A brief history of exile in the Western
worldhttp://www.the-orb.net/textbooks/westciv/romanrevolution.htmlComment
by safaa hussein:
http://windomrome.weebly.com/roman-republic---31-bce.htmlJUL
27Toronto mayor Rob Ford suggested last week that criminals
convicted of gun crimes be exiled from the city. The minister of
immigration, Jason Kenny, shot the idea down soon after.Exile,
however, has a long history in the Western world. While Ford has
been ridiculed for suggesting it, the practice has been used in
various ways by different societies.Rome and Athens during
antiquityIn antiquity, the practice was used in the Roman Republic
as well as the Roman Empire. It was also used in places like
Athens, the Greek city state that is often credited with inventing
democracy.In the Roman Republic, exile was often an option given to
upper class criminals, says Gordon Kelly, who is a visiting
assistant professor of humanities at Lewis & Clark College in
Portland, Oregon. Kelly is the author of A History of Exile in the
Roman Republic.During the Roman Republic, between the 5th century
BC and 27 BC, exile was used by upper class Roman citizens as a
means to escape capital punishment. Having chosen exile instead of
death, they would never be allowed to return to Roman
territory.Kelly says it is hard to know whether exile was an option
for lower class members of the Roman Republic because of a lack of
evidence. During this period, those who were exiled did not lose
their Roman citizenship, though most chose to adopt that of their
new state.This would be very serious, for these political classes,
because that would absolutely rule out a further political career,
says Kelly. It was a form of political death.At times, Kelly says,
you could move a mere 10 miles outside of Rome and live in comfort
as a result of your accumulated wealth, but would likely leave your
family behind. The sons of an exiled father, having remained in
Rome, could still pursue a political career themselves.For a lot of
ancient communities, the community is everything. So having to
leave the community is a pretty serious blow to them; their
identity is really wound up in this particular community, says
Kelly.During the later Roman Empire, there is evidence that
different punishments were given out to people of different social
status. Kelly says that while those in the upper classes could be
exiled, those of the lower classes could be killed, worked to death
in mines or killed for sport in an arena, for similar serious
crimes.Peter OBrien, who is an assistant professor in the classics
department at Dalhousie University and specializes in Latin
literature, says most of the ancient Mediterranean cultures used
exile as a form of punishment.At the root of exile as a form of
political punishment is the notion that participation in a
particular state, the one into which one was born, really defined
what it meant to be human, says OBrien.Famously, Aristotle says
that, life outside of the polis, their form of state, is the life
either of a god or a dog, of an animal. Humanity is defined by
participation in the state. So exclusion from that at any level is
an extremely serious thing and in some cases is considered to be
even worse than death, says OBrien.The practice of exile took a
different form in the Greek city state of Athens. There, the
practice of ostracism, took place once a year. The citizens of
Athens who had voting rights, usually men who owned property and
whose families were from Athens, gathered annually and voted for an
individual to be exiled.You didnt need any reasons, you just voted
somebody off the island, or the polis, says Jack Mitchell, an
assistant professor of Roman history at Dalhousie University.The
practice is named ostracism because each citizen scratched the name
of the person they wanted to exile on a shard of pottery called
ostraca, the voting ballot of the day, says Mitchell.Once voted out
of Athens, the citizen would generally be able to return after ten
years in exile. This allowed Athenians to diffuse political
tensions between rival parties, or get rid of a prominent
politician who might try to become a tyrant and wrest control of
the city.Medieval England: 12th to 15th centuriesDuring the
medieval ages the practice of exile served a similar function as it
did during the Roman Republic.In England, between the 12th and 15th
centuries, exile took the form of abjuration, a practice which was
integrated into English Common Law, says Shannon McSheffrey, a
professor at Concordia University who specializes in late medieval
and early Tudor England.During that time period, murder and theft
were punishable by death. If a criminal wanted to avoid capital
punishment they could claim sanctuary on church grounds, where
because the land was considered sacred, they could not be
arrested.Once a person claimed sanctuary they could ask to speak
with a coroner, who at the time both investigated murders as well
as preformed other civic duties. The perpetrator would have to
confess to the crime they committed and have the coroner record the
confession.The criminal could then ask for the right of abjuration,
which meant that they would swear off the realm, says McSheffrey.
You would agree to go into exile for the rest of your life. That
would be in return for not then suffering the capital punishment
that was due to you.The person was given a white cross and put into
the custody of a legal official called a constable who would escort
the criminal to the end of their jurisdiction and hand them over to
the constable in charge of the next jurisdiction. This was done
until the perpetrator reached the nearest port, where they would be
forced to seek passage on a ship to Europe.McSheffrey adds that if
the perpetrator was ever seen on English soil, they would then face
capital punishment. This experience would have been easier to deal
with for those who were wealthy and may have had money or property
elsewhere in Europe. However, it was still seen as a horrific
punishment because many often did not speak other languages
besidesEnglish, a language not spoken in Europe at the time. Most
would never see their friends or family again.McSheffrey says that
there is almost no evidence of what happened to people who abjured
the realm and went into exile. It is thus very hard to know how
they fared wherever they ended up.Early Modern Europe: 16th to 18th
centuries in Italy and FranceDuring the early modern era, between
the 16th and 18th centuries in Italy, exile was used as a means to
dispense justice as well as avoid feuds and vendettas among people
living in close communities.Gregory Hanlon, a university research
professor at Dalhousie University who specializes in early modern
Italy and France, among other fields, points out that exile was
used during this period while there were still no jails, and little
money in government coffers to set them up.Everybody lived their
lives locally. This is a period in which even a lot of poor people
owned some land, and they resided there for generations. That meant
that there were constantly tensions between different families,
says Hanlon.Authorities were concerned that cycles of violence
would erupt between families who would seek retribution for murders
or rapes committed by members of another family.When a person was
exiled, they would in extreme cases, have their goods and property
confiscated and given to their family members who could then use
those assets to send an allowance to the exiled individual.The
period of the exile was either a set duration or indefinite, but
people could petition the local magistrate or authorities and plead
for the right to return. Poorer families would often suffer because
a main breadwinner was exiled, and their plight would often be a
reason why authorities would allow an exiled individual to return
after a period of time.The communities that received the exiled
individuals were not very welcoming and, as in France, sometimes
had derogatory words referring to exiles. In periods when most
people owned lands, they didnt move around a whole lot. And so,
some stranger coming in to live with you is perhaps bad news. Theyd
probably been sent away from their homes for bad behavior and
therefore you can suspect they will commit bad things in their new
locality, says Hanlon.They were supposed to make peace with their
enemies, that is a formal written peace with their enemies and pay
some kind of compensation before theyre allowed to come home. This
is a reasonably efficient way of doing justice in a period when you
dont have much money for the means of punishment, like prisons,
says Hanlon, who adds that this form of punishment was extremely
common. He also adds that most people were allowed to return from
exile after a period of time.Be Sociable, Share!Table of
ContentsChapter One: Introduction1. Overview2. The Cultural and
Political Background of Roman Exile3. Summary of the Relationship
of Exile to Roman Republican PoliticsChapter Two: Exilium: Legal
and Historical Issues1. The Basics of Exile2. Exile as a Citizen
Right3. Aquae et ignis interdictio4. Exile and Interdiction as a
Legal Penalty5. Exile and Citizenship6. The Attempted Exile of L.
Hostilius Tubulus and Q. Pleminius7. The ius exulare8.
RelegatioChapter Three: The Journey Into Exile: The Early Republic
to the Social War1. Choosing a Site for Exile: An Introduction2.
