Jamaicans shun UK royal visit, demand slavery reparations

[Celerity]

https://www.stuff.co.nz/world/europe/300546709/jamaicans-shun-uk-royal-visit-demand-slavery-reparations



Dozens of well-known leaders in Jamaica including professors and politicians are demanding an apology and slavery reparations as the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge prepare for a trip to the former British colony.

The group is rejecting the visit of Prince William and Kate scheduled for Tuesday, part of a larger trip to the Caribbean region that coincides with the 60th anniversary of Jamaica’s independence and the 70th anniversary of the coronation of Queen Elizabeth II.

“We see no reason to celebrate 70 years of the ascension of your grandmother to the British throne because her leadership, and that of her predecessors, have perpetuated the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind,” read a letter published Sunday ahead of the couple’s visit and signed by 100 Jamaican leaders.

The week long royal tour of Central America and the Caribbean that began on Saturday was taken at the behest of the queen, who is William’s grandmother. The trip aims to strengthen Britain’s ties with Commonwealth countries, but it’s off to a rocky start and comes as some countries consider cutting ties to the monarchy like the eastern Caribbean island of Barbados did in November.

snip

[old as dirt]

1. Yeah! Take all their cows!

Oh, that's right.

This is the 21st century, isn't it?

Sorry...got my mind stuck in the 1700s.

[EX500rider]

2. "the greatest human rights tragedy in the history of humankind"

A tragedy for sure but I doubt the worse in history, that is a pretty sweeping statement.
WWII killed over 70 million, the Mongol conquests over 30 million when the world population was much smaller, Stalin & Mao's death toll is huge, Roman not only conquered Carthage they totally destroyed it and salted the earth, the Mongols were recorded as have built pyramids out of the skulls of their enemies using the populations of whole cities. The Russian Army in WWII raped millions, the list goes on.

[brush]

4. The whole slave trade, not just the Jamaican part of it, lasted for...

centuries, not decades like your examples, with millions killed or worked to death with their labor stolen.

Yeah, cumulatively, I'd say it is the worst in history. Its repercussions are still being felt daily, not just here in the US with the legacy of it...the regular repetition of cop killings of innocent Blacks...but all over the African diaspora this happens.

Just recently in the Ukraine refugee crisis, African students, unlike the white refugees trying to get out, were discriminated against and pushed away.

[EX500rider]

5. How long did the Roman slave trade last? 7+ centuries?

Estimates of the percentage of the population of Italy who were slaves range from 30 to 40 per cent in the 1st century BC.

How long in the Arab world & N Africa? Where it still exists to this day.

Terrible, yes but not "the worse in history" imo, that covers a lot of tragedies.

[brush]

6. You've made my point yourself. Slavery was/is the worst ever.

Not the wars and all that lasted for mere decades.

[EX500rider]

8. Not in my opinion

If offered a choice of slavery or to see your whole city raped & tortured to death and your skulls made into a pyramid I would pick the latter as the worse human rights abuse.

[brush]

10. That's your opinion. You seem to think rapes and killings and whippings didn't...

happen over the centuries of enslavement? Of course they did, and continuously, not one time. Hundreds, thousands of times.

[EX500rider]

11. Yes and towns & cities have been sacked & pillaged since pre-history also.

Countless times.
And you're not going to convince me slavery is more evil them marching people into gas chambers by the millions.

[brush]

12. Both being equally horrendous...killings, torture, rape...

but enslaving, depriving of liberty and treating other humans as less than human is as bad and inhuman as it gets.

[malaise]

14. Millions of Africans were stolen from the Continent- raped

robbed and exploited. Some were thrown overboard for insurance profits. All evil is evil,but to have someone dismiss the Atlantic Slave Trade as no biggie is frightening. No surprise though - there’s a pattern.

[brush]

3. Well, this took a long time coming but it was inevitable...

and will, IMO, have lasting repercussions that will ripple through the Carribbean and possibly to the US.

When you think about it, it takes some cojones to think that a nation will continue to celebrate the nation which exploited its resources for centuries and suppressed its people.

Harry and Megan's decision is looking better and better everyday.

[UTUSN]

7. Hah! - who do them Jamaicans think they are to sponge - *ROYALS*?!

[pecosbob]

9. You look me with this scorn then you eat up all my corn

Gonna chase those crazy baldheads out of town.

[malaise]

13. They should have sprayed home

That is all