Reparations could fund new regional development
(CNS): Caribbean leaders have identified a list of socio-economic problems in the region which they say are a direct result of the legacy of slavery, and reparations from the European nations enriched by the salve trade could help shape a new development agenda. A CARICOM commission established to deal with the issue of reparations met in Jamaica Tuesday to advance discussions and formulate a plan to claim financial compensation from the former slave owning states. Chair Professor Sir Hilary Beckles said Caribbean societies were built on the transatlantic slave trade and are uniquely placed to advance the "cause of truth, justice, and reconciliation within the context of reparatory justice" to make amends for the continuing legacy of that crime.
The Commission has called upon the former slave-owning nations of Europe, mainly Britain, France, Spain, Portugal, the Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Denmark, to engage Caribbean governments in reparatory dialogue to address the living legacies of the slave trade. Encouraging CARICOM heads of government to push for talks with the former slave-owning countries enriched by the crime, the commission said reparations could help eradicate the legacy of slavery that still subverts the development efforts in the Caribbean.
The money would be earmarked for six primary socio-economic challenges which Beckles said are a direct result of slavery. From cultural deprivation and psychological trauma to scientific and technological backwardness, the Caribbean is still feeling the impact of the salve trade, Beckles added. In a statement at a press conference held at the UWI, he said that at the end of the colonial period the British left the African descended population, and survivors of the native genocide, in a state of general illiteracy.
“Some 70 percent of these persons were functionally illiterate at the onset of the Independence era. Widespread illiteracy continues to plague Caribbean societies and accounts for significant parts of their development challenges,” he said, as education was identified as one of the six areas that would be boosted by reparations.
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He spoke too about the criminalization andshattering of both African culture and identity in the region.
“Africans were deculturalized and today remain impoverished in respect or cultural legitimacy and supportive appropriate institutional arrangements,” Beckles said. “Contemporary manifestations of these include low ethnic self-esteem; the devaluation of black identity; broken structures and diminished family values; delegitimization of African derived religion and cultural practices, and disconnection from ancestral roots and culture.”
He said that for over 400 years Africans were classified in law as non-human, chattel, property and real estate.
“They were denied recognition as members of the human family by laws and practices derived from theparliaments and policies of Europe. This history has inflicted massive psychological damage upon African descendants and is evident daily in social life,” he added, emphasizing the reasons for seeking reparations.
Beckles also pointed to the health problems suffered by the African descendants of slaves in the Caribbean who now have the highest incidence in the world of chronic diseases in the form of hypertension and type two diabetes. He said this was, “a direct result of their nutritional exposure, endemic inhumane physical and emotional brutalization and other aspects of the stress experience of slavery and post slavery apartheid.”
The quest for reparations by leaders of Caribbean nations remains a controversial issue. On his recent trip to the region the UK's overseas territories minister, Mark Simmonds, who also has responsibility for the UK’s relationship with the Caribbean, said that Europe was not in a financial position to compensate the region for human atrocities that were perpetrated two centuries ago.
Nevertheless, the leaders continue to press the issue and have also engaged in talks with the specialist UK law firm Leigh Day, which was able to win a major settlement from the British government for thousands of Kenyan clients tortured by the colonial masters during the Mau-Mau rebellion of the 1950s.
Category: World News
“For all you kids watching at home, Santa just is white.”
Oh well, today this "Black country" is fairing much better than the "White countries" in question – England, Portugal, Spain, France etc.
In fact, many of their citizens are fleeing the riotous, recessive, socio-political cesspools of countries they have devolved to and knocking down our doors with hopes to never return.
You will find many of them in this very post, expressing grotesquely ironic remarks inspired by delusions of grandeur.
(Considering the issue at hand in this particular news report … that's gotta sting, lol!!)
🙂
Ha, ha , ha Whodatis at his mind numbing best. The UK's economy is very much on the up, with falling unemployment, property price rises and many other indicators of a successful national economy. Exactly how is Cayman doing on that front, oh yes, it's still stagnating in its own pathetic attempts at self government.
