Questions for Class

Chapter 1:

 1. Why were the Spanish able to assimilate the natives of the Philippines?

2. What importance did Catholicisms play in the development of colonial rule?

3. How did the fact the the Philippine people have an intellectual class alter the way the country responded to Spanish colonial rule and subsequent US occupation? 

Chapter 2:

1. How did American soldiers make the on the ground assessment that Filipinos were racially inferior?  

2. Did the diplomatic blunders committed by the civilian diplomats have any real effect on the course of events?

3. Why was the United States willing to call guerrilla warfare "uncivilized" when it was the same tactic that the Revolutionary Army had used to secure victory against Britain?

Chapter 3:

1. Was there anything peculiar about the way in which the US occupation tried to bring in collaborators from the Filipinos?

2. What did Fiesta Politics do to inform the discourse between the Filipinos and US?

3. Where there competing views of colonialism at work in the Islands and the administration?

Chapter 4:

1. How did the colonial administration manage to form opinions and objectives so distinct form the metropole in such a sort span of time?   

2. Why would white women take an interest in the Filipino men while white men reacted violently? 

3. Did the exposition inform the American populace about the Philippines? 

Chapter 5:

1. How did the politics of division between Hispanic Filipinos and the natives aid the American cause?

2. Was it all the Americans' fault that there was a divide in Filipino society? 

3. Why did the colonial elite in the Philippines become so involved in maintaining their position? 

Policing the Globe: Intro , chp 1, chp 2

Intro- The main aspect of this book is how the world has changed in veiws reguarding international crime control. As transnational crime has envolved their needs to be regulations in the government as our world is globalizing. Andreas looks at the orgins and transformation of international crime control throught the book. When Andreas talks about the history of international crime I like how things have changed since the terrorist attack on Sept. 11th 2001. Andreas talks about how we need to police rather than starting a war. He also mentions a wide variety of transnational activities in the recent decades which include guns, people, counterfeit products, and drugs. Andreas mentions what this means for the future and that international crime control efforts are far more intensive and geographically expansive now. Andreas summarizes in asking why the growth of international criminal law enforcement, and his answer is, “it is in response to the growth of transnational crime in an era of globalization.”(7)
Chp 1- Andreas explains how certain transnational activties become crimainalized around the world. Andreas mentions things as Piracy, slavery, and drug traffiking.
Quotes: No greater example of the capacity of a transnational acitvity to resist the combined efforts of governments than the persistence of illicit drug trafficking. 45
US led push to criminalize money laundering , which builds on and is very much derivative of global drug prohibition regime.
Vandalism, Internet has become a transnational and electronically based concern. 57
Chp 2- most international criminal law enforcement matters are handled by police…..60
Roots of comtemporary international crimimal law enforcment
• 1st particularly criminal investigative, or detective
• 2nd Politics, secret service

Wilsonian Movement: India
Wilson is viewed as larger than human in India. India viewed the United States as potential allies in their struggle for home rule in 1917. Wilson’s popularity grew in Asia, many Indians viewed him as an “instrument of God.” During WWI if India had home rule, India would be able to contribute ten million men to the Allied forces. An organization called the Indian National Congress (INC) was established. It was the first all India political organization that had recognizably nationalist aims. The INC in the beginning focused on defending and expanding the rights of Indians within the framework of the British Empire, rather than challenging the legitimacy of British rule itself.
When World War I started, Indians supported the war effort with 1.2 million men, 800,000 of them in combat roles, fought for the empire in France, Egypt, and Mesopotamia. P81India wanted to be rewarded after the war for helping fight in it; the British Cabinet decided that it would be a cautious to declare Britain’s intention to allow Indians a greater measure of self government after the war. After not getting much self government from Britain Indian revolutionaries began to advocate violent action to free India from British rule. In May 1918, a federal jury in San Francisco convicted twenty- nine of the defendants for conspiring to foment revolution in India in violation of U.S. neutrality.
Lala Lajpat Rai who was took over as the nations figure, was a well educated person who was forced to travel in America because he couldn’t go back to India during the War. Rai had optimism about Wilson’s importance for the Indian struggle. Many Indians grew restless and there were mainly two groups now extremists and super extremists both groups wanted to move faster and further toward a self government than the British wanted to do. The Indians’ would soon discover that Wilson was not that committed to the universal application of self determination as his popular image suggested.
Tilak and Gandhi (men of the INC) represented India at the peace conference. Some in the nationalist press felt that the entire hope of India lay in President Wilson. After many debates that India as a nation was self determined to govern itself failed. India’s representatives at the Peace Conference wanted new goals for India as a nation to be able to self governs India. The pamphlet India gave at the Peace Conference was to so the demands of India. For instance not wanting for separation of England, but home rule to self determines themselves. For example they wanted the Monroe Doctrine for India just like it saved the South American Republics for self development. It wouldn’t be until ten years later that they would get complete independence, but at the Peace Conference in 1919, was a national movement which swung toward the goal of terminating British rule in India.

