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By: Steven Chen/News Writer

We never really outgrow our childhood dreams of walking alongside extinct creatures. This fantasy has been vividly imagined in popular literary works, television shows and movies. The only thing left is for scientists to undertake the daunting task of bringing it to reality.

On Oct. 27, the compelling question of whether extinct species can truly be revived was discussed in the talk, “Reviving Extinct Species — Fiction or Fact”, featuring Prof. Hendrick Poinar, current director of the Ancient DNA Centre at McMaster University.

Prof. Poinar’s public lecture at the David Braley Health Sciences Centre marked the launch of the “Research in the City” series. The series, which was established by McMaster University in partnership with The Hamilton Spectator, aims to revitalize community interest in research done in Hamilton.

As an evolutionary biologist specializing in the genome of ancient species, Prof. Poinar offered a passionate recount of the work currently being done in the field. His team at McMaster has been investigating the DNA present in fossil remains for more than two decades — notably pushing research frontiers by using novel methods to sequence the genome of the extinct woolly mammoth.

The allure in uncovering the mystery to these extinct species has propelled Poinar to a life-long quest. “These are extinct creatures that once roamed the earth and then [simply] vanished. Why and what drives species to extinctions when they have managed well for so long?” Poinar asked.

The public lecture supported the prospect of reviving recently extinct species, such as the passenger pigeon and the Tasmanian wolf. It is reassuring that in the grand scheme of biological evolution, these species have only vanished in recent memory. Remarkably, specimens of the woolly mammoth, who last trudged the earth 10,000 years ago, are still preserved intact in the Siberian tundra. This offers immense potential for scientists to extract the genetic information to make clones of extinct creatures in the future.

With the rapid development of genome sequencing technologies, Prof. Poinar offers foresight on the possibilities and dangers. “We can expect genome analysis [to occur] in minutes,” he said . . . “Should gene therapy become a reality, I hope mostly for the better, but the changes surrounding the ethics need to occur now.”

Whether or not we will be able to witness the marvel of the woolly mammoth or glimpse the ferocity of the saber-toothed cat remains a question. What is more important to consider is how our aspirations for the future are invested in the research being done on a local and global scale.

The “Research in the City” series hopes to continue engaging the public with upcoming talks, ranging from topics on the life and death of hitchBOT to the Atacama Large Millimeter Array Radio Telescope.

Poinar mused, “Fascinating research is going on in Hamilton and the people have a right to know about what we do. The great thing about McMaster is that research is portrayed without the attitude, for the public to engage with at all levels.”

Photo Credit: Jason Lau/Photo Reporter

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On Sept. 22, McMaster was host to a panel of Indigenous speakers and representatives as part of its continued awareness efforts through Perspectives on Peace.

The session, titled “Truth & Reconciliation Teach-In: Residential Schools in Canada,” highlighted a joint effort between the Indigenous Studies program and the Perspectives on Peace campaign to educate students about the problematic history of the residential school system in Canada.

“We wanted to give an opportunity to the university community that maybe isn’t able to take indigenous studies courses,” said Vanessa Watts, full-time lecturer with the Indigenous Studies program.

Part of the timing of the event stemmed from the recent conclusion of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission in Canada, which identified 94 “calls to action” to remedy the legacy of residential schools. The TRC itself lasted for over seven years and came as a result of the Indian Residential Schools Settlement Agreement in 2007, the largest class action settlement in Canadian history.

The residential school system existed in Canada from the 1830s and on, with the last federally-operated facility closing in 1996. In that time, it has been estimated that out of the 150,000 indigenous children that passed through the residential schools, at least 4,000 of them died while attending the schools.

“[The goal was] to put some context to what’s been in the media lately. It’s one thing to read recommendations or see it in the news, it’s another thing to visit an actual residential school,” said Watts. “It was an extremely successful event.”

The day before the panel, members of the university community were invited to visit the formerly-named Mohawk Institute in Brantford, which served as the first and longest-running residential school from 1831 to 1970. It now stands as the Woodland Cultural Centre, and acts as a reminder to the history of schools just like it across the country.

The panel itself consisted of survivors from the location, who shared some of their experiences at the residential school.

