🧵This is a very popular portrait of #ClarissaWardCNN shared on social media right now. Some of my interlocutors and friends shared it, too. People I cherish. Nevertheless, it is an expression of a #whitesaviour complex: Is she going to #SaveMyanmar ? #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
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1. #Myanmar is a society that has up to date not had a proper postcolonial turn. It might be in the middle of one right now. Most are united in the #CivilDisobedienceMovement and oppose the #militarycoup but there are significant differences in opinion regarding HOW it will end.
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3. But many others demand help from the international #community - rightly so, understandably so. How can the #UN #ASEAN stand by? How can #Europe not impose stricter sanctions, why do western countries still export weapons, what is the use of diplomacy? Along comes one woman...
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4. #ClarissaWardCNN exploits the desperate hopes of millions: that her simple presence as a western journalist will 'help' them, she will convey the 'truth', other countries will 'believe' them, then they will move into action; then there will be peace. But this hope is false.
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5. I want to make a point about where this hope is coming from: In existential anthropology, we understand hope as always arising with fear and anxiety. It springs "from the fundamentally unstable and ambiguous nature of our relationships with others and with the world" (Jackson)
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6. When people hope, they fear. When people fear, many wish to be saved. When #ASSK coined #freedomfromfear people's hopes became personified; she became "their only hope"-no need for others. If hope gets personified, it becomes less unstable & ambiguous. Now residing in someone
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7. #ClarissaWardCNN is not a blonde #ASSK but she seems to have triggered, for many of my interlocutors as for 1000s I see online, the same kind of longing: wanting to be saved by a saint, a mother-like heroine. This is a very humane reaction given the extreme circumstances...
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8. but it was also an expected reaction -which is why I criticized her visit from the start. Not only for political reasons, but because it was obvious, given the country's history, that many would see her as a #whitesaviour Thankfully, many understand that this hope is misplaced
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9. I said we might be witnessing a true postcolonial turn right now in #Myanmar. For me, one example is the fact that the #CivilDisobedienceMovement no longer waits to be saved. People know that instead of hoping that others might come and rescue them, it is up to them to do so!
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11. Sending #ClarissaWardCNN into #Myanmar is a colonial move that does not serve the people of this country. It might have triggered a familiar reaction - and wouldn't it be nice and so much easier if one could simply be saved. Who would not want to be saved? We are humans...
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12. From the perspective of many in #Myanmar this is an understandable reaction. From the perspective of 'the West' (and yes, this is what #ClarissaWardCNN stands for here), it is a deeply unethical move. One that belongs to an outdated world order #WhatsHappeningInMyanmar
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