tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post1607860855486921170..comments2023-05-31T14:16:36.022+03:00Comments on Otto's Random Thoughts: First Thoughts on the Bruce Gilley ControversyJ. Otto Pohlhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/07457089758142264049noreply@blogger.comBlogger5125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post-84102201041993847322017-09-20T16:06:37.442+03:002017-09-20T16:06:37.442+03:00DerRach, it is of note that you are the only contr...DerRach, it is of note that you are the only contributor thus far to conceal your real name. Your comment will be discounted accordingly, but please note, this piece and the scandal surrounding are not about US universities. Thank you.Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/15964238511258734183noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post-21196088214262663442017-09-19T17:57:48.150+03:002017-09-19T17:57:48.150+03:00It took about two minutes to find a misrepresentat...It took about two minutes to find a misrepresentation of a source in Gilley's article. He claims (p. 5) that Guinea-Bissau was "...a successful colonial state that had ... initiated sustained gains in life expectancy since bringing the territory under control in 1936." His source for this claim is Riley, J. C. 2005 The Timing and Pace of Health Transitions around the World. Population and Development Review 31(4):741-764. However, in that article, the only reference to Guinea Bissau (Appendix 1) indicates life expectancy increases starting in the 1940s and 1950s and ending with life expectancy in 2000. There is nothing in his source that supports his claim that the colonial regime was responsible for this increase in life expectancy.<br /><br />That's of a piece with all of this article.<br /><br />I'm an Africanist. The idea that this so-called scholar could pretend to be considering the costs of colonialism in Africa without, for example, mentioning the Holocaust-level atrocities inflicted on the Congo Free State and Belgian Congo between 1880 and 1920 is both obscene and fundamentally bad scholarship. His claims about Guinea-Bissau are similarly partial and misleading: he locates the 'start of a guerrilla war' in the country in 1963 - ignoring the fact that this process started in 1959 with the machine-gunning of striking dock workers by the Portuguese authorities. The atrocities carried out by Portuguese forces were extraordinary, as was their use of American tactics in Vietnam, especially the use of napalm and defoliants on rural areas. (This later contributed to the agricultural collapse he claims.)<br /><br />This is bad scholarship: the fact that it deals in colonial nostalgia doesn't make it daring.<br />Anonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/02596635403065182569noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post-66026539267467085932017-09-17T20:47:05.128+03:002017-09-17T20:47:05.128+03:00Excellent points. He takes the worst examples of p...Excellent points. He takes the worst examples of post-colonial rule and pre-independence opposition to colonialism, and uses them to praise colonialism. Even there, he gets the facts wrong. But worse, he takes good examples of post-colonial success, like Singapore, and suggests that the colonists are somehow responsible. Equally false. What was Singapore, or Malaya, under the British?Mohan Matthenhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/18412367867949250445noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post-47118897676157671532017-09-16T22:12:25.937+03:002017-09-16T22:12:25.937+03:00Great points.Great points.Bijan Parsiahttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07024418532546914722noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7858950.post-75112944905095656762017-09-16T18:54:54.017+03:002017-09-16T18:54:54.017+03:00Perhaps authors like Bruce Gilley see only what th...Perhaps authors like Bruce Gilley see only what they want to see similar to the cult of Cultural Marxism prevalent in American universities.<br /><br />Could you write a rebuttal and submit it to the journal in question?derRachhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/07144233067868077338noreply@blogger.com