“To see a panel of Indigenous speakers speaking to the university community about their experiences, their personal stories, even that in and of itself without context is a feat because that doesn’t happen often,” said Watts.

“People need to learn about what happened, and to know that it’s not that far in the past,” she continued.

“What we tried to do was to talk about the knowledge that is inherent with stories of those survivors, what healing looks like, and why there is a need for reconciliation. It’s not just a policy issue, or a historical fact; it’s a lived repercussion for many people.”

Perspectives on Peace was officially launched in late 2014, with an aim to promote understanding and discourse on various issues that relate to the greater, global community.

Photo Credit: Matt Clarke

In honour of our 85th anniversary, I spent two days this week going through archived issues of The Silhouette looking for content for our special edition.

The last eight and a half decades have been host to quite a number of important international events, changes to campus and the university’s structure, and my personal favourite: controversial and no holds barred Silhouette journalists.

While flipping through pages, I came across an editorial from Aug. 30, 1968 by then Editor-in-Chief, Albert Cipryk. The article was from a Welcome Week preview issue and was titled “Should ivy walls a prison make?” Already from the title, you can guess that this guy was about to share some takes. A section of the article read:

It would be nice to put out something to make you laugh and say what a groovy place Mac must be and I can’t wait to get there because it says right here in this paper that kids don’t do nuthin’ but smoke pot and drink coffee and give the Kampus Kops a ruff time after all what the hell am I leaving home for anyway if it ain’t goin’ to be fun.

No, Virginia, it’s not quite like that. The articles inside have a definite purpose. They are for you to read and digest. Hopefully they will incite thought. Hopefully they will let you know that the ivy walls can house a prison, and intellectual bloody stalag.

I will be the first to say that this is phrased a little bit abrasively (likening the university to a prisoner-of-war camp was a tad harsh), but these words bring up an important point. The Silhouette is not just a newspaper that advocates for all of the university’s (and the city’s) plans, it is the voice of informed and educated students who wish to hold their university accountable for its actions. These articles hope to incite thought and serve a definite purpose, even if it means facing a few harsh Twitter mentions every now and again.

Looking at old issues it became clear that the paper is a time capsule that houses the wisdom that students wish to impart on their future counterparts, and is the only historical archive of the university from a student’s perspective.

So take this article as a reminder that you are responsible for inciting change at your academic institution, and The Silhouette can be your canvas. If you have something to say, say it before these ivy walls begin to tell a different story.

Without a doubt, McMaster English majors will have already had the pleasure of taking a class taught by James King and be familiar with his wry sense of humour and wisdom, while those outside of the program looking for a stimulating elective quickly become acquaintances with it.

Having taught at McMaster since 1971, King has become a fixture in the department for his amicable lecturing style and the bevy of influential works he has published. Since obtaining his PhD from Princeton, King has written a slew of well-received biographies on subjects ranging from English poet William Cowper to celebrated Canadian writers like Margaret Laurence and Farley Mowat.

Of late, King has been focussing his creative energy on polishing his prose through the release of five novels between 1999 and 2011. King’s latest work, Old Masters, was published Oct. 2014 and finds him toying with a different method of telling what might seem like a fairly conventional story.

As indicated by its title, the novel is concerned with the artworks of the celebrated Old Masters, European painters who worked before 1800. For those immediately turned off by the prospects of reading a poorly disguised textbook, fear not. The book does not concern itself with critical appraisals of said Masters’ works and shares none of the heft of a stuffy art history course-pack.

Instead, Old Masters boasts a compelling, tightly-wound plot that still leaves room for ample introspection over the span of its 202 pages. The novel’s protagonist — or anti-hero, depending on your own pessimism — is Guy Boyd, a struggling writer who is surprised to find himself appointed to the task of writing a biography, but is nevertheless encouraged by the hefty advance thrown his way.

Ever the cynic, one of the first thoughts that Boyd entertains after coming down from the high of being given a shot at redemption is that he must keep his newfound finances a secret, lest his ex-wife demand more in the ways of child support for their thirteen year-old son Jacob.