Reflections on the Wilsonian Movement

Erez Manela has created an excellent writing. This has been my favorite book to date. He thoroughly has examined the impact of President Wilsons concept of self-determination, popular sovereignity, and freedom for all mankind. Although much of the upheaval and revolution that occured after World War 1 were unfortunate failures, Wilsons concept would live on to the twenty first century.

Manela described how many former colonized countries attempted liberation movements. These movements were sparked by the idea that the United States was a champion of Wilsons theories. Many believed that the United States would use its newly aquired power to guarentee the right of all nations to govern themselves and not be dominated by a foreign power.Although, the United States did not live up to that lofty goal in 1919, she would continue to be a beacon of light that countries such as India, Korea, Egypt and China would continue to reach out too.

Just a few decades after World War 1 the United States would begin to fulfill this role of protector of freedom and self-determination. The conclusion of World War 2 left the United States in a position of global power this would leave it as the most powerful nation in the world. The United States global reach would stretch from Europe, to Asia and all across the Pacific Ocean. The United States has now assumed that role of international protector. Over the last 60 years the United States has proven that it is more than willing to use force to guarentee Wilsons principle of freedom and self-determination. Examples of this can be seen in Nicaragua, El Salvador,Panama,Kuwait,Iraq and Afghanistan.

Today, the Wilsonian movement is a national goal of the United States. Wilsons theories on self-determination have been used by the United States to fuel many fights for liberation throughout the world. If feel that this is one of the things that makes our nation great. Our belief in the right to national self-determination and our freedom of religion is what makes the United States the great nation that it is and will be. Mr. Manela's book is thoroughly enlightening and is a must read for everyone.

Kal Raustiala review

Raustiala presents two chief arguments about the geographic scope of American law:

1. One argument deals with extraterritoriality which he argues can come in many different forms, but in these forms we see common themes: efforts to manage, minimize, or sometimes capitalize on legal differences abroad.

2. The second argument deals with intraterritoriality, which has long been a way for American law to facilitate the growth and power of the United States. Only a limited set of rights have applied in other U.S. territory. The map of American law is larger than the map of American territory Raustiala argues. But, the map of legal rights is smaller than the map of American territory.

In order to understand these two principles, one must understand doctrines of territoriality that extend all the way back to the Peace of Westphalia in 1648. Some of these doctrines include that a sovereign state within documented borders is controlled and governed by its own set of principles. This is an ideal of long standing, but today states are increasingly subject to scrutiny from the outside world, Raustiala argues.

Extraterritoriality:

As the United States grew larger, extraterritoriality became the way for the United States to "project a small realm of domestic law into a (weaker) foreign power's territory as a way to inoculate one's citizens against the strange, the different, and the dangerous." (21)

Intraterritoriality:

U.S. law has differed depending on place. The supreme court has long held that Constitutional protections do not extend abroad (Insular Cases). Then, during the Cold war, Americans and other Aliens were protected by the Bill of Rights against federal action even when overseas - a more universal conception of Constitutional rights. Then in 1990, a more Westphalian or "traditional" view of territoriality was taken by the American executive branch; it denied the protections of the Fourth Amendment to foreign criminals searched by American agents abroad. Thus, American allies were more likely to be the focus of postwar regulatory and military jurisdiction. (i.e., in Iraq, Afghanistan, etc.)

Main Argument:

From the 19th century to present day, the executive branch has looked at traditional sovereign principles to justify lack of full constitutional rights for overseas citizens/Aliens in American "territories." Their (Aliens') geographic location decisively determines the bundle of rights they enjoy.

In our current state of affairs, the reality of constitutional rights abroad is, "the Constitution only partly follows the flag."

Since the human rights' revolution after 1945, traditional notions of sovereignty have eroded. A new conception of sovereignty puts the rights of individuals above state sovereignty. Thus, the United States has attempted to use this "absence" of state sovereignty to gain greater leeway to detain and punish for the benefit of its self-interests. To argue that the Constitution does not apply as long as the executive branch is careful to act only in particular offshore places, strikes many Americans as a startling claim.

Critique to the orthodox view:

Some advocates for human rights' argue that when the Bill of Rights was written, the word "person" rather than "citizen" was deliberate. Also the absence of any geographical limitations for the Constitution was absent in the Bill of Rights. These arguments are valid in the sense that "person" was a deliberate choice, and a geographical limitation was not present, but not for the benefit of human rights'; rather these details of the Bill of Rights are in order to protect the self-interests of the executive branch of the United States.

