Is Europe Really More Civilized? Ukraine Conflict a Platform for Racism and Rewriting History

When a grotesque six-minute video of Ukrainian troopers taking pictures and torturing handcuffed and tied up Russian troopers circulated on-line, outraged individuals on social media and elsewhere in contrast this barbaric habits to that of Daesh.

In a uncommon admission of ethical duty, Oleksiy Arestovych, an adviser to the Ukrainian President, shortly reminded Ukrainian fighters of their duty beneath worldwide legislation. “I wish to remind all our army, civilian and protection forces, as soon as once more, that the abuse of prisoners is a warfare crime that has no amnesty beneath army legislation and has no statute of limitations,” he stated, asserting that “We’re a European military”, as if the latter is synonymous with civilized habits.

Even that supposed declare of duty conveyed delicate racism, as if to recommend that non-westerners, non-Europeans, could perform such grisly and cowardly violence, however definitely not the extra rational, humane and intellectually superior Europeans.

The remark, although much less apparent, reminds one of many racist remarks by CBS’ international correspondent, Charlie D’Agata, on February 26, when he shamelessly in contrast Center Jap cities with the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, stating that “Not like Iraq or Afghanistan, (…) it is a comparatively civilized, comparatively European metropolis”.

The Russia-Ukraine warfare has been a stage of racist feedback and habits, some specific and apparent, others implicit and oblique. Removed from being implicit, nonetheless, Bulgarian Prime Minister, Kiril Petkov, didn’t mince phrases when, final February, he addressed the problem of Ukrainian refugees. Europe can profit from Ukrainian refugees, he stated, as a result of “these persons are Europeans. (…) These persons are clever, they’re educated individuals. This isn’t the refugee wave we’ve got been used to, individuals we weren’t certain about their identification, individuals with unclear pasts, who may have been even terrorists.”

Certainly one of many different telling episodes that spotlight western racism, but in addition continued denial of its grim actuality, was an interview performed by the Italian newspaper, La Repubblica, with the Ukrainian Azov Battalion Commander, Dmytro Kuharchuck. The latter’s militia is understood for its far-right politics, outright racism and horrific acts of violence. But, the newspaper described Kuharchuck as “the type of fighter you don’t count on. He reads Kant and he doesn’t solely use his bazooka.” If this isn’t the very definition of denial, what’s?

That stated, our proud European buddies have to be cautious earlier than supplanting the phrase ‘European’ with ‘civilization’ and respect for human rights. They ought to not overlook their previous or rewrite their historical past as a result of, in any case, racially-based slavery is a European and western model. The slave commerce, because of which hundreds of thousands of slaves had been shipped from Africa throughout the course of 4 centuries, was very a lot European. In accordance with Encyclopedia Virginia, 1.8 million individuals “died on the Center Passage of the transatlantic slave commerce”. Different estimations put the quantity a lot greater.

Colonialism is one other European high quality. Beginning within the fifteenth century, and lasting for hundreds of years afterward, colonialism ravaged your entire International South. Not like the slave commerce, colonialism enslaved whole peoples and divided entire continents, like Africa, amongst European spheres of affect.

The nation of Congo was actually owned by one particular person, Belgian King Leopold II. India was successfully managed and colonized by the British East India Firm and, later, by the British authorities. The destiny of South America was largely decided by the US-imposed Monroe Doctrines of 1823. For practically 200 years, this continent has paid – and continues to pay – an especially heavy value of US colonialism and neocolonialism. No numbers or figures can probably specific the destruction and dying toll inflicted by Western-European colonialism on the remainder of the world, just because the victims are nonetheless being counted. However for the sake of illustration, in accordance with American historian, Adam Hochschild, ten million individuals have died in Congo alone from 1885 to 1908.

And the way can we overlook that World Conflict I and II are additionally completely European, abandoning round 40 million and 75 million lifeless, respectively. (Different estimations are considerably greater). The gruesomeness of those European wars can solely be in comparison with the atrocities dedicated, additionally by Europeans, all through the South, for a whole bunch of years prior.

Mere months after The North Atlantic Treaty Group (NATO) was shaped in 1949, the keen western companions had been fast to flex their muscular tissues in Korea in 1950, instigating a warfare that lasted for 3 years, ensuing within the dying of practically 5 million individuals. The Korean warfare, like many different NATO-instigated conflicts, stays an unhealed wound to today.

The record goes on and on, from the disgraceful Opium Wars on China, beginning in 1839, to the nuclear bombings of Japan in 1945, to the destruction of Vietnam, Laos, Cambodia, in 1954, 1959 and 1970 respectively, to the political meddling, army interventions and regime change in quite a few international locations all over the world. They’re all of the work of the West, of the US and its ever-willing ‘European companions’, all completed within the identify of spreading democracy, freedom and human rights.

If it weren’t for the Europeans, Palestine would have gained its independence a long time in the past, and its individuals, this author included, would haven’t been made refugees, struggling beneath the yoke of Zionist Israel. If it weren’t for the US and the Europeans, Iraq would have remained a sovereign nation and hundreds of thousands of lives would have been spared in one of many world’s oldest civilizations; and Afghanistan would haven’t endured this untold hardship. Even when the US and its European buddies lastly relented and left Afghanistan final 12 months, they proceed to carry the nation hostage, by blocking the discharge of its funds, resulting in precise hunger among the many individuals of that war-torn nation.

So earlier than bragging concerning the virtues of Europe, and the demeaning of everybody else, the likes of Arestovych, D’Agata, and Petkov ought to check out themselves within the mirror and rethink their unsubstantiated ethnocentric view of the world and of historical past. In reality, if anybody deserves bragging rights it’s these colonized nations that resisted colonialism, the slaves that fought for his or her freedom, and the oppressed nations that resisted their European oppressors, regardless of the ache and struggling that such struggles entailed.