Giant_and_Dwarf-FIN

From Diagnosing the Problems to Remediationsteel in its own image and as a reflection of its convictions, which it considered as the onlycorrect belief. The British, French, Portuguese, Spanish, Dutch and countless officials, soldiers,traders, priests and colonizers came to North and South America, India, Australia, theFar East and, of course, to Africa, in a way that was no different than the ancient Romanshad done centuries earlier. They didn’t have even the slightest doubt that they were thebearers of the highest level of civilization. Everyone else, in the best case scenario, was consideredto be uncivilized barbarians. In the worst case, they were considered primitives thatcould be exterminated at will. Even into the second half of the 19 th century this approachhas been frequently and richly documented against many Native American tribes, Australianaboriginals and nations in Africa.This arrogant approach by a supposedly superior white race, and even more superiorBritish race, to those races with darker skin, was gradually humanized and the feeling ofsuperiority was gradually joined by a feeling of common responsibility for the fate of thoseunder control, i.e. those childish and backwards nations from the perspective of the Europeans.This sentiment is captured in the poem The White Man’s Burden written in 1899by Rudyard Kipling. This is the very same Kipling who so many of us know from childhoodthanks to his beautiful stories about the Indian boy Mowgli and the wolf Akel, the bearBaloo, the panther Bagheer, the tiger Shere Khan and the python Kaa, and other heroesin his books, The Jungle Book and Toomai of the Elephants. Kipling used his own words todescribe the expansion of white people around the world:Take up the White Man’s burden—In patience to abide,To veil the threat of terrorAnd check the show of pride;By open speech and simple,An hundred times made plainTo seek another’s profit,And work another’s gain.Take up the White Man’s burden—The savage wars of peace—Fill full the mouth of FamineAnd bid the sickness cease; 88It is no surprise that the name of this poem was used by the long-time World Bank collaboratorand economics professor William Easterly as the title for his book, which includesthe sub-title Why the West’s Efforts to Aid the Rest Have Done So Much Ill and So Little Good.88 The Czech translation used in the original text was made by Otakar Fischer from 1947 and was takenfrom the Czech edition of William Easterly’s book The White Man’s Burden. Prague: Academia, 2010.107