Brief Journey Into Exile: The Early Republic to 1233. Politics,
Demonstrations and the Hope of Recall4. The Advantages of
Dyrrachium and Western Greece for Exiles5. Locations Distant From
Rome and the Permanence of ExileChapter Four: Exilium from the
Social War to the Death of Julius Caesar1. The Mass Recall of
Exiles in the 80s2. Exules in Italia: The Cases of Oppianicus and
Q. Pompeius3. The 60s and the Exile "Boom" in Western Greece4. The
Exile of M. Tullius Cicero5. Milo and the Mullets of Massilia:
Exilium in the 50s6. A New Civil War and Mass Recall of Exiles7.
Defeated Pompeians and Casesar's ClementiaChapter Five: Topics of
Exile1. Accompaniment Into Exile2. The Economics of Exile3. Exempla
and Accounts of ExileChapter Six: Prosopography of Roman
ExilesConclusionsAppendix I: The leges Clodiae Concerning Cicero's
ExileAppendix II: Restoration of Legendary Figures of the Early
RepublicBibliographyLibrary of Congress Subject Headings for this
publication:Exiles -- Rome -- History.Rome -- History -- Republic,
510-30 B.C.Exileis a form ofpunishmentin which one has to leave
one's home (whether that be on the level ofcity, region,
ornation-state) while either being explicitly refused permission
and/or being threatened byprisonordeathupon return. It is common to
distinguish betweeninternal exile,forced resettlement within the
country of residence, andexternal exile,deportation outside the
country of residence.When an entire people or ethnic population is
forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, it is
called adiaspora.Throughout history, numerous nations have been
forced into diasporas. For the Jews, whose diaspora lasted more
than two thousand years, until the founding of the modern State
ofIsraelin 1948, theological reflection on the meaning of exile has
led to the insight thatGod, who dwells amongst his people, also
lives and suffers in exile.Exile can also be a self-imposed
departure from one's homeland. Self-exile is often practiced as
form of protest or to avoid persecution or prosecution
forcriminalactivity.Contents[show]
Whatever the cause or circumstances, exile necessarily causes
emotional pain to all involved. Leaving one's homeland means
breaking the first and most essential bonds developed to
one'sfamily,community, and the natural environment. Prevented from
reuniting with those people and places cherished from youth, human
hearts can never be whole.HistoryExile,also calledbanishment,has a
long tradition as a form ofpunishment. It was known in ancient
Rome, where the Senate had the power to exile individuals,
entirefamilies, or countries (which amounted to a declaration
ofwar).The towns ofancient Greecealso used exile both as a legal
punishment and, inAthens, as a social punishment. In Athens during
the time ofdemocracy, the process of "ostracism" was devised in
which one man who was a threat to the stability of the society was
banished from the city without prejudice for ten years, after which
he was allowed to return. Among the more famous recipients of this
punishment were Themistocles, Cimon, and Aristides the Just.
Further, Solon the lawgiver voluntarily exiled himself from Athens
after drafting the city's constitution, to prevent being pressed to
change it.In thePolish-Lithuanian Commonwealth, a court of law
could sentence a noble to exile(banicja). As long as the
exile(banita)remained in the Commonwealth, he had a price on his
head and lost the privileges and protection granted to him as a
noble. Even killing abanitawas not considered a crime, although
there was no reward for his death. Special forms of exile were
accompanied bywywiecenie(a declaration of the sentence in churches)
or by issuance of a separate declaration to townfolk andpeasantry,
all of them increased the knowledge of the exile and thus made his
capture more likely. A more severe penalty than exile was
"infamy"(infamia): A loss of honor and respect(utrata czci i
wiary)in addition to exile.On October 23, 2006, for the first time
inUnited Stateshistory, a judge in the United States imposed exile
on a U.S. citizen for crimes committed in the U.S. The case
concerned Malcolm Watson, a citizen of the United States and a
permanent resident ofCanada, who resided in St. Catharines,
Ontario, Canada, across the border from Buffalo, New York. Watson,
a teacher at Buffalo Seminary and a cross-border commuter, pleaded
guilty to misdemeanorsex crimesagainst a 15 year old former
student. Watson received a sentence of three years ofprobation, but
wanted to serve this time in Canada where he, his wife, and their
children lived. This was approved subject to the condition that
Watson had to remain out of the U.S. except for meetings with his
probation officer, effectively exiling Watson for three years.
Watson, however, was arrested upon his re-entry to Canada amid
public outcry, and faced possible deportation to the
U.S.[1]Personal exileExile has been used particularly for political
opponents of those in power. The use of exile for political
purposes serves the government by preventing their exiled opponent
from organizing in their native land or from becoming a
martyr.Exile represented an especially severe punishment in times
past, particularly for those, likeOvidorDu Fu, who were exiled to
strange or backward regions, cut off from all of the possibilities
of their accustomed lifestyle as well as from their families and
associates.Dantedescribed the pain of exile inThe Divine Comedy: Tu
lascerai ogne cosa dilettapi caramente; e questo quello straleche
l'arco de lo essilio pria saetta.Tu proverai s come sa di salelo
pane altrui, e come duro callelo scendere e 'l salir per l'altrui
scale You will leave everything you love most:this is the arrow
that the bow of exileshoots first. You will know how saltyanother's
bread tastes and how hard itis to ascend and descendanother's
stairs "Paradiso XVII: 55-60[2]Exile has been softened, to some
extent, in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as exiles have
been welcomed in other countries. There, they have been able to
create new communities in those countries or, less frequently,
returned to their homelands following the demise of the regime that
exiled them.Deportation serves as a modern form of exile. This
involves either the expulsion of persons of foreign citizenship
from a country (usually back to that person's country of origin) or
forcible relocation within a nation. Deportation is imposed either
as the result of a criminal activity, including illegal
immigration, or based on the needs and policies of a
government.TheBritishandFrenchgovernments often deported people
topenal colonies, such asAustraliaor Georgia. These colonies were
usually underdeveloped pieces of land owned by that government in
which conditions were harsh enough to serve as punishment.[3]Famous
people who have been in exile Napoleon Iexiled fromFranceto Elba
and, later, St Helena Idi Amin, exiled toLibya, andSaudi
Arabiauntil his death. Bertolt Brecht Joseph Brodsky, exiled
fromSoviet UniontoUnited States John Calvin, exiled
fromSwitzerlandto France, but later let back into Switzerland, due
to change in government Frdric Chopin, exiled fromPolandto France
El Cid, banned from Castile, served other Iberian kings ending with
the conquest of Valencia Dante Alighieri, Medieval Italian poet and
author of theDivine Comedy,sentenced to two years of exile and
forced to pay a fine when the Black Guelfs took control of
Florence. However, Dante could not pay his fine because he was
staying at Rome at the request of Pope Boniface VIII and was
considered to be an absconder and sentenced to permanent exile.
