Rasta bid for slavery reparations fails

globe and mail/AP ^ | 01/17/03 | uncredited

[kaylar]

Kingston — Britain has rejected a claim by Jamaican Rastafarians for slavery reparations, saying it cannot be held accountable for wrongs in past centuries

.

Members of the Rastafarian Brethen of Jamaica made the request to the Queen during her visit to Jamaica in February, 2002.

The group argues that Jamaica is entitled to reparations such as debt relief in exchange for years of slavery, which they say has left the former British colony destitute.

In letter sent to the group's legal adviser on Jan. 2, the British High Commission called slavery "barbaric" and "uncivilized" but ruled out compensation for descendants of slaves.

"We regret and condemn the inequities of the historic slave trade, but these shameful activities belong to the past," the high commission wrote, according to a copy of the letter obtained by Associated Press. "Governments today cannot take responsibility for what happened over 150 years ago."

Instead, Britain will explore ways to "commemorate" victims of slavery, the high commission said. It did not elaborate.

Ras Howie Wright, a spokesman for the Rastafarian Brethen of Jamaica, denounced the decision Wednesday and said his group would continue seeking reparations through various world bodies like the Organization for African Unity.

"The Queen is wrong," he said. "A crime against humanity doesn't have any specific time. No matter how long ago you did it, you still have to pay."

Advocates of slavery reparations estimate the damages owed to descendants of African slaves in the trillions of U.S. dollars.

Howard Hamilton, Jamaica's public defender and the Rastafarians' legal adviser, said the group would settle for the cancellation of Jamaica's foreign debt to Britain, estimated at more than $109-million (U.S.).

He said the British government owed descendants of Jamaican slaves the same treatment afforded to past slave owners in Jamaica, who received a total of $10.5-million in compensation after slavery was abolished on the island in 1834. Today, the same amount would be worth $184-million (U.S.).

A group in the South American country of Guyana — the Kingdom of Descendants of Africans in Guyana — received a similar response from Britain, activist Violet Jean-Baptiste said.

Mr. Hamilton said he would try to link the Rastafarians' effort with similar claims being considered in the United States.

Rastafarianism emerged in Jamaica and spread throughout the Caribbean in the 1930s out of the anger felt by descendants of slaves toward the oppression of blacks. It is based on a philosophy of moving back toward African roots.

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Copyright © 2002 Bell Globemedia Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved

[kaylar]

Howard Hamilton, Jamaica's public defender and the Rastafarians' legal adviser, said the group would settle for the cancellation of Jamaica's foreign debt to Britain, estimated at more than $109-million (U.S.).

He'll "settle for" nuthin'.

Good on you, UK-and keep it up. Don't give in to the global shakedown artists.

I hope the US courts are as intelligent.

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[syriacus]

I hope the US courts are as intelligent.

Me, too.

[Flashman_at_the_charge]

"The Queen is wrong," he said. "A crime against humanity doesn't have any specific time. No matter how long ago you did it, you still have to pay."

The Queen is right. The point of the gentleman’s argument being correct only if we and not our ancestors did the crime, then we would be liable.

[kaylar]

I gotta be blunt, though....I am worried about what will happen when the first slavery reparations suits are heard. If the law is followed, the suits will, be thrown out-but how many times have the laws been ignored over the last few decades, by "activist" judges? But the real thing to worry about is one corporation caving in to the shakedown artists : if one goes, look for others to cave , too.

[syriacus]

Members of the Rastafarian Brethen of Jamaica made the request to the Queen during her visit to Jamaica in February, 2002.

I guess Malvo was not there to greet the queen.

Suspect left Jamaica in early teens —  Seventeen-year-old John Lee Malvo, who was arrested as one of two suspects in the Washington-area sniper shootings, left Jamaica in his early teens and moved to another Caribbean island before migrating to the United States, his father and Jamaican officials said Thursday.

[conservatism_IS_compassion]

"A crime against humanity doesn't have any specific time. No matter how long ago you did it, you still have to pay."

Well, now, that depends . . . if you are in a position to extort the payment by force, then of course you are "right." If however you are a supplicant with no appreciable power, you will have to make a better case than the continuity of the government over the past three centuries.

You are after all asking "reparations" from someone for harm done to your ancestors by some of their ancestors. You are not speaking to the perpetrators, and you are not the victim--indeed, you would not yourself even exist except for the events you condemn. Your ancestors would not even have met . . .

[RichInOC]

Who needs reparations when you have...ganja?

[kaylar]

Oh, man...was the Ganga man routine from SCTV or SNL?

[RichInOC]

I remember the guy from "Fridays" on ABC--Natty Dread, the Rasta Chef.

"Do we boil it? (No, no, no, no...)
"Do we bake it? (No, no, no, no...)
"We smoke it!...

[syriacus]

I guess Richard Reid's father was no longer in Jamaica so he couldn't greet the Queen there, either.

Who is Richard Reid?

The son of an English mother and Jamaican father, Mr Reid was born in 1973 in the London suburb of Bromley.

[lorrainer]

Yeah, mon. And the Rasta lifestyle is so rough now. Smokin' the weed is a recognized sacrament, ignored by the local law enforcement,IMO (it may even be legal, as far as I know).

[kaylar]

Fridays! I forgot about that show, even though I watched it for its entire run. Think SCTV was the best of the three....Sure was fun, back when all three were being broadcast. I guess SNL is still around, but I haven't watched an episode since 1984 or thereabouts.

[mhking]

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[Marysecretary]

Me, too, kaylar. I'm tired of being told that whites need to pay back slave descendants for slavery. Whites were the ones who freed the slaves and fought for their deliverance. My parents weren't even born here, so I don't feel any way responsible for what happened in the 1800's. I'm sure Jesse and Co. will be at the forefront of all that in the U.S.

[kaylar]

It's "blood guilt", which is a concept foreign to our legal system . If the laws are followed , the suits will be thrown out. One activist judge, though....And I don't see how a case like this clould go before a jury! If ALL blacks are automatically plaintiffs, how can you ask a black jury member to rule on whether s/he will get millions for melanin? And if ALL whites are automatically plaintiffs, how could a white jury member be selected? But the real worry is a cowardly corporate CEO caving, and starting a chain reaction.

[Verginius Rufus]

Their description of Rastafarianism is a bit incomplete. The movement is named for Ras Tafari, king of Ethiopia, better known as the emperor Haile Selassie, and has some unconventional views about him.

The reparations advocates in the U.S. could think of suing the Brits too, since many of the slaves sold in the 13 colonies before 1776 were imported by the English. In Thomas Jefferson's original draft of the Declaration of Independence, he attacked King George III for vetoing an attempt by the Virginia legislature to stop the importation of slaves.

[onedoug]

Maybe they can get the Muslims who sold their ancestors into slavery to pay.

[kaylar]

IIRC, Farrakhan denied (still denies?) that there is still slavery in the Islamic world, specifically, in the Sudan.

[Cacique]

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