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The Leopard
29 Sep 15 13:10
Joined:
Date Joined: 05 Apr 06
| Topic/replies: 47,818 | Blogger: The Leopard's blog
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http://www.theguardian.com/world/2015/sep/29/jamaica-calls-britain-pay-billions-pounds-reparations-slavery

David Cameron is facing calls for Britain to pay billions of pounds in reparations for slavery ahead of his first official visit to Jamaica on Tuesday.

Downing Street said the prime minister does not believe reparations or apologies for slavery are the right approach, but the issue is set to overshadow his trade trip to the island, where he will address the Jamaican parliament.

Ahead of his trip, Sir Hilary Beckles, chair of the Caricom Reparations Commission, has led calls for Cameron to start talks on making amends for slavery and referenced the prime minister’s ancestral links to the trade in the 1700s through his cousin six times removed, General Sir James Duff.

In an open letter in the Jamaica Observer, the academic wrote: “You are a grandson of the Jamaican soil who has been privileged and enriched by your forebears’ sins of the enslavement of our ancestors ... You are, Sir, a prized product of this land and the bonanza benefits reaped by your family and inherited by you continue to bind us together like birds of a feather.

“We ask not for handouts or any such acts of indecent submission. We merely ask that you acknowledge responsibility for your share of this situation and move to contribute in a joint programme of rehabilitation and renewal. The continuing suffering of our people, Sir, is as much your nation’s duty to alleviate as it is ours to resolve in steadfast acts of self-responsibility.”

Professor Verene Shepherd, chair of the National Commission on Reparation, told the Jamaica Gleaner that nothing short of an unambiguous apology from Cameron would do, while a Jamaican MP, Mike Henry, called on fellow parliamentarians to turn their back on Cameron if reparations are not on the agenda, noting that the Jamaican parliament has approved a motion for the country to seek reparation from Britain.

“If it is not on the agenda, I will not attend any functions involving the visiting prime minister, and I will cry shame on those who do, considering that there was not a dissenting voice in the debate in parliament,” he told the newspaper.

Jamaica’s prime minister Portia Simpson Miller called for non-confrontational discussions at the UN in 2013, but Britain has never accepted the case for any compensation payments.

A Number 10 official said: “This is a longstanding concern of theirs and there is a longstanding UK position, true of successive governments in the UK, that we don’t think reparations are the right approach.

“The PM’s point will be he wants to focus on the future. We are talking about issues that are centuries old and taken under a different government when he was not even born. He wants to look at the future and how can the UK play a part now in stronger growing economies in the Caribbean.”

The official said Cameron’s purpose in visiting Jamaica and Grenada was to reinvigorate their relationship with the UK.

“He looks at that kind of relationship and who the Caribbean see as their major partners and sees them looking to China and Venezuela and thinks Britain should be in there. Britain has long historical ties with these countries,” she said.
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Report STUDYFORM September 29, 2015 2:41 PM BST
Perhaps Britain should pay for all unhappy Jamaicans seeking their roots to be sent to live in deepest Africa where their ancestors originated.

Maybe they'd jump at the chance.
Report macarony September 29, 2015 2:58 PM BST
Many people from Jamaica live here in Britain; this could in effect mean they are paying for the suffering of their ancestors out of their own pocket.
Also I would be strongly opposed to my tax payments going to pay for this, we the working class made nothing out of colonialism or slavery, just look at the way we were living/existing at the time.
The best way to solve this would to target those families who made money from slavery. I bet there would be a few politicians, social commentators, human rights lawyers and most of the social elite would have red faces, so name them and shame them
Report dustybin September 29, 2015 3:02 PM BST
There is a website where you can search your family name to find out how your family was involved.
I believe palmerston had the greatest ownership of slaves of all.
Report posy September 29, 2015 3:04 PM BST
When I think of Jamaica (which isn't very often)  I think of lazy good for nothings idling in the sun, drinking alcohol, smoking cannabis and occasionally knifing/shooting each other. Reparations ?? I wouldn't be against sending a ship stocked with rum barrels if that'd keep the natives happy.
Report dustybin September 29, 2015 3:10 PM BST
Are they suggesting cameron is descended from creoles?
pmsl, they were largely seen as the worst of both worlds
Report Dr Crippen September 29, 2015 4:28 PM BST
Why not send a fleet of gunboats to Jamaica.
Then round up all the moaners and take them back to Africa?