Albert Einsteinself-exiled fromGermanyto the United States Sigmund
Freudself-exiled fromAustriatoUnited Kingdom Heinrich Heine Victor
Hugoexiled from France to theChannel Islands Arthur Koestler Jan
Amos Komensk Leninself-exiled to Switzerland Thomas Mannself-exile
to Switzerland and to the United States, moved back to Switzerland
Karl Marxself-exiled from Germany to United Kingdom Adam Mickiewicz
Ovid EmperorHaile Selassieof Ethiopia Alexander Solzhenitsynexiled
from the Soviet Union, returned after the fall ofCommunism Leon
Trotskyexiled toTurkey, France,Norway, andMexico Miguel de
Unamunoconfined to Fuerteventura, fled to FranceGovernment in
exileA "government in exile" is a political group that claims to be
a country's legitimate government, but for various reasons is
unable to exercise its legal power, and instead resides in a
foreign country. Governments in exile usually operate under the
assumption that they will one day return to their native country
and regain power.Governments in exile frequently come into
existence duringwartimeoccupation. For example, during the German
expansion of theSecond World War, numerous European governments
andmonarchswere forced to seek refuge in theUnited Kingdom, rather
than face certain destruction at the hands of the Nazis. As well as
during a foreign occupation, after an internal coup d'etat, a
government in exile may be established abroad.Actions of
governments in exileInternational law recognizes that governments
in exile may undertake many types of actions in the conduct of
their daily affairs. These actions include: Becoming a party to a
bilateral or internationaltreaty Amending or revising its own
constitution Maintaining military forces Retaining (or "newly
obtaining") diplomatic recognition by sovereign states Issuing
identity cards Allowing the formation of new political parties
Instituting democratic reforms Holding elections Allowing for
direct (or more broadly-based) elections of its government
officersHowever, none of these actions can serve to legitimatize a
government in exile to become the internationally recognized legal
government of its current locality. By definition, a government in
exile is spoken of in terms of its native country; hence it must
return to its native country and regain power there in order to
obtain legitimacy as the legal government of that geographic
area.Past governments in exile Provisional Government of the
Republic ofKorea Crown Council ofEthiopia, led by H.I.M Prince
Ermias Sahle Selassie and based in theWashington D.C.area, claimed
that the Emperor was still the legal head of Ethiopia The
government in exile of the Free City of Danzig Spanish Republican
governmentin exile afterFranco's coup d'tat. Based in Mexico City
from 1939 to 1946, when it was moved toParis, where it lasted until
Franco's death The Provisional Government of FreeIndiawas
established by Indian nationalists in exile during the war Other
exiled leaders inEnglandincluded King Zog ofAlbaniaand EmperorHaile
SelassieofEthiopiaMany countries established a government in exile
after loss of sovereignty in connection withWorld War II:
Belgium(invaded May 10, 1940) Czechoslovakia(established in 1940 by
Bene and recognized by the British government) FreeFrance(after
1940) Greece(invaded October 28, 1940) Luxembourg(invaded May 10,
1940) Netherlands(invaded May 10, 1940) Norway(invaded April 9,
1940) Poland(from September 1939) Yugoslavia(invaded April 6, 1941)
Commonwealth of thePhilippines(invaded December 8, 1941) Denmark's
occupation (April 9, 1940) was administered by the German Foreign
Office, contrary to other occupied lands that were under military
administration. Denmark did not establish a government in exile,
although there was an Association of Free Danes established
inLondon. The King and his government remained in Denmark, and
functioned comparatively independently for the first three years of
German occupation. Meanwhile,Icelandand theFaroe Islandswere
occupied by the Allies, and effectively separated from the Danish
crown.Nation in exileWhen large groups, or occasionally a whole
people or nation is exiled, it can be said that this nation is in
"exile," ordiaspora.The termdiaspora(inAncient Greek,"a scattering
or sowing of seeds") refers to any people or ethnic population who
are forced or induced to leave their traditional homelands, the
dispersal of such people, and the ensuing developments in their
culture.Nations that have been in exile for substantial periods
include theJews, who were deported byNebuchadnezzar II of Babylonin
597B.C.E., and again in the years following the destruction of the
second temple inJerusalemin the year 70C.E.The Jewish diaspora has
lasted more than two thousand years, until the founding of the
modern State ofIsraelin 1948, which finally opened the possibility
of returning to the ancestral homeland. The Jewish diaspora brought
on many distinctive cultural developments within the exiled
communities. Theological reflection on the meaning of exile has led
to the insight thatGod, who dwells amongst his people, also lives
and suffers in exile. The Hasidic master Israel Baal Shem Tov said,
"Pray continually for Gods glory, that it may be redeemed from its
exile."[4]In modern Israel, there is a Ministry of Diaspora
Affairs, and Jews from around the world are encouraged to
makealiyah(ascend)to end their exile by emigrating to
Israel.History contains numerous diaspora-like events. The
Migration Period relocations, which included several phases, are
just one set of many. The first phase Migration Period displacement
from between 300 and 500C.E.included relocation of the Goths,
(Ostrogoths, Visigoths), Vandals, Franks, various other Germanic
tribes (Burgundians, Langobards, Angles, Saxons, Jutes, Suebi,
Alamanni, Varangians), Alans, and numerous Slavic tribes. The
second phase, between 500 and 900C.E., saw Slavic, Turkic, and
other tribes on the move, re-settling inEastern Europeand gradually
making it predominantly Slavic, and affectingAnatoliaand the
Caucasus as the first Turkic peoples (Avars, Bulgars, Huns,
Khazars, Pechenegs) arrived. The last phase of the migrations saw
the coming of theMagyarsand theVikingexpansion out
ofScandinavia.Here is a partial list of forced exiles in recent
times: After the partitions ofPolandin the late eighteenth century,
and following the uprisings (Kosciuszko Uprising, November
Uprising, and January Uprising) against the partitioning powers
(Russian Empire,PrussiaandAustro-Hungary), many Poles chose, or
were forced, into exile, forming large diasporas (known as
"Polonia"), especially inFranceand theUnited States. The Acadian
diasporathe Great Expulsion(Grand Drangement)occurred when the
British expelled about 10,000 Acadians (over three-fourths of the
Acadian population ofNova Scotia) between 1755 and 1764. The
British split the Acadians between different colonies to impose
assimilation. Armenian diasporaArmenians living in their ancient
homeland, which had been controlled by theOttoman Empirefor
centuries, fled persecution and massacres during several periods of
forced emigration, from the 1880s to the 1910s. Many Armenians
settled in theUnited States(a majority of whom live in the state
ofCalifornia),France,India,Iran,Lebanon,RussiaandSyria.
