Really interesting part of Newswipe talking about how with the collapse of the Cold War, the narrative of the victim replaced that of ‘left vs right’. In particular, they mention how by making certain people the ‘good’ victims and others the ‘bad’ aggressors the ability to deal with complex politics became more difficult.
A recent example of the danger of the ‘victim’ narrative has been seen following the earthquake in Haiti. I do not think it is unreasonable to point out that at least part of the reason the damage was so extensive was down to Haiti being a non-functional state. Yet, Haiti’s political situation seems largely to have been ignored in favour of narrative about the ‘victims’ of the earthquake. Obviously, there are issues of time and what one can focus on, but I suspect what would help Haiti more than aid is a genuine discussion as to how Haiti could be made ‘to function’, something that the ‘victim’ narrative really cannot deal with.
The relevant part begins at 1.50 minutes into the video:
As an aside, anybody know how I can embed videos in a way so that it could begin at the point I want? Tried to do so but don’t quite understand the suggestions online.
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