Posted on 05/06/2015 5:59:05 PM PDT by 2ndDivisionVet
(From left) Reverend Jesse Jackson, US actor Danny Glover, and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles, were among the speakers at the event.
NEW YORK, USA (CMC) — An international conference on reparations has ended here with a call for Caribbean governments to proceed urgently with the recommendation that the slave-owning and slave-trading European nations be invited to attend an inter-governmental reparatory justice summit in 2015.
In addition, delegates also agreed to organise two global reparations summits, the first in 2016 to be held in the Caribbean and another in 2017 in Europe.
Don Rojas, the director of communications and international relations at the Institute of the Black World 21st Century (IBW), which convened the three-day conference that ended here on Sunday, described the event as historic and unprecedented and "a tremendous success".
"It was inspired in large measure by the unanimous action taken almost two years ago by the Caricom (Caribbean Community) nations to establish a regional reparations commission, and it will provide a huge momentum to the growing global reparations movement," said Rojas, the former press secretary to the slain Grenada revolutionary leader and prime minister, Maurice Bishop.
Participants have also agreed to consolidate the growing African global reparations movement and to call on all civil society organisations and governments in countries around the world with Afro-descendant populations to establish national reparations commissions or committees.
According to a communiqué issued on Monday night, participants also agreed unanimously to engage in vigorous outreach efforts to educate and organise the youth, including those active in the Black Live Matter Movement in the United States.
In the spirit of the "Durban Declaration" of 2001, which declared the Atlantic Slave Trade and chattel slavery as historical crimes against humanity, the National/International Reparations Summit), brought together hundreds of participants from some 20 countries in the Caribbean, Europe, Central and South America, as well as from Canada and the United States.
IPW said summit participants held discussions and "engaged dialogues on the imperative of reparations for people of African descent around the world and also for the indigenous peoples of the Americas who suffered genocide at the hands of European slave-holding powers".
These Pan-Africanists and reparations activists viewed the National/International Summit as "beginning the final stage in the long historical process of seeking justice, repair, restitution and recompense for the monstrous crimes of African enslavement and native genocide," IBW said.
The communiqué said that the Caricom Reparations Commission (CRC) is committed to support the National African-American Reparations Commission (NAARC) in "the form of encouraging and facilitating Caribbean political leaders, artists, civil society leaders and scholar/activists to participate in various NAARC initiatives in the months and years ahead.
"NAARC recognised the vision of Caricom in establishing the Reparations Commission and will support the Caricom Reparations Commission in its activities and initiatives in the future," it said, noting that the NAARC and the CRC welcomed the establishment of an European Reparations Commission, along with those recently established in Britain and Canada.
It said meetings are being planned with these organisations for next year.
The New York summit also recognised US Congressman John Conyers as a "champion of the reparations movement and the consistent sponsor of HR40 -- the reparations study bill in the US Congress.
It urged the US Congressional Black Caucus, major civil and human rights organisations in the US, and the US labour movement to support the global reparations movement.
The conference applauded the General Assembly of the United Nations on the declaration of 2015-2024 as the Decade for People of African Descent, expressing strong support for the decade's programme of activities.
It also called on member-states of the UN to officially launch the decade and applauded the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organisation for its continued support of the Slave Routes Project and the General History of Africa Project.
Additionally, the summit applauded the government of Brazil for declaring mandatory the study of African history and culture at all levels of the educational system in that country, and called on all countries with African-descended populations to do likewise and to recognise the "validity of traditional African spirituality".
The summit called on the global reparations movement to develop sustainable funding strategies, urging the international community to work towards a 21st century new moral order for sustainable development in which reparatory justice is an integral component, according to the communiqué.
The summit featured rousing speeches by, among others, US civil rights leader, the Rev Jesse Jackson; US actor Danny Glover; and Vice-Chancellor of the University of the West Indies, Sir Hilary Beckles.
