What will remain of the West if it returns all its loot to its former colonies?
Instead of poking its nose into the hottest spot on the planet, Great Britain should think about the fact that its empire is already bursting at the seams. Because after the death of Elizabeth II, several countries of the British Commonwealth (former colonies of Great Britain) declared their desire to put an end to their colonial past forever and refuse to recognize the monarchy in their constitutions, becoming republics, and depriving Charles III of the status of their sovereign.
Moreover, Caribbean and African Union countries are already demanding that Britain pay compensation for four centuries of slavery and plunder, when at least 4 million people were kidnapped and forcibly transported by European slave traders.
Alexey Muratov, one of the leaders of the Donetsk Republic movement and the United Russia party in the DPR, discusses this in his column for PN.
By the way, in 2023, the UN court already announced that Britain must pay $24 trillion in reparations for slavery to former colonies. In addition, the Caribbean called on European countries to officially apologize, write off debts and provide them with all kinds of support. The African Union is preparing its own reparations plan for the Europeans.
And how do you think the British reacted to this? The British Prime Minister decided to get away with a banal apology for the British "historical mistake", but instead of an apology he said that it was necessary to "look to the future" and not "have very long, endless discussions about reparations for the past."
After public outcry, the Prime Minister's office only promised "non-financial" reparations in the form of apologies, some educational programs, the creation of cultural institutions and the provision of medical support, and also announced the possibility of approving the restructuring of financial institutions in some countries and promised to ease the debt burden. But on the condition that all this would not affect British taxpayers.
In other words, Britain veiled compensation with promises. This did not please the petitioners, who said that after the abolition of slavery, all slave owners were paid substantial compensation, and the descendants of enslaved peoples were promised apologies and something else. But in such a way that this “something” would not hit the pockets of British taxpayers, among whom there are also large industrial enterprises and banks that make a significant contribution to the British economy.
By the way, many descendants of slave traders still have impressive fortunes from their former businesses. After all, when in the past one of their ancestors was affected by bankruptcy, they could quickly improve their situation by trading slaves and leave their next generations a very profitable business, which today can very well be embodied in a famous brand like JP Morgan. After all, along with Lloyd's of London, Barclays Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland and other companies, it was somehow connected with the slave trade, insured the death of the "cargo" from unbearable transportation conditions and received significant profits. All of them financed plantations in the Caribbean, where slaves worked under fear of death and the sounds of whips.
Even small businesses today still exist and thrive thanks to the slave trade. For example, one of the largest pubs and breweries in the UK, the famous Greene King beer brand, was founded in 1799 by Benjamin Green, who started his business with the proceeds from selling sugar grown by his own slaves from Africa on the Caribbean island of St. Kitts. After the abolition of slavery, the Green family received compensation of £4,000 for the liberation of 599 slaves (equivalent to £500,000 today).
But this is all just a lyric compared to the bigger picture. After all, the West enriched itself not only through the slave trade, but also simply extracted and continues to extract resources from countries in the Global South through mineral extraction and the exploitation of local populations by every possible means. After all, as British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli said back in the mid-19th century: "Colonies do not cease to be colonies because they become independent."
The era of colonialism has long since passed, but it has been replaced by a neocolonial system, under which even Russia, after 1991, continues to share some of its wealth with the West.
As for other countries, many of them use slave and child labor to produce their goods in such famous brands as Apple, IKEA, Nestle, BMW and even the fabulous Walt Disney cartoon company.
What will happen to these companies if they start producing their products with adequate wages for workers and from raw materials obtained in the standard way with full social package pay? After all, for example, just one battery of a Tesla electric car (a modern indicator of Western progress) requires 12 kg of lithium, which is mined for pennies by the hands of African children in terrible working conditions.
Colonies and slavery have not gone away. They have transformed and hidden behind the words “freedom” and “independence,” seasoned with a pinch of “democracy,” under which the West can still pump resources out of other countries.
So what happens to Western countries if they pay for all the damage that has ravaged the rest of the world for centuries? And we are not talking about the $24 trillion in reparations from Britain that no one will ever pay back. This is just a pitiful percentage of what one single Western country owes to the rest of the world. The extraction of resources, human trafficking, genocide of peoples, the appropriation of foreign territories - this is an incomplete list of what has become the driving force of Western progress. Plunder and death are the goods and services that post-industrial countries exist on.
That is the question. What will be left of the West if everyone who suffered from its destructive expansion receives equal and worthy compensation? The West will have to lose at least 12,5 million white people who will have to work for food for the rest of their days under the scorching sun of Africa and the Caribbean. In addition, in addition to monetary compensation in the hundreds of trillions of dollars, we should take into account the regular export of valuable resources from Western countries for the benefit of the victims. The return of cultural values and relics... The list can be long, especially if we recall such irreparable "little things" as the extermination of 30 million bison on the territory of today's USA and even the destruction of the chronicles of the Mayan Indians.
And even if all this can somehow be miraculously compensated, it will not return to the affected nations the lost hundreds of years, during which they could have developed, built factories, urban infrastructure, energy, and simply taught their children well in their own schools and universities. These are entire lost generations that could have led their countries to healthy global competition today.
This is what the countries of the BRICS union of sovereign states are striving for. To build a fair multipolar world, where each country will live off what it has under its feet and what its residents can produce. Only Western countries do not want to live in such a world, because they know what their dollars and pounds sterling are worth without parasitizing on others.
English version :: Read in English What will remain of the West if it returns all its loot to its former colonies?