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  • Developing world thinks Hitler is unappreciated

    ......
    Oct 13 2016 at 12:15 AM

    Developing world thinks Hitler is unappreciated
    . BULLIT MARQUEZ
    by David Clay Large
    If Philippine President Rodrigo Duterte were a politician in the West, his recent invocation of Adolf Hitler as a personal inspiration would have meant the swift end to his career.

    "Hitler massacred 3 million Jews [sic]. Now there are 3 million drug addicts [in the Philippines] … I'd be happy to slaughter them!" So declared Duterte in describing his ongoing war on drugs, adding cheerfully that his own Nazi-like police action would "finish the [drug] problem of my country and save the next generation from perdition."

    In the Philippines, however, Duterte's reference to Hitler didn't even qualify as a gaffe. There is no indication it hurt him at all; in fact, there's good reason to believe that it will only bolster the president's huge popularity among Filipinos as a man who speaks his mind and gets things done.

    Americans and Europeans are probably thinking that something of Duterte's speech has gotten lost in translation. But the context that's missing isn't rhetorical – it's cultural. Duterte's positive perspective on Hitler has long been commonplace in the non-Western world and remains so today. If there's an aberration, in other words, it's the West's own image of Hitler as a paradigmatic political villain.

    Turkey's President Recep Tayyip Erdogan cited Hitler's Germany as a positive case study in how such an uber-presidency might work. Burhan Ozbilici

    In the West, Hitler is known above all as a practitioner of race-based genocide, the architect of the Holocaust. He is also remembered as the hypernationalist who, in the hope of expanding German power across all of Europe, and later the entire globe, plunged the world into the most destructive war in the history of mankind.

    Yet in much of the developing world, where ignorance regarding the Holocaust and Hitler's fantasies of world domination is rife, he is perceived less as a mass murderer and ideologue of global conquest than as a stern disciplinarian who addressed social ills in a briskly efficient manner. His is a legacy of "law and order", not of horrific chaos and collapsed cities. Additionally, and crucially, in the non-Western world the name Hitler can connote "anti-imperialist rebel" due to the German leader's nationalistic struggle against "Anglo-French-American-Zionist domination".

    Indonesian admiration for Third Reich

    Thus we have President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's 92-year-old strongman, comparing himself not only to Christ but to Hitler. "I am still the Hitler of [this] time. This Hitler has only one objective: justice for his people, sovereignty for his people, recognition of the independence of his people and their rights over their resources. If that is Hitler, then let me be Hitler tenfold. Ten times, that is what we stand for," he said in 2003.

    Indonesia is another case in point. Indonesia's second president, General Suharto, saw Nazi Germany as a model for his highly centralised, military-dominated "New Order". But the country's first president, Sukarno, who led his nation's independence movement against the Dutch, openly revered Hitler's Third Reich for its spirit of proud nationalism.

    Indonesia's first president, Sukarno, who led his nation's independence movement against the Dutch, openly revered Hitler's Third Reich for its spirit of proud nationalism. Silas Aiton

    In 1955, President Sukarno hosted a pioneering conference of non-aligned Asian and African nations, many of them newly independent, in the city of Bandung, at which delegates deployed Nazi-style rhetoric in their denunciations of lingering colonialism and latter-day "Zionist imperialism". These days Bandung boasts a Nazi-themed restaurant called Soldatenkaffee, replete with swastikas, propaganda posters and photos of the Führer. If you ask the cafe owner about his decorative taste, he will note that Nazi symbolism is perfectly legal in Indonesia. He's certainly right about that. Nazi imagery is abundant across the country – as is cluelessness about the Holocaust.

    "Indonesian students know nothing about the persecution of the Jews," said a prominent history professor at Gadjah Mada University in Yogyakarta, Indonesia. "They see Hitler as a revolutionary, similar to Che Guevara, not as someone responsible for the death of millions of Jews." Yet a genuine embrace of authoritarian ideals, along with pervasive ignorance, seems to be at the core of much of modern Indonesia's fascination with Hitler. As a respected businessman put the matter: "We need an Adolf Hitler in order to fully restore law and order." This man undoubtedly thought he'd found the answer to his prayers in Prabowo Subianto, a popular general whose narrowly unsuccessful bid for the presidency in 2014 included a music video sung by popstar Ahmad Dhani dressed in a replica Nazi uniform.