Cayman is NOT a 'black country', far from it, it is by definition a multi cultural/ multi ethnic country, founded by the very 'white people' you deride. The wealth of this country was founded by those 'white countries' and their financial/legal experts, what do you think would be on this rock without them. And that's not including the overwhelmingly white middle classes who purchase and develop property, form the vast bulk of external tourism and utilise the international banks and financial services industry?
But you and your like aren't interested in the truth, you just want a handout for being incompetent and corrupt. Earn your own damn money, it's been 200 years since the abolition of slavery. Apart from whining and blaming the world for your own ineptitude, exactly what have you done to advance?
In what country did your mother give birth to you?
Where does she and your father now reside?
Where do you reside?
Thanks.
Cayman, Cayman and Cayman. Generational white.
Thanks you racist pig.
Sure thing generational white with a little tar brush just enough to leave a little streak of gray to coat the grey lines.
Yeah, sure.
Btw, of all the comments on this thread, what prompted you to label Whodatis as a "racist pig"?
Interesting how the "generational white" are so selective in their judgement, isn't it?
Whodatis is a racist, xenophobic and paranoid isolationist who represents the worst of the Caribbean's bigoted view of colour and culture. His musings, whilst being largely incoherant rantings, are designed to appeal to those who have no clue of the outside world. He feeds the uneducated a diet of pomposity, dressed up as fact, with a veneer of legitimacy, when in reality it is just simple envy, tinged with good old fashioned bile.
Not once has this blog ever heard a solution from the rantings of Whodatis, and if he is confronted he assumes the role of the indignant sage, refusing to engage with those who see through his bull. XXXX
His apparent swipe at generational whites illustrates a failure to acknowledge that racism isn't the preserve of the white race. On the contrary, a racist of any colour always seeks to reflect his own bigotry on to those whom he perceives as a threat, and Whodatis is a master of the art.
My biggest fan here folks …
There is only one aspect of your rant that I actually care about or deserves my direct response – and it is the following;
"Not once has this blog ever heard a solution from the rantings of Whodatis … "
You are a damn liar, and every honest reader of CNS knows it.
I wish you a wonderful start to the week – complete with Whodatis on your mind first thing Monday morning!
🙂
Whodatis, right on point! Remembering Sophiatown and the Xhosa tribe…
It is nice to have an expert on delusions of grandeur to deliver his view.
You mean this largely “mixed race” country.
Don’t ascribe US notions of “black” on us.
We are mostly mixed.
Within these types of discussions, it is only Black, Red, Yellow and Brown people that place any value on the term "mixed", my friend.
(Have you even read the majority of the other posts in this very thread?)
Believe you me, that distinction carries little to no weight when it comes down to crunch time.
Feel free to hang on to hope though … let us know how it works out for you.
Yes mixed culture black and white is brown and brown is one shade next to black and very far away from white, which in my opinion is …. As a race brown is defined as black!
Depending on the shade brown can also be one shade next to white.
(Love how terms such as "mixed" and "multi-ethnic" are suddenly thrown into the mix as certain folks see fit. Let Barack Obama rob an old lady and see how "mixed" is his description on the UK / EU evening news.)
The fickle nature of CNS posters do not hold much weight with me … at times like these I focus more on official government policy.
In the eyes of the UK, the "mixed" people of the Cayman Islands are as dispensable as the "mixed" and "multi-ethnic" Man Fridays and Tarzans of other British Overseas Territories.
GTFOH with that bullsh!t.
(Or perhaps that is no longer the official policy? Have we had an empirical White Paper speaking to that particular issue as yet? Did we miss a memo?)
Ya'll would just love for Whodatis and the rest of Cayman to believe that you guys truly consider us as your equals, wouldn't you? (Btw, I am speaking directly to those of you that are reacting at this very moment … yes, you.)
History is a very troublesome thing, it is – tends to remind everyone of their respective reality.
Lastly, don't get it twisted folks – I do not support the action being discussed in the news report and comment thread. Broke-ass UK can't even take care of itself.
Reparations? Give me a break!
