What the orientalist thinks of an oriental is that the orientals cannot rule themselves nor can they manage their riches. The westerners (orientalist) take it upon themselves to do the job for the orient. The westerners see orientalist as incapables whose only interest is their lust. The occidents not only take it upon themselves to take over and control the riches of the oriental countries, but go further and claim that “we have to run their country for them as well”. This case is different from the colonialism in that they are not directly, or let’s say publically, running the show but some local puppets are. Puppets who are either trained in the west or trained in the east by missionaries or orientalists themselves. By riches we don’t just mean oil fields as in Iraq but oil pipes and rich mineral mines (e.g. uranium) as in Afghanistan and some African countries. The westerners pretend they respect the orient but they don’t and it is, actually, on the contrary. They look down upon the orients. To the westerners, an oriental has no value. They believe the oriental is happy as long as he has his partner and animals. In western movies, the orientals (Arabs, Muslims, Africans) are shown as the source of evil and the source of problems in the west. One example in early 90s is showing Arabs as the source of gas shortage in the US.
This article is both summary of book “Orientalism” by Edward W. Said and my reflections.
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