    Middle-Eastern parallels

    It's no news that pro-Hitler views are commonplace in today's Middle East, yet it bears noting that Turkey, the country with the longest tradition of democracy in the region, has its share of such sentiment. As in Indonesia, this phenomenon in Turkey has a prominent pedigree. The Turkish Republic's founding father, Mustafa Kemal Ataturk, served as an inspiration for Hitler in the latter's own self-styled "revolution". Hitler was particularly impressed by the secularist Ataturk's suppression of political Islam. Although Ataturk himself did not have much use for the German Führer, some of his close associates certainly did.

    President Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's 92-year-old strongman, compared himself not only to Christ but to Hitler. "I am still the Hitler of [this] time. Tsvangirayi Mukwazhi

    Upon visiting Nazi Berlin, Recep Peker, the secretary-general of the Kemalist Republican People's Party (and later prime minister), expressed open admiration for national socialism. Reverence for Hitler's dictatorial style, if not for his distrust of clerical politics, survived Kemalism's recent displacement by Islamic-infused authoritarianism under President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. In his current push to expand the powers of his office, Erdogan cited Hitler's Germany as a positive case study in how such an uber-presidency might work. Many Turks expressed astonishment at Erdogan's choice of role models, but in light of the president's ever-increasing absolutism, the Führer reference seems more apt than odd.

    Meanwhile, Egypt's latest dictator, General Abdel Fattah al-Sisi, has thus far resisted trying to legitimise his evolving tyranny by deploying open comparisons to Hitler. Some of his followers, however, have not been so reticent. On the eve of Sisi's seizure of power, Soheir al-Babli, a once popular TV actress, expressed confidence that her countrymen "know that Egyptians need a man as strong as Hitler to punish citizens for any violations they commit". Many Egyptians blanched at Babli's advice to emulate the Führer, but Sisi apparently did not. His self-glorification, classification of political opponents as "enemies of the state", suppression of independent media, ultranationalism and xenophobia have occasioned frequent comparisons to Hitler among his fellow Egyptians (albeit from the sanctity of foreign shores).

    Pakistan's Hitler cult

    In Pakistan, like Indonesia, a veritable Führer cult flourishes in the open. Although admiration for Hitler might be, as many Pakistanis would insist, a minority phenomenon, this minority is sizeable enough to make the term "Hitler" common coinage for anyone who "sticks to his guns regardless of the cost". Encounters with Hitler admiration understandably shock visitors from the West, especially ones from Germany. According to a story by German journalist Hasnain Kazim in Der Spiegel, after getting a haircut in Islamabad, Kazim complained to the hairdresser that the cut made him look like Hitler. "Yes, yes, very nice," the barber beamed. Nor was it uplifting for him to drive behind a white Mercedes bearing a bumper sticker that read, "I like Nazi".

    Some developing world leaders have an obsession with Hitler - describing his legacy as law and order, not the Holocaust.

    Venturing into neighbouring India, one encounters more signs of fascination with the Führer. As a report in The Jerusalem Post notes, bookstores display Hitler's Mein Kampf prominently in windows. "It's a classic for us. We have to sell it," a floor manager of New Delhi's most iconic bookstore, Bahrisons, told the Post. Some Indians claim that Hitler's popularity in their country derives from "ignorance about the Holocaust" or "curiosity about a really sick and evil mind". Others see Hitler and Mein Kampf tying in with India's rising Hindu nationalist movement, with one person saying: "[Mein Kampf] can be used to support a purist Hindu India where Muslims are persecuted." Still other Indians see anti-Semitism behind Hitler's popularity or cite Indians' desire to believe that a strong leader can transform society for the better. As in Pakistan, "Hitler" connotes "strong disciplinarian".

    South American resistance

    Of course, leaders in the developing world are fully capable of deploying the name Hitler as a smear as well as an inspiration. "Hitler" is often deployed as a pejorative in today's South America, where so many Nazis found refuge after the war and where not only the Führer legacy lived on for many years but also, according to numerous reports and sightings, the Führer himself. (He was said to have fled to Paraguay, where he lived in seclusion until 1971. Alternatively, he opened a Volkswagen repair shop in Buenos Aires or, showing his true self, administered to disadvantaged children in the Andes.) Former Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez compared Germany's Angela Merkel to Hitler, and he didn't mean it as a compliment. The Germans were naturally appalled, but they could take some consolation in the fact that Chavez's opponents at home were likening their own leader to Hitler – and, again, not as a compliment.

