Britain destroyed records of colonial crimes

The true story of murder, rape and dispossession is retold from generation to generation. Generations unborn will keep the truth close to their hearts. The hurt lives on.

 

Here's a place to start one's inquiry about the British.

http://www.amazon.com/The-Great-Shame-Triumph-Speaking/dp/0385476973

 

Albert, I love history, for example I really enjoyed a few days looking at history in Boston (that's your hometown isn't it? The nick sort of suggests it). But history as fascinating as it is, is not contemporary living. You seem to have an idea of Ireland - both in the Province and in the Repubic - that is locked into the 1920s. Things have changed, trust me.

 

The phenomenon of diaspora populations which diverge from the natal group is pretty well documented. You have a point.

But your point is also very typically American with its desire to move on. Most peoples in the world aren't like that unless they have something to gain by moving on.

The Irish have "apparently" moved on...but that was a function of the desire for prosperity and European integration. That world is coming to an end for them.

Have the Greek and Turkish Cypriots moved on? Have the Han Chinese moved on? Have the Palestinians moved on?

People move on when it is manifestly in their interest to do so. If it is not manifestly in their interest to move on, they don't.

In the meanwhile, I have no need to move on. America simply has nothing to gain by a continued close relationship with Britain.
The best retribution is to cut the British off at the knees and let them drift through unfriendly time and space utterly alone.

 

Fair points about the Greek diaspora and the outrages in Asia Minor, still a very sore point with a lot of Greeks I know. I was working in an outback opal mining town in 1974 when Turkey invaded Cyprus, the town I was living in had a very large Greek population. The Greek community there was outraged. Yes, some history is contemporary which sort of puts the lie to my point but it's fair enough.

As for Britain and the United States. It might seem strange to us today but some apparently fairly serious commentators prior to the First World War, which we all know was fought between the western Allies and the Central Powers, a war between the imperialists (ironic as I write this on Anzac Day), were predicting that the first serious intercontinental war would be between the US and the British Empire. I suppose those commentators saw it as a clash of the old and new empires.

I am aware that there was a lot of anti-British feeling across the United States prior to and during the Second World War as well. The reluctance to join the European war wasn't simply as a result of an isolationist outlook, it was actually supported by anti-British feeling among Americans. We know of course that Pearl Harbor put and end to that.

I don't think there's a special relationship either. On a personal level I think Brits and Americans perceive each other as being a bit strange and there is still some residual, gut-level hostility but that's usually overcome by personal contact which confronts fondly held stereotypes. On the political level it's about convenience, always has been. The Brits are still a bit cranky that they were left on their own to rebuild after the Second World War while the Americans shored up their foothold in Europe and began to put up opposition to the Soviets in Europe. But again self-interest dictated American policy which is what it should do for any country. The Brits still can't work out if they're Europeans or not, they keep looking across the Atlantic for validation that the special relationship is still in place. From what I see of the Obama Administration it's not, it doesn't seem to be that interested and after Blair's clumsy relationship with BushCheney I would think the Brits would be okay with the Atlantic Ocean getting much wider than it already is.

The Brits won't ever be alone, politically speaking. Despite the confusion over Europe they still have the Commonwealth and never doubt the strength of political ties in that network. Regardless of how unsettled it seems at times it still has a hold on popular thinking. Even though Britain dumped her former colonial trading partners for entry to the Common Market as the EU was once called, the cultural and political ties are still very strong.

I rather suspect that the US will become isolationist once more though. The Obama Administration isn't keen, it seems to me, to develop strong ties beyond the currently existing treaties and alliances. I wonder if a Romney Administration would also take the same approach.

 

In reference to the original article which started this thread and avoiding the topic of many obnoxious Brits who impose themselves in a role of moral guardians patronizing everyone endlessly, irrespective of the earlier British colonial trangressions, in Malaysia they have to be given credit for averting a communist take-over of that country in the late 40s and 50s. The way the British had conducted themselves in that country was examplary and served as a model of how to enact communist containment during many other insurrections which followed (Algeria, Kenya), usually with lesser success in matters such as incurred civilian casualties and winning popular support. The British troops did some displacing there, moving villages around into guarded safe areas protecting them from mudrer, kidnappings, extorsion in food and provisions, preventing recruitment into the insurgent ranks etc. The Marxist troops soon lost all popular support among the civilian population, retreated deep into the bush where the insurrection gradually fizzled out. Malasia enjoyed a semi-independent status through all that and was soon granted a full independence as soon as the crisis was over and the political climate was stable. The alternative could have been Cambodia.

On the treatment of the Mau Mau, the British responded with repressive measures to a much greater level of brutality. The vast majority of victims claimed by Mau Mau were native black Kenyans.

 

Good post. Good insight.

However, I would like to observe that the Commonwealth has no great power listed among its members. There is no core state to uphold the rest.

Isolationism is America's foreign policy default mode. It's time for America to turn inward.

 

You are entering an unfathomable area , Bertie .
They put me in the slammer for 3 or 4 days , only hours after sentencing you , for calling somebody a jack ass . Now as we all know , that term simply clarifies that the subject is a male Ass rather than a female one , ( a Jenny ) .
Barely a mild insult , and , in the specific instance , an act which deserved reward , not punishment , for restraint and understatement . Extra Credits would have been more fitting , given the absurd post it referred to .
Naturally I challenged , pointing out that I had made a typo and it should have read Jack Arsse which isn't a word and therefore cannot be treated as one .
That such a telling defence was not appreciated is a lesson in itself .
The moral is , if you are going to insult somebody , go the distance and call them a Mother Focking Cont , to make it all worthwhile .
For , let's face it , there is no pleasure to be punished for calling someone lovingly , a silly old Jack Ass .Or , as I did , just the one word , Jackass .
PS The verdict depends on which Wimp has bleated and cried , and the reputation of the sinner involved .

Retard and Moron are recommended . But NOT Jackass .

 

Cry baby - cry me a river . .

 

I reserve my tears for the passing of those I love. I don't cry over foolishness.

 

Yes. Or you could look at US, where the colonialists went and stayed, where the slave owners went and stayed and had to have their hands prised away from slaves...most of the British you're banging on about are probably US. Dream on though

 

I have this need to delete my message.