Circassiansfled CircassiaKabardey, Cherkes, Adigey Republics and
Shapsug Area in 1864. Exiled 90 percent of Circassians are by
Russian colonialists toOttoman Empireor imperialTurkey. The
Circassian Diaspora is over four million worldwide, with large
Circassian communities
inBulgaria,Cyprus,Egypt,Greece,Israel,Jordan,Lebanon,Romania,Syria,Russiaas
well the formerUSSR, and 100,000 Circassians in North America (the
United States and Canada), as well over 10,000 Circassians
inAustralia. The entire population of Crimean Tatars (200,000) that
remained in their homeland Crimea was exiled on May 18, 1944, to
Central Asia as a form of "ethnic cleansing" and collective
punishment on false accusations.The twentieth century saw huge
population movements. Partly this was due to natural disasters, as
has happened throughout history, but it also involved large-scale
transfers of people by government decree. Some diasporas occurred
because the people went along with, or could not escape, the
government's plan (such asStalin's desire to populate
EasternRussia, Central Asia, and Siberia; and the transfer of
hundreds of thousands of people betweenIndiaandPakistanin the 1947
Partition). Other diasporas occurred as people fled the decrees;
for example, European Jews fleeing theHolocaustduring World war
II), and Hutu and Tutsi trying to escape theRwandan Genocidein
1994.During theCold Warera, huge populations of refugees continued
to form from areas of war, especially from Third World nations; all
overAfrica(for example, over 50,000 South Asians expelled
fromUgandabyIdi Aminin 1975),South America(for example, thousands
ofUruguayanrefugees fled to Europe during military rule in the
1970s and 80s) andCentral America(for example,
Nicaraguans,Salvadorians,Guatemalans,Hondurans,Costa
RicansandPanamanians), the Middle East (the Iranians who fled the
1978 Islamic revolution), the Indian subcontinent (thousands of
former subjects of theBritish Rajwent to
theUKafterIndiaandPakistanbecame independent in 1947), andSoutheast
Asia(for example, the displaced 30,000
FrenchcolonsfromCambodiaexpelled by theKhmer Rougeregime underPol
Pot). The issue of untold millions of Third World refugees created
more diasporas than ever in human history.Tax exileA wealthy
citizen who departs from a former abode for a lower tax
jurisdiction in order to reduce his/her tax burden is termed a "tax
exile." These are people who choose to leave their native country
for a foreign nation or jurisdiction, where taxes on their personal
income are appreciably lower, or even nothing. Going into tax exile
is a means of tax mitigation or avoidance.UnderUKlaw, a person is
"tax resident" if they visit the country for 183 days or more in
the tax year or for 91 days or more on average in any four
consecutive tax years.[5]Tax havenAtax havenis a place where
certain taxes are levied at a low rate or not at all. This
encourages wealthy individuals and/orbusinessesto establish
themselves in areas that would otherwise be overlooked. Different
jurisdictions tend to be havens for different types of taxes, and
for different categories of people and/or companies.Often described
in different ways, it is difficult to find a satisfactory or
generally accepted definition for what constitutes a tax haven.The
Economisttentatively adopted the description by Colin Powell
(former Economic Adviser toJersey): "What identifies an area as a
tax haven is the existence of a composite tax structure established
deliberately to take advantage of, and exploit, a worldwide demand
for opportunities to engage in tax avoidance."The Economistpointed
out, however, that this definition would still exclude a number of
jurisdictions traditionally thought of as tax havens.[6]One way a
person or company takes advantage of tax havens is by moving to,
and becoming resident for tax purposes in, a particular country.
Another way for an individual or a company to take advantage of a
tax haven is to establish a separate legal entity (an "offshore
company," "offshore trust," orfoundation), subsidiary or holding
company there. Assets are transferred to the new company or trust
so that gains may be realized, or income earned, within this legal
entity rather than earned by the beneficial owner.TheUnited
Statesis unlike most other countries in that its citizens are
subject to U.S. tax on their worldwide income no matter where in
the world they reside. U.S. citizens therefore cannot avoid U.S.
taxes either by emigrating or by transferring assets abroad.Notes1.
www.canada.com,U.S. sex offender serving probation in Canada was
not "exiled," says N.Y. judge.Retrieved December 6, 2006.2. Read
Easily,Dante Alighieri. Retrieved December 6, 2006.3. Public Book
Shelf,History of Colonial Georgia. Retrieved December 12, 2006.4.
Martin Buber,Hasidism and Modern Man(New York: Harper & Row,
1958).5. www.hmrc.gov.uk,Taxable UK Residents. Retrieved December
6, 2006.6. Caroline Doggart,Tax Havens and Their Uses(Economist
Intelligence Unit, 2002,ISBN 0862181631).External linksAll links
retrieved October 11, 2013. Offshore Financial CentersIMF
Background Paper. Tax Justice Network. An OECD Proposal To
Eliminate Tax Competition Would Mean Higher Taxes and Less
PrivacyHeritage Foundation: Washington D.C.CreditsNew World
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Commons CC-by-sa 3.0 License(CC-by-sa), which may be used and
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by wikipedians is accessible to researchers here: Exile(Nov 9,
2006)history Government_in_exile(Nov 9, 2006)history Tax_exile(Nov
9, 2006)history Tax_haven(Nov 9, 2006)history Diaspora(Nov 9,
2006)historyExile, meaning to be away from ones home state while
either being explicitly refused permission to return and/or being
threatened with imprisonment or death upon return, has become in
vogue once more for heads of state. The departure of Tunisian
President for exile in the Saudi city ofJeddah (the same city where
former PresidentIdi Aminof Uganda lived in exile until his death on
2003 after being removed from power on 1979 at end of
theUgandan-Tanzanian War) in February has been followed by the
departure ofYemeni President Ali Abdullah Salehto the same country,
ostensibly for medical treatment following a rocket attack on his
presidential palace on Friday, but which many speculate may become
permanent. Though the government rejected an opposition proposal to
prepare for the transition from the rule of President Ali Abdullah
Saleh and for the election of his replacement and though his
spokesmen said no decisions on Yemens future could be taken until
he returned from Saudi Arabia, the US and EU have pressured Sanaa
to initiate what US secretary of state Hillary Clinton called an
immediate transition to a new regime. Salehs departure, if it
becomes permanent, will inevitably have an impact on any process of
accountability for crimes committed during therecent spike in
repression Saudi Arabia has not signed the Rome Statute.Exile has a
very long history, stretching back to Greek tragedy. Euripedes
Medea made herself and her family exiles in Corinth because of her
actions in Iolcus. She talks of her exiled state in Corinth: I, a
desolate woman without a city no relative at all.The exile of
Medea, like that of Pol Pot in Cambodia and Hosni Mubarak in
Sherm-al-Sheik, is internal in form. The more usual form in recent
history is external. It is unlikely that Saleh and Ben Ali will be
as desolate as Medea, though the recent history of the phenomenon
shows a variety of outcomes. Typically, modern exile is permanent
in the form of asylum, though Charles Taylors deportation from
Nigeria for face trial before the Special Court for Sierra Leone in
2005 presents an exception which may one day constitute the rule.
While 2011 may yet turn out to be an annus mirabilis for exile, it
is worth nothing that Jean-Claude Duvalier, nicknamed Baby Doc,
whowas thePresident of Haitifrom 1971 until his overthrow by
apopular uprisingin 1986, unexpectedly returned to Haiti on 16
January 2011, after two decades in exilein France due to a popular
uprising on 7 February 1986. The following day, he was arrested
byHaitian police, facing possible charges for embezzlement. On 18
January, Duvalier was charged withcorruption, and is expected to be
held before a judge in Port-au-Prince for his trial. It may prove a
happier ending that some of the other exiles the international
community has tolerated in the interest of regime change or peace,
as the following survey demonstrates.Idi AminAfter an eight-year
rule (1971-79) characterized byhuman rightsabuse,political
repression,ethnic persecution,extrajudicial
killings,nepotism,corruption, and gross economic mismanagement (the
number of people killed as a result of his regime is estimated by
international observers and human rights groups to range from
100,000to 500,000), internal dissent within Uganda and Amins
attempt toannextheKageraprovince ofTanzaniain 1978 led to
theUgandaTanzania Warand the demise of his regime.Amins army
retreated steadily in the face of Tanzanian counter-attack, and,
despite military help fromLibyasMuammar al-Gaddafi, he was forced
to flee into exile by helicopter on 11 April 1979, whenKampala was
captured. He escaped first to Libya, where he stayed until 1980,
and ultimately settled inSaudi Arabia, where theSaudi royal
familyallowed him sanctuary and paid him a generous subsidy in
return for his staying out of politics.Amin lived for a number of
years on the top two floors of theNovotel Hotelon Palestine Road in
Jeddah. In 1989, he attempted to return to Uganda, apparently to
lead an armed group organised by ColonelJuma Oris. He
reachedKinshasa,Zaire, before Zairian PresidentMobutuforced him to
return to Saudi Arabia (exile throws up some very colourful
characters). Amin died in 2003 and is buried in Jeddah.Erich
HoneckerHonecker led theGerman Democratic Republicas General
Secretary of the Socialist Unity Party from 1971 until 1989,
serving as Head of State from1976. Following the definite end of
theCold War, Honecker refused all but cosmetic changes and was
ousted by the party in late 1989 and removed from power. After the
GDR was dissolved in October 1990, the Honeckers stayed in a Soviet
military hospital near Berlin before later fleeing the republic to
Moscow, to avoid prosecution over charges ofCold Warcrimes. He was
accused by the German government of involvement in the deaths of
192 East Germans who tried to leave the GDR in violation of
anti-Republikfluchtlaws. Following thedissolution of the Soviet
Unionin December 1991, Honecker took refuge in theChileanembassy in
Moscow, but was extradited by theYeltsinadministration to Germany
in 1992. He was officially expelled from the reformed SED-PDS
before the trial opened. He then joined the very smallnew Communist
Party. When the trial formally opened in early 1993, Honecker was
released due to ill health and on 13 January of that year moved to
Chile to live with his daughter who was married to a
Chilean.Mengistu Haile MariamMengistu was the most prominent
officer of theDerg, theCommunistmilitary junta that
governedEthiopiafrom 1974 to 1987, and the President of thePeoples
Democratic Republic of Ethiopiafrom 1987 to 1991. He oversaw
theEthiopian Red Terrorof 19771978,a campaign of repression against
theEthiopian Peoples Revolutionary Partyand other anti-Derg
factions. Mengistu fled toZimbabwein 1991 at the conclusion of
theEthiopian Civil War. He remains there, though unusually there
was some degree of accountability after one of the Ethiopian courts
Red Terror trials verdict found him guiltyin absentiaofgenocide.
