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As we approach MLK Day, I was wondering if there are any countries in the world where a member of the European Minority is revered as a national hero by the country's non-European majority?
One that comes to mind is Simon Bolivar, the liberator of several mostly Indigenous South American countries.
Another is Norman Bethune, a Canadian doctor of hero status in Mao's China.
Albert Schweitzer, another doctor, is revered in some African countries.
He does not hold the same 'revered' place in society as he does in the US for obvious reasons, but he is still a highly respected historical figure, similar to the way people in the US might think about Mahatma Gandhi.
As we approach MLK Day, I was wondering if there are any countries in the world where a member of the European Minority is revered as a national hero by the country's non-European majority?
One that comes to mind is Simon Bolivar, the liberator of several mostly Indigenous South American countries.
Another is Norman Bethune, a Canadian doctor of hero status in Mao's China.
Albert Schweitzer, another doctor, is revered in some African countries.
Interesting fact about Simon Bolivar
His dad died when he was about 4 and his mom when he was about 10
because of his mother's health problems and death he was breatfed and raised by his nanny/slave "Hipolita" who later on as an adult he would refer to her in letters as his mother.
No... Why should he? "I have a dream"... the hell do I care. Here black people have always had the right to sit in the front of the bus.
Do Americans celebrate field marshal Mannerheim or Jean Sibelius? Probably not. So why should we celebrate Martin Luther King?
PS. No slavery since the 12th century.
That's because the country you come from has probably had no real power or global importance since the 12th century. The British, Spanish, and Portuguese did....
He does not hold the same 'revered' place in society as he does in the US for obvious reasons, but he is still a highly respected historical figure, similar to the way people in the US might think about Mahatma Gandhi.
Thanks for your calm rational answer. As an American, I had no way of knowing the level until you explained it.
Albert Schweitzer, another doctor, is revered in some African countries.
Are you sure about this? I think he's revered mainly outside Africa, especially in Germany, where he was from. It's not like in Gabon, and elsewhere, they have an Albert Schweitzer Day.
Criticism of Schweitzer[edit]
Schweitzer was nonetheless still sometimes accused of being paternalistic, colonialist and racist in his attitude towards Africans, and in some ways his views did differ from that of many liberals and other critics of colonialism. For instance, he thought Gabonese independence came too early, without adequate education or accommodation to local circumstances. Edgar Berman quotes Schweitzer as having said in 1960:[35]
"No society can go from the primeval directly to an industrial state without losing the leavening that time and an agricultural period allow."
Chinua Achebe has quoted Schweitzer as saying: "The African is indeed my brother but my junior brother,"[36] which Achebe criticized him for, though Achebe seems to acknowledge that Schweitzer's use of the word "brother" at all was, for a European of the early 20th century, an unusual expression of human solidarity between whites and blacks. Schweitzer was more likely speaking in terms of modern civilization than of class relationship of man; this would be consistent with his later statement that "The time for speaking of older and younger brothers has passed.",[37] and his discussion of the modernization of "primeval" societies. Later in life he became more convinced that "modern civilization" was actually inferior to or the same as previous cultures in terms of morality.
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