I wouldn't give them an apology or a single penny.

Cheeky buggers.
Report Dr Crippen September 29, 2015 4:29 PM BST
^Oh I see STUDYFORM beat me to that one.
Report HH Sultan Vinegar September 29, 2015 4:46 PM BST
can't we settle up with them once we've been paid out by the Romans?
Report guinness2dear September 29, 2015 4:50 PM BST
I'd like reparations from Jamaica for all the heartburn suffered over the years eating their cake..
Report alun2005 September 29, 2015 5:20 PM BST
Jamaica has been responsible for so much international crime and misery for decades, but (surprise, surprise) it's all Britain's fault.

What sort of supposed proud, free, independent country wants to keep thrusting the begging bowl before the former colonial master?
Report mobo September 29, 2015 5:20 PM BST
They really do a disservice to the black cause do they not.
Report mecca September 29, 2015 5:39 PM BST

Sep 29, 2015 -- 4:46PM, HH Sultan Vinegar wrote:


can't we settle up with them once we've been paid out by the Romans?


ExcitedLaugh

Report The Leopard September 29, 2015 6:25 PM BST
On LBC now
Report Coachbuster September 29, 2015 6:48 PM BST
we must owe the far east countires trillions then since they are the slaves of the modern world .

Do Jamaicans buy from the current  sweat shop countries or is that against their principles  ?
Report curious-cat September 29, 2015 6:57 PM BST
can't we settle up with them once we've been paid out by the Romans?

and France for the Normans.

Why compensate Jamaica ? What about the African countries which lost their people ?
Report Just Checking September 29, 2015 7:08 PM BST
I wonder what Corbyn thoughts on this is? Maybe he could pump Abbott for her opinion. BlushWhoops
Report Eeternaloptimist September 29, 2015 7:13 PM BST
They live in paradise. People pay big money to go on holiday there. Apart from a few idiots who go to shoot animals not many people want to go on holiday to the townships of South Africa. They've got a nerve asking for a free dinner.
Report donny osmond September 29, 2015 7:14 PM BST
we should get the italians to pay , they enslaved lots of brits
Report Roquebrune September 29, 2015 7:19 PM BST
Just chancing their arm,more chance of Corbyn being PM.
Report Dr Crippen September 29, 2015 8:21 PM BST
How can you compensate them if they're all dead?
Report Dr Crippen September 29, 2015 8:30 PM BST
Phew Alias, you're too sharp for me tonight.
Report tobermory September 29, 2015 8:44 PM BST
Only racists and fascists like posy seem to think there's something wrong with compensating the descendants of people ripped from their homes, transported across an ocean and sold, then worked to death.

who are their descendants ?

you think just black people in Jamaica?

millions of white people are descended from black slaves , it was 8+ generations ago . 30,000 + black people in Britain 200 years ago must have millions of descendants today , and not many of them are are black

what about people descended from slaves and slave owners ?

The whole world benefits from the slavery of 1500-1865 . Without slaves the resources of the Americas would have been too expensive to extract and so there would have been no profit and no capital to fund the industrial revolution. Most of us would be working in fields and a  horse and cart would be the height of technology
Report JBNAY September 29, 2015 8:48 PM BST
Alias hoping for a payout, NAP
Report treetop September 29, 2015 8:54 PM BST
We should charge these nations for passing on the benefit of the English language that has allowed so many of their people to trade and work elsewhere to send remittances back home. Let's call it a draw,eh ?
Report treetop September 29, 2015 8:54 PM BST
We should charge these nations for passing on the benefit of the English language that has allowed so many of their people to trade and work elsewhere to send remittances back home. Let's call it a draw,eh ?
Report maleuk01. September 29, 2015 10:03 PM BST
there just like the rest of the world wanting Britain to pay for something or the other.