🙂
Whodatis, turn your binoculars the right way around. Every day I hear CAymanian friends expressing a desire to leave because they are sick of the corruption and politics here, as well as attitudes like yours which started with the dinosaurs . Back to your cave!
The truth is that this reparation movement is merely a few politician's efforts to garner favour and votes by promising handouts that will never come. Face it, it just isn't going to happen folks!
But they saved our souls by giving us Jesus!
Au contraire, "they" actually stole the original concept of Jesus from "us" (Black / African people).
Thereafter re-branded, re-packaged, and "sold" it back to us … supplemented by whips, chains, guns, rape, slavery etc of course.
Nice eh?
*For those in doubt … go read a book – preferably one other than the white-washed crap you've been referring to since forever. There is no excuse for ignorance in 2013.
'Us', you moron, just who do you think you are?
You are so removed from being African that you are nearer Mickey Mouse than Shaka Zulu. You rebrand yourselves through stupid fashions, MTV and crap 'music'. You shoot each other without help from the evil white man, and fill your expansive waistlines with cheap food that takes no thought to prepare.
Before you blame everyone else for your own ineptitude to advance, take a look in the mirror and ask why you're not taken seriously.
If you are so passionate about being African, then please feel free to go back to your 'brothers', they'll be so excited to see you. You probably be dead before the end of the week as they will see you as fresh meat and ripe for the picking.
What a joke, you are totally clueless.
Re: "You are so removed from being African that you are nearer Mickey Mouse than Shaka Zulu. You rebrand yourselves through stupid fashions, MTV and crap 'music'. You shoot each other without help from the evil white man, and fill your expansive waistlines with cheap food that takes no thought to prepare."
I am not about to engage in a debate with such a low-hanging, pop-culture polluted mindset.
However, I will put it to you that you would never tell a Brooklyn, New York born and raised Jew of my generation that he is not in fact Jewish.
Sense of self is the most important thing in this life – you cannot define or qualify me, nor I you.
I only trust you have as clear an understanding of your place in this world as you believe you have of mine.
Being a white or black man isn't a religion, being Jewish is you dumbass.
(smh)
Are you serious right now?
You see … this was why I try to avoid these issues on CNS.
People like you genuinely view the situation as you do.
Never mind buddy … as you were – you are beyond help.
I will stick to deeper minds of greater understanding.
You obviously of the mindset that the black man is exclusively of African descent. Well news flash muppet, many countries have black populations that do not have an African connection, the Aboriginals of Australia, Papua New Guinea etc…
I return to my original proposal, you have no idea where you come from, what tribe, what country or even which continent your forebears originated from. Africa is a massive continent, with hundreds, if not thousands of differing tribes, religions and cultural diversities.
Actually, we tell all of that fairly accurately these days by the use of DNA tests.
I did not know that Nazareth was in Africa until I read this.
Still not getting it … did you even read the last sentence of my post?
Wake up son – dig a bit deeper than you have been programmed to by the fraudulent and manipulative authorities in which you have trusted for generations.
Of course you can also opt to remain ignorant.
Thanks comrade, now get back to your padded cell.
Only a special kind of fool mocks truth.
Congrats – you are very unique my friend.
And you sir are a moron.
Yeh right from the fields straight into the church. The way to go Colonist. Hence why we are so confused. We were already appreciating God's environment/nature and did not need a brunch of heathens from the West telling us how to worship. Remember some of them where living in caves – (Ape Man) whilst we were living it large as kings and queens with gold, minerals, etc to enjoy. Then for the big almighty dollar or whatever was available at the time sold our brothers and sisters and we wonder why we don't trust each other and quick to bring each other down. Yep the west is just laughing at us all the way to the bank. Now modern day they are feeding our youths with guns, drugs, ganster music and prostitution into our neighbourhood where we are just so quick to get on board not realising we have been set up Hope to God the future future generation will learn from all mistakes.
'We were living it large as kings and queens'.
You poor deluded fool, the only ones living like Kings were the tribes who indulged in the wholesale slaughter or ethnic cleansing of inferior tribes. The same inferior tribes who were captured and handed over to Arab and European slave ships for profit.
