me back to a question that has been discussed in various guises
in this group ... the role of the "postcolonial intellectual" within these
resistances (I would like to hear more about your unpacking of the notion
of resistance).

Within these times of informational at the expense of material production,
the intellectual must surely have an important role. But do they get into
politics or fire shots from the sideline as gurantors/backstops that issue
commentaries that are fully and critically analysed and distributed to the
subalterns for their own reading and interpretations. Literally giving the
people the information to make their own minds up. Can we assume that they
have the skills to unpack the issues presented to them? The other issues is
that unfortunately many of them prefer to steer clear of this
responsibility. So where does that leave us?

Richard


 
At 09:46 PM 9/3/98 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Richard,
>
>Thanks for your thoughts on the Taliban post. While I don't think you do
>this, I realise from reading your message that my reposting of the Taliban
>article may be construed to suggest that I agree (whole-heartedly or
>half-heartedly) with Taliban's reading of the situation. I don't, for the
>very reasons that you hint at. In fact, I have been trying to incorporate
>this notion of "third space" myself into an attempt to understand the
>context and ambiguities of what we call "resistance" more clearly or
>faithfully. I think something like a "third space sensibility" could help
>point the way to a more progressive conceptualisation and politics in
>relation to the issues of domination, oppression, resistance, and
>"counter-domination"... but neither Taliban or the USA is heavily into a
>progressive politics, as I see it.
>
>What I find particularly interesting about the Taliban post is
>twofold: (a) it necessitates working through the emotions of
>reading a
>piece whose anger I share, but which reworks that anger into a form and in
>a direction, and with a purpose that I mostly deplore, and (b) my sense
>that if the article appeared in a Rushdie novel it would be worked through
>in full by students of the postcolonial, but because it was written
>(presumably) by the "non-fiction" (I'm opening myself up here) Taliban it
>will get little such attention.
>
>David. 
>
>
>
>On Fri, 4 Sep 1998, Richard Wah wrote:
>
>> At the risk of being branded pro-American and pro-Jew and pro-Christian, I
>> want to make a few comments to the post by Taliban. Please pardon my lack
>> of appropriate jargon.
>> 
>> I agree that "the postcolonial is about attending to the social and
political
>> >processes that struggle against and work to unsettle the architecture of
>> >domination established through imperialism"
>> 
>> But I do not agree with and do not feel there is any benefit to be gained
>> by continuing with the various dichotomies by Nationalities, colour, race
>> etc .... for want of better  terminology ... "deterministically essential"
>> by these markers. For to do so would lead to the conclusion that one is
>> conquered and the opressed becomes the oppressor and the dichotomy starts
>> all over again.
>> 
>> I am of the view that the strategy being pursued will only lead to
>> continuation of the binary oppositions. WIthin my own work I am
>> experimenting with the notions of Lefreve's (Soja) thirdspaces and Wilden's
>> "both and." I posit these two strategies not as compromises of the various
>> positions of the contestation but as alternate perceptions or conceptions
>> (not quite sure) criticing to underlying assumptions of the constitutions
>> of the various groups (e.g. are all Christians, Jews, American such
>> horrible people and all Muslims good?), contexts, concepts, value systems
>> and ways of doing. I realise in my work that a lot of this is abstract and
>> appear to be non-pragmatic but I feel out of theoretical framings line this
>> could come so more lasting solutions to the contestations and conflicts
>> rather than the strategy that has been used up to now wher the dominant is
>> replaced by the dominator etct etc.
>> 
>> I realise that this maybe detract from the realities ... comments.
>> 
>> Richard
>
>
>
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>
>
--------------------------
Richard Wah
Graduate School of Education
University of Queensland
St Lucia
Brisbane 4072.

Ph  61-7-33656508
Fax 61-7-33657199 
Email s271338-AT-student.uq.edu.au
webpage http://student.uq.edu.au/~s271338


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