In the wake of the death of Gabriel Brown, a famous art dealer who was renowned for his ability to find previously undiscovered work by the Old Masters, Boyd is tasked with writing a slim volume concerned with the man’s life. Not much is expected of Boyd — a hundred pages would suffice given that the book would be accompanied with full-colour reproductions of Brown’s most famous discoveries — but he immediately becomes frustrated by the lack of any apparent juicy personal details that normally grace the pages of biographies.

Fearful of producing a work with nothing to say about Brown that everyone does not already know, Boyd eagerly takes up the offer of Brown’s secretary to move into the late Canadian expat’s London estate. Aside from aiding him in his task of writing the biography, the house also notably succeeds in winning the favour of Boyd’s son Jacob, who begins to look forward to the weekends spent with his father, if only to cavort through the halls with his friends.

While now a different man in the eyes of his son, Boyd is frustrated by the fact that there are no loose ends to follow in his project of fashioning Brown into a more three-dimensional figure. Rendered anxious by the comfortable interviews with Brown’s colleagues that break no new ground and financially bolstered by the generous advance, Boyd revolves to travel to Canada where both he and Brown hail from in the hopes of unearthing new material.

Boyd immediately unearths a thrilling development, whether he welcomes it or not. An unsuccessful probe into the University of Toronto archives leads to a chat with one of Brown’s cousins who drops a bomb on Boyd’s biography; the Gabriel Brown seen in obituary photos is not in fact Gabriel Brown.

Through further research, Boyd learns that the man in the photographs and who built his reputation as one of the world’s foremost dealers is named John Martin, and he was as honest in his dealings as he was about his name.

In his search as to how Martin made such a name for himself, Boyd discovers an unpleasant truth that would shatter the lives of those who thought themselves close to Brown, as well as blow the entire art world into shambles. Equally disgusted with Martin as he is amazed, Boyd now finds himself in a moral quandary: deliver the safe biography his publisher wants, or reveal the truth about Martin’s rise to fame. The struggle to choose becomes an all-consuming one that threatens to break apart Boyd’s carefully forged relationship with his son, and one that highlights the complicated relationship between artist and subject.

No doubt aided in the writing of the novel by his own experience as a biographer, King proves to be up to the task of turning this dual character study into an entrancing page-turner. King’s prose deftly skirts away from being too flowery while still leaving you with no doubts about the extent of his own education. Taking up a familiar topic in the middle-age crisis, King weaves an interesting metanarrative that is well worth picking up in the event that you have any spare time this semester.

Bookended by weeks of coma-inducing monotony in Hamilton, my trip to New York City in June was the clear highlight of my summer. It was my first time in the bustling metropolis and after a week of excitement I was glad that I was able to take in the splendours the city had to offer on my own terms.

Perusing the titles available at The Strand, wandering Columbia’s campus, seeking shelter from a storm in the New York Public Library, lusting after the #menswear that SoHo had to offer, and enjoying the amazing pizza at Grimaldi’s were terrific experiences. So was attending a gallery opening, and sitting down with Noah Callahan-Bever, editor-in-chief of Complex magazine, in his mid-town office to shoot the shit about rap and his relationship with Kanye. In talking to my writer friends there, I had never felt so stimulated and excited about what life had to offer after school.

But what makes me laugh fondly the most in retrospect is that I had three opportunities to see Karl Ove Knausgaard speak and missed them all through some cruel twist of fate. The renowned Norwegian writer had been in the city to promote the release of the newly translated third iteration of his six-volume autobiographical novel, entitled My Struggle.

Despite bearing a title reminiscent of Hitler’s own book of the same name, the autobiographical novel boasts much more appeal than one would think when moving past its immediate shock value.

What began as a free-flowing exercise of unchecked writing about his own life that Knausgaard hoped would help him out of a creative block in turn leveraged him to a level of superstardom that has forced him to abandon his life in Stockholm and move his family to the countryside. Knausgaard undertook the project unaware that it would displace him from his comfortable role as a well-respected figure in the Scandinavian literary scene, to a writer who would fiercely divide the press and public on the topic of how much of one’s private life is appropriate to expose.

