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Uncertainty, anxiety, frugality : dealing with leprosy in the Dutch East Indies, 1816-1942
Bergen, Leo vanSingapore : NUS Press, [2018]The story of leprosy in the Dutch East Indies from the beginning of the 19th century to the middle of the 20th reveals important themes in the colonial enterprise across the territory that is today's Indonesia. Operating in a territory with only a few hundred Western-trained doctors and a population in the tens of millions, Dutch colonial officials approached leprosy with uncertainty and anxiety. In the early 19th century, the Dutch administrationsimply removed sufferers from public view: campaigns targetted anyone "looking ugly". Towards the end of the century, colonial science considered leprosy a hereditary disease of tropical subjects, and therefore undeserving of the colonial government's limited resources. The leprosariums were emptied. At the start of the 20th century, a growing understanding that leprosy was spread by a bacillus caused a panic that leprosy might spread from the tropics to the colonial metropole. The mixed emotions of pity, fear and revulsion associated with management of the disease intensified, and fed into broader debates on colonial policy. The experts were unsure, and resources were never forthcoming, and despite a view that "bacteria are the same everywhere", Dutch leprosy treatment in the East Indies mobilized traditional healing practices and relied on home care. Leo van Bergen's detailed, attentive study to changing policies for treatment and prevention of leprosy (now often called Hansen's disease) is fascinating medical history, and provides a useful lens for understanding colonialism in Indonesia.
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The Dutch East Indies Red Cross, 1870-1950 : on humanitarianism and colonialism
Bergen, Leo vanLanham, Maryland : Lexington Books, an imprint of The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group, Inc., [2019]The Dutch East Indies Red Cross (NIRK) took action in 1873 when the Aceh war broke out, which lasted several decades. In this war the organization's neutrality was tested, but it turned out not to be an issue. Neutrality was a concept for European wars between "civilized" countries, not applicable in colonial wars. As a consequence, aid was tailored to the needs of the Dutch East Indian Army. This also showed itself in a statutory change making aid not only possible during "war"' but also in case of "uprising." After the war ended several decades of "peace"-if peace is a proper term in colonial circumstances-followed. They were used to be prepared in case of an attack by a foreign enemy. For this "peace-work," societal work of the Red Cross, was deemed important. This means that it was not an aim in itself, but seen as practice for the war task. It also had to avoid the Red Cross becoming invisible and lose popularity, for only with enough (wo)men active the war task could be fulfilled.When war came, preparation turned out to have been in vain. Japan quickly conquered the archipelago. It forbade the organization only making use of some local branches when this came in handy. However, it proved not to be the end of the NIRK. When after the war independence was declared by Indonesian nationalists, the Netherlands send an army "to restore law and order." In the war that followed, Red Cross-work became part of military carrot-and-stick strategy, trying to get the population back on Dutch side, and hoping that patients would inform the doctor with military information. The Red Cross had a humanitarian and a national task to fulfill.The Dutch East Indies Red Cross (NIRK) took action in 1873 when the Aceh War broke out, which lasted several decades. In this war the organization's neutrality was tested, but it turned out not to be an issue. Neutrality was a concept for European wars between "civilized" countries, not applicable in colonial wars. As a consequence, aid was tailored to the needs of the Dutch East Indian Army. This also showed itself in a statutory change making aid not only possible during "war"' but also in case of "uprising." After the war ended several decades of "peace"-if peace is a proper term in colonial circumstances-followed. They were used to be prepared in case of an attack by a foreign enemy. For this "peace-work, " societal work of the Red Cross, was deemed important. This means that it was not an aim in itself, but seen as practice for the war task. It also had to avoid the Red Cross becoming invisible and lose popularity, for only with enough (wo)men active the war task could be fulfilled. When war came, preparation turned out to have been in vain. Japan quickly conquered the archipelago. It forbade the organization only making use of some local branches when this came in handy. However, it proved not to be the end of the NIRK. When after the war independence was declared by Indonesian nationalists, the Netherlands send an army "to restore law and order." In the war that followed, Red Cross-work became part of military carrot-and-stick strategy, trying to get the population back on Dutch side, and hoping that patients would inform the doctor with military information. The Red Cross not only had a humanitarian but a national task to fulfill.
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Before my helpless sight : suffering, dying and military medicine on the Western Front, 1914-1918
Bergen, Leo van.Farnham, Surrey, England ; Burlington, VT : Ashgate, c2009.Despite the numerous vicious conflicts that scared the twentieth century, the horrors of the Western Front continue to exercise a particularly strong hold on the modern imagination. The unprecedented scale and mechanization of the war changed forever the way suffering and dying were perceived and challenged notions of what the nations could reasonably expect of their military. Examining experiences of the Western front, this book looks at the life of a soldier, from the moment he marched to battle, until he was buried. In five chapters - Battle, Body, Mind, Aid, Death - it describes and analyses the physical and mental hardship of the men who fought on a front that stretched from the Belgian coast to the Swiss border. Beginning with a broad description of the war it then analyses the medical aid the Tommies, Bonhommes and Frontschweine received - or often enough did not receive - revealing how this aid was often given for military and political reasons rather than for humanitarian ones (getting the men back to front or weapons factory and trying to spare the state as much war-pensions as possible). It concludes with a chapter on the many ways death presented itself on or around the battlefield, and sets out in detail the problems that rise when more people are killed than possibly can be buried properly. Contrary to most books in the field this study does not focus on one single issue - such as venereal disease, plastic surgery, shell-shock or the military medical service - but takes a broad view on wounds and illnesses across both sides of the conflict. Drawing on British, French, German and Dutch sources it shows the consequences of modern warfare on the human individuals caught up in it, and the way it influences our thinking on 'humanitarian' activities.
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