sep 1, 2008
standard modus operandi. first the missionaries come, then the merchants and armies.
this is what they have successfully done in alienating the indian northeast, and now attempting in orissa, gujarat, etc.
they have done this successfully since the time of their conquest of the incas and mayans too: the missionaries are the storm-troopers who figure out how to successfully wage psychological warfare and also create a fifth-column of converts.
standard modus operandi. first the missionaries come, then the merchants and armies.
this is what they have successfully done in alienating the indian northeast, and now attempting in orissa, gujarat, etc.
they have done this successfully since the time of their conquest of the incas and mayans too: the missionaries are the storm-troopers who figure out how to successfully wage psychological warfare and also create a fifth-column of converts.
---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: soc
From: soc
Hey Rajeev,
Here's an article in the latest issue of The Atlantic. I think it is pertinent to publicize it in view of recent events.
Lifting the Bamboo Curtain
Robert Kaplan on using missionaries to counter China's influence in Burma. His idea: enable the four dominant tribal groups to subvert the military junta. How to do so? Through Baptist and other missionaries who have thorough knowledge of the terrain, and people there, and who have been engaged in "humanitarian" activities through missionary-funded NGOs.
-socal
************************
"Meanwhile, the administration's reliance on sanctions and its unwillingness to engage with the ruling junta has left the field open to China, India, and other countries swayed more by commercial than moral concerns."
.
.
.
The son of Blue-Eyed Shan
"While the mess in Iraq has made the virtues of cultural expertise newly fashionable, champions of such experience often conveniently forget that many of America's greatest area experts have been Christian missionaries. American history has seen two strains of missionary area experts: the old Arab hands and the Asia, or China, hands. The Arab hands were Protestant missionaries who in the early 19th century traveled to Lebanon and ended up founding what became the American University of Beirut. From their lineage descended the State Department Arabists of the Cold War era. The Asia hands have a similarly distinguished origin, beginning, too, in the 19th century and providing the U.S. government with much of its area expertise through the early Cold War, when, during the McCarthy era, a number of them were unjustly purged. One American who counseled me on Burma is descended from several generations of Baptist missionaries from the Midwest who ministered to the hill tribes beginning in the late 19th century."
.
.
.
The Father of White Monkey
"NGOs," he went on in a racing voice, "like to claim that they are above politics. Not true. The very act of providing aid assists one side or another, however indirectly. NGOs take sides all the time."
"One might suspect that the Free Burma Rangers is on some government payroll in Washington. But the truth is more pathetic. "We are funded by church groups around the world. Our yearly budget is $600,000. We were down to $150 at one point; we all prayed and the next day got a grant for $70,000. We work hand to mouth." For him, Burma is not a job but a lifelong obsession."
.
.
.
The Colonel
...a retired Army colonel from Laguna Beach, California, does think strategically.He now runs Worldwide Impact, an NGO that helps ethnic groups, as well as a number of cross-border projects, particularly sending media teams into Burma to record the suffering there."
.
.
.
.
"The struggle over the Indian Ocean, or at least the eastern part of it, may, alas, come down to who deals more adroitly with the Burmese hill tribes. It is the kind of situation that the American Christian missionaries of yore knew how to handle."
Here's an article in the latest issue of The Atlantic. I think it is pertinent to publicize it in view of recent events.
Lifting the Bamboo Curtain
Robert Kaplan on using missionaries to counter China's influence in Burma. His idea: enable the four dominant tribal groups to subvert the military junta. How to do so? Through Baptist and other missionaries who have thorough knowledge of the terrain, and people there, and who have been engaged in "humanitarian" activities through missionary-funded NGOs.
-socal
************************
"Meanwhile, the administration's reliance on sanctions and its unwillingness to engage with the ruling junta has left the field open to China, India, and other countries swayed more by commercial than moral concerns."
.
.
.
The son of Blue-Eyed Shan
"While the mess in Iraq has made the virtues of cultural expertise newly fashionable, champions of such experience often conveniently forget that many of America's greatest area experts have been Christian missionaries. American history has seen two strains of missionary area experts: the old Arab hands and the Asia, or China, hands. The Arab hands were Protestant missionaries who in the early 19th century traveled to Lebanon and ended up founding what became the American University of Beirut. From their lineage descended the State Department Arabists of the Cold War era. The Asia hands have a similarly distinguished origin, beginning, too, in the 19th century and providing the U.S. government with much of its area expertise through the early Cold War, when, during the McCarthy era, a number of them were unjustly purged. One American who counseled me on Burma is descended from several generations of Baptist missionaries from the Midwest who ministered to the hill tribes beginning in the late 19th century."
.
.
.
The Father of White Monkey
"NGOs," he went on in a racing voice, "like to claim that they are above politics. Not true. The very act of providing aid assists one side or another, however indirectly. NGOs take sides all the time."
"One might suspect that the Free Burma Rangers is on some government payroll in Washington. But the truth is more pathetic. "We are funded by church groups around the world. Our yearly budget is $600,000. We were down to $150 at one point; we all prayed and the next day got a grant for $70,000. We work hand to mouth." For him, Burma is not a job but a lifelong obsession."
.
.
.
The Colonel
...a retired Army colonel from Laguna Beach, California, does think strategically.He now runs Worldwide Impact, an NGO that helps ethnic groups, as well as a number of cross-border projects, particularly sending media teams into Burma to record the suffering there."
.
.
.
.
"The struggle over the Indian Ocean, or at least the eastern part of it, may, alas, come down to who deals more adroitly with the Burmese hill tribes. It is the kind of situation that the American Christian missionaries of yore knew how to handle."
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