Middle east wants us and Europe to pay for all their refugees.

Africa wants us to pay for their food (well there's always an advert on tv asking to give money)

Europe wants us to give billions a year into the pot then give us back next to nothing.

I guess Jamaica thought they might as well give it a go too.

How can you compensate? those affected have been dead at least 100+ years. Current descendants have never had any contact with their "slave" ancestors. Notice they haven't asked African countries whose inhabitants sold the slaves to the slave traders in the first place.

Tell them to fe ck off.
Report wildmanfromborneo September 29, 2015 10:21 PM BST
Obama wants to compensate the American blacks for slavery.

Half of him is due compensation,the other half owes it.
Report Eeternaloptimist September 29, 2015 10:58 PM BST
Alias

I pity you fool. Someone ugly can do something about it via plastic surgery if that is what they want. A bird with no hooters can have implants. If the desire took me I could get a penile reduction. You sir, are and will remain irredeemably stupid.
Report Eeternaloptimist September 29, 2015 10:59 PM BST
How do you compensate a man who has lost nothing?
Report Eeternaloptimist September 29, 2015 11:04 PM BST
Ah the penny has just dropped. Alias is hoping the Jamaicans get some wedge then he can start his class action on behalf of the Scots for all the good hidings the English gave them.
Report pumphol. September 29, 2015 11:21 PM BST
Reports of Barbary raids and kidnappings of those in Italy, Spain, France, Portugal, England, Netherlands, Ireland, Scotland, and as far north as Iceland exist from between the 16th to the 19th centuries. It is estimated that between 1 million and 1.25 million Europeans were captured by pirates and sold as slaves in Tunis, Algiers and Tripoli during this time period.
Report curious-cat September 29, 2015 11:24 PM BST
Those pirates (descendants) are now Tories pumphol. Grin
Report pumphol. September 29, 2015 11:25 PM BST
Exactly C-C Laugh
Report alun2005 September 29, 2015 11:26 PM BST
Curious that Jamaica should be so vocal and sensitive about an issue that ended hundreds of years ago, but seemingly relaxed about Homosexuality still being a crime there.

.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_in_Jamaica
Report mecca September 30, 2015 2:27 AM BST
German civilians must be owed billions in reparations for the various war crimes committed against them by all the allies during and after WW2
Report i_agree_with_nick September 30, 2015 8:59 AM BST
Re WW2 - haven't you heard of the Marshall Plan?

Hasn't Cameron just announced a £300 million development package to fund infrastructure projects in the Caribbean?
Report Foinavon September 30, 2015 9:11 AM BST
Cecil Gutzmore at the University of the West Indies has written that religious fundamentalists believe that the Bible variously declares homosexuality to be an "abomination", a "vile affection", "unseemly", "not natural", or a "form of ungodliness".
Those who commit this great sin are thus unequivocally construed ... as legitimate subjects to be punished by terminal violence, a fate not only dealt out directly by God Himself but, presumably, also by those regarding themselves as His faithful servants and the possible agents of His will. These persons feel a kind of righteous justification for ... acting violently on God's behalf against perceived homosexuals and homosexuality. ... In Jamaica metaphorical stones enthusiastically and destructively cast take the form of homophobic song lyrics, passionate sermons, and parliamentary and party conference speeches that voice a refusal to liberalize anti-homosexuality laws.[39]


The above extracted from the article on Lgbt rights in Jamaica posted by Alun 2005

These same religious people might like to reflect that in the very same Bible their God approves of slavery. there are many references in Deuteronomy and Leviticus, an example being in Leviticus 25. I'm sure many people who profited from slavery at the time used these verses to justify their deeds.
Report Foinavon September 30, 2015 10:03 AM BST
http://biblehub.com/leviticus/25-44.htm
Report HH Sultan Vinegar September 30, 2015 10:45 AM BST
Dave has come up with a good one:

