truth2power

1 Vote

freelance 11 years, 1 month ago on Why were Bahamians not told about suing Britain?

'When one thinks of all that Britain, for example, has given to help uplift our people to the level of statehood, maybe Britain should be sending us a reparation bill.'

This is an outrageously offensive statement, (and indeed the whole tone of this article is totally offensive to the majority of Bahamians who are of African descent.

Britain did nothing to lift us to statehood. I repeat. We owe Great Britain nothing. Before she set sail on the high seas to brutalise unsuspecting indigenous peoples the world over, African civilisations were self-sustaining entities that needed NOTHING from Britain or any other European nation. She built her palaces from the blood of our ancestors.

A little secret about the world is that the so-called 'first world' nations are constructed on the premise of inequality and exploitation. Historically, this has included slavery, servitude, colonialism etc. In other words, they MUST exploit cheap or free labour in order to sustain the high standard of living in their own countries. Dr Walter Rodney has called this the European 'underdevelopment' of Africa.

I wholeheartedly agree that the Bahamas and Caricom should request, no DEMAND, reparations from Britain, firstly because Britain got rich off of our backs (not just here in the Bahamas but all over the world). Yes, slavery happened a long time ago, but colonialism only just ended; some say it never ended. Slavery has happened and still is happening all over the world, but wherever it is, it is wrong and must be prosecuted to the fullest extent.

All in all, what Europe has done for the last 500 years is wrong, barbaric, and primitive. There is no delicate way to characterise what has transpired and it is beyond ignorant and cynical to deny the obvious facts of history. As a 31 year old woman, a 'new Bahamian, I still have to deal with ugly legacy of colonialism: it is disgraceful that I must drive on a road called 'Prince Charles' or look at the big Queen Victoria in front of Parliament. It is a grotesque affront; after so much suffering, the Bahamian people deserve at least to be spared the daily engagement with oppressive symbolism leftover from the colonial period. Its presence is impeding our development.

We need Europe to pay for what they have done because people like the author of this article still believe the utter and filthy fallacy that Europe has somehow 'civilised the savages'. Making them pay will help future generations to know that the European savagery displayed for centuries is unacceptable behaviour.

REPARATIONS FOR CARIBBEAN NATIONS NOW!!

1 Vote

dfitzerl 11 years, 1 month ago on Why were Bahamians not told about suing Britain?

" . . . because they don’t think Bahamians are yet mature enough to deal with such weighty matters?" - while not condoning keeping issues from the citizenry, we were not mature enough to deal with CSME when we had the chance to do so on our own terms, now we will have to deal with it in a backhanded way through WTO. We continue to think that we can be an isolated economy in this ever flattening world. Wake up Bahamas!

1 Vote

freelance 11 years, 1 month ago on Why were Bahamians not told about suing Britain?

I would love to respond, but unfortunately, you don't matter. You are blinded by a lack of real-world experience. You know nothing except the walls of your insular world. And you are on the losing side of history. You are weak; and conquered with absolute ease. Good day.