The Strangler Vine - A Commentary

I recently finished the book The Strangler Vine by M. J.. Carter.  It was a book I found, when I was looking for selections to offer my book club.  I had not heard of it before, and had was not familiar with the author.

The victors write history in their own image and likeness.

I did not especially like this book, nor the main characters Avery and Blake, who, although perhaps trying to be righteous, were too caught up in the intrigue of the East India Company to be good mane. Having said that, if I were in their shoes, I think I would have co-opted in the same way.

I did not like the treachery, the underhandedness, the disrespectful and evilly deceitful behavior of the officers or officials of the East India Company.  Do I believe it true, to some extent, at least.  Do I believe their are implications of the way our own government acts today, yes, and I am not a conspiracy theorist.  

The conquest by England of other lands did result in feudal systems that depended upon subservient labor to produce the wealth of the country.  The plantation system in the American South is just one example.  And even in the 21st Century, there are those who would shamefully re-write history, calling slaves "guest laborers" in textbooks.

The truth is that the East India Company may have begun as a benevolent corporation to work in partnership with the native Indian populations, but soon grew to be more interested in profit, riches and power, than the welfare of the native populations.  

And, while the East India Company's "history" is propagated on the tea, spice, and silk trade, an honest look at history tells us that the opium poppy was a cash crop with profits like no other.

I have read that the real reason that the British wanted access to trade with China was not silk, but opium.

And, in our modern day, there are stories of farmers in the war torn Middle East who forgo food crops for the profits of a cash crop of opium, traded to the West.  The result is that some few get rich, but the poor laborers suffer and they and their families have a diminishing access to locally grown food crops.

Do I believe that only Anglos engage in the misappropriation of power and wealth? No.  Look at Saudi Arabia, look at South Africa, and other African nations, at Southeast Asian nations, and South American nations.

What I do believe is that if we turn a blind eye, and allow history to be written in the perspective of the victor, we will never learn from our past.