Go to Africa, they do not consider you their 'brothers', and if they did recognise you as such, they'd probably rape, enslave or kill you because they continue to behave the same as they always have.
Go meet Mugabe and ask him for help, he has done such a wonderful job of enriching and liberating his people from white oppression. Oh dear, that won't work because he just replaced it with the same old black oppression, as do most black leaders in Africa.
Oh yes genius, if we are to believe that all humans derived from Africa, then what were the blacks doing prior to the advent of slavery, apart from killing each other. If the humans that walked to the ends of the earth managed to build advanced civilisations, (ape men) why didn't they. Could it be that those who had the intelligence to leave Africa, had the intelligenceto advance. Why did the Arab nations advance in Africa, but the black Africans didn't. Where are the pyramids, the lost cities, the hubs of civilisation?
No my friend, Africa hasn't really advanced at all, and that's down to inept, corrupt and violent leadership. You are lucky enough to live on a civilised island and enjoy the trappings of wealth that most Africans can only dream of. However, if you want to live in a tin or mud house, walk ten miles for water or die trying, be at war with your own government or any number of lunatic tribal/ religious fanatics, then please leave now.
But for the love of God, if you decide to stay and be a hypocrite, shut up whining.
Any excuse will do.
So Type 2 diabetes, a disease largely avoidable by dietary choice, is directly due to slavery, abolished in 1807. Interesting. I am only eating this Big Mac because of what happened to my great great great father – its not a choice, its cultural genocide, someone is to blame other than me, and they owe me money. Boy – thats one helluva post traumatic stress – lasts over 200 years.
Fried chicken, hamburgers, and a whole collection of other junk food has promoted ill health and obesity in the black population. And that's laziness and stupidity to blame, not the white man.
Educate yourselves in healthy eating and exercise, you've had 200 years to get over the trauma of slave rations, the excuses don't wash anymore.
I think this is a very good thing — fair, just and riteous. While we are at it, about the same 400 years ago, my Scottish ancestors were horribly oppressed by the English, and hundreds of thousands were killed. Those that survived had their lands seized and they were either imprisoned or indentured to…….. guess where? YEP! The Caribbean!
It all makes sense now! Oh, how wonderful it will be to finally be compensated for the ills perpetuated upon my kith and kin. I just know that if my ancestors — who were coopers and distillers — had been allowed to pursue their trades, my family and myself would now be basking in the due comfort that was robbed from us. I would not have to work my tail to the bone, day in and day out, fulfilling the responsibilities of supporting a family of my own creation.
I will now go and select the modest lands that I will consider fair compensation for my familial oppression and servitude. Someplace with mountains and a river, much like that of the ancestral grounds of Alness. Should you all find it in your heart of hearts to include a golf course, I should be most appreciative.
All these comments really shows the level of bigotry that here on island. Read your history, you bigots.
The National Archives of many CARICOM nations (including Cayman's Archives) include records of reparations paid to emancipated slaves from plantation owners and their families, including deeds of title to land, schools, churches and other resources. Many started families and happily continued to work for wages paid by their former masters. That is a historical fact. They used to have these records on display at East End Heritage Day.
I do not think that any bigotry features in these comments, I just find it amusing to see the levels that people will go to in this region to get a handout or a lil he'p.
There is no bigger bigot than a black man with a slavery chip on his shoulder, or racist for that matter. The guilt has long gone, find your own damn way in life and get over it.
Can the current crop of expat slaves sue the Cayman Islands Governement and its people under the same premise?
If there were such a thing as expat slaves in Cayman then no doubt they would be able to.
I want reperations from willie mac bush. much more recent and relevant
My bosses have already decided to enact reparations by not promoting any of the whites in my office and giving all the credit to his Caribbean brothers. Tis the season.
Same where I work!!!
Well that would be an exception to the usual rule where it is the exact opposite: white bosses give their own special advantages, promote their own and give them all the credit.
