By Michael A. Dingwall
I saw a movie once that was weird in the extreme. A man had a corpse for a puppet! The poor corpse was tied to strings and was being used in a most sickening manner.
Surprisingly, some people were fooled — until they got near to it and realised that it wasn’t a living person, but a corpse.
Anytime I hear those who support this nonsense call for reparations, I am reminded of that corpse. When will they ever realise that reparations simply will never happen?
The reparation movements have very little support, even amongst its own people. Here in the Caribbean, most people, and especially most young people, only have one main thing on their minds — just getting by or how to migrate to North America and Europe. Indeed, despite all of the efforts of these reparation groups, very few of us even know anything about reparations at all. How will these reparations movements get Europeans to support them when even their own people think they are a pack of jokers?
Of course, there is no basis whatsoever for these reparation claims. The system of slavery was acceptable during its time — both legally and morally, and by both whites and blacks. So which court is ever going to rule that Europe should pay? None whatsoever! Talking about any court case, which Caribbean government or politician will ever muster up the will to vote billions (yes, billions) of scarce public money to carry this lost cause to any respectable court? Absolutely none! They talk and make all sorts of grand speeches about reparations, but they will never act!
The British legal firm (yes, British, oddly enough) that they have on standby to push through any legal case has already stated that the legal fight for reparations will be a very difficult one. This is the same firm that demanded seventeen billion dollars for that Ivory Coast case some years ago — a case that was easy!
Also, despite what some think, this firm, if by some miracle it is ever hired, must be paid whether it wins or not — and it cannot win. Let’s say that by some “Jesus come-back” miracle, a court does rule in favour of these reparation movements, how will it every enforce such a ruling — demanding that these European powers give up all they have? Which army can do that?
Can’t these reparation movements see that theirs is a totally lost cause, fit for the graveyard? Corpses are totally indifferent to reality — and so are these reparation movements. They refuse to accept the glaring historical fact that Africans sold out their own into slavery. Indeed, the Africans have pointed this out, far too often, that if it weren’t for their actions, slavery as we know it would never have happened.
Which European country, during slavery would have bothered with the Africans, if they had to be fighting them all the time to get slaves? None! So why is no demand for reparations being made of these Africans too? Simple — money!
Finally, like all corpses, some of the actions of these reparations movements are starting to stink. Realising that they have lost their cause with us grown-ups, they are now targeting our children. Many of their conferences these days involve “trying to win the minds of the next generation” – that is, trying to fool our kids. This kind of intellectual paedophilia won’t work.
Our children may have very impressionable minds, but they are not idiots! Also, what these reparation movements fail to realise is that these children do eventually grow up!
You know, that corpse on that movie began to decompose so much that it began to attract the worse smell. It started to bloat and all sorts of worms eventually took it over, among other worsts. It bears a striking resemblance to these reparation movements.
Let’s move on and bury this corpse!
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The opinions presented in this content belong to the author and may not necessarily reflect the perspectives or editorial stance of iWitness News. Opinion pieces can be submitted to [email protected].
Many excellent points except two related ones:
1. It would certainly not cost “billions” to take the European powers, especially Great Britain, to the International Criminal Court in The Hague because the case would quickly thrown out on the first legal ground the Europeans would present: the statute of limitations. Slavery ended so long ago in the British colonies — 1838 — that it is not a criminally arguable matter. If it were, they would also have to try the Romans for illegally crucifying our Lord and Saviour in the year 35 AD.
The same holds true for any case in the International Court of Justice.
2. The CARICOM countries are still dependent on aid from the European countries and would never antagonize them by taking them to either court.
This issue will still see a long but painless death as the CARICOM countries continue to blame slavery for sins of their own making for decades to come.