The UK is to spend £25m on building a prison in Jamaica so that foreign criminals in the UK can be sent home to serve sentences in the Caribbean.
More than 600 Jamaican nationals are in UK jails but cannot be deported because of Jamaica's poor prison conditions. Crazy

.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-34398014?ns_mchannel=social&ns_campaign=bbc_breaking&ns_source=twitter&ns_linkname=news_central

600 odd Jamaican lags costing UK taxpayers approx £40K per inmate per year, a Jamaica prison idea could pay for itself in a year or so. ££
Report Dr Crippen September 30, 2015 10:46 AM BST
I don't think any amount of money can justifiably recompense the damage caused by slavery and the empire.

That's alright then because you're not getting any.
Report YOMOMMA September 30, 2015 10:50 AM BST
Do I look Jamaican to you, you silly tw@t. Laugh

You didn't quote the rest of it:

Instead Britons should be forced to walk about with I am a **** tattooed on their heads.
Report Dr Crippen September 30, 2015 10:56 AM BST
Do I look Jamaican to you, you silly tw@t.

How do report abuse on here?

That looks like a classic example of abuse to me.
Report Alias September 30, 2015 11:01 AM BST
JBNAY
JBNAY 29 Sep 15 20:48 Joined: 26 Jan 11 | Topic/replies: 937 | Blogger: JBNAY's blog
Alias hoping for a payout, NAP

As it happens, on checking the website mentioned earlier I found that a distant relative had been compensated for "loss of property".

Do all the right wingers here simply think that anything carried out in the past under the banner of "British interests" or "empire building" is OK then? It's jolly fine to destroy the lives of countless indigenous and native peoples 'cos you want their land/gold/silver/diamonds/spices/tobacco/opium etc etc etc?
Report Dr Crippen September 30, 2015 11:03 AM BST
Alias, why have all your other posts gone?
Report maleuk01. September 30, 2015 12:39 PM BST
If it wasn't for slavery these people trying to claim would not have been born.

Their ancestors mingled with other slaves that they would never have met otherwise. Then they breed with others in same position etc etc and so on so forth.

So not 1 of them would have been born without it.

Don't think anyone is defending slavery, but not only black people from Africa has suffered this. It has been widespread through out human history. (one of the largest blot on the copybook of the human species)

These people need to get rid of the chip on their shoulder and move forward in life. Not 1 of them has ever suffered at the hands of slavery or seen any of the suffering.

If any of those slaves where still alive etc then yes compensation would be appropriate. But they are not Sad
Report Alias September 30, 2015 1:16 PM BST
Dr Crippen

Dr Crippen
29 Sep 15 20:30
Joined: 16 Apr 02
| Topic/replies: 20,479 | Blogger: Dr Crippen's blog
Phew Alias, you're too sharp for me tonight

Not a surprise.

'twas you who missed it, dolt.
Report lfc1971 September 30, 2015 2:16 PM BST
Lazy scroungers.
Report Dr Crippen September 30, 2015 3:16 PM BST
I see that Alias has really got a bee in his bonnet over this. He's calling everybody names now.

You can see that chip on his shoulder a mile away. What is it with these people?
Report treetop September 30, 2015 4:11 PM BST
I am waiting for the PPI call centres to pick up on this one and start calling me to ask if I like reggae music.
Report i_agree_with_nick September 30, 2015 4:15 PM BST
I was about to say that this could be an early Christmas for the no-win-no-fee brigade.

If they get my Nectar card details I'll be expecting a deluge of calls and texts as I do like a bit of Levi Roots' Reggae Reggae sauce.
Report Eeternaloptimist September 30, 2015 4:38 PM BST
Bannockburn Alias?

If we got in a ring and they carried you out feet first after nine rounds would it comfort you when you came round to tell people you won the third round? Laugh

I'm not a Britnat. I voted for Scottish independence. I'm making allowances for your distressed and emotional state because I know you've got a wound which festers but then that's democracy for you. You got another pasting. You're just going to have to suck it up because despite the campaign which was very well run by the independents you lost.