That's because they turn up for work on time, don't go sick when the fishings good, don't spend all day on the phone or email to friends, don't bring their breakfast to work and start eating it during work time.
I can understand being pissed off about having been marooned on a collection of islands in the Caribbean. The best bet would be to demand the right to move to the EU. You might even get that.
Yes, the reason the Caribbean is in a mess is something that happened hundreds of years ago. Maybe the Caribbean should take responsibility for themselves rather than seeking to blame others.
If it ain't happened in the last 40 years it ain't going to happen in the next!
Good luck with this, it will be a difficult task indeed, but not impossible. The black population that were enslaved and forced from their lands and culture paid a high price now it is time for those who reaped the benefits of a shattered people to pay some sort of compensation. I don't want to see them give money to corrupt governments rather I would like to see a movement to provide free education from kindergarten to PhD level this should include school lunches, transport and educational materials ( no direct cash should be given to any government as this would be worst than slavery it self) this should suffice.
Is there anywhere in the Caribbean where people will actually work for money rather than rely on hangouts, claims and any other scam that comes to mind?
Oh dear, aren't these the same people who cannot manage their own national budgets through corruption, thieving and pure incompetence? Looks like they need more funds to steal ! For sure the people of those countries would never see 1 cent of that money if this went anywhere, which it won't!
I'd like to sue the Rome and the Vatican State. They invaded Britain and enslaved us. The Greeks and Turks may be valid respondands for some Europeans. Guys, please do not further disgrace yourself with this outdated nonsense. If you can't run your countries properly, why not ask the Europeans to come back and take over? If, as you claim it resulted in such dramatic economic success, you should be grateful! Fools.
What grateful for your dignity to be taken away, shipped off from homeland like carter, degrading and abused by slave masters, raped by slave masters, sodimise acts being placed on children. GRATEFUL. You have got to be kidding. Clearly you are not from the ethnicity that family members and generations after have to bear the sorrow. Your ignorance ceases to amaze me. Question to you why you are living or residing in a country of colour. Should you not be living in place where your ancestors call home? XXXXX
Go to school. Learn a language. Come back and explain what you're trying to say.
It is very clear what the poster is saying.
My wife is a black Caymanian. She agrees this nonsense just brings disgrace to all the Carribean. Learn, innovate, grow.
It’s a wonder they aren’t threatening to file suit against the fishermen of Nova Scotia for supplying the worst quality, oily, damaged cod for that staple of the slave diet.
Canada and Nova Scotia not important enough but I am sure if they have money to donate to the cause donations will be accepted.
Madiba was freed. What more do they want?
If that is your mentality, then why not go to South Africa, or perhaps that is your homeland. Please do not bring such attitudes here.
In regards to Madiba, he should have been brought on board for this action years ago as the advocate, its a pity such a world leader was not utilised.
Mandela forgave his captors. Perhaps that is why he was not able to be "brought on board". I don't think he was ever a person to "be utilised".
Mandela would want CARICOM to lend their voice in the fight against global slavery that still exists as a current reality for many subjugated people in Africa and Asia. The shakingdown of a continental monetary union two centuries after the fact, would not be his style.
What an ignorant comment.I suuppose you consider it humourous!
While Ithink it is time to move on and forgive your cavalier and insulting comments are heartless and not necessary.
You incentive useless being. What kind of statement is that. What more do you want.
Thanks for Madeba's freedom, as to what more do we "black people" want? I won't attempt to speak for the race but here is what I would want to see…. All black return to the continent of Africa and all non black leave the continent and return to whence they and their ancestors came, leave all that you came and found in Africa and take all that you came with. Yes leave all of the gold, diamonds and other precious metals and wealth that you found in Africa and take your guns and gun powder, hate, contention and brain wash with you. Oh, as for South Africa the Xhosa tribe and other native South Africans want Sophiatown back!
Please feel free to do all that. Wish I had a plane. No one is stopping you. I don't care about your jewels or minerals but you all sure love your guns.
Where do we make a donation, for gods sake go and take your 'culture' with you.