Growing up in Norway in the 1970’s, Knausgaard recently told the Evening Standard that the order of the day was, “you don’t cry, and you don’t complain.” Knausgaard’s own father was adamant in enforcing this rigidness in his son, and it would psychologically scar the young Knausgaard to the point where he became afraid of his father. The struggle in the title is a reference to the weight that Knausgaard’s father would have on his shoulders even after his death, while he simultaneously tried to juggle his own ambitions and raise his children.

I had picked up the first volume of My Struggle in a Manhattan Barnes and Noble early on in my stay, and I became utterly engrossed in the dry prose, which somehow crackled with energy despite its barebones nature. It was only when browsing the New Yorker on my phone in JFK while waiting for my flight home that I noticed that the writer had made not just one, but three appearances in the city (notably, one with Zadie Smith moderating, which would have been a dream to witness) while I was blissfully unaware.

Refusing to remain dismayed, I ploughed through the other two volumes upon arriving home. Perhaps ploughed is not the right word, for it suggests physical exertion when I was really spellbound by the events of his life that Knausgaard so artfully composed into a palatable — and at times gut-wrenching — narrative.

The first volume concerns itself largely with Knausgaard’s adolescence and his relationship with his father as well as the rest of his immediate family and friends. As much as the book is made emotionally heavy by Knausgaard’s father’s iron-fisted presence, it is also made buoyant by the awkward accounts of attending parties he wasn’t invited to with alcohol that was obtained and hidden from parents at great expense.

Knausgaard has an astounding memory and unlike James Frey, proves himself to be a patron of accuracy rather than fabrication. The works are Proustian in their self-reflexive subject matter, but are much easier to digest than the French writer’s notoriously dense In Search of Lost Time. Knausgaard is unflinching in writing about his own life which has given rise to the detriment of his family members, some of whom who have publicly railed against his inclusion of their private matters in his work.

Even after finishing the third volume this July, not a week has gone by that I haven’t thought of Knausgaard’s intensely personal exposé. In writing a work that confronted the banality and suffering in his own life, Knausgaard opened the floodgates in his own and other generations’ consciousness to reveal similar painful memories.

Despite his frankly expressed distaste for doing press, I’m massively excited to see my luck come full circle and bestow me with the opportunity to see Knausgaard speak at Toronto’s Harbourfront Centre on Oct. 25 as part of the annual International Festival of Authors. I’m even more pleased that one of my favourite Torontonian writers, Sheila Heti, will be the one to interview Knausgaard.

The event is free for students, so you have no excuse not to humour your curiosity. Just don’t pick up any of the My Struggle books during this busy time in the school year or you will be forced to shove all other obligations to the side.

 

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By Kalina Laframboise
CUP Quebec Bureau Chief

MONTREAL (CUP) — The Parti Québécois’ proposed Charter of Values aimed at separating church and state is raising concern in post-secondary institutions across Quebec.

The controversial project announced on Tuesday would prohibit government employees from wearing conspicuous religious symbols — such as turbans, hijabs, crucifixes and kippahs — and time off for religious holidays. Educational institutions and hospitals could apply to opt out of these conditions but a ban on veils that cover the face would be permanent.

The law would also amend the Quebec Charter of Human Rights and Freedoms to provide an outline on accommodation requests.

However, the bill would not affect members of the National Assembly and would allow politicians to wear religious symbols if they choose. Furthermore, the crucifix that hangs in the National Assembly and the cross on Mount Royal in Montreal would remain in place as Democratic Institutions Minister Bernard Drainville clarified it to be part of Quebec’s history.

The law would extend to all public sector workers including judges, police officers, teachers, daycare workers and municipal personnel in what the provincial government deems an effort to “maintain social peace and promote harmony” and to “prevent tensions from growing.”

Universities are refraining from commenting for now.

“We have taken no position yet,” said Concordia University Spokesperson Chris Mota. “We are assessing the proposal.”

Jenny Desrochers, director of media relations at the Université du Québec à Montréal, also confirmed that UQÀM has not taken a position.

However, the proposal led to a massive protest in the downtown core of Montreal Saturday afternoon and spawned a petition for an inclusive Quebec that drew the support of post-secondary teachers and students across the province.

John Aspler, a graduate student studying neuroscience at McGill University, attended the protest because he was concerned with the ramifications of a charter.

