Political Geography: Space, Place, and Politics - Research Paper Example

Response to Journalism Article in a Geographical Perspective Martin Jones in his journal article reflects on three major dimensions of political geography; Space, Place and Politics. Within the three areas of concern, he factors in and addresses the concerns of the international order, the social movements and the nation state. In his analysis, the dimensions of North-South and the East-West split take center-stage. The nation state analysis focuses on the various events and occurrences at the local, national level, especially in the America and Europe. The state of well-being of the inhabitants of these nations; both the citizens and aliens is explored with a lot of reproaches concerning respect and dignity of non-citizens. The politics of the location and the place are addressed in the political geography of the social movements. The widespread insensitivity to the push by the social movements in these nations and the outright downplaying of the quest for recognition and respect is also made mention of. This is an idea I am going to apply in analyzing a journalism article. The journalism article in focus is “The Racism and Racial Divides in Venezuela” by Gregory Wilpert. This article addresses issues of political geography in an evidently racist Venezuela. This paper analyses and reports on how the author of the political geography article would respond to the journalism article. In the journalism article, there are a great deal of issues on international order and the perceptions that are largely accepted and internalized by certain sections of the world’s population. Key among these and widely explored in the journal article is the concern for racism in the world in general and in Venezuela in particular. As reported in the journalism article, it is evident that the mindset of most of the Venezuelans, humans from different geographical locations of the world are and will never be equal. On the face of it, Venezuelans would say that there is no racism in the country, but the opposite proves true. They would say that it does not matter whether one is dark, brown or white since they all consider themselves to be “Mestizo” or “brown” (Wilpert 2). The journal article gives an account of how the opposite of this statement is proven during the visit by the Trans Africa Forum to the nation of Venezuela. This position of reality of racism in Venezuela was made clear by the very delegation in their final press conference in the country. The delegation mentioned the Venezuelan news commentators who referred to their trip as a ‘burned’ tour. This statement was made by the commentators, referring to their dark skin. Another incident the delegation cited as an indicator of a racist culture by the Venezuelans is the case where some prominent opposition spokesman referred to the delegation from Africa as ‘monkeys’. This report shows ‘monkey’ is a fairly common deprecatory term that Venezuelans use to refer to the people of African origin and descent. Finally, there is mention of the cartoonist of the El Nacional’s Zapata newspaper, who caricatured the visit by the Trans Africa delegation with a lot of negative references to the racial background of the delegation. Another aspect of the segregation based on descent and color is shown in the form of religion. In an interview with a Venezuelan media house, the journalism article reports that one of the key founders of the Afro-Venezuelan Network, Jesus ‘Chucho’ Garcia lamenting about the policies introduced by the then Venezuelan dictator, Marcos Perez Jimenez. Jimenez had in 1950s introduced the “great national ideal”. This ideal was meant to ‘whiten’ Venezuela. As a means toward this end, Jimenez had brought in several immigrants from Western Europe. They were meant to impose the Western European culture on the native Venezuelans and those of African descent. Indeed, the constitution put in place by the Jimenez leadership decreed that that everyone was a catholic. This constitution disregarded other religions of the native Venezuelans and those of African descent. This in essence exhibits racism in the religious realm. The other area of exploration is the social movements, aspect of the political geography. Still in relation to the racism, there are a number of social movements in Venezuela, meant to help uplift the living conditions and respect for the discriminated lots. Always there was the racial lines division of support for the political leadership (Martin 115). President Chavez, who had once tried without success to introduce changes in the Venezuelan constitution to take care of the Venezuelans of African descent, would always have the blacks behind him while majority of the whites would oppose him. “…this would see the pro government and opposition demonstrations where the dark skin supports Chavez while the white skin opposes him” (Wilpert 5). Another social movement is the one championed by the likes of Jesus ‘Chucho’ Garcia through the Afro-Venezuelan Network. Through this network, the likes of Garcia have been calling for the implementation of the Durban Declaration Against Racism. This is a Declaration, which Venezuela signed way back in 2001, and has never put to action. The very social movement, the Afro-Venezuelan Network, in its earnest fight against racism also moved into compile more than one-thousand racist comments on the Venezuelan media. This had occurred in less than one and a half years during, which the comments were gathered and used to petition the state on the alarming state of racial discrimination and prejudice. Finally and on the nation’s state aspect of the political geography, the journalism article displays an array of concerns raised by the citizenry, especially the discriminated groups. The state of the nation was such that any quest for recognition and respect made by a Venezuelan of African origin was shut down with all manner of available forces, from both the government and the society. At the height of racial discrimination then, it was unimaginable by the white Venezuelans, for anyone of African descent to vie for Presidency. For instance, all sorts of racial sentiments ensued when one, Luis Beltran Prieto Figueroa aspired to be president. (Wilpert 5). Some of the extremist sectors of his own party denounced him and expressly aid that a black cannot be a president. Beltran had to defect from his original party in 1968 to form his own party, Electoral Movement of the People. As another of the state of the nation of Venezuela, in relations to the question of racism, there were empty writings in the constitution and the minds of the people vilifying the racial segregation among the Venezuelans (Heffernan 14). The surprise is that there was no single statement of any legal action that would be taken in case of any individual found culpable of racial crimes. Any petition by the anti-racial movements to have the African-Venezuelan concerns expressly incorporated in the constitution simply landed on deaf years. As a response to the journalism article by Gregory Wilpert, the author of the political geography article, would respond variedly to the various issues raised in the Gregory in his article. First of all and as evident in the journalism article, the key issue in Venezuela is the racial discrimination. Apparently, the problem seems so deeply rooted n the fabric of the nation that it no longer presents itself as a problem. From his work, I think Jones would first respond by suggesting that the education system that has for long cultivated the wrong knowledge into the people be reviewed. To address the racial discontent with the blacks by the whites, the education system which instills the wrong of no racialism ever existing in Venezuela be reversed to deliver the right knowledge of the aspects of racial discrimination and how to guard against them (William 16). Concerning the political dimension of the geography, I think Jones would advise for the opening of larger and accommodative political space, that which is fair and level for all willing both present and prospective players. The elements of segregation based on the skin color, place of descent and all other stereotypes would be disregarded by the author of the Political Geography. Finally, I think Jones would respond by criticizing the aspects of space and institutionalization of racialism. From the legal documents to the functionalities of the government institutions, there would be need for radical changes and advice to that effect by Jones would be in order. Conclusion It is evident that the racial discrimination in Venezuela was at the peak but without much knowledge of the citizen. This raise concerns of the political geography as expounded above and a number of responses, as well. Works cited Martins, J. (2004). Political Geography: Space, Place and Politics. The Journal of Political Geography, 40 (5), pp. 111-116. Wilpert, G. “Racism and Racial Divides Venezuela”. http//venezuelanalysis.com/analysis/322 William, B. “Reordering the World: Geopolitical Perspectives on the Twenty-First Century” Westview Press 2004. Heffernan, D. “A Political Geography of Latin America” Hutchinson, 2007. Read More