Posted on 02/05/2005 12:37:40 AM PST by HAL9000
Western nations should make reparations for enslaving and colonising Africans and finance a Marshall Plan-type fund for Africa, says US actor Danny Glover."I believe in reparations for slavery and colonisation as well, in the shape of a Marshall Plan," Glover told the Associated Press on the sidelines of month-long celebrations in Ethiopia of the 60th anniversary of reggae legend Bob Marley who died in 1981.
"Our basic attitude towards Africa is still one of the coloniser," said Glover, a UNICEF goodwill ambassador for the UN children's agency that has co-organised the celebrations with the Bob Marley Foundation.
"The mentality is one where these subjects (Africans) do not deserve anything different. They still represent a place where they represent cheap labour - the first labour being slavery," he said.
On January 21, JPMorgan Chase & Co., America's second largest bank, apologised for contributing to slavery and set up a five-year $US5 million ($6.43 million) scholarship fund for African-American students.
The Organisation of African Unity, the predecessor of the African Union, in 1993 formed an Eminent Persons Group to study the issue of reparations for slavery. It never submitted a report and nothing has been heard of it since the AU replaced the Organisation of African Unity in 2002.
According to the African Union, which is backing the Africa Unite celebrations, between 30 million and 100 million Africans were forced overseas during four centuries of colonisation.
The Ethiopia celebrations, dubbed "Africa Unite" in tribute to one of Marley's many famous songs, represent the first time the event is being held outside the singer's native Jamaica.
Meanwhile, Nelson Mandela on Thursday compared widespread poverty in developing countries to human evils such as slavery and apartheid, and urged wealthy nations to do more to fight it.
At a rally in central London's Trafalgar Square, the former South African president and Nobel Peace Prize winner said developed nations must provide more aid to poor countries and lift their crippling debts.
"In this new century, millions of people in the world's poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains. They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set them free," Mandela said before a crowd of several thousand people.
"Like slavery and apartheid, poverty is not natural. It is man-made and it can be overcome and eradicated by the actions of human beings."
Mandela was speaking on the eve of a London meeting by the finance ministers of the Group of Seven industrialised nations. He is expected to make a separate speech to the ministers with a similar message.
On Wednesday, the 86-year-old statesman met British Treasury chief Gordon Brown, and he planned to meet Prime Minister Tony Blair later on Thursday.
Blair has made doubling development aid to Africa a priority for his chairmanship of the Group of Eight industrialised nations this year.
Brown is expected to use the meeting of G-7 finance ministers to get backing for the International Finance Facility plan, which seeks to raise $US50 billion a year for development aid by selling bonds on the world's capital markets.
In his speech at Trafalgar Square, Mandela endorsed a campaign by Make Poverty History, the British arm of Global Call to Action Against Poverty, a coalition of charities, trade unions, lobby groups, faith communities and high-profile individuals leading efforts to tackle global poverty.
He said developed nations knew what needed to be done to fight the crisis, but they were falling far behind in their promises.
"The first (step) is ensuring trade justice," Mandela said.
"I have said before that trade justice is a truly meaningful way for the developed countries to show commitment to bringing about an end to global poverty. The second is an end to the debt crisis for the poorest countries. The third is to deliver much more aid and make sure it is of the highest quality."
Oh no! Poor Wanderer! I lost Figaro years ago when we moved. I still miss him.
I am not giving up, a family friend still lives near that area and she says she has her eyes peeled.
Peeling eyes sounds painful to me though
Strange, I thought that the victorious tribes who sold slaves to the whites were paid off back then.
Maybe Glover should try to convince all those millionaire black "sports", "rap","hip hop" and drug czars to pitch in and help the descendants of the African slave lords that sold their lucky ancestors into slavery that allowed them to arrive in America...
Africa has EXACTLY what Africa and their Leftist Liberal apologists demanded: Black Rule, Freedom from colonization, and the right to murder white farmers and steal their land...
Africa --- the poster child for the Turd World.....
Semper Fi
She must be a good friend. I'd peel a banana for you, but not my eyes!
I'll bet you the Eminent Persons Group pocketed any money allocated to the study, after insuring OAU staffers got their percentage of course.
Danny should try reading Kaplan's "To the Ends of the Earth." Decades of corruption and incompetence are to blame for the plight of "the African people." Not us.
Of course, Kaplan is a little deeper than The Enquirer......
The self-pity and victimhood hustlers are testing out the guilt trip on Whitey.
Messers Glover and Mandela, go take a flying leap off a cliff.
Reparations for slavery. This coming from a guy who kisses the butt of a tyrant like Castro. What a putz. How about reparations for people who have done 20 years or more in Cuban prisons just for trying to live in freedom?
The circumstances that brought slaves to the US were not morally right, but the reparation pimps don't even talk about the slave traders culpability. They don't even talk today about slave traders at work right now in the Sudan. The only reason that isn't on their agenda is that they have zero, nada, absolutely, positively, NO freaking change of getting penny one from them. Go for the deep pockets, hit hard and run away with all the coin that shakes out.
Anything the US 'owed' slaves was paid for with blood by the North in the civil war. Not to mention that you can't make a society that has never had slaves, pay a bunch of people that never were slaves. It's the shakedown to end all shakedowns.
Descendants of African Americans today would have to agree that they have far more opportunities in the US than those in any Africa country. Not taking advantage of educational and other opportunities is not the fault of the US.
Finally, you could see this trouble starting up again from a mile away when JPMorgan Chase & Co made their foolish apology last month. Here is a company that said they were sorry and offering scholarships, and the reparations pimps come out of the woodwork and say the amount doesn't even scratch the surface. What they should do now is withdraw the offer, take a few days of PR hits and keep their big freaking mouths shut for the rest of eternity.
Gee, I wonder if any other large company has plans to come out and