Caribbean Payback: Europe's Former Colonies Battle For Slavery Reparations

.......”This makes the Virgin Islands’ homicide rate about 10 times higher than the U.S. average of 4.7 homicides per 100,000 people in 2011, the most recent year of data published by the FBI”.

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I just lived in the USVI and St. Maarten for approximately 18 months. There were many reasons for NOT buying a condo there, or staying any longer there, but the quote above was at the top of the list. To say nothing of your life, condos don’t go up in value in this environment. And, for sure, going to bed on those islands at night was an exercise in fear and made you appreciate the 2nd Ammendment and Texas.

Now, in fairness, the murder rate has gone down from the quote above but it is still way high and all the underlying problems are still there. A month before I left, my next door neighbor had an AK 47 stuck in her face and was robbed at a restaurant. Then a huge gunfight erupted out in the parking lot with police. My friend in St. Maarten where I also lived had his ten year old son robbed at knife point of his cell phone. An American couple living 2,500 feet (in St. Maarten) from me was hacked to death by their own security guards.

So, to say it (the Caribbean) is a dangerous place is an understatement and it is aided and abetted by newspapers which either back page the stories or run them one day and then you don’t ever hear anything again.

They are calling for Europe and the Caribbean to collaborate in writing a new shared history of empire and colonialism -- a history that would enable the region’s population to productively reimagine its present and future politics.

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What is this even supposed to mean? Everyone can agree slavery was a horrible beginning, but be that as it may, what are any of these places worth outside of tourism?

Annual reparation payments. That's exactly what it means.

“Europe gave them roads, railways, the model for a functioning civil service, the concept of property rights, and some of the most beautiful and bountiful places on the planet to call their own. Any “debt” that may have existed has been repaid a thousand times over.”

No matter; whether in the highest levels of government in the Caribbean or in Penn Station in Newark, we are expected to simply pay when a darker person with palm outstretched asks for money. We can put them up there with death and taxes...

I didn’t realize it was that bad, Cen-Tejas. And what a pity, all that lovely climate and scenery. Glad you got out without hatchet marks.

Perhaps if more people knew the dangers there, they wouldn’t buy homes or go on vacation there. Perhaps the local “officials” would do something about crime then.

My ancestors came from Wales to Nevis, but that was in 1650. For the first time, after reading your post, I’m glad they left that gorgeous island.

Any “debt” that may have existed has been repaid a thousand times over.

If anyone ever calculates the life expectancy of these Caribbean nations today, vs the African sources of slaves, they may find that the net "reparations" is negative!

Then what will they do?

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