As I read through the first part of this book i was amazed at the trickery and clever maneuvering displayed by King Leopold. At first I was rather shocked at some of the things he pulled off and I could not believe how a politician could pull something like this off. But then I thought to myself, well, he really is no different from politicians in today's government. It amazed me how this scenario been played out time and time again in our own government and how ridiculous favors are pulled off, anyways.
I must say there was quite a similarity between Leopold and Stanley. Both of whom seemed to be dealing with some kind of void in their lives that they were obsessed with filling. They both seemed to be very good candidates for a sit in on the Dr. Phil Show to explain their emptiness. But as vile as the two of them came off as they were very admirable in their determination and ability to get something accomplished.
I was able to find a somewhat humorous depiction of King Leopold on YouTube that describes his story fairly well. The harshness that one man's desire was able to inflict on so many people is not totally evident yet in the story but given the fast steps taken by the Imperial King, one is able to guess the amount of damage he is about to unleash. Very interesting how a couple of men with their deceitful language and misleading information can turn a world upside down.
One thing I did begin to question as I read the story was how accurate the information was being portrayed given the stories made by many men at the time about Africa in particular. Especially those of the delusional Stanley.
1 comment:
That King Leopold video makes the post, it may be the best voice over by a high school student I have ever seen, nice job tracking it down.
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