“I protested today because this law impacts women far more than it impacts men, making it sexist. It impacts ethnic and religious minorities as well as immigrants far more than it impacts white Christians, making it racist and discriminatory.” said Aspler. “Christians generally won’t be affected by this legislation.”

Aspler feels that the Quebec Charter of Values acts as a “hypocrisy of the highest order.”

“The charter doesn’t level the playing field, it ensures that a whole segment of society leaves the public eye,” added Aspler.

Avi Goldberg, a sociology professor at Vanier College and Concordia University in Montreal, says he addressed the issue in the classroom at Vanier with his students where he encouraged young adults to discuss the proposal.

“One student said all kinds of professionals in this province who are getting degrees and might be religious,” said Goldberg. “But they are being told they are not allowed to be themselves.”

Goldberg explained that the law “will certainly affect anyone who is teaching at university or CÉGEP in one way or another,” and is concerned it may impede students who wear religious symbols to pursue employment in the public sector since they may not feel welcome.

“Maybe there’s a lack of belief that one can be religious in their home, minds and heart, and at the same time do a job that they are able to do and serve the laws of the public,” said Goldberg. “But I think that’s possible.”

Goldberg is not the only one to foster a discussion in the classroom. Ashley Davis, a student studying arts at Dawson College, admits that one of her teachers openly criticizes the Quebec Charter of Values in class and through social media.

“He’s pretty vocal about it. It’s interesting, because while he himself is secular, he’s culturally tied to a specific faith,” said Davis. “And it seems as though he’s really pushing for people to look at this as an issue of freedom rather than integration.”

Lorenzo DiTommaso, the chair of the department of religion at Concordia University, believes that the department could manage if the Charter of Values becomes law and that it would not affect the courses offered.

“The thing is this: would it have an impact on our courses? No,” said DiTommaso. “We set our courses on the basis of our program needs. I don’t see how this law can affect the courses being offered.”

DiTommaso continued to say that he hopes religious holidays will not be affected by the Charter but that the department could find ways to work around it by setting their own schedules or employing a graduate student or teaching assistant to replace the professor on the date of the holiday.

Edward Lovo / Silhouette Staff

Whose memory is conjured when recalling the enslavement of millions of Africans?

Often, the discussion that circulates around black history narrows in on but a small portion: slavery. And often, one speaks of black slaves instead of enslaved Africans, which subtly conceals the act of enslavement and at once meshes black identity with slavery.

A playwright once wrote, “Language most shows a man: Speak, that I may see thee.” Despite good intentions, language belies the framework in which one conceives of a subject; both must therefore be beheld by the eye of scrutiny. Most strokes of the brush depict black history with the colours of oppression and powerlessness, to the neglect of a rich and vibrant past marked by a forgetfulness of how dignity was preserved in enslavement.

A different picture takes shape as horizons broaden to include the continent of Africa. Kingdoms and empires rose and fell, cultures flourished and social life had another mode of existence than in the West.

Portuguese exploration of Africa in the fifteenth century augured the beginning of the Atlantic slave trade - or Maafa as referred to by some - but the 15th century for Africa also meant the decline of one of its empires, the Mali.

The Mali Empire, under the rule of Mansa Mūsā, became one of the largest empires in the world during the early 14th century. The Mali Empire was known for its wealth, since Mansa Sundiata had in the preceding century secured Bondu and Bambuk, lands with lots of gold. The Empire’s wealth became known to the world during Mansa Mūsā’s pilgrimage to Mecca. Arab chroniclers said of Mansa Mūsā’s procession into Cairo and Mecca that it almost put Africa’s sun to shame.

This message by the Arab chroniclers is driven home by the fact that the Cairo market was still recovering from its decline in value 12 years after Mansa Mūsā’s lavish spending of gold. Even after these 12 years, the inhabitants of Cairo (estimated at one million) still sung the praises of Mansa Mūsā.

Apart from the kingdoms and empires of Africa, tribal lives still thrived with a communal spirit and, compared to the West, were kinder in laws and punishment. In the Congo, for example, private property was an unfamiliar idea, where theft was. In connection with this, Howard Zinn tells of when a “Congolese leader, told of the Portuguese legal codes, asked a Portuguese once, teasingly: ‘What is the penalty in Portugal for anyone who puts his feet on the ground?’”