    In Hitler's own home ground, the West, rejecting this child of the Occident and his poisonous legacy goes hand in hand with a respect for human rights, racial diversity and due process (which does not mean that these ideals are without their native detractors and potential saboteurs). Across much of the globe, though, openly expressed admiration for the Hitler legacy can be seen as just one more indication of the tenuousness of these social and political values in our modern world.

    Foreign Policy

    David Clay Large is a fellow with the Institute of European Studies at the University of California, Berkeley. Among his many books are Nazi Games: The Olympics of 1936.

    ©Foreign Policy, distributed by The Washington Post


    Read more: http://www.afr.com/news/world/asia/d...#ixzz4NRTXoKxC
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    Last edited by TopHatter; 18 Oct 16,, 14:40.
    To sit down with these men and deal with them as the representatives of an enlightened and civilized people is to deride ones own dignity and to invite the disaster of their treachery - General Matthew Ridgway

  • #2
    Originally posted by troung View Post
    ......
    What's different with Duterte's Hitler comparison is that he openly admires the Holocaust side of Hitler. Typically in the third world, Hitler's strict disciplinarian side is admired, not his ability to mass murder six million Jews.

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    • #3
      There's a term for what's admired: Führerprinzip.

      Comment


      • #4
        There are cultural and geographic (distance) factors at play.

        When a Korean or Japanese restaurant uses a Nazi theme, it doesn’t arise from the same cultural history as if it were in Paris. When a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant in London uses an image of Genghis Khan, it isn’t out of insensitivity to the slaughter from Hainan to Estonia.

        I’m not excusing it, just explaining it.
        Trust me?
        I'm an economist!

        Comment


        • #5
          The above may be true of those countries but not of the Philippines. Duterte has said he admired Hitler for what he did and so he would like nothing better than to eliminate his country of millions of addicts. He is talking addicts and not drug pushers. Slaughtering, I believe he used that word somewhere, of millions caught up in the dreaded disease of addiction is beyond the pale. Some will say he is pontificating but my gut feeling of him, while Mayor of Davao, is that he means it.

          Comment


          • #6
            I suspect any popularity amongst the urban and rural masses is based largely on a poor or non-existent knowledge of history. Given the average standards of education available in most developing nations and its orientation towards basic literacy, numeracy and local national history it is hardly surprising there is not more of a focus on 'Western Studies'. (Apart that is from the colonial era - as it relates to the country concerned.)

            Given this most most people will only a access to a 'pop-culture' view of Hitler i.e as a strong ruler who fought America, the British and other European colonial powers as well as the Jews (especially important in Moslem countries) and 'almost' won.

            Were someone to tell them that had they lived in Europe at the time they and their families would most likely have been included in his 'final solution' I'm pretty most would change their tune.
            If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

            Comment


            • #7
              Originally posted by DOR View Post
              There are cultural and geographic (distance) factors at play.

              When a Korean or Japanese restaurant uses a Nazi theme, it doesn’t arise from the same cultural history as if it were in Paris. When a Mongolian Hot Pot restaurant in London uses an image of Genghis Khan, it isn’t out of insensitivity to the slaughter from Hainan to Estonia.

              I’m not excusing it, just explaining it.
              Would a Mongolian restaurant with a pic of Ghenghis Khan really cause offence in China or Korea?

              Comment


              • #8
                Originally posted by zara View Post
                Would a Mongolian restaurant with a pic of Ghenghis Khan really cause offence in China or Korea?
                Probably not, but only because of general ignorance. But, put a Japanese WWII soldier on the front and stand back ...
                Trust me?
                I'm an economist!

                Comment


                • #9
                  Originally posted by DOR View Post
                  Probably not, but only because of general ignorance. But, put a Japanese WWII soldier on the front and stand back ...
                  There are some Chinese who appropriate Genghis Khan as their own. Since they own Inner Mongolia.

                  Comment


                  • #10
                    Originally posted by Monash View Post
                    I suspect any popularity amongst the urban and rural masses is based largely on a poor or non-existent knowledge of history. Given the average standards of education available in most developing nations and its orientation towards basic literacy, numeracy and local national history it is hardly surprising there is not more of a focus on 'Western Studies'. (Apart that is from the colonial era - as it relates to the country concerned.)

                    Given this most most people will only a access to a 'pop-culture' view of Hitler i.e as a strong ruler who fought America, the British and other European colonial powers as well as the Jews (especially important in Moslem countries) and 'almost' won.

                    Were someone to tell them that had they lived in Europe at the time they and their families would most likely have been included in his 'final solution' I'm pretty most would change their tune.
                    Oh really ??

