According to Shaw justice based on Truth and Reconciliation Commissions (TRCs) misses the mark in terms of global justice (11). Her argument is that truth telling which is the critical part of Truth and Reconciliation Commissions is a product of a Western culture and memory and they barely helps in national healing (7). TRCs have been considered important for nation healing especially after dark episodes like the civil conflict in Sierra Leone. They also provided the theatre of post-Apartheid national healing in South Africa. Shaw denotes that truth and reconciliation commissions do not translate to immediate therapy for victims of violence. The process subject those involved to fears of reprisal and revenge. What truth and reconciliation commissions achieve is to start dialogue about violence and repression but they do not heal (Shaw 12).
In Schlund-Vials critic of the Rap music of Cambodian American praCh, there is an exploration of ideas of identity in particular, how one becomes both American and Cambodian without forgetting and reinventing the killing fields (19). It illuminates the complications of an immigrant who escaped the killing fields of Cambodia to come and weave through delicate American racial politics (24). Schlund-Vials argue that praCh’s music tries to force ideas of global justice by focusing on the Cambodian and American Experience.
Agathangelou and Ling deal more with the conception of international relations and its binary “I versus You” worldview. They argue that it resembles a colonial household (21). IR’s obsession with order is also an obsession with domination and control not only of the study of international relations but also of the practice of international relations. They note that IR or the “House” seeks to do away with disorder meaning subjugating knowledge, resources and sex of Others (22). This is reflected in how Area studies are seen as inferior and Asian capitalism is seen as imperfect and despotic. Rethinking and global justice IR would consist of placing importance in most of these subjects that IR considers inferior.
Works Cited
Agathangelou, Anna. M. and Ling, L. H. “The House of IR: From Family Power Politics to the
Poisies of Worldism.” International Studies Review, 6.4 (2004): 21-49.
Schlund-Vials, Cathy. J. A Transnational Hip Hop Nation: praCh, Cambodia, and Memorialising
the Killing Fields. Life Writing, 5.1 (2008): 11-27.
Shaw, Rosalind. Rethinking Truth and Reconciliation Commissions Lessons from Sierra Leone.
United States Institute of Peace Special Report 130. Washington DC.
