Slavery,Lebanese, Palestinians, Israelis, and all other my pain is bigger than yours crap.

Following a conversation, I just had earlier with a friend about the timing of the "end of slavery" in South Africa. Naturally, for me slavery didn't end until April 28, 1990. My friend/colleague didn't agree, of course. Why should he? To his credit he didn't try too hard to argue my ill-articulated point, except to say that, one can experience all the things brought to you courtesy of Apartheid without being a slave. True, but when it is legally mandated for you to be treated that inhumanely, it makes a huge difference, IMHO. I have never understood the "my pain is/was bigger than yours" argument. It doesn't make sense to me: People are killed and degraded, or they are not. WTF, It's not relative, surely? Now, you can compute numbers dead, but you can't assign numbers to degree of degradation of those affected. Nobody ever surveys the dehumanized and degraded, "so, on a scale of 1-10 how fucking dehumanizing and/or degrading was your experience?"

"Oh, yeah, mine was a positive 3 or maybe 4." "And mine, definitely an 8 or 9." Please.


Anyway, and then, looking for alternative takes on the currrent Lebanese/Israeli situation I came across this. I had little consciousness of who Chris Hedges is/was but, my god, was I struck by what he said for reasons related to the above:

"... a long process of severe repression in Gaza and the West Bank, a kind of Africanization of the Palestinian people, reducing them to subsistence level. Gaza has become virtually a giant walled prison for 1.1 million Palestinians,and that kind of abuse...."

I repeat, "a kind of Africanization of the Palestinians" with the words, "severe repression," "abuse," "giant walled prison," and "oppressor" also in the near vicinity. Oh my god. I guess, he couldn't exactly say, the pogromification or Jewification of Palestinians. Could he say, the Armenification of Palestinians? I am struck that he said the Africanization... I have never heard/seen that before. Never. Given, language catches on, I don't know how to feel about it. Severe sadness, relief, or both? and for whom? Palestine? Africa? Both? It's bloody depressing.


Here's the full quote, you can read the entire interview, which is interesting for different reasons here from
Democracy Now: Hezbollah, the United States and the Context Behind Israel's Offensive on Lebanon

"

CHRIS HEDGES: Well, I certainly did not mean to imply in any way that, you know, there we should ascribe equal amounts of moral blame to each side. Israel is clearly to blame here, both in terms of what is happening in Gaza and what is now happening in Lebanon. On the other hand, this has been a long process of severe repression in Gaza and the West Bank, a kind of Africanization of the Palestinian people, reducing them to subsistence level. Gaza has become virtually a giant walled prison for 1.1 million Palestinians, and that kind of abuse, that kind of repression, in the absence of international condemnation and in the absence of any attempt on the part of the United States to intervene and create a more humane situation for the Palestinian, breeds extremism. It breeds an extremist response. And these groups attempt to give back to the oppressor, albeit on a much smaller scale, what the oppressor has been meting out to them for years and years and years."