Disregard for fellow blacks hurts JA

[Mosiah]

<TABLE cellSpacing=0 cellPadding=1 width="100%" border=0><TBODY><TR><TD><SPAN class=TopStory>Disregard for fellow blacks hurts JA</SPAN>
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Wednesday, March 14, 2007
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<P class=StoryText align=justify>Dear Editor,
Each year my church youth group goes on a chaperoned holiday, so I was delighted to learn that this year that they had chosen Jamaica. However, after that widely reported incident where three young men were saved within an inch of their lives from an aggressive crowd of 2,000 in Kingston, the organisers changed plans to go to Barbados instead. According to one church elder, who's to say that one of those young men's own mother wasn't among the mob?<P class=StoryText align=justify>It then occurred to me as a history teacher, especially after reading JM Fletcher's letter in your March 8 edition, that as a race we have always displayed contempt for our fellow black man. I hear talk of demand for reparation from England, for example, but none of us would have descended from slaves had our fellow black Africans not kidnapped and sold our ancestors into slavery, in the first place.<P class=StoryText align=justify>The well-organised logistics provided by African governments ensured that they benefited from the slave trade just as much as their white counterparts. Ships arriving at the African coast laden with textiles, rum and weaponry would depart, bursting at the seams with human cargo. Therefore any demand for reparation must first be addressed to Africans.<P class=StoryText align=justify>My research shows that on arrival in Jamaica, it was free blacks employed as slave drivers who meted out the cruellest punishment to slaves, despite attempts by the English Parliament to outlaw their barbaric methods. It was also the Maroons who helped to perpetuate slavery by guarding plantations and recapturing runaway slaves instead of providing them refuge.<P class=StoryText align=justify>In 1739 they cemented this arrangement in a treaty with the British who guaranteed their independence in exchange for their betrayal. This treaty remains active, which is why the Maroons consider themselves a sovereign entity that owes no real allegiance to the Jamaican state.
Right now we have a government tolerant of the suffering of black people in Jamaica.<P class=StoryText align=justify>For what else could explain the sudden and miraculous appropriation of $9 billion for the placation of a few pleasure-seeking white tourists, while the average Jamaican has had to do without water, infrastructure and adequate health-care facilities due to budget shortages all these years? They were quick to incarcerate and repatriate those poor black Haitians recently, but when has a boatload of white Cubans ever been harassed and turned back from our shores?<P class=StoryText align=justify>Is it any wonder therefore that Jamaica has black-on-black violence on such an unprecedented scale? When was the last time a Jamaican of Chinese descent raised a hand against his kind? When have we ever heard of Jew-on-Jew or Indian-on-Indian violence in Jamaica? When has an angry mob of 2,000 white people ever assembled to lynch three of their own?
Will self-hatred prove to be the eventual demise of our race?

Hyacinth Linfield
London, England
hyacinth.linfield@hostprofis.at

[Jawge]

RE: Disregard for fellow blacks hurts JA

I tend to disagree here; We seem caught in the trap

where we think blacks are savages and are unable to act in a civil manner. Serious research will show otherwise.Africa did not need textiles (they had lucrative trading partner called china) the guns came because Africa was now mired in slave trade at the will of the Euros. To understand the whole issue we must go back to the begining of the slave trade and see what was Europe's economic position then. Indian on Indian, and chinese on chinese in Ja? (I will omit Jews seeing that it's not anatinality or race but a religion) The answer is socio economics; the ethninc groups above aren't the under class in Ja and they do not live below the poverty line hence one would not find this behaviour. To show that poverty does not descriminate; we can look at NY post WWII and see where Irish and italian gangs would fight for turf. As these ethnic groups rose up the social and economic ladder the above mentioned behaviour abated. Africa is not alone in ethnic struggles. Europe is well known for this, after harnessing wealth off slavery in the colonies,Europe pushed the industrial age which in turn helped to show their ethnic diffrences in the form of WWI and WWII. The US forces is the key element o stability in Europe pull them and a war will Erupt there (for a more detailed explanation please read the grand Chess board) Mi tiad fi see the false info but you know what I can't blame them, they are only parroting what was given to them in schools in the colonies.

[Mosiah]

RE: Disregard for fellow blacks hurts JA

<DIV>But Jawge, I don't need to caution you against thinking that somehow we are beyond selling our brothers. That did happen. My grouse is some people want it to seem like the Europeans' involvement pale in comparison to Africa's. I do buy the argument that if reparations are to be made, more than just Europeans would have to held accountable.</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>Just look at what is happening in Zimbabwe today. Mugabe has brought that country into the abyss. What has been the response of other African countries, particularly the very influential South Africa? Even Condi Rice's hypocritical statement has more significance.</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>Jawge, we have done our part to keep ourselves down. That doesn't mean that others haven't helped, or even done the lion's share, but wi a nuh angel!</DIV>

[Lazie]

RE: Disregard for fellow blacks hurts JA

Oh .... okay!

[Jawge]

RE: Disregard for fellow blacks hurts JA

Mosiah (3/15/2007)<DIV>But Jawge, I don't need to caution you against thinking that somehow we are beyond selling our brothers. That did happen. My grouse is some people want it to seem like the Europeans' involvement pale in comparison to Africa's. I do buy the argument that if reparations are to be made, more than just Europeans would have to held accountable.</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>Just look at what is happening in Zimbabwe today. Mugabe has brought that country into the abyss. What has been the response of other African countries, particularly the very influential South Africa? Even Condi Rice's hypocritical statement has more significance.</DIV><DIV></DIV><DIV>Jawge, we have done our part to keep ourselves down. That doesn't mean that others haven't helped, or even done the lion's share, but wi a nuh angel!</DIV>

Mo I will engage you seeing that you have an handle on the subject: It would be foolhardy for me to say that Africans weren't involved in the slave trade. What I attempted to point out was that the Ghanian empire crumbled (attacks on her caravan route) and the arrival of the Euros (who now found a way to build their economy via the new world). yes the the leaders will turn to another way of making money (hey their finacial system was contiously distrupted by the raiding arabs). We even see it today; if you pressure the drug dealers they move to other ways of making money. Ghana was subdued and used as puppet. The various ethnic diffrences in africa was exploited and slaves were sent to the "new world". I too agree that the burden cannot be placed squarely on Africans because today who has the most wealth and power? I also strove to dispel the myth that these were just savages waiting to sell their brothers for glass and beads.

Mo we can talk about Condi and Colin Powell in a different thread because there is a huge misconception here.