Caribbean countries announce their intention to demand compensation from European governments for crimes of slavery

Caribbean countries announce their intention to demand compensation from European governments for crimes of slavery

    6:13 PM   No comments

The British newspaper "The Times" reported that "Caricom", a bloc of 15 Caribbean countries, will demand an official apology from European governments, and compensation worth $33 trillion, for their centuries-long enslavement.

In detail, these countries hope to begin negotiations with Britain, France, Spain, and Denmark on a 10-item plan, which includes an official apology for their role in the trans-Atlantic slave trade.

In addition, Caribbean countries are seeking $33 trillion in compensation from European governments. The plan also includes that these former colonial powers finance health, education, debt cancellation, and direct payments to Caribbean governments, according to what the newspaper reported.

Britain owes $19.6 trillion, Spain must pay $6.3 trillion, while France owes $6.5 trillion, according to a report issued by an American consulting firm, which worked to calculate legal compensation for the enslavement of 19 million people, over 4 centuries.

Although it is impossible to calculate the true extent of the damage caused by the slave trade carried out by European powers, these numbers constituted a “starting point for negotiations,” according to Verene Shepherd, a Jamaican history professor and vice-chair of the Caribbean Reparations Commission.

Shepherd stressed the need for “a number to start with,” stressing that “the crime is huge, and the responsibility for what happened is great.”

In 2013, Caricom established a Compensation Committee. CARICOM, or the Caribbean Community, represents a political and economic union of 15 countries in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean.

In subsequent years, the group reached out to former European colonial powers about reparations, but did not receive a “positive response” to its letters, Shepherd said.

According to The Times, some have suggested that Caribbean countries pursue reparations through the courts in the countries they target.

In turn, Peter Esbut, dean of studies at a theological college, said: “By granting slave owners compensation for the loss of their property, they are setting a precedent... If you compensate the owners for the loss of their property, you must also compensate the slaves for the loss of their freedom.”

Most European governments rejected the idea of reparations. In response to a question in the British House of Commons, last April, about whether he would offer an apology and “commit to reparative justice,” British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak said: “No, I think that trying to dismantle our history is not the right way forward, and it is not something We focus our energies on it.”

The UK is becoming the third largest consumer of the child sexual abuse “market”

The UK is becoming the third largest consumer of the child sexual abuse “market”

    3:41 PM   No comments

Thousands of children in the Philippines are being sexually abused in order to make money via live video streaming technology, and most of the cases are directed by child molesters in the United Kingdom, according to a report by the British newspaper “The Telegraph”.

According to the newspaper, estimates by the University of Nottingham and the International Justice Mission indicate that the number of children exposed to abuse in the Southeast Asian country may reach 500,000 children, or one in every 100 Filipino children.

The International Justice Mission found that more than half of the children who were subjected to violations were 12 years old or younger, and the youngest was only a few months old.

The new report notes that Western consumers are also guilty of directing child sexual abuse in the Philippines, and local traffickers are sexually abusing Filipino children, while one or more spectators watch and direct the action via an encrypted video call.

“Perpetrators pay traffickers in the Philippines at least £15 to engage in online child sexual abuse,” the report says.

The UK is the third largest consumer of live-streamed abuse, according to the National Crime Agency, and the US, Australia and Canada are also major consumers.

The newspaper reported that the use of end-to-end encryption services such as WhatsApp and Telegram to enable criminals to broadcast live abuse is not limited to child sexual abuse. Last June, it was revealed that monkeys were being tortured live through these services, with paid callers directing the torture procedures, and three women were arrested in Britain for their involvement.

How the Cold War and now the War in Ukraine have Justified Abuse of Human Rights, Inhumane Sanctions, and Abuse of Power

How the Cold War and now the War in Ukraine have Justified Abuse of Human Rights, Inhumane Sanctions, and Abuse of Power

    7:34 AM   No comments

Working hard to put pressure on countries from around the world to take a stand against Russia in relation to its military operation in Ukraine, the US government and its Western allies schedule two UNGA public votes just months apart, the most recent was just days before the one year anniversary of the start of the conflict. In both sessions, more countries from Africa voted against the resolution or abstained than from any other continent. Commentators and analysts attribute this neutrality to the role played by Russia and China most recently shoring up African economies. That may partly true. The more determinant factor that influence African leaders’ decision is the historical one: Africa’s lack of economic development was the outcome of Western colonialism (plunder of natural resources) which was motivated by racism (Apartheid systems), for which Western countries did not legally acknowledge and did not practically take full responsibility. If the West wants to have a “normal” relation with the African people, they must start there; not think in terms of handouts and bribery.

In the past, the US government and its allies justified their support to colonial, apartheid regimes in Africa, and their placement of self-determination movements and figures, like the ANC and Nelson Mandela, by the “cold War” conditions. They care for countering communism more than they cared for human rights.

Today, the US administration and its Western allies are operating with the same mentality: Countering Russia and China comes before respect for human rights and comes before remediation for past crimes and abuses.

These self-interested approaches are short-sighted, bigoted, and offensive to the people who were subjected to hundreds of years of Darwinian colonialism.