Author Archives: Jamie Do

News – Israeli and Palestine conflict beyond the borders

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Aljazeera News – Diplomatic spat after Chile leader snubs new Israeli ambassador

The conflict between Israeli and Palestine was intensified after the Israel started a campaign in West Bank cities, aiming to respond to the increasingly organized Palestine resistance. Over the past year, Israeli has been carrying out killings and mass arrests in cities such as Jenin and Nablus. Last week, a seventeen-year-old Palestinian boy lost his live as a victim of the violence from the Israeli force. The Israeli occupation of the West Bank and especially this news have effects on diplomatic relationships far beyond the borders of the conflict. The news article above shares the story on the diplomatic spat between Chile and Israeli as an example. The dispute happened over the postpone of the newly appointed Israeli ambassador in Chile due to the death of the Palestinian minor. This news article also provides the not surprisingly opposing responses from Israel and Palestine. In addition, it also mentions the opinion of the Chilean president Gabriel Boric on the Israeli occupation of the West Bank.

As we have seen briefly during our discussion on the Middle East, the explanation for the Israeli and Palestinian conflict requires taking into account complexity. Moreover, this conflict is an example of how past historical events shape our world today. Lastly, I want to raise a question of the role of politics on how conflicts were viewed. For instance, what would the majority of Chilean, who are distant from the Israeli and Palestinian conflict, view this issue when their president favors one side over the other?

Blog entry for 9/19/22

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In today’s class, we went through an overview of the history of Latin America in the latest 500 years. A key take-away is that Latin America is statistically the most unequal region in the world and a rising middle class population. One reason behind this phenomenon was the entrenched structural inequalities by colonialism. Before occupation of colonial powers (Spain and Portugal), there were civilizations, such as the Aztec Empire, the Maya Empire, and the Inca Empire, throughout North and South America continent with large-scale agriculture and big urban spaces. The colonizers took advantage of Latin America as both planter and extractive colonies. This heavily influenced the economic, political, and social structure of the region. And even after the colonies gain independence in early 20th century, their economy and society were not able to break free from the control of former colonial powers (neo-colonialism).

Another take-away is that the culture of Latin America is not static. Similarly, both the place and the history of Latin America is not a result of a teleological process (Thomas Holloway). Instead of passively being influenced by the cultures of colonial powers, Latin America also impact these dominant cultures in an ongoing transculturation process.