Jon Bright (London, OK): Hat-tip to Kanishk Tharoor for pointing out this Caroline Elkins article in the Washington Post on the British imperial legacy in Kenya last week:
Enter Britain, Kenya's former colonial ruler, which now prides itself on being a purveyor of global democracy. Foreign Secretary David Miliband and his U.S. counterpart, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, issued a joint statement calling for compromise. Prime Minister Gordon Brown rushed to the phone lines, offering Kibaki and Odinga a quick lesson in democratic principles. In a Kiplingesque touch redolent of the colonial "white man's burden," Brown reportedly told both men, "What I want to see is . . . ." Miliband directed the Kenyan leaders to "behave responsibly."
I doubt that the irony of Brown and Miliband's message was lost on Kibaki or Odinga. Today's Britain, between its botched war on terror and lack of checks on executive power (to name but a few flaws), falls far short of the democratic ideals so paternalistically espoused by Brown and other British leaders. Still, the prime minister's jaw-dropping chutzpah - on display not only in Kenya but also in former imperial possessions such as Pakistan and Iraq - is rooted less in Brown's own tin ear than in the nature and structures of yesteryear's British colonial rule. So are today's crises in the former empire. If you're looking for the origins of Kenya's ethnic tensions, look to its colonial past...
Quite right. What's interesting, though, is that she gets through the entire article without mentioning Bush. Was it really Brown that came up with the war on terror? Who is currently at the forefront of purveying democracy in Iraq, or providing security for the unchecked executive power going on in Pakistan? The pedants among us will recall that the "white man's burden" was something that Kipling was urging America to pick up. The British empire has left some tragic legacies, undoubtedly - but equally tragic is that its mistakes seem destined to be repeated.
