As we approach the fortieth anniversary of the publication of Edward Said’s Orientalism, it seems, to me, at least, that the postcolonial urgency its thesis engendered has long been overshadowed by global transformations that have scrambled the geography of oppression. The Chinese have already acquired significant chunks of Hollywood, one of the major producers of Orientalist images;1 the skyline of certain oil-rich Arab cities is dwarfing the aging ones in Manhattan and Chicago; the best soccer teams in the world are sponsored by Arab sheikhs; and every human being on earth covets an American or West-European lifestyle.