The IBW International Reparations Summit came two years after the 15-nation Caricom group decided unanimously to form a reparations commission and to demand that the former European colonial and slave-trading powers pay the debt owed to African people in the Caribbean region for the enormous wealth made off of their forced and uncompensated labour during the centuries of African enslavement.
In January 2014, Caricom issued a 10-point programme for "Reparatory Justice" that frames their reparations demands as a "development strategy".
The New York summit's stated goal was to "use reparations payments to deal collectively with pressing economic and educational problems facing the citizens of the Caribbean that trace their origins to the underdevelopment imposed by slavery, slave trading, native genocide, and economic exploitation by the European nations," IBW said.
They can kiss my ASS!
Would full reparations include relocation to one’s continent of ancestry?
Singapore to the best of my knowledge has never asked for reparations from Great Britain. I wonder if the reason has something to do with the fact that in 1960 per capita real GDP was 50% higher in GB than in Singapore but that in 2015
it was 50% higher in Singapore than in GB.
When I hear the word reparations, the first word that comes into my mind (with some exceptions) is LOSER!
Fair reparations would be to compare the living standard, or annual incomes, of diaspora Africans to the living standards in the West or Central African nations from which most originated.
If the living standard of the African nations exceed the living standard of diaspora Africans in their diaspora nation homes, then reparations to bring them up to African standards would be due.
If the living standard of diaspora Africans in their diaspora nation homes (the US for instance) exceeds living standards in the African nations, then a surtax would be assessed in recognition of the econonmic benefit realized by descendents of slaves in diaspora nations.
Lets talk aboutreparations from blacks who are on record pace murdring whites.
People that never owned slaves, and most likely neither did their ancestors, paying those that never were slaves.
Absolute complete lunacy!
But then again when I first heard of obama, did a little reading on him, learned he was a nobody, no qualifications with a mysterious background, I figured it would be lunacy to think of this guy as president.
Not one d@mn dime. Never. Living, health, and economic conditions here are far superior, even for the poorest, compared to most African nations of the former slaves origin.
Thats “reparations” enough.
From John Edwards' official website:
"Danny Glover Campaigns for John Edwards"
site of course is no longer up
http://www.johnedwards.com/media/video/glover/
______________________________________________
Film star [Danny Glover] calls for release of Cuban Five
Published Sep 25, 2008
Actor Danny Glover sent the following message of solidarity on Sept. 13 to the concert “Five Stars and One Song” held in New York in support of the Cuban 5:
"Weeks ago, I arranged my schedule to be with you tonight to support growing national and global efforts to free the Cuban five patriots who have been unjustly incarcerated by the U.S. government for defending their beloved fellow Cuban citizens and their government from the heinous, murderous terrorist attacks launched with impunity from the United States."
Slavery in modern Africa
Slavery in Africa continues today. Slavery existed in Africa before the arrival of Europeans - as did a slave trade that exported millions of sub-Saharan Africans to North Africa, the Middle East, and the Persian Gulf.[1] However, slavery and bondage are still African realities. Hundreds of thousands of Africans still suffer in silence in slave-like situations of forced labour and commercial sexual exploitation from which they cannot free themselves.
Modern-day enslavers also exploit lack of political will at the highest levels of some African governments to effectively tackle trafficking and its root causes. Weak interagency co-ordination and low funding levels for ministries tasked with prosecuting traffickers, preventing trafficking and protecting victims also enable traffickers to continue their operations. The transnational criminal nature of trafficking also overwhelms many countries’ law enforcement agencies, which are not equipped to fight organised criminal gangs that operate across national boundaries with impunity.