You got that? You LOST.
Report Deplasterer October 1, 2015 2:30 AM BST
We are all descendants from Africa, as men at work said many moons ago "give it back".
Report trilby22 October 1, 2015 4:48 PM BST
Has Alias been chucking insults at people while I've been away?  Must be running low on half bricks.

What a kartoffel kopf that tumshie is Laugh
Report mobo October 2, 2015 2:36 PM BST
Our friends in the middle east and africa think slavery is a good idea.  So lets not rock the boat and upset certain cultures.  Lets be understanding and sympathetic to the idea.
Report Rockinron October 3, 2015 4:59 PM BST
If Cameron gives 'em money ...they'll spend it all on skunk and Ganja !
Report bongo October 4, 2015 12:42 AM BST
Best thing we can do for Jamaica would be to allow free trade so they can compete.
That means for example ending UK farm subsidies, ending the trade tariffs with non-EU countries, and letting local authorities licence premises for recreational drug consumption if they want to.
Report Alias October 4, 2015 9:31 PM BST
In case you hadn't noticed Eo, this is a thread about reparations for slavery, not another excuse for you to fib about voting Yes.

There are many very rich people in the UK whose families became rich on free labour, that is slavery. They became suddenly richer still when their government decided to compensate THEM for the loss of "property" when abolition was introduced. Why should the descendants of those slave owners continue to accumulate wealth which grew from slavery, while the mass of the slaves' descendants live in poverty? So much could be done, starting with building schools and hospitals. Germany paid for the excesses of the Nazis after all. Cameron and co should dig deep too.

When slavery was abolished in the West Indies, former slave holders were paid reparations. If you owned slaves, the British Government saw it as only fair that you were compensated for the inconvenience of no longer benefiting from free labour.

The former slaves got nothing. They were forced to work for free for a period of time, so as to give the former slave holders a chance to catch themselves.  The former slaves were left to catch their tails.

This arrangement was not called slavery because even though you were forced to work for nothing, the people you worked for had to give you nothing.  At least as a slave they threw you scraps of food and cloth.

The Jews received reparations from Germany after World War 2. First Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion argued that the reparation demand was based on recovering as much Jewish property as possible "so that the murderers do not become the heirs as well". He also argued that the reparations were needed to finance the absorption and rehabilitation of the Holocaust survivors in Israel.

There was no financing of the rehabilitation of the victims of slavery.  Just like the Jews, we must not forget our own Holocaust. And we must always seek to ensure that those who built empires on our backs do not get away with a free ride.
-

http://www.nationnews.com/nationnews/news/72953/real-reparations-slavery
Report Alias October 4, 2015 9:35 PM BST
Dr Crippen
30 Sep 15 15:16
Joined: 16 Apr 02
| Topic/replies: 20,523 | Blogger: Dr Crippen's blog
I see that Alias has really got a bee in his bonnet over this. He's calling everybody names now.

You can see that chip on his shoulder a mile away. What is it with these people?


A bee in my bonnet because I believe in fairness and justice for all? I understand that amy be an alien concept to you, Crippen. If you can recognise me by a chip on my shoulder, should I know you by your black shirt?
Report akabula October 4, 2015 10:37 PM BST
I'd recognise you with the half brick in your hand.
Selling your house btw? Can I advise you to give Michelle Thomson a miss.
Unravelling by the day Alias. Wink
Report Dr Crippen October 4, 2015 10:57 PM BST
should I know you by your black shirt?

Tut tut.
Still calling people names because they don't agree with you?

Well you're not getting any money and that's that.
Report akabula October 4, 2015 11:04 PM BST
You have to laugh at comments like I believe in fairness and justice for all

Where do you draw the line? How far back in history should we go. I hope Genghis Khan invested wisely.
Report TheBetterBettor October 5, 2015 9:42 AM BST
SEND THEM BACK TO AFRICA Angry





You couldn't make it up Laugh
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