Global Musings on a picture

I know this picture to a Western eye is at best bizarre and possible disturbing but I feel compelled to comment on it.  In all likelihood this picture is posed but some components of it are quite probable, the iPod is the least believable part.  Yet, despite how contrived or posed this image may be it represents a rather interesting series of events in human history and especially in African history.  Taking the man in the picture, his manner of dress is probably quite similar to that of his ancestors one hundred years before him.  He is by no means "Westernized."  The exact location of the picture is hard to determine but I feel safe in saying that it is not near the cost, yet he has a large collection of snail shells.  They are clearly a sign of status and probably came to him in trade from some distance away from where he lives.  The Kalashnikov rifle is an interesting vestige of a time when a recently decolonized Africa seemed up for grabs between the forces of "democracy" and "communism."  Both superpowers actively courted and supported various rebel groups in the hopes of making the continent safe for what ever interest either superpower saw fit for Africa.  Yet both sides sought to do so under a rather interesting guise, that of some how "empowering" the local populations to sort out matters from themselves in a post colonial world.  To use Manela's phasing of Woodrow Wilson's ideology, both the United States and Soviet Union were supporting the notion of "self determination" while at the same time imposing the will of a foreign power on disparate peoples.  I suppose the failings of Wilson and others to fully understand or accept the idea that the various peoples and ethnic groups of the world would want a say in their own lives led to a tragic legacy of constant civil war for various parts of the Third World.  It also shows that despite a claim to allowing former colonial peoples to live freely, the end of colonialism simply caused them to trade one master for another.  In Africa this took on epic proportions with the constant civil wars that were fueled in part by the support of former colonial powers and the rising tensions of the Cold War.  Yet turning back to the image at hand, one can see a very interesting picture forming.  Suspending the disbelief in the authenticity of the photograph, the iPod represents a sort of future for Africa.  As the device itself boldly proclaims, it is "Designed in California, Made in China."  While companies in the United States may want to sell more products in the African market, one basic premise behind this exchange is largely ignored.  The People's Republic of China is one of the largest trading partners with African nations for raw materials and energy sources.  Despite being on the United Nation's Security Council, the PRC has ostensible supported condemnations of the genocide in Darfur while it works out trade deals with the government in Khartoum to purchase oil and natural gas, thus funding and propping up the regime that has turned a blind eye to the suffering of thousands of people.  Furthermore, Africa's mineral wealth has proven a curse far beyond diamonds.  Tantalum is an important metal because of its unique electromagnetic properties.  As such it is used in a cellphones and iPods to make the devices so compact and efficient.  The problem is that tantalum is found in the Democratic Republic of the Congo and has been one of many "conflict minerals."  Its forced mining has oppressed people in the DRC and funded warlords who can more easily sell tantalum than they can diamonds because tantalum cannot be traced back to a source like a diamond can.  Thus, while the AK-47 represents the brutal legacy of the Cold War in Africa, so does the iPod represent many of the continents current woes.  I suppose little has been learned and not much progress made sense the late 1910s. 

Tame Impala as a case study in Glocalization

I am a really big fan of indie rock for a variety of reasons.  The concept of an independent label appeals to my sensibilities with regard to large monolithic corporations, I am really not a fan, and the artistic freedom that one is afforded by being an indie act is really quite amazing.  You can produce real music, not something canned and designed to sell a billion copies.  I found out about Tame Impala through Sirius XMU, the Sirius Satellite indie rock channel, and the magic of the Internet.  The Internet has become a great promoter of youth culture in a way that no other medium has ever been able to facilitate.  The first generation that may have had a global "youth culture" was the one that came of age in the late sixties to early seventies.  The British invasion as a rock movement was by no means focused upon the United States and probably resonated through out much of the "free world" and became the subject of much bootleg importation into the Soviet Union.  But all of this was accomplished through the promotion of major record labels who controlled what message and media made it into the main stream.  Today in contrast, the Internet can represent a kind of meritocracy of music.  That is not to say that the "best" music makes it big (Miley Cyrus is a case in point of how a traditional record label can still hold sway) but what the Internet allows one to do is to connect listeners to music that is far outside of their typical scene.  Very few of the bands that I listen to have ever come within 100 miles of Hampton Roads.  The National played in Richmond last year but with the success of their latest album they probably will start touring on a larger venue circuit which means not in Virginia Beach or Norfolk.  Where as in earlier generations a band became popular in a local scene, say Seattle and Nirvana circa 1989, and then went big nationally, today a band can become famous internationally without ever doing much locally.  Thus music has become far more globalized than many other media.  Assuming you do not live behind the Great Firewall of China, an connection to the Internet connects one to a growing global youth culture of music.  Yet even more striking is how subdivided this culture truly is.  To quote the Canadian band Arcade Fire from their latest album The Suburbs, "The music we listen to, divides us into tribes."  So while I and a fellow twenty something in Tierra del Fuego can have identical exposure to music and similar tastes, because of the shear volume of music available to us it is unlikely we would have ever come into contact with the exact same material.  That being said, despite local differences we probably could still appreciate the same music despite being at different ends of the globe.  Ultimately, while previous generations had a kind of universal soundtrack to their youths, my generation has as many sound tracks as their are subcultures of music.  In the end, rather than uniting the world in a single global music culture, the Internet may very well save us from homogeneity and create a very diverse and colorful music market where anyone with recording equipment and an internet connection can become a star.  I think Andy Warhol would be proud.    Tame Impala - It is not meant to be