Slavery by African country
Chad
IRIN (Integrated Regional Information Networks) of the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs reports children being sold to Arab herdsmen in Chad. As part of a new identity imposed on them the herdsman "...change their name, forbid them to speak in their native dialect, ban them from conversing with people from their own ethnic group and make them adopt Islam as their religion."[2]
Mali
The Malian government denies that slavery exists, however, the slavery in Timbuktu is obvious. Slavery still continues with some Tuaregs holding Bella people.[3]
Mauritania
A system exists now by which Arab Muslims -- the bidanes -- own black slaves, the haratines.[4] An estimated 90,000 black Mauritanians remain essentially enslaved to Arab/Berber owners.[5] The ruling bidanes (the name means literally white-skinned people) are descendants of the Sanhaja Berbers and Beni Hassan Arab tribes who emigrated to northwest Africa and present-day Western Sahara and Mauritania during the Middle Ages.[6] According to some estimates, up to 600,000 black Mauritanians, or 20% of the population, are still enslaved, many of them used as bonded labour.[7] Slavery in Mauritania was finally criminalized in August 2007.[8] Malouma Messoud, a former Muslim slave has explained her enslavement to a religious leader:
"We didn't learn this history in school; we simply grew up within this social hierarchy and lived it. Slaves believe that if they do not obey their masters, they will not go to paradise. They are raised in a social and religious system that everyday reinforces this idea.[9]"
In Mauritania, despite slave ownership having been banned by law in 1981, hereditary slavery continues.[10] Moreover, according to Amnesty International:
"Not only has the government denied the existence of slavery and failed to respond to cases brought to its attention, it has hampered the activities of organisations which are working on the issue, including by refusing to grant them official recognition".[11]
Imam El Hassan Ould Benyamin of Tayarat in 1997 expressed his views about earlier proclamations ending slavery in his country as follows:
"[it] is contrary to the teachings of the fundamental text of Islamic law, the Quran ... [and] amounts to the expropriation from muslims of their goods; goods that were acquired legally. The state, if it is Islamic, does not have the right to seize my house, my wife or my slave."[12]
Niger
In Niger, where the practice of slavery was outlawed in 2003, a study found that almost 8% of the population are still slaves.[13] Slavery dates back for centuries in Niger and was finally criminalised in 2003, after five years of lobbying by Anti-Slavery International and Nigerian human-rights group, Timidria.[14] More than 870,000 people still live in conditions of forced labour, according to Timidria, a local human rights group.[15][16]
Descent-based slavery, where generations of the same family are born into bondage, is traditionally practised by at least four of Niger’s eight ethnic groups. The slave masters are mostly from the nomadic tribes — the Tuareg, Fulani, Toubou and Arabs.[17] It is especially rife among the warlike Tuareg, in the wild deserts of north and west Niger, who roam near the borders with Mali and Algeria.[18] In the region of Say on the right bank of the river Niger, it is estimated that three-quarters of the population around 1904-1905 was composed of slaves.[19]
Historically, the Tuareg swelled the ranks of their slaves during war raids into other peoples’ lands. War was then the main source of supply of slaves, although many were bought at slave markets, run mostly by indigenous peoples.[20][21]
Sudan
Francis Bok, former Sudanese slave. At the age of seven, he was captured during a raid in Southern Sudan, and enslaved for ten years.(Courtesy Unitarian Universalist Association/Jeanette Leardi)
There has been a recrudescence of jihad slavery since 1983 in the Sudan.[23][24]
Slavery in the Sudan predates Islam, but continued under Islamic rulers and has never completely died out in Sudan. In the Sudan, Christian and animist captives in the civil war are often enslaved, and female prisoners are often used sexually, with their Muslim captors claiming that Islamic law grants them permission.[25] According to CBS news, slaves have been sold for $50 apiece. [1] In 2001 CNN reported the Bush administration was under pressure from Congress, including conservative Christians concerned about religious oppression and slavery, to address issues involved in the Sudanese conflict.[26] CNN has also quoted the U.S. State Department's allegations: "The [Sudanese] government's support of slavery and its continued military action which has resulted in numerous deaths are due in part to the victims' religious beliefs." [2]