His charge sheet and evidence list was 8,000 pages long. The
evidence against him included signed execution orders, videos of
torture sessions and personal testimonies.The trial began in 1994
and ended in 2006. Mengistu was found guilty as charged on 12
December 2006, and was sentenced to life in prison in January 2007.
After Mengistus conviction in December 2006, the Zimbabwean
government said that he still enjoyed asylum and would not be
extradited. A Zimbabwean government spokesman explained this by
saying that Mengistu and his government played a key and
commendable role during our struggle for independence. According to
the spokesman, Mengistu assisted his countrys guerrillas during
theirliberation warby providing training and arms, and after the
war he had provided training for Zimbabwean air force pilots; the
spokesman said that not many countries have shown such commitment
to us.Ferdinand MarcosMarcos, sadly most famous for his wifes
enormous shoe collection, was President of the Philippinesfrom 1965
to 1986. His administration was marred by
massiveauthoritariancorruption,despotism,nepotism, political
repression, and human rights violations. In 1983, his government
was implicated in the assassination of his primary political
opponent,Benigno Aquino, Jr.The implication caused a chain of
events, including a tainted presidential election that served as
the catalyst for thePeople Power Revolutionin February 1986 that
led to his removal from power and eventual exile in Hawaii. A close
ally of Ronald Reagans administration, Marcos died inHonolulu on
September 28, 1989, of kidney, heart and lung ailments.Jean Bedel
BokassaThis is perhaps the most interesting exile, incorporating
return, trial, punishment and a decisive role in French elections.
Bokassa was the head of stateof theCentral African Republicand its
successor state, thepreposterously named Central African Empire,
from hiscoup detaton 1 January 1966 until 20 September 1979.After
his overthrow in 1979, Central Africa reverted to its former name
and status as theCentral African Republic, and the formerBokassa
Iwent into exile. On the date of the coup against him by David
Dacko, Bokassa, who was visiting Libya on a state visit, fled tothe
Ivory Coast where he spent four years living inAbidjan. He then
moved to France where he was allowed to settle in a suburb ofParis.
France gave him political asylum because of theFrench Foreign
Legionobligations. During Bokassas seven-year of exile, he wrote
his memoirs after complaining that his French military pension was
insufficient. But the French courts ordered that all 8,000 copies
of the book be confiscated and destroyed after his publisher
claimed that Bokassa said that he shared women with President Valry
Giscard dEstaing, who has been a frequent guest in the Central
African Republic. Bokassa also claimed to have given Giscard a gift
of diamonds worth around a quarter of a million dollars in 1973
while the French president was serving as finance minister.
Giscards next presidential reelection campaign failed in the wake
of the scandal. Bokassas presence in France proved embarrassing to
many government ministers who supported him during his entire rule.
He returned to Central Africa in 1986, and was arrested as soon as
he stepped off the plane. He was tried for 14 different charges,
includingtreason,murder,cannibalism, illegal use of property,
assault and battery, andembezzlement, and convicted of these
offenses in 1987. He was imprisoned in 19871993. Bokassa lived in
private life in his former capital, Bangui, until his death in
November 1996.Mobutu Sese SekoMobutu Sese Sekoas thePresidentof
theDemocratic Republic of the Congo/Zairefrom 1965 to 1997, a rule
characterised by authoritarianism, war and mass human rights
abuses. Mobutu was overthrown in theFirst Congo WarbyLaurent-Dsir
Kabila, who was supported by the governments of Rwanda, Burundi and
Uganda. Mobutu went into temporary exile inTogobut lived mostly
inMorocco. On the very same day he was exiled,Laurent-Dsir
Kabilabecame the new president of Congo.He died shortly after on 7
September 1997, inRabat, Morocco, fromprostate cancer. He is buried
in Rabat. In December 2007, theNational Assembly of the Democratic
Republic of the Congorecommended returning his remains to the Congo
and interring them in a mausoleum.Powered By DT Author BoxWritten
byPdraig McAuliffePadraig McAuliffe graduated from UCC in 2004 and
completed his PhD from the same institution in 2009. He lectures in
the University of Dundee. His research interests include the
interaction of transitional justice with rule of law reconstruction
and the politics of international criminal tribunals, most notably
the on-going Khmer Rouge Trials.Share this: Twitter Facebook Email
Print More Like this:Declan Costello (1926-2011) and Irish
Socio-Economic Rights JurisprudenceForced Marriage, Age and
Immigration.Leave a ReplyThe cult of exileModern intellectuals
should stand up for outcasts. But not by pretending to be outcasts
themselvesbyIan Buruma / March 20, 2001 /Leave a commentPublished
inMarch 2001issue of Prospect MagazineExile is in fashion. It
evokes images of a critical spirit operating on the margins of
society, a traveller, rootless and yet at home in every metropolis,
a tireless wanderer from conference to academic conference, a
thinker in several languages, an eloquent advocate for minorities,
in short, a romantic outsider living on the edge of the bourgeois
world.This may sound frivolous. For exile is surely no fun. There
is nothing glamorous about the poor shivering Tamil, sleeping on a
cold, plastic bench at Frankfurt railway station, or an Iraqi,
fleeing from Saddams butchers, afraid of walking the streets of
Dover lest he be attacked by British skinheads, or a young woman
from Eritrea, standing at the side of a minor road to Milan,
picking up truck drivers so that she can feed her baby. These are
not fashionable figures, but outcasts, who have nothing in common
with the multicultural intellectuals whom we honour as the poets of
post-colonial narratives.I have in front of me a book,Letters of
Transit: Reflections on Exile, Identity, Language and Loss. It is a
collection of lectures given at the New York Public Library by five
well-known writers in exile. Edward Said is introduced as a
Palestinian in exile, Eva Hoffmann as a Pole in exile, Bharati
Mukherjee, a Bengali in exile, Charles Simic, a Yugoslav in exile,
and Andr Aciman, as an exile from Alexandria.The lectures are, on
the whole, unexceptionable. The curious thing is, however, that of
the five, only two were forced to leave their country of origin:
Aciman, whose family was kicked out of Egypt, and Simic, whose
parents could not live under communism. Said, who grew up in Cairo,
was sent to a private boarding school in the US, not because of
anyforce majeure, but because his father, a US citizen, believed
that an American education offered better prospects for a bright
young man. Bharati Mukherjee, born into a rich Calcutta family,
married a Canadian writer, moved to North America and has no desire
to return to India, except for vacations.Why then, this description
of exile? Why the conscious identification with banishment, with
the outcasts of the world? In her contribution, Eva Hoffmann comes
up with a plausible explanation. Exile, in her view, involves
dislocation, disorientation, self-division And within the framework
of postmodern theory, we have come to value exactly those qualities
that exile demands uncertainty, displacement, the fragmented
identity. Within this framework, exile becomes, well, sexy,
glamorous, interesting.In literary and academic circles, then,
exile has acquired something far removed from those cold plastic
benches at Frankfurt station, the skinheads of Dover, or the truck
drivers along the B-routes to Milan. What we have here is exile as
metaphor, to use Saids own phrase, exile as the typical condition
of the modern intellectual. This is not an original thesis. Saids
hero, the German critic Theodor Adorno, who was for a time a real
as well as theoretical exile, claimed that a sense of alienation,
of not feeling at home even in your own home, was the only correct
moral attitude for an intellectual to adopt. Adorno is part of a
German romantic tradition in which intellectuals form a secular
clerisy guarding the moral and intellectual health of the nation.
