this post was submitted on 17 Sep 2023
309 points (97.0% liked)

World News

32349 readers
498 users here now

News from around the world!

Rules:

founded 5 years ago
MODERATORS
 

The statue, outside the Brussels stock exchange, had just been restored at great cost.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[–] Syldon@feddit.uk 5 points 1 year ago (11 children)

Who exactly pays for that. The families that robbed these countries of cash are spread around the globe now. If you can identify families then fine go after those. King Charles would be a good candidate. To expect a country to pay for the crimes of previous residents is just stupid money grabbing. The rank and file who pay the taxes in the western countries were being subjugated also and certainly did not gain from the moneys raised in the colonies. That was kept by the rich families of the time.

[–] rahmad@lemmy.ml -1 points 1 year ago (10 children)

Firstly, I said nothing of reparations. I talked about owning the responsibility. That can take the form of education, it can take the form of reparations, it has many forms. All those forms are imperfect, but they are each better than doing nothing because 'hey, it was a long time ago, man.'

Second, to this point:

The rank and file who pay the taxes in the western countries were being subjugated also and certainly did not gain from the moneys raised in the colonies.

That's just not true, friend. Just because economic injustice exists in colonizing counties today and existed then, doesn't mean their rank and file aren't still benefitting from the actions of their prodecessors. Their infrastructure, their economies, their sociopolitical systems -- stuff that the enables the rank and file to worry about paying taxes instead of, for example, starving and dying in a civil war -- that is the benefit that has been created. To take that for granted is to bury how that got built.

[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 5 points 1 year ago (6 children)

How is destroying cultural heritage of one culture "owning responsibility" to another culture?

[–] rahmad@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Sorry I don't understand your comment.

[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 4 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I don't understand what's not to understand. Perhaps you (as the tourist, apparently) don't know, but that statue isn't some decoration bought from the local supermarket. :-) It's actually part of the history of that place and quite old. How does destroying or damaging these objects help "evening the karmic scales"?

[–] rahmad@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Not sure where I suggested destroying the statue would even the karmic scales, I just said I didn't feel bad for them (due to their current karmic bank balance). Those are two totally different things.

[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

That's.. even worse. You think they deserve everything happening to them and than this doesn't even tip the scales?

[–] rahmad@lemmy.ml -2 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (1 children)

If you think 'a bit of my statue broke' is even a rounding error compared to their legacy in the Congo, I suggest you go look into it and let me know once you've done the research if you think I'm wrong. I'm open to hearing your counter-argument, but from my view the two do not compare.

[–] ParsnipWitch@feddit.de 2 points 1 year ago

Yeah, no I won't let you drag me into "you are trying to compare the two". That's actually you who is trying to bring in a broken statue piece as some weird type of karma for crimes.

Following your logic, where do you put an end to how much other people should be allowed to destroy in Belgium before their legacy is revenged? Or do you just think we all should smile smugly whenever something bad happens in Belgium because "they deserve it"? What good can possibly result from this mindset? I would even go further and say by doing this you can create a false comfort zone where people can just suffer through their punishment and then their payment is done.

load more comments (4 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)
load more comments (7 replies)