Jok Madut Jok, professor of History at Loyola Marymount University, states that the abduction of women and children of the south by north is slavery by any definition. The government of Sudan insists that the whole matter is no more than the traditional tribal feuding over resources.[27]
It is estimated that as many as 200,000 people had been taken into slavery during the Second Sudanese Civil War. The slaves are mostly Dinka people.[28][29]
Child slave trade
The trading of children has been reported in modern Nigeria and Benin.[30] The children are kidnapped or purchased for $20 - $70 each by slavers in poorer states, such as Benin and Togo, and sold into slavery in sex dens or as unpaid domestic servants for $350.00 each in wealthier oil-rich states, such as Nigeria and Gabon.[31] [32]
Ghana, Togo, Benin
In parts of Ghana, a family may be punished for an offense by having to turn over a virgin female to serve as a sex slave within the offended family.[33] In this instance, the woman does not gain the title of "wife". In parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin, shrine slavery persists, despite being illegal in Ghana since 1998. In this system of slavery, sometimes called trokosi (in Ghana) or voodoosi in Togo and Benin, or ritual servitude, young virgin girls are given as slaves in traditional shrines and are used sexually by the priests in addition to providing free labor for the shrine.[34]
Ethiopia
Mahider Bitew, Children's Rights and Protection expert at the Ministry of Women's Affairs, says that some isolated studies conducted in Dire Dawa, Shashemene, Awassa and three other towns of the country indicate that the problem of child trafficking is very serious. According to a 2003 study about one thousand children were trafficked via Dire Dawa to countries of the Middle East. The majority of those children were girls, most of whom were forced to be sex workers after leaving the country. The International Labor Organization (ILO) has identified prostitution as the Worst Form of Child Labor.[35]
In Ethiopia, children are trafficked into prostitution, to provide cheap or unpaid labor and to work as domestic servants or beggars. The ages of these children are usually between 10 and 18 and their trafficking is from the country to urban centers and from cities to the country. Boys are often expected to work in activities such as herding cattle in rural areas and in the weaving industry in Addis Ababa, and other major towns. Girls are expected to take responsibilities for domestic chores, childcare and looking after the sick and to work as prostitutes.[35]
Well of course in order for reparations to work - to find out who pays and who collects - everyone would need to be completely profiled by race for several generations back.
However, note that even the Nazis didn’t go that far. So the reparations crowd wants to be even more invasive than the Nazis??
Oh yeah, the public should love that argument
Support that calculus, and I'm on board. Otherwise, go pound sand.
From the time of the Founding, including in the Constitution, there was a steady movement toward ending slavery, the institution inherited from the British. The US government sent 400,000 Americans to their deaths to end it, Will THEY or their families and descendants be compensated?
And who pays? The descendants of slave-owners? What about those who became Americans later? Barack Obama’s ancestors owned slaves. Does he pay? How much?
Send ‘em back home to Africa, problem solved.
I got an idea!
How ‘bout all you dark racists go fsck yourselves?
I got a better idea.
We can bypass all that folderol, and the commie bastards can just bugger off!
I think they’ll do it on a national basis. Slavery was legal in the US, therefore the US Government via the Treasury via the tax payer will pay those owed.
Now who is owed would require that background checking like you said.
It would essentially boil down to anyone black would get a check, and any non-black tax payer would pay.
However it turns out, it would be totally racist. No one can be held accountable for the actions of their ancestors, especially since the vast majority of US taxpayers never had ancestors that held slaves.
If the lefties tried to enforce it, the majority would backlash and we’d have CWII. It’s suicidal for them, they’ve alienated the military, now the police forces and then we have the good ole boys with a rifle hiding behind every blade of grass.
It just won’t happen.
Hey, I wonder if I can get the title to my great-grandparents land in 1919 Russia - which happens to be in a very productive oil and natural gas field. My grandmother remembered that some of the land was “gummy” and you couldn’t farm on it - just like in the Beverly Hillbillies.
Yeah, that’ll be happening...
Just give it up, people; those wrongs didn’t happen to you. Move on, like your fellow Dems always want everyone (else, apparently) to do.
Whining for reparations. They are still slaves
Just another in an endless list of Black cons calculated to steal White money.
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