About foreign occupation

This piece was published on March the 4th on our Facebook group.

Some people might argue about the "legacy" of foreign occupation which should somehow compel the invaded to keep talking the language of their former invaders !!!

But the fact is that foreign occupation is a negative historical period for any formerly occupied (or colonized) country therefore we are not going to make the apology of such a period first of all because of all the crimes committed against the defenceless people of the developing countries and second we are not going to compromise the future of these countries because of a dark past period where the will and history of the native people were stolen from them on their own land ! Where, instead of learning how to build roads and schools, the occupiers did what they wanted how they wanted by the force of the gun and the natives were unable to build roads until decades after their independence, simply because for a period of time they were no more in charge of their own country !!!

Besides, part of their cultural heritage was destroyed like their beautiful cities which lost their character and harmony to chaos and anarchy as the occupiers didn't take into consideration the local urbanism, local architecture and character of the local cities when building in a totally different and unrelated way ! The consequence was the greatest urban anarchy that continues until today ... This is in addition to the fact that the local populations didn't have a say in what was becoming of their cities which took centuries to build ! What has become of the urban heritage of those countries ? It has decayed ! it was abandoned and forgotten little by little ... If the natives decided to modernize and expand their cities, would they look the way they look today ? What happened was a crime against humanity !

The same goes for the educational system or the health systems etc that was imposed to these people while they could have seen different models and chose or made things their own way which is most appropriate for their respective countries and specific problems and climate.

Without mentioning the injustices, persecutions and suffering endured by the people during that period. They were taught they were inferior by short sighted, self cantered, narrow minded foreign occupiers who despised the locals and their cultures out of ignorance and racism while there is beauty and intelligence and vision in all the cultures of the world !

Now, it is up to the natives of these countries to modernize their cities and their cultures from the perspective of their cultural legacy that they inherited from their ancestors ! It is their duty, their right, their privilege and their responsibility to enhance and modernize their beautiful cultures and share them with the world ! This responsibility is theirs and theirs alone, they should not let anybody else do it otherwise it would be the continuance of the foreign occupation !