(Gnter Grass is an example of a writer who still takes this
line.)Exile as metaphor is not a new idea either. In the Jewish
tradition, a metaphorical meaning has been attached to exile for a
very long time. The last words of the story told at the Pesach
Seder, Next year in Jerusalem, express a pious wish, which, for
most of those who voice it, is an abstraction. For orthodox Jews,
it is only time to return to Jerusalem once the Messiah has come
and the temple has been restored to its former glory. It would be a
form of blasphemy, in the orthodox tradition, to turn the vision
into a political reality. So the idea of doing just that, of making
Israel the homeland of the Jews once again, had to be a secular
enterprise, started by non-orthodox, often socialist Jews like
Theodor Herzl.The Israeli novelist AB Yehoshua calls Jewish exile,
thegolah, a neurotic condition. It is neurotic to express a longing
for something, without actually wishing to attain it. In Yehoshuas
view, the longing to return to Jerusalem is no more than a neurotic
form of nostalgia, a not uncommon condition among certain literary
exiles too. But Yehoshua goes further he thinks that Jews are
victims of their own delusion, the idea, that is, of having been
chosen by God. The idea of Jewish exceptionalism is hard to
maintain at home, in a largely Jewish nation, with its own
government, army, political parties, showbiz celebrities, scandals,
gangsters and whatnot. The self-flattering notion of being chosen,
of being different from the others, is easier to maintain in exile,
where ones special status can be confirmed almost daily by
instances, imagined or real, of discrimination. The Holocaust came
as the final proof that this was not a sensible recipe for a quiet
life.The choice to live in a metaphorical exile is in fact already
a form of privilege, something only people who face no real danger
can afford. Herzl, who felt at ease with the highergoyimof Europe,
understood this perfectly well. The return to the holy land was not
to help himself, but to help other Jews who were not in a position
to enjoy their status as the chosen ones. But Herzl, as far as I am
aware, had the honesty never to use the word exile to describe his
own condition.***One of the first stories of exile in our literary
tradition is the story of Adam and Eve. No matter how we interpret
the story of their expulsion from the Garden of Eden original sin
or not we can be certain of one thing: there is no way back to
paradise. After that bite of the apple, the return to innocence was
cut off for ever. The exile of Adam and Eve is the consequence of
growing up. An adult can only recall the state of childlike
innocence in his imagination, and from this kind of exile a great
deal of literature has emerged; it is infused with the melancholy
knowledge that we can never return to Eden.The transition from
childhood innocence, and the security of the maternal embrace, to
the hard world of maturity, is described in Edward Saids memoir,Out
of Place. He describes his arrival from Cairo in 1951, to go to
school in the US. The worst wrench was to leave his mother, who
never ceased to remind her son how unnatural it was to be living
apart. He can still feel the loss today, the sense that Id rather
be somewhere else-defined as closer to her enveloped in her special
maternal love, infinitely forgiving, sacrificing, giving-because
beingherewas not being where I/we had wanted to be,herebeing
defined as a place of exileWe all know the feeling, even though we
may not express it quite so tearfully. But exile from Eden is a
part of life. Some men never look back, some never get over it, and
look for the maternal embrace in the beds of many women, and yet
others turn it into art. This explains the universal fascination
with exile in literature. Ovid, Li Po or Joseph Roth appeal to us,
because their banishments, which were not imaginary, also contain a
deeper, metaphorical meaning.There are some instances where the
childhood Edens cease to exist. A society, a culture, even a people
can disappear. Czeslaw Milosz, born as a Pole in Lithuania, has
described what it is like to look back now, as an American in
California, to his youth in Vilnius. He still writes in Polish
about people and ways of life which no longer exist. All things
change everywhere, of course. But in the case of Milosz and Isaac
Bashevis Singer, the worlds they describe exist only in their
books. The same was true for Joseph Roth. He lived in exile, twice
over, for he grew up in the Austro-Hungarian empire, which ceased
to exist in 1918, and died as an exile in Paris in 1939, one year
after Austria was swallowed up by the Third Reich.On the other hand
Ulysses, one of the most remarkable exiles in western literature,
was not really banished at all. But since his return from Troy was
blocked for ten years, he was a kind of exile. Ulysses pined for
Ithaca, where his house was, his family, and his wife Penelope. He
was lord of Ithaca; that was his place in the order of things. A
man who has lost his house, his wife or his position is not a
proper man, but a beggar, a vagabond, half dead in the land of the
living. A vagabond is sterile; he doesnt produce a family; he
leaves nothing behind.The Odysseyis the story of a man who must
regain his position in the order of things.It is impossible to know
precisely what Homer meant to convey in his epic, but I think he
was dealing with the tension between human autonomy and fate. A
grown person has to feel responsible for his or her life. This is
to assume that we have some degree of control over it. ButThe
Odysseyshows that man is also a plaything of the gods. And this has
something to do with exile too. Anyone who has wandered alone in
foreign countries, often without knowing the language or customs,
knows how helpless, indeed child-like, that can make you feel. Your
fate really does appear to be in the hands of others, government
officials, hotel managers, policemen, or even, who knows, the gods.
And if I, a privileged European can feel this way, how about the
poor Tamil in Frankfurt station? Only after his return to Ithaca
can Ulysses wake up as a grown man who knows his way around.There
are many ways to interpretThe Odyssey. Dante, himself an exile from
Florence, believed that the hero never really wanted to be at home.
Dantes Ulysses was a kind of eternal student who loathed the idea
of domesticity, with a wife and children and a nice little dog. Who
needed that kind of responsibility? It was too boring. First he
would win experience of the world, hitchhike to India, as it were,
sleep with many women, and above all, gather knowledge. Just as Eve
couldnt resist that bite of the apple in Eden, Dantes hero thirsts
for knowledge, with the risk of getting burnt, like Icarus. Ulysses
returns to Ithaca, just as he does in Homers tale, but then takes
off again, and ends up entering the infernal gates. Dante lived in
the middle ages, but he was also touched by the spirit of the
Renaissance. He admired the heros wish for knowledge. His Ulysses
is really the harbinger of the intellectual as a romantic exile.