However, who the hell will buy your diamonds and minerals and whose trading centres will you utilise. Oh yes, ours, good luck with that then.
Try not to shoot each other first.
Here is a dollar, go and develop yourselves.
Go back to your mythical ancestral home and see what a mess they're making of it. The African slavers rounded up tribes they viewed as incompetent and inferior, and sold them to the Euro slave shippers. Looks like they had good reason to banish them.
Go back to Mali, CAR or any sub Saharan country now, nothing has changed. They are still killing, raping, enslaving, brutalising and discriminating against their own kind. Why should we pay for an inbuilt reluctance to live in the 21st century.
Try making your own way in the world instead of hanging onto the coat tails of history. Slavery was abolished 200 years ago, what the hell have you been doing all that time, apart from feeling sorry for yourselves?
"The African slavers rounded up tribes they viewed as incompetent and inferior".
That is a crude attempt to further falsely stigmatise slaves and their descendants and to absolve European slave traders. Actually African slaves were in demand by Europeans because (1) of their physical strength and perceived ability endureplantation slavery in the hot sun, (2) they were more immune to European diseases, and (3) in some cases were skilled farmers and artisans.
Alexander Falconbridge was a surgeon aboard a slave ship from Bristol. He wrote about his experience in An Account of the Slave Trade on the Coast of Africa: "When the negroes whom the black traders have to dispose of are shown to the European purchasers, they first examine them relative to age. They then minutely inspect their persons, and inquire into their state of health; if they are afflicted with any infirmity, or are deformed, or have bad eyes or teeth; if they are lame, or weak in the joints, or distorted in the back, or of a slender make, or are narrow in the chest; in short, if they have been afflicted in any manner so as to render them incapable of such labour they are rejected. The traders frequently beat those negroes which are objected to by the captains. Instances have happened that the traders, when any of their negroes have been objected to have instantly beheaded them in the sight of the captain."
Why would anyone want to purchase an inferior slave? Obviously that would be a poor investment. If what you claimed were true then the Africans and theri descendants remaining in Africa would have been far superior to the descendants of their brothers in the New World which we know is far from the case.
They were kidnapped mostly by raids on villages in the dead of the night which were instigated by Europeans offering weapons etc. Nothing to do with any supposed ethnic cleansing.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/british/abolition/africa_article_01.shtml#four
Stop reading and go there, I have and I can assure you that Africans rounded up Africans and cleared tribal lands for personal gain. Whether it was for cash or supplies, it happened, and it is still happening today.
Stop with the politically correct history lesson, go to Africa a see for yourself the inter tribal, inter ethnic and inter religious warfare that continues to this day. Millions of Africans die at the hands of their own people, the same as it's always been. Europeans rarely entered the interior of Africa because of the fear of disease or attack, Africa was largely undiscovered until much later in the slave trade.
You propose that the tribes left behind in Africa are the inferior ones compared to those in the New World. Well don't you think that diet, healthcare and the standard of living had something to do with that over the last 200 years. How many modern New a World 'Africans' could run 50 to 100 miles, fight a war and run back home again?
Your argument hold no credibility, as how did a small crew from a slave ship possibly scout out, capture and incarcerate so many black tribes. The Europeans would have had to employ massive armies and built huge garrisons all over Africa to facilitate such a logistical nitemare. There is no evidence of such, and as already stated, the whiteman had made minimal progress discovering and accessing Africa's interior until after the slave trade was abolished.
It may be unpalatable, but Africans sold their own, period.
Evidently you did not understand what my post was saying. Nowhere did I deny that Africans rounded up Africans, or that this was done for profit, or suggest that the rounding up was done by the small crew of a slave ship. Do you understand the meaning of the word "instigate"? I also did not "propose that the tribes left behind in Africa are the inferior ones compared to those in the New World". Clearly, there were many left in Africa who were not inferior. The point I was clearly making is that persons were not selected to be enslaved on the basis that they were inferior.
No, it is not simply a matter of Africans selling other Africans, period. You need to read some history instead of demanding that I stop reading it. Going to present-day Africa cannot change history.