http://www.theguardian.com/world/2014/mar/09/caribbean-nations-demand-slavery-reparations

Caribbean nations are trying to foist a bill for reparations for the slave trade to European nations. This is ironic on so many levels, but you can hardly blame anyone from trying it on due to the politically correct slant on history taught in Europe for decades. Predictably the Swedes are already willing to present their backsides to any boot coming their way. The first comment on the above article sums things up quite well.

Why don't they "open a dialogue" with the AFRICAN AND ARAB countries where slavery is still openly and semi-officially practiced RIGHT NOW?

Oh, of course. Those countries are too sane to submit to blackmail. Only Western countries are suicidally wacko.

Reparations are all the rage. Everybody who can dig up some grievance in the past wants them.

Should the Spanish pay Mexico and Peru for their destruction of the Aztec and Inca civilisations? Should Protestants pay the Catholic Church for all the old churches (in UK) which they took over in the Reformation (actually there's a little fellow doing the deathwatch beetle which is punishing them for that)?

This is all so silly, and should be treated as such. We are living in 2014; we have enough problems of our own without digging up the past. Perhaps we don't forgive, but we should not try to cash in.

if there wasn't slavery , would the opportunists they have today even exists ?

They've got a fair point. I reckon there's millions of Africans who've been hard done by with their ancestors not having been taken to the New World.

SC

what a joke they are lucky their ancestors were slaves, who were probably sold by their countrymen anyway. If their ancestors were not slaves and not taken to the Caribbean where would they be now? in some mud hut in the middle of nowhere and most probably far worse off than they are now. The UK ended the slave trade over 200 years ago, should the UK be suing the Romans next, or the descendants of the Normans? madness.

This is a hot topic within the USA prisons amongst the African American inmates.

It's an uncomfortable truth for the West Indians. They don't like it when you point out who sold them into slavery. Often another white mans lie, was their response.

It's an uncomfortable truth for the West Indians. They don't like it when you point out who sold them into slavery. Often another white mans lie, was their response.

indeed here we have another irony. Muhammad Ali stated that he had changed his name from his 'slave name', Cassius Clay. Not only would it be highly possible his ancestors were sold into slavery by fellow blacks but his choice of religion was to one whose followers took more slaves from Africa than America and Europe did.

Many slaves of Christian origin were taken by Barbary coast (North Africa) pirates from 16th to 19th century, up to 20 000 at any one time. one reason why the Americans started the first and second Barbary wars, American ships were being abducted along with their crews. Can we have some money please?

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-civil-authorities-join-forces-to-oppose-human-trafficking/

Pope Francis speaks out against human trafficking, particularly for sexual purposes, as much of it is. Perhaps the best way of making reparation for past acts of enslavement would be to give help to those agencies which are trying to stop human trafficking now.

http://www.catholicnewsagency.com/news/vatican-civil-authorities-join-forces-to-oppose-human-trafficking/

Pope Francis speaks out against human trafficking, particularly for sexual purposes, as much of it is. Perhaps the best way of making reparation for past acts of enslavement would be to give help to those agencies which are trying to stop human trafficking now.

Great idea. That way we would be doing some good and would need to have no fears about being sponged off. And of course the guys demanding money wouldn't object to that, would they?

The way to cut down human trafficking in the UK is to take back control of our borders.

It may not stop the trade, but it will certainly reduce it. If the EU cancelled the Schengen Agreement among it's mainland members and brought back many more border guards, thus improving employment figures, the trade in Europe would be vastly reduced.

Simple solutions - but they go against the inevitable march towards political and fiscal union so beloved by the unelected bureaucrats of Brussels. Thus the suffering, degradation and criminality of human trafficking in Europe will be allowed to continue, in order to boost the dream of a few unaccountable, unelected, unwanted men who control the destiny of Europe.

take back control of our borders

=

The way to cut down human trafficking in the UK is to take back control of our borders.

The UK is not part of the Schengen area and has not ceded control of our borders to anyone.

That's correct mate nobody seems to have control do they

The way to cut down human trafficking in the UK is to take back control of our borders.

The UK is not part of the Schengen area and has not ceded control of our borders to anyone.

We can check passports, but we cannot refuse entry to any EU citizen (all 450 million of them) unless they are on a watch-list. Thus our government (both this one and the previous) have reduced checking to a minimum for EU citizens, thus allowing many people traffickers to bring in groups with only the most cursory checks anticipated.

A system of work visas, residence visas and the like - plus many more officers on each shift (think what that would do for the employment figures) would reduce the illegals (trafficked people) quite considerably.