Banishment is his fate by choice. He was almost a man of our
time.Heinrich Heine was already a man of our time. A romantic, a
poet, a revolutionary and an intellectual outsider, Heine felt
nostalgia for his native Germany, but preferred to live in Paris.
Germany, as he put it, kept him awake at night. Heine was an
outsider as a Jew in Germany. He found it impossible to get an
official position, even after he had converted without conviction
to Christianity. He felt like an outsider, too, because he was a
free-thinker who couldnt stand the authoritarianism of the German
states. Heine loved Germany, just as Germans loved his poems, but
at a distance. He would have liked to have died in Germany, but
politics and illness prevented his return, and like Marlene
Dietrich, another ambivalent wanderer from German lands, he died in
Paris.Heine was in many ways a typical example of the modern
literary exile. The borderline between banishment and emigration
was fuzzy. He was really an expatriate, someone who has chosen to
live his life abroad. And by Heines time the typical place of exile
has shifted, from the desert the cold, lonely, windswept plains,
beyond the borders of civilisation to the metropolitan centres of
the west: London, Paris, Berlin, New York. Here political action,
plotted in cafes and public libraries, began to play an
increasingly important role in the life of exiles-freedom, usually
in a left-wing form, was their typical religion. Exile from Rome in
the age of Augustus, or Florence in Dantes time, meant the loss of
liberty, the civil rights of a metropolitan citizen. The modern
exiles in our great cities, however poor or lonely, almost
invariably enjoy more freedom than the citizens of the countries
they left behind. Karl Marx could complain as much as he wanted to
about all those British philistines, but he stayed in London
because he was free to design his workers utopia.London was a
centre of European revolutionary activities after the disasters of
1848, just as London today is a centre for Arab or African
politics, or New York for the Chinese diaspora. It is not an easy
life, in this twilight world of migr journals, shabby apartments
and personal feuds, fed endlessly by old animosities and political
frustrations. Time, in this kind of exile, often appears to have
been frozen. People live only for the future, and once it finally
dawns on them that the desired future will never come, they live
only in the past. I have seen many examples: Chinese intellectuals,
who once advised government leaders in Beijing, subsisting in
lonely rooms in Queens, in a mess of old newspapers and magazines.
Because exile was supposed to be temporary, these fallen men never
bothered to learn English or read an American paper. Before they
know it, it is too late to return-stranded, their place gone, their
way back cut off for ever, they might as well be dead.It doesnt
have to be like that. Sometimes an exile will go home as a
revolutionary hero. The point is, however, that exile has become a
phenomenon of the big city-like alienation, existentialism, and
post-modern, multicultural deconstruction. The outsider romantic,
sexual, ethnic or whatever is described and often celebrated in our
metropoles. Isherwoods English novels came from the homosexual
world of 1930s Berlin. Joyce wrote about Dublin in Trieste and
Paris. Burroughs brooded on his American sexual delirium in a hotel
room in Tangiers. Salman Rushdie wrote in London about his
fantasies of Bombay. What started with Heine became almost
mainstream in the 20th century.Once more, I do not wish to appear
frivolous. Writers and other exiles did not always move abroad for
fun. Joyce chose to live abroad. But Roth, Feuchtwanger, Zweig,
Schoenberg, Weill and many others, had to flee for their lives.
However, the difference between self-imposed exile and banishment
was in many cases ceasing to exist altogether at the end of the
19th century. Exile had became an attitude, a literary and
intellectual way of observing the world. Baudelaire saw the writer
as a detachedflneur, a mocking dandy in the big city crowd,
alienated, isolated, anonymous, aristocratic, melancholic. For
Joyce and other writers isolation and detachment were necessary
conditions for writing literature. Silence, exile and cunning was
his prescription, or at least that of Stephen Dedalus, his literary
alter ego. A writer has to operate alone, as a stranger among
strangers. Joseph Brodsky, whose departure from the Soviet Union
was hardly voluntary, wrote that being a writer in exile is like
being a dog or a man hurtled into outer space in a capsule And your
capsule is your language. Like Joyce, he believed that exile was
good for a writer; you were alone with your language. Exile
provided distance. Exile, in this sense, is not so much
metaphorical as metaphysical; it gives meaning to a way of
life.Many people were forced into exile before and after the second
world war. But the middle decades of the last century also saw
exile and the outsider, or the outlaw, emerge as one of the main
subjects of European literature. Detachment as an ideal held a
particular attraction for homosexuals, but also for straight Don
Juans. Genet was an extreme example; gay, criminal, homeless.
Isherwood, in Berlin and LA, was a less extreme case. But aside
from the quality of their prose, about which one might argue, we
should also consider Henry Miller, an American in Paris, and
Lawrence Durrell, an Englishman in Egypt.And yet detachment, like
everything, has its limits. Joyce might have seen distance and
isolation as necessary conditions for writing his masterpieces, but
the loneliness of the modern tranger, and the absurdity of the
weightless, unbounded existence, made others thirst for engagement,
a kind of solidarity, if not with a particular people, then with
humanity in general, or at least that part of humanity living in
what came to be called the third world. This is how a fashion for
Maoism, the most extreme revolt against individualism, could follow
from existential alienation. But extreme nationalism has also cast
its spells.A number of Japanese artists and writers moved to Europe
at the beginning of the last century, to find a refuge from the
narrow provincialism of Japan. They lived mostly in Paris,
gathering knowledge, seducing women, painting, writing poems, and
seeking the key to their innermost souls in the anonymity of a
foreign crowd. And it was precisely these same people who often
returned home in the 1930s, with a sigh of relief, to bask in the
motherly embrace of the Japanese nation, which was being whipped up
just then into a mood of xenophobic hysteria. Scorched by their
lonely travels, some became the fiercest war propagandists once
they got home.***My intention, in citing these examples, is not to
plead against the spirit of adventure, promiscuity, curiosity or
freedom abroad. On the contrary. I have always been led by
wanderlust myself. What I am trying to get at instead is the
tension between political engagement and intellectual independence.
Edward Said has written about this, without quite resolving the
problem. He has made great claims, for independence as well as
engagement. His argument is that an intellectual should always
stand up for the poor, the weak and the disadvantaged. The
free-thinker should resist the dominant powers, which means, in his
case, Israel and the US. But while going about his acts of
resistance, he should also guard his independence. The question is
whether this is always possible. Can you be a spokesman for the
Palestinians, as Said was for many years, and remain independent at
the same time? He believes you can. Im not so sure it is
possible.One solution to this dilemma is to plump for an offshore
kind of engagement, a detached involvement. The intellectual
abroad, a Sikh in Toronto, let us say, or a Palestinian in New
York, or a Jew in Washington, calls for action, sometimes violent
action, to be carried out thousands of miles from his home, the
consequences of which he will not have to bear. Engagement of this
kind can become a politics without responsibility. This type of
politics, like modern literary exile, might be metaphorical for the
exile in New York, Paris or Toronto, but not for those living in
India, Jerusalem or Gaza. Said called his stone-throwing stint on
the Lebanese border a symbolic gesture, a metaphoric throw of a
metaphoric stone. But stones in the middle east are seldom
metaphoric; they hurt; they result in further violence; they kill
people.Political engagement can be essential. But too often it
results from intellectual frustration. Intellectuals have neither
power (outside the universities), nor much influence in modern
democracies. This is because western intellectuals, since the
Enlightenment, have won their independence. They have fought
themselves free. Unlike in China, where the notion of the
independent intellectual barely exists, western intellectuals
represent nothing but their own ideas. They are not, or should not
be, a band of scribes who guard the dogmas that justify the powers
that be. Instead they are obliged to take their ideas to the
marketplace, and that is how it should be. For intellectual
independence is sacrificed once ideas are made to serve a political
organisation. This might be essential, on occasion, but one should
be clear about the sacrifice involved.Yet, many intellectuals would
like to represent more than themselves. The Republic of Letters is
pregnant with political ambition. The great revolutionary ideals,
which intellectuals once served as secular priests, are out of
fashion for the moment. But the multicultural society in which we
live, (if we live in the great cities of the western world), offers
new chances. Especially in the US, the identity politics of
minorities have become increasingly important, and the identities
to be promoted are often based on a sentimental sense of collective
victimhood. The smart thing to do for an intellectual with
political ambition, is to act as the spokesman for such feelings.
