Empire if fascinating, perpetually. From my perspective, Empire is something we live with everyday. It is a 'banal' form of evil, which has so many people in its grip. especially in the present crisis. Huge systems operated in a relatively impersonal manner are the underpinning for the banality of evil, as Hannah Arendt put it. Massive disparities in power and wealth. Some people paid to police others on behalf of those who run the system, and who don't do their own dirty work.
When the Mau Mau were active in Kenya in the 1950s, many were tortured, killed and hunted down as if they were animals on a game reserve. Now since the year 2012, those who were teens at that time, and were arrested and severely tortured, are finally going to get some compensation for their abuse from the British government. Could the be the start of many such legal suits from the victims of Empire. Or will they close the 'loopholes' that allow the law to be used for the purposes of restitution and justice? This image, from a photo and collage, depicts one of the rare instances where a Mau Mau suspect was tried rather than killed on the spot.
This image of Lumumba shows him shortly before his death. He is surrounded by soldiers whose expressions make it clear that they are 'just following orders' and 'doing their job'. As Hannah Arendt insisted of Eichmann, they have stopped thinking, and are behaving just like cogs in a machine. The banality of evil indeed. And the ones ordering the killing of Lumumba are first and foremost the authorities in Belgium, the UK and the US, outside the country and yet (and this is Empire) fully on board.
The text below reads: Damaged Goods refers to all that is broken and undone.
This picture to the right seems to show a mutually recognised friendship between two soldiers. The image is from colonial Kenya. It is not clear whether the photo was taken in Kenya or Britain. From the body language, I would guess it is Kenya. This is because the Brit soldier looks distinctly uneasy. His position is close to being deferential towards his Kenyan fellow soldier. The Kenyan soldier, whose uniform shows he is pfrom the colonial forces, appears much more at ease, literally in his element, than the British soldier, who gives the appearance of feeling quite out of place.