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Activists urge European governments to address colonial past
(www.amnesty.org)
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this post was submitted on 13 Nov 2024
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Reparations for what? At least here in Germany there's virtually (and I'm covering my bases here, I'm fairly sure that it's literally nobody) nobody left who could be held even partially responsible for colonialism, and I am not willing to pay for crimes that I did not commit. Very few people are, I'd imagine.
So many things to say, but I'll be super brief.
It's quite common that people who come from colonial countries, they are taught to ignore that one of the reasons that they currently have a higher standard of living as societies (not as individuals) in comparison to the places their ancestors went and colonised is because they took/expoited/stole/etc the resources from these places, including people. In the process the colonisers also trashed the place, as well as local, thriving communities.
So the way I see things, there are stuff that needs to be acknowledged first. Solutions come after.
I do acknowledge that, but a society is made up of individuals. And none of those individuals is responsible for the crimes committed by their ancestors. Guilt is not passed down through generations. I do not believe that people living in former colonies are entitled to reparations because my ancestors committed crimes against their ancestors, even if those crimes still have repercussions in the current day.
guilt isn‘t passed down, you‘re right, but wealth and control are. And this is what connects past and present. Exploitation in the past facilitates exploitation in the present. The system has survived largely unscathed. Of course that’s not your individual fault, but as part of the system you are still at the receiving end.
For me, saying "yes, but I didn't do it", is not acknowledgement because you live in a society still profiting of it (btw when I say "you", I hope it's clear it's totally not personal). It's a matter of coming to terms with that fact and then use it as a starting point for the conversation.