It’s true that the enslaved Africans became a powerless people, torn from their homes and communities. Some were even sold by their own people and put through the trauma and physical ordeal of the tightly packed spaces below deck the ships, chained together. Despite or in spite of this, enslaved blacks would show their refusal to submit by running away. More frequently, they acted out more clandestine forms of resistance against their slave owners: sabotage and slowdowns. On occasion, enslaved blacks would organize rebellions; there is documented evidence of at least 250 uprisings involving 10 or more blacks. All of these forms of resistance were an expression of their unshakeable sense of dignity.

By no means have I provided a comprehensive history of the Mali Empire, let alone of the other empires, tribes and kingdoms that too often go unmentioned in African history.

However, this scant account is meant to adjust the focus of black history far beyond their enslavement.

Too often do these discussions fixate on the white enslavement of blacks, which not only forms an inaccurate portrayal of blacks as meek and submissive, but also neglects the grandeur of ancient African civilizations and the richness of its cultures that deserve to stand alongside the histories of Western civilizations as well as those of the Near and Far East.

American and Canadian consciousness, because of limited hindsight or because of a fetish with depravity (really, who knows why?) erase from memory the past of a people that had an existence before their enslavement. This amnesia should make us ashamed, for it neglects that essential part of a person, that individuality which has definition emerging from a long, long history and not simply from a small portion of it.

Sarah O’Connor / Silhouette Staff

If you aren’t an Anthropology or History major then you probably haven’t heard the big news over in England.

Last fall, a skeleton was uncovered under a parking lot in Leicester, England. After thorough scientific tests and DNA results the skeleton was discovered to be none other than that of King Richard III. A year-long project, archaeologists continue to examine the body but have also discovered something that will change history.

In William Shakespeare’s play Richard III, King Richard is described with a hunched back and a withered hand. But when uncovering the body, although the skeleton presents scoliosis spinal deformity, the archaeologists didn’t find exactly these descriptions on the skeleton. That leads to one question.

Why did Shakespeare exaggerate?

The answer was discovered quite quickly. During Shakespeare’s time the Tudors were in charge. The Tudors had killed King Richard III in a two-year battle known as the War of the Roses. When Richard III was killed, the Tudors reigned.

And what playwright would dare write anything against royalty? It is concluded that in order to please the Tudors, Shakespeare portrayed Richard III in a negative light with negative characteristics to favour his rulers.

But now we approach much deeper questions. Shakespeare also wrote of King Richard III as a tyrant, a man who murdered his nephews so he would stay king. If Shakespeare lied about his physical appearance, what else of Richard III is a lie?

As my dad told me, “History is written by the winners, not the losers.”

And since all we have are the winner’s stories, we have a biased history. A history in favour of those who won battles or reigned over countries isn’t a truthful history.

So if history (our past) is a lie, then who are we? How do we know that what we’ve grown up believing is the truth? You may be thinking, “But that’s just England, that isn’t Canada. We know our history.” But do we?

Do you remember learning about Residential Schools? The schools that First Nations children were forced to attend that taught them colonial values and forced them to forget their heritage? Do you remember learning about how the Indigenous children were emotionally, physically and sexually abused by their teachers? Do you remember that the residential schools opened in the 1840s and didn’t close until 1996? Were you taught that or did your tenth grade history teacher simply skim over that bit of Canada’s dark past?

Every country has its dark past, but we aren’t proud of it. But does that mean we should hide our heads in the sand, denying what we did, lying to future generations?

If our history is a lie, then who are we? How can we base ourselves on people and incidences that may not have happened or happened in very different ways?

By Edward Lovo

History attests to the suffering of indigenous peoples under colonial rule. India, Algeria, and South Africa are all nations that were formerly under colonial rule. There are two principal forms of colonization. One form of colonization is motivated by the desire for settlement and the other is motivated by the extraction of riches. Correspondingly, empires had two kinds of colonies—the settled and the exploited—which would be treated very differently. Although settlement colonies developed self-government, the establishment of trading ports and posts eventually transformed these colonies from settler to exploitive.