                    Education standard of any restaurant owner in India would be above average than any kangaroo shit dweller.

                    The history we are taught in public and private schools is far more comprehensive and hard to score more than 70%. Most the history taught is colonial, leftist and shows West in good light. Hitler is more demonic in Indian history books than any Australian or British book. World war II is taught from year 8 when non found mention in Australian books in same standard.

                    It is only personal effort when Indian out of school learn from other sources how rascal like Churchill starved millions of Indians to death.

                    Having said all above, even if you have merit in your bigoted rant we are not obliged to read history with western lens.
                    Last edited by ambidex; 27 Oct 16,, 14:18.

                    Comment


                    • #11
                      OK where to begin?

                      Firstly ambidex, nowhere in my response to the original topic did I refer to India, in fact I singled no country in the developing world out as an example of the issue I was referring to. For that matter the article at the start of this thread mentioned India only in passing, reserving most of its comments for other predominantly Moslem countries. That being the case I fail to see why you would take my comment as an attack on India or Indians (while at the same time having nothing to say about the article I was commenting on - which did mention India by name).

                      Instead I made the comment that people with a basic level of education and a knowledge of history largely limited to that of their own county being unlikely to have a good knowledge of the ideology and racial policies of the Third Reich with their views on the subject being limited to any pop-culture references they are exposed to.

                      So let’s be clear here, this comment is and off itself not racist, sexist or in any other way discriminatory. It would apply to anyone anywhere in the world who for whatever reason could not access a good general education. This is however a situation that is far more common in the developing world (due to a lack of resources) than in the advanced economies which have a fully-developed, if sometimes underfunded education structures.

                      (FYI I accept there may be a whole legion of people walking around in the West who did not pay attention in history class and as a consequence know nothing about Hitler or the misery he caused but for the most part that’s their fault, not the systems. WWII and its causes are part of the curriculum in all western nations (yes even Australia’s – try checking other years rather than year 8).

                      Secondly I am not familiar with the history curriculum of the Indian education system so I am not in a position to comment on its value. It may be every bit as ‘hard core’ as you say. The point is that for my comment to be invalid (with reference to India) virtually every child in India, no matter their cast, gender or income level would have to have equal or near equal access to at least a high school level of education. If I am wrong about this please correct me but to quote Wikipedia (there’s only so much time I can put into research):

                      ‘Despite the high overall enrolment rate for primary education, among rural children of age 10, half could not read at a basic level, over 60% were unable to do division, and half dropped out by the age 14.[81]

                      In 2009, two states in India, Tamil Nadu and Himachal Pradesh, participated in the international PISA exams which is administered once every three years to 15-year-old's. Both states ranked at the bottom of the table, beating out only Kyrgyzstan in score, and falling 200 points (two standard deviations) below the average for OECD countries.[82] While in the immediate aftermath there was a short-lived controversy over the quality of primary education in India, ultimately India decided to not participate in PISA for 2012,[83] and again not to for 2015.[84]

                      While the quality of free, public education is in crisis, a majority of the urban poor have turned to private schools. In some urban cities, it is estimated as high as two-thirds of all students attend private institutions,[85] many of which charge a modest US$2 per month. There has not been any standardised assessment of how private schools perform, but it is generally accepted that they outperform public schools.’

                      …furthermore, the disparity of female literacy rates across rural and urban areas is also significant in India.[102] Out of the 24 states in India, 6 of them have female literacy rates of below 60%. The rural state Rajasthan has a female literacy rate of less than 12%.[103]’


                      Please note again that the above is NOT intended as a criticism of India or its people. Wikipedia makes it pretty clear that India is on a trajectory to reach education levels comparable with advanced economies and Australia like other Western countries with remote indigenous populations still struggles to provide an acceptable standard of education to all children in remote regions.

                      The point of the above is that there are still large gaps in the distribution of education resources within India and elsewhere which make my original comment valid. The ability of anyone, anywhere to make a rational assessment about Hitler’s role in history is absolutely dependent on their exposure to accurate information i.e. to a good education. Perhaps I could have expanded upon or clarified this point in my original post but there you go.

                      Lastly at no time have I ever used insulting language with reference to you or any other member of WAB, I would request the same consideration in return.
                      Last edited by Monash; 30 Oct 16,, 05:04.
                      If you are emotionally invested in 'believing' something is true you have lost the ability to tell if it is true.

                      Comment

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