I agree that in the Schengen countries this is an impossible task. I drove from London to Warsaw a few years ago and my only checks were at Dover/Calais and Frankfurt-am-der-Oder. How can any government control their resident population like this. It is utter madness.

There were white slaves too

<script type='text/javascript'>window.mod_pagespeed_start = Number(new Date());</script>

They've got a fair point. I reckon there's millions of Africans who've been hard done by with their ancestors not having been taken to the New World.

SC

Yes, after the White man bled Africa dry and stripped it bare, they abandoned it. Not a lot left for the Africans.

Mugabe isn't exactly living in squalor is he? Nor is his heart bleeding at the plight of his countrymen.

Mugabe isn't exactly living in squalor is he? Nor is his heart bleeding at the plight of his countrymen.

It's very easy to idealise Africans, especially when you live in Asia, like most of us do.

Mugabe is not the only shocker Africa has produced in fairly recent times. What about Idi Amin, the Emperor Bokassa.... and the genocide in Rwanda? As bad as Pol Pot, they were.

Most of white slaves were held by Arabs, I believe.... and Arab traders were responsible for the slave caravans through Africa long before the Europeans got into the act.

Mugabe isn't exactly living in squalor is he? Nor is his heart bleeding at the plight of his countrymen.

It's very easy to idealise Africans, especially when you live in Asia, like most of us do.

Mugabe is not the only shocker Africa has produced in fairly recent times. What about Idi Amin, the Emperor Bokassa.... and the genocide in Rwanda? As bad as Pol Pot, they were.

Most of white slaves were held by Arabs, I believe.... and Arab traders were responsible for the slave caravans through Africa long before the Europeans got into the act.

,,,and Boko Haram has recently kidnapped over 200 young Nigerian girls and is talking about selling them into the sex trade.

It would seem the African blacks prey on their own.

,,,and Boko Haram has recently kidnapped over 200 young Nigerian girls and is talking about selling them into the sex trade.

It would seem the African blacks prey on their own.

They always have done. The stronger tribes sold the weaker ones to the slave traders who shipped them to America.... and to the Arabs who traded them down to the Mediterranean.

The Boko Haram atrocity.... one can only hope they've over-reached themselves, and that someone (but who?) will exact retribution.

The very concept of reparations are contrary to anything remotely resembling an enlightened world. Reparations are a corruption of blood. A corruption of blood holds descendents liable for the actions of the past. Nearly all civilizations have come to reject such utter nonsense. Moreover, it is virtually impossible to make even casual linkages to individual taxpayers and those who say their estate is aggrieved. The slave trade existed long before any of what can be called Europe even took shape. It was sustained previously for millennia, and continues to exist today. Slave traders have primarily been local. Therefore, at best Europeans were middlemen.

This vile idea is the racist child of continued equality in outcomes polices, rather than equality in opportunity programs to right the wrongs of the past. Mostly practiced for generations now, anything resembling negative residuals for slavery have long since disappeared from secular western countries by affirmative action to the point that white guilt is ingrained into public psyche for crimes never committed. If you want to deepen racial animosity... if you want to deepen the rift that is fueled by political opportunists, allow such reparation claims to go forward. Allow people to further embrace victimization mindsets in order to be paid simply for breathing, or to be afforded the protected status that they so covet. Why, it could be argued, would time be relative? Couldn't Jews sue Egypt? Why couldn't the Irish sue the railroads? The Thais the Burmese? The Javanese the Dutch? The Chinese the Japanese? If mixed race, mulatto, would i get 50%?

Why would the narrowly crafted argument extend only to Caribbean related slavery dated from x to y year? It is pure nonsense and the fact it is even afforded the appearance of legitimacy shows how far western enlightened government has been slain by liberal multiculturalism. When you look closely at the mouths who shout the loudest regarding such claims you'll consistently note anger, arrogance, hatred, and racism; ie, NoI Farrakhan et al.

,,,and Boko Haram has recently kidnapped over 200 young Nigerian girls and is talking about selling them into the sex trade.

It would seem the African blacks prey on their own.

They always have done. The stronger tribes sold the weaker ones to the slave traders who shipped them to America.... and to the Arabs who traded them down to the Mediterranean.

The Boko Haram atrocity.... one can only hope they've over-reached themselves, and that someone (but who?) will exact retribution.

Supply and demand though. If the white planters hadn't bought them, the trade would have been reduced to what it had always been in the domestic African market.

Just saying.

I suppose we could always have a "chicken vs. egg" argument at this point, but what's the use.