egb_hibs
Private Member
- Joined
- Jul 2, 2002
Does anybody think it is not mental?
I mean it’s utterly bonkers in every possible way.
Those who seek to destroy society aside - no doubt eagerly involved in this as in anything else that furthers the aim - who could possibly think that taking money from a bunch of people who have nothing to do with slavery, and giving it to another bunch who have never been enslaved, is anything other than a recipe for social disaster?
As for the other side of it, giving money to Africa; do its kleptocrats and their Chinese overlords need any more lining of their pockets? Will Africa benefit from the world economy being cremated - as would be the case with more extreme scenarios such as the UN plum who decided Britain alone owes 18 trillion? And then there is the fact that Africa likely contains more descendants of slavers than anywhere else.
And if the sins of the fathers are to be visited on the sons, where does it stop ? Can those of us with Irish heritage expect a pay out (and be exempted from paying in to the descendants of slaves)? Will Africa give us some back for the long history of Corsair slaving runs to Europe or as reimbursement for expenses incurred in ending their slaving industry?
What about what England owes Scotland, and what Scotland owes Ireland, and what the Normans owe the Saxons and the Saxons owe the Celts and the Celts owe the Picts? Should the Arab world not only leave off Israel but give it a pile of cash to repent for their colonialism - before also paying out to Europe for depriving us of North Africa and the Middle East? And so on and on until Abel’s descendants present a bill to Cain’s. The Italians, Greeks, Germans, Brits, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, various countries of the Asian steppes, are going to need particularly deep pockets if the logic was followed through.
Britain surely paid out when it was actually meaningful…spending 2% of national income for 60 years to shut down the trade it had previously been part of. The other countries involved have, along with Britain, given trillions to grateful african despots over the last few decades.
And I wonder what do people even imagine to be the benefits in theory? New Zealand’s payments to Māoris have had a disastrous effect on a substantial number of the latter, encouraging a fair quota of people to prefer getting sozzled all day than work.
How have we let the usual mix of baddies, grifters and hapless sentimentalists get this idea back onto the table? Do we have a civilisational death wish, because it increasingly feels like it.
I mean it’s utterly bonkers in every possible way.
Those who seek to destroy society aside - no doubt eagerly involved in this as in anything else that furthers the aim - who could possibly think that taking money from a bunch of people who have nothing to do with slavery, and giving it to another bunch who have never been enslaved, is anything other than a recipe for social disaster?
As for the other side of it, giving money to Africa; do its kleptocrats and their Chinese overlords need any more lining of their pockets? Will Africa benefit from the world economy being cremated - as would be the case with more extreme scenarios such as the UN plum who decided Britain alone owes 18 trillion? And then there is the fact that Africa likely contains more descendants of slavers than anywhere else.
And if the sins of the fathers are to be visited on the sons, where does it stop ? Can those of us with Irish heritage expect a pay out (and be exempted from paying in to the descendants of slaves)? Will Africa give us some back for the long history of Corsair slaving runs to Europe or as reimbursement for expenses incurred in ending their slaving industry?
What about what England owes Scotland, and what Scotland owes Ireland, and what the Normans owe the Saxons and the Saxons owe the Celts and the Celts owe the Picts? Should the Arab world not only leave off Israel but give it a pile of cash to repent for their colonialism - before also paying out to Europe for depriving us of North Africa and the Middle East? And so on and on until Abel’s descendants present a bill to Cain’s. The Italians, Greeks, Germans, Brits, Arabs, Iranians, Turks, various countries of the Asian steppes, are going to need particularly deep pockets if the logic was followed through.
Britain surely paid out when it was actually meaningful…spending 2% of national income for 60 years to shut down the trade it had previously been part of. The other countries involved have, along with Britain, given trillions to grateful african despots over the last few decades.
And I wonder what do people even imagine to be the benefits in theory? New Zealand’s payments to Māoris have had a disastrous effect on a substantial number of the latter, encouraging a fair quota of people to prefer getting sozzled all day than work.
How have we let the usual mix of baddies, grifters and hapless sentimentalists get this idea back onto the table? Do we have a civilisational death wish, because it increasingly feels like it.
