The nomads have arrived in the port city of Mobile (pronounced Mobeel), Alabama. Driving down Government street it is easy to see pieces of old southern splendour. The wide avenue is shaded by a big tree canopy and the mansions alongside it still bear witness to plantation wealth. The old historic district has a New Orleans kind of appeal, in fact it hosts the oldest Mardi Gras in the country, but overall it’s much cleaner and tuned down. At first glance it is hard to imagine that this place and neighbouring Selma and Birmingham were once the scene of bitter racial tension.
However already during the American civil war Alabama was the first southern state to cede from the USA to retain its’ right to continue slavery. Over 25.000 confederate Alabama soldiers perished and it’s reconstruction after the war was long and painful. After the abolishment of slavery Jim Crow’s racial segregation continued and the heaviest fights of the civil rights movement in the 50s and 60s were right here. Still ill willed towards a central government the rebellious southerners stubbornly refused to comply to much of the country’s directives and procrastinated efforts to allow their black neighbours equal rights.The civil rights movement only gained momentum when miss Rosa Parks stood up for her rights in 1955. Or rather she remained seated and refused to give up her seat for a white person on the bus, for which she was consequently arrested. It took until 1965 and the famed march led by Martin Luther King Jr., that ended in a brutal crackdown of the non violent protest, before the Voting Rights Act was signed by the president. Amerikkka had finally defined the truths they held self-evident for so long. Another 45 years later a black president resides in the White House.
So now here we are visiting Obama’s Alabama, an ocean away from the voting concerns back home: Who should be the next prime minister? What’s the right political power balance? What about Wilders? It doesn’t seem so urgent or important. But in fact it is. Politics, democracy, voting rights. These are the things wars have been fought over. In 2010 Democracy in a market driven system has proven to be the only successful way of government and the USA it’s most prominent example.
For the people and by the people. All the people. A country can only be truly strong when it finds unity in diversity. Alabama has come a long way and that makes a Nomad hopeful for the rest of the world.
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The South is indeed simply beautiful, without the stench of Strange Fruit that is.Strange Fruit
Southern trees bear strange fruit,
Blood on the leaves and blood at the root,
Black body swinging in the Southern breeze,
Strange fruit hanging from the poplar trees.
Pastoral scene of the gallant South,
The bulging eyes and the twisted mouth,
Scent of magnolia sweet and fresh,
Then the sudden smell of burning flesh!
Here is fruit for the crows to pluck,
For the rain to gather, for the wind to suck,
For the sun to rot, for the trees to drop,
Here is a strange and bitter crop.
Written by Abe Meeropol and performed by Billy Holiday.
Civil rights in the Dutch East Indies.
ReplyDeleteWhen speaking of the political positioning of Indo-Europeans (Eurasians) towards the Indonesian National Revolution most historians concur there was only a minority within the Indo-European community that willingly and wholeheartedly joined the revolution and sided with the newly established Republic. Apart from outspoken "dissidents" such as Dahler and Douwes Dekker and later accounts of individuals, such as the father of Ernst Jansz (an Indo resistance fighter in the Netherlands during WWII) not many stories are known. These men were often depicted as betraying their (Indo-Dutch) community.
However this politically correct (from a Dutch perspective) reflection might do well with some subtle revision, as the number of people that initially chose Indonesian citizenship was considerable. Even after the extremely violent Bersiap period (1945-1946) the great diaspora of Indos only commenced much later. It was in fact only after the harsh realities of forceful Indonesian nation building that many so called "spijtoptanten" realised they had become a social "out-group" with little socio-economical security and returned to Dutch citizinship. Even upon "repatriation" to the Netherlands many chose to immigrate further to the USA, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and also Brasil.
Irrespective of these facts (and what they mean regarding popular Indo opinion about Indonesian independence) there existed an Indo civil rights movement, that also contemplated several degrees of independence for the Dutch East Indies. This idea was carried by many Indo intellectuals of the day. Douwes Dekker and Dahler might have been de most radical thinkers, but the idea of independence for the Indies was also on the agenda of Indo icons like E.du Perron and Beb Vuijk, who were close friends with Indonesian revolutionaries such as Sjahrir. Their idea focused on stronger civil rights, such as the democratic principle of voting, for the native population. Political parties such as Zaalbergs IEV however did not sufficiently evolve before its' process of emancipation was cut short by WWII.