Rising
Nations and Changing World Order
By Dr. Ghulam M. Haniff
St. Cloud, Minnesota
Not very long ago China shot
down one of its satellites in the outer space
using an advanced guided missile. The exercise
was a successful test of its technological strength.
But the reaction in Washington was fast and furious.
Almost immediately Vice-President Dick Cheney
lashed out at Beijing for their questionable trustworthiness
and accused them of “heating up the arms
race.” The message was clear. Third World
nations are not supposed to have scientific capability
that may be seen as a challenge to the West.
In the colonial capitals any development that
contributes to the empowerment of the oppressed
is seen as unacceptable. The existing hierarchy
among nations, with whites at the top and the
rest at the bottom, making up the present world
order is considered to be enduring. While the
global society undergoes transformation, changes
beneficial to the underdogs are viewed with alarm.
For the most part Third World peoples and countries
are expected to remain passive under a form of
colonial existence. When India exploded its nuclear
device, followed subsequently by Pakistan, both
countries were placed under economic sanctions.
For their nuclear ambitions North Korea and Iran
are likely to be given even more drastic punishments.
Non-white nations must know their place in the
pecking order. Their destiny is to remain inert
spectators of unfolding human drama. Both China’s
and India’s (and other countries’)
leap forward through industrialization upsets
the structure of power. A little industrial activity
may be okay but when that cultivates economic
and military potentials it clearly is a cause
for worry. So goes the Western perception.
If the Third World nations are interested in manufactured
goods they can always procure them through exchange.
In the global system of trade they are the suppliers
of raw materials given their natural inclination
for physical labor. Manufacturing requires mental
dexterity and must remain the responsibility of
those higher up.
At the current rate of growth the fact that China
will emerge as the largest economy in the world
by the end of this century has sent Washington
into a tizzy. America had expected to be permanently
ensconced at the pinnacle of the global pyramid.
To add insult to injury India is likely to emerge
as the second economic power at that time. Darker
skinned “natives” at the top of the
economic heap will mean that the world has been
turned upside down.
However, the world is changing and new powers
are rising. The world order created five centuries
ago is gradually being dismantled. The “natives”
across the globe are demanding change. They are
becoming assertive and are no longer willing to
remain under the boots of the white man. One can
imagine Don Imus saying at this point why those
“nappy-headed hos!”
Just over half-a-century ago signs bearing the
bigotry “Chinese and Dogs Not Allowed”
was a common sight on European properties in China.
Today, those types of insults are the exclusive
preserve of the American airwaves. Dozens like
Don Imus daily reinforce the inferiority of the
“lesser races” even as George Bush
wonders “why do they hate us?”
The mad grab for the oil resources of Iraq is
partly designed to knock down Asian growth a notch
or two. It is also partly meant to show that the
white man is still the master and can invade and
bomb anyone at will.
The demise of colonialism has also brought into
reality the re-orientation of relations among
nation-states. Centuries of exclusive contacts
with mother countries began to be replaced by
greater South-South relations. Some turned to
China, such as Pakistan and Iran, both seeking
greater balance in their foreign dealings and
access to military hardware. They also needed
a strategic partner that China as an emerging
power provides.
Today, Beijing and Tokyo are fast becoming substitutes
for Paris and London. Just a few decades ago such
dramatic shifts would have been inconceivable.
In the new arrangement China and Pakistan are
jointly producing fighter planes, JF-7, at a facility
in Chengdu, capital of the province of Sichuan.
The visiting Prime Minister, Shaukat Aziz, recently
inaugurated a Pakistani Consulate in that city.
Pakistan is also scheduled to take delivery of
the first of three frigates manufactured in China.
The Chinese role in the construction of the port
of Gwadar at the strategic entrance to Persian
Gulf is widely known.
In the field of knowledge transfer Pakistani universities
have long cooperated with their counterparts in
China. The most recent development in that context
is that Pakistani universities will now begin
to teach the Chinese language for the first time.
Iran’s emergence as a power in the Middle
East is clearly disturbing to the United States.
From the colonizers perspective these “natives”
have dared to acquire the forbidden nuclear technology.
The talk of military strikes against Iran is a
favorite past time on talk shows. From the dark
recesses of the White House Dick Cheney thundered
his threat that “nothing is off the table.”
The more populous and territorially larger countries,
China, India and Brazil, perhaps Indonesia, don’t
have to worry about bombings or invasions by the
colonizers. Instead, military cooperation is sought
with them in order to neutralize them. But smaller
nations are constantly bullied and made to fall
in line with the desires of the West. They are
also threatened by the show of force as is Iran
currently with the presence of a huge naval armada
in the Persian Gulf.
The present world order is clearly not acceptable
to the natives. They have lashed out at the colonizers
and will continue to do so. Frantz Fanon, looking
at the plight of “the wretched of the earth”
argued that the destruction of the present world
order is the only way for the emancipation of
the colonized.
Propping up that world order is the poison of
racism that has fed and continues to feed the
message of hatred for the inferior natives. That
message of hate is beginning to be challenged
by many including Al-Jazeera at the global level.
For providing an alternative image Al-Jazeera
too has been punished, placed under sanctions,
its reporters killed and facilities bombed. Western
perspectives are forcibly fed worldwide.
Can Iraq really be the last hurrah for the white
man, as some observers have noted? Not according
to a favorite book read recently by President
George Bush and discussed at a White House luncheon.
In it, “A History of the English-Speaking
Peoples Since 1900,” the author Robert Andrews
argues that it is the destiny of the Anglo-Saxons
to be at the top.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------
