“No European cares anything about proofs. When a man has a black face, suspicion IS proof.” States U Po Kyin, the arguably respectable lawyer who has managed to earn himself a social position through bribery, blackmailing and multiple debauchery.
Right from the start, then, Orwell shows us the corrution embedded in the Burmese political system. How everybody cheats and scams and how money and contacts are the only requisits in order to step up on the social ladder and get through any sort of accusation. More or less what is happening nowadays in most of our so-called modern countries.
The British imperialism at its worst, at its most racist, it is brilliantly depicted in the second chapter when we are allowed access into the Europeans Club. A club where, of course, Indians were not allowed to enter. But, suddenly, there is an article published in the newspaper saying that times are changing and Indians should be allowed access, not only to the club itself, but to the top categories of the Club, with the imaginable amount of rage, racism and cursing that such news bring amongst the Club clientele. People who are like those “Englishmen -common unfortunately- who should never be allowed to set foot in the East.” People who can’t accept that their Indian slaves speak proper English because “I can’t stick servants who talk English.” Disgusting people who export their arrogance wherever they go to. And, who would’ve thought it, walking around Shanghai city centre, around the Western bars, I found that these imperialist individuals, these narrow-minded characters unable to adjust themselves to the new country they are living in, to be thankful with the people who are feeding them rather profusely are, instead, looking at the locals with hate, disdain and disgust. Apparently, they consider themselves to be much better for… who knows why. Because they have more money in their bank accounts? At least that seems to be the reason why they call themselves expats rather than what they really are: immigrants.
“We seem to have no AUTHORITY over the natives nowadays, with all these dreadful Reforms, and the insolence they learn from the newspapers.” And he adds: “they are getting almost as bad as the lower classes at home.” What! People asking for better living conditions? What’s happening to this world?
“Beauty is meaningless until it is shared.”
“You are free to be a drunkard, an idler, a coward, a backbiter, a fornicator; but you are not free to think for yourself.” True back then, truer now. While we get drunk, stare at the footbal matches, parade on the streets to celebrate the victories of people who are not paying the same taxes as we do, kill the days sitting on the sofa checking the profile of semi-acquaintances on Facebook, fill up bars and beaches… everything is fine. Everybody is happy. But, hey! don’t you ever dare to think by yourself!
“When one does get any credit in this life, it is usually for something that one has not done.”
“Like all men who have lived much alone, he adjusted himself better to ideas than to people.”
“Most people can be at ease in a foreign counry only when they are disparaging the inhabitants.”
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George Orwell, Burmese Days (Penguin)
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