Western triumphalism

It may be coincidental — a grand royal wedding, a Pope’s beatification in Rome and of course, the killing of Osama bin Laden in Pakistan. But happening one after the other the events smacked of Western triumphalism. Their news was our news and given a disproportionate importance than it should have in our part of the world. If it is any consolation Filipinos were not the only people under its influence. There were others. My concern, for better or worse, is how local media played it out and our reactions to it. There must be an explanation to how western media can overwhelm cities around the world with “their” news.

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As one of my FB friends was quick to point out the Prince William-Kate Middleton wedding is the British telenovela. Watching the crowds in front of Buckingham Palace and St. Paul’s on television made us part of the crowd (2 billion in the whole world watched it on TV by one estimate). We were as thrilled, as elated as some of the natives who donned dresses made from the British flag. American and British television were there in force as if it were the most significant happening in the world so why should be object. Come to think of it we have had similar weddings here of daughters marrying while their fathers were Presidents: Vicky Quirino, daughter of former President Elpidio Quirino when she married Luis Gonzalez and President Erap’s Jackie Estrada when she married ABS-CBN’s Beaver Lopez. The weddings were strictly for the locals no matter how grand they were.

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Pope John Paul II’s beatification in Rome was something else. It was received with excitement and adulation among Filipinos because most of us are Roman Catholics if mostly only in name. The traveling Pope was a crowd drawer. That there were two assassination attempts on him added to his charisma.

When he visited the Philippines in January 1995 for the World Youth Day it was estimated that those who came to hear him say mass in Luneta Park was estimated between five and seven million.

So it is very much in place if our media played up his beatification in Rome. Beatification is the first step in the making of a saint in Roman Catholicism. It may have been a more serious event but like the wedding, it followed rituals that date back to medieval history. Pope Benedict was dressed in resplendent white and gold robes when he declared before a large crowd in St. Peter’s Square that “from now on Pope John Paul shall be called ‘blessed” he said in Latin, hardly a language Filipino masa would understand nor its implications. But they cheered anyway.

Like the wedding, the crowds was estimated at one million in front of St. Peter’s Square — a big showing to reaffirm the strength of the world’s Roman Catholic community. The spectators came from several countries carrying their national flags. Expectedly, most of the crowd came from Poland, the country of origin of the newly beatified Pope. There were also officials from around the world, including European royal families and heads of state.

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If the world was black or white there would be no reason why there should not be unanimity that the world is better off without Osama bin Laden. But the world is not black or white and his killing in Pakistan by a special American force is now being questioned.

It might have made good news and the Americans who massed in Ground Zero and celebrated waving American flags on first glance could not be faulted especially those who had relatives or friends who perished on September 11.

His killing added fillip to Western supremacy coming as it did in the heels of the royal wedding and the beatification of Pope John Paul in Rome. But already there are grumblings in other parts of the world that the US operation may not have been so right after all.

If worldwide TV audiences consisted of both Muslims and Christians, the interpretation was triumph for the Christians and defeat for the Muslims even if they did not consider Osama as representing Islamic religion at all. Manila’s Muslim community offered a memorial to Osama bin Laden yesterday at the Golden Mosque in Quiapo.

Unintended or not it was provocative for the crowds that waved the US flag chanting USA! USA! USA!. America cannot be defeated.

Already other facts are coming out but the main objection by America’s own allies is that “it was wrong for the United States to act as policeman, judge and executioner.” Was he armed when he was shot down? Was there a deadly exchange of gunfire as was earlier stated and now being debated and doubted by Americans themselves?

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These three events happening one after the other can be regarded as examples of Western triumphalism. Edward Said who worked on post-colonial studies explains:

“Imperial power is constructed on a bedrock not only of force but of culture as well. Culture provides the underpinning, justification and validation of empire. Its crudest manifestation is perhaps Kipling’s “White man’s burden.” A more refined version is the French “mission civilisatrice,” civilizing mission.

Imperialism is often thought of as a European phenomenon of the past. In fact it continues today in new shapes and forms. The US carries out its imperial policies behind the facade of democracy and freedom. Culture and politics produce a system of control that transcends military power to include a hegemony of representations and images that dominate the imaginations of both the oppressor and the oppressed.

Said, a native of Palestine made his name explaining the effects of colonization no matter how long it has been over. The NY Times called him “one of the most influential literary and cultural critics in the world.”

He is best known for his book “Orientalism” in which he tackles the intellectual and cultural implications of imperialism.

The “Economist” said he “repudiated terrorism in all its forms and yet he was also ‘a passionate, eloquent and persistent advocate for justice for the dispossessed Palestinians.”

‘He was a trenchant critic not just of Israeli policies, but also of Arafat, the corrupt coterie around him and the despotic Arab regimes. He felt strongly that intellectuals had a special responsibility to speak out against injustice, challenge power, confront hegemonic thinking and provide alternatives.”