By identifying himself with the plight of more or less
discriminated minorities or other forms of collective suffering,
the lonely intellectual manages not only to escape from his
isolation, but becomes a symbol of that suffering himself, and so
obtains many of the perks and privileges that go with it.The point
here is not that intellectuals shouldnt stand up for societys
victims. They should. But not by pretending to be victims
themselves. To don the bloody mantle of real victims trivialises
actual suffering; victimhood becomes a fashion item.
Thesoi-disantexile status might attach a certain glamour to the
writer in London or New York, but it does nothing for that poor
Tamil sleeping in Frankfurt station.The cult of victimhood,
marginality and exile has also had a paralysing influence on
academe, where literature, anthropology and even history are
difficult to discuss anymore without being cuffed in the chains of
post-colonial discourse. The notion of exile, especially from the
third world, has given post-colonial intellectuals the sacred task
of attacking the cultural imperialism of the western metropole.
Intellectuals compete to become the new priests of the
post-colonial dogma. One of the main dogmas is that hybrid,
marginal, post-colonial writing should undermine the imperialist,
even racist propaganda of the European literary canon.There is
something to be said for this. Any culture or tradition is bound to
be rejuvenated by outside influences. And the idea that the western
canon should be surrounded by a culturally impregnable moat is
absurd. But this so-called marginality is often a form of
intellectual self-celebration, for the new influences rarely
penetrate from anywhere outside the western world. Glamorous exile,
the hybridity of literary style, the attack on the cultural
imperialism of the metropole are products of that same metropole,
and have become part of a dogma which is exported to the rest of
the world. Bookstores in Beijing or Bombay are full of books which
evangelise the post-colonial, multicultural, anti-imperialist
gospel. And the authors of these gospels live in New York, London
or Boston. They live in a closed world of theory, in metaphorical
exile, far from the problems of real victims, of people who are
forced to live in real exile. Worse than that, multicultural theory
has led to ethnic and sexual divisions of labour in intellectual
life: more and more, women write about women, gays about gays,
blacks about blacks, and so on. This is not hybridity or
marginality in a positive sense; it is a new and unnecessary
constraint.One way of creating more clarity in these matters is to
separate metaphor from reality, or what Confucius called the
rectification of names. All he meant by this was that we should
call a spade a spade. Exile means banishment, not intellectual
loneliness. A writer or an intellectual might operate on the
margins of a modern, democratic society, without political
authority, but that does not make him an outlaw or an exile. It is
time to reject the assumed badges of victimhood. For then we would
be better able to recognise the real victims, as well as maintain
our intellectual independence. And for those who find an
intellectual odyssey too burdensome, they are best advised to seek
another occupation.GO TO COMMENTSUser menu Log in or RegisterTop of
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Bottom of FormYou are hereCFP: Roman Exile: Poetry, Prose, and
PoliticsOrganizers:David M. Pollio, Christopher Newport
UniversityGordon P. Kelly, Lewis and Clark CollegeExile during the
late Republic/early Empire has traditionally been studied as either
an historic and political phenomenon or a literary theme. This
panel aims to integrate these heretofore distinct lines of inquiry
into two innovative approaches. The first seeks to analyze poetic
treatments of exile specifically in relationship to the political
institution of exile; the second, to apply techniques of literary
interpretation to depictions of exile in works of historical
interest such as histories, orations, and letters.Although the
Romans inherited a rich and diverse tradition of Greek exilic
literature, Roman poets and prose authors nevertheless adapted that
tradition in order to address specifically Roman interests. Exile
turns out to be an especially poignanttoposfor Roman writers of the
late Republic/early Empire, in particular, as it relates not only
to Romes legendary founding by the descendants of Trojan exiles,
but also to a political institution that played a significant role
in shaping the events of that era. We define exile broadly for this
panel, including such phenomena as voluntary exile, exile as a
legal penalty, deportation, relegation, and proscription.The
organizers seek papers that consider images of exile and exiles in
the poetry of Horace, Vergil, Ovid, Lucan, and others, as well as
in the works of prose authors such as Cicero, Livy, and Seneca.
Possible topics include: How a Roman reader would have understood
exile as a literary device in relation to the current political
institutions of banishment. Would the political institution of
exile affect the way a reader perceived the trials and tribulations
of a poems exiles? How are images of exile deployed in different
genres? How the literary motifs of exile influence its depiction in
historical sources.Please send an anonymous abstract of no more
than one page in length for a paper suitable for a 15-20 minute
presentation as a PDF attachment [email protected]
10, 2014. Be sure to mention the title of the panel and provide
complete contact information and any AV requests in the body of
your email. All submissions will be reviewed anonymously by the
panel organizers.00228- See more at:
http://apaclassics.org/annual-meeting/146/cfp-roman-exile-poetry-prose-and-politics#sthash.HEXrTrdb.dpufCaesar's
Daughterby Alex JohnstonMarcus Mettius is back! Working for Julius
Caesar almost had himburnt at the stakeandarrested by a mad
Egyptian Pharaoh, but it seems our favourite Roman hasn't learnt
his lesson yet. When Caesar once again asks for his help, Marcus
obliges. Although, in his defence, this time his assignment is easy
enough. All he has to do is take a gift to his daughter Julia, who
is married to Pompey, and have a chat with her while there. Pretty
safe, right? Surely nothing could go wrong...Caesar's Daughter is a
bit different from Johnston's two previous novellas. His previous
work is more action-packed, while this one more political. With
that, I by no means mean boring. In fact, Johnston is one of the
funniest historical fiction authors I know. What I mean is that, in
Caesar's Daughter, we can watch the machinations of the political
players of the late Roman republic. Pompey, Cicero, the infamous
ex-Tribune of the Plebs Clodius, the deposed King of Egypt... they
are all here, hatching plots and fearing for their own
lives.Johnston well captures the atmosphere of this dangerous era,
but as always infuses his story with a huge dollop of humour that
will make you laugh from beginning to end. I particularly enjoyed
Julia's Song, a short and fun rap song warning you not to mess with
Caesar's daughter. The language, as you've probably guessed, is
very anachronistic. Some people may be put off by the modern
language the characters use, but to me, that just helps you relate
better to them and to the story. It also brings home how modern
ancient history really is. The more things change...I also loved
the afterword, where the author explains what really happened and
what he made up. Fast and entertaining, Caesar's Daughter is a
great way to spend a summer afternoon.Available
at:amazonRating:4/5