French Algeria was an instance of the settler colony.

Settlement in Algeria by the French, however, was slow in coming and only accelerated when France lost Alsace-Lorraine in 1871 to the Germans, forcing the French population to immigrate to Algeria. The indigenous population of Algeria was subjected to the régime du sabre (rule of the sword), whereas French citizenship was extended to non-French settlers that were of European descent and was also further extended to a specific group of indigenous peoples, the Jewish population.

Algeria became a world divided in two.

There was the sector of the colonists on one side of the sword and the sector of the colonized subdued by sword point. Frantz Fanon describes the colonists’ sector as, “...a sector of lights and paved roads, where the trash cans constantly overflow with strange and wonderful garbage, undreamed-of leftovers. The colonist’s feet can never be glimpsed, except perhaps in the sea, but then you can never get close enough. They are protected by solid shoes in a sector where the streets are clean and smooth, without a pothole, without a stone.

The colonist’s sector is a sated, sluggish sector, its belly is permanently full of good things. The colonist’s sector is...a sector of foreigners.”

While the colonists lived well off, the colonized subjects were famished, “hungry for bread, meat, shoes, coal, and light.” Living in these conditions under régime du sabre as second-class citizenships and with shortages of resources—essentially dehumanization—it is no surprise that “[The] muscles of the colonized are always tensed...The colonized subject is a persecuted man who is forever dreaming of becoming the persecutor.” The colonized subject is constantly faced with a beast of violence, for “...colonialism is not a machine capable of thinking, a body endowed with reason. It is naked violence...”

Modern oppression is typically characterized not by colonialism, but by neocolonialism, a perverse evolution of directly violent structures into an indirect, economic kind. Nevertheless, colonialism persists in some parts of the world.

In Palestine, millions of people live under the subjugation of the Israeli state, a regime that unlawfully occupies vast tracts of land historically inhabited by the Palestinians. These colonial subjects are literally parched by the Israeli settlement colony. Although there is enough water to meet the basic needs of all Israelis and Palestinians, the distribution of water between the two societies is highly unequal.

How is Israel’s settlement of the West Bank any different? How is Israel’s blockade on the Gaza Strip any different? Palestinians are dehumanized, oppressed, exploited, subdued by gunpoint, persecuted—“the colonized subject is always presumed guilty.” Let’s count the ways.

In 2006, following the election victory of Hamas, Israel placed restrictions on Gaza, restrictions on access to borders, the free movement of Gazans, and on importations and exportations. Three out of the four goods crossings have remained out of operation since 2006.

Israel is also in sole control of water resources, the Jordan River being the main surface water resource for the Palestinians, and control of the water supply Palestinians have is merely nominal.

In 1993, Israelis and Palestinians signed the Oslo interim agreement, which was intended to begin negotiations on water resources - negotiations that were intended to be concluded by 2000 but have yet to take place. The agreement also established a Joint Water committee with an even number of Israelis and Palestinians possessing membership to manage the West Bank’s shared water resources.

However, Oslo also assigns exclusive veto power to Israelis over decision-making in the committee, effectively reducing the Palestinians to nominal power.

An Israeli water company, Mekorot, controls the allocation of water for both Israelis and Palestinians. It reduces the quantity of water they provide for the Palestinians while water consumption by the Israelis doubles. In addition, in the West Bank district of Tubas, the average consumption of water for Palestinians is thirty litres per person, whereas for the illegal settlement of Beka’ot - only twelve kilometres south of Tubas - the average consumption of water by Israelis is 401 litres per person.

Israel has colonized the Palestinians beyond their borders.

Similar actions have occurred in other colonies such as Algeria - the indigenous population is treated as inferior, but as Fanon notes, they will never be convinced of their inferiority. Determining what constitutes justice is a difficult affair, but one thing is certain that though, as Alain Badiou says, “...injustice is clear, justice is obscure.

Those who have undergone injustice provide irrefutable testimony concerning the former.

But who can testify for justice? Injustice has its affect: suffering, revolt. Nothing, however, signals justice: it presents itself neither as spectacle nor as sentiment.”