Moving back to the UK to retire - bad idea?
Aug 7th 2003, 4:23 am
#31
Just Joined
Joined: Jul 2003
Location: Pune India
Posts: 11
The history British people were taught in schools is selective: don’t think that we don’t produce our own propaganda! If you knew the very recent, very proximate history of Scotland and Ireland, for example, you would have found that there were land clearances, ethnic cleaning, and many of the other atrocities you describe as being an ‘African’ problem. British history is a secret one.
Africa’s present problems are an aftermath of colonialism. In 1997, Britain was the worlds second largest producer of conventional weapons ( to the tune of U.S.$5.9 billion). Although the US dominated the market in delivery to developing nations the UK has sold U.S $ 5.3 Bn to the third world. In other words, nearly all of the UKs arms production ends up in the third world. According to Human Rights organizations, armed conflict in Africa and other parts of the world have escalated in proportion to the steady influx of arms. It is not only my believe that gross violation of human rights seldom occurs without rich nations bearing some of the culpability. And before the cries of the ‘it’s not our fault people used the weapons’ start, under international laws such as the Nuremburg Accords, “arms-producing and arms-transshipment states that supplied these weapons to abusive forces, or failed to interdict such transfers, were complicit in the violations that were committed with these weapons.� (Source, Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/worldreport99/arms/arms3.html)
Naturally, it is easy to racialise conflict in Africa and that is what many have done. In fact the conflicts, ancient, fed by colonial and post-colonial practices and invariably fought with modern weapons are never likened to Northern Ireland even though that conflict bares many similarities. There is a strong link between a history of colonial rule and the likelihood of conflict. For example, as a result of British mismanagement in India, 10 million people lost their lives in the Partition.
But, then, I wouldn’t want to burst your bubble.
Africa’s present problems are an aftermath of colonialism. In 1997, Britain was the worlds second largest producer of conventional weapons ( to the tune of U.S.$5.9 billion). Although the US dominated the market in delivery to developing nations the UK has sold U.S $ 5.3 Bn to the third world. In other words, nearly all of the UKs arms production ends up in the third world. According to Human Rights organizations, armed conflict in Africa and other parts of the world have escalated in proportion to the steady influx of arms. It is not only my believe that gross violation of human rights seldom occurs without rich nations bearing some of the culpability. And before the cries of the ‘it’s not our fault people used the weapons’ start, under international laws such as the Nuremburg Accords, “arms-producing and arms-transshipment states that supplied these weapons to abusive forces, or failed to interdict such transfers, were complicit in the violations that were committed with these weapons.� (Source, Human Rights Watch http://www.hrw.org/worldreport99/arms/arms3.html)
Naturally, it is easy to racialise conflict in Africa and that is what many have done. In fact the conflicts, ancient, fed by colonial and post-colonial practices and invariably fought with modern weapons are never likened to Northern Ireland even though that conflict bares many similarities. There is a strong link between a history of colonial rule and the likelihood of conflict. For example, as a result of British mismanagement in India, 10 million people lost their lives in the Partition.
But, then, I wouldn’t want to burst your bubble.
