While it would appear that formal colonialism largely ended in the last century, the imperial impulse entered the new millennium in altered forms, writes Ayman El-Amir in Al-Ahram Weekly Online at:
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/854/op6.htm
http://weekly.ahram.org.eg/2007/854/op6.htm
Extract:
"One is often tempted to believe, even through a sheer lapse of memory, that colonialism and the long trail of generations that fought it is something of the past, now dead and buried in history books. Yet nearly three- quarters of all member states of the United Nations today have become independent sovereign countries in the past half century through struggles of self- determination. French President Nicolas Sarkozy has, during his recent visit to Algeria, declined to apologise for the atrocities France committed during its 130-year-long occupation and exploitation of Algeria. It is a strong reminder that colonial attitudes remain a bitter reality and that despite the promise of globalisation, colonialism in its varied forms still poisons the lives of many around the world....Colonialism in all its abominable forms, whether direct military conquest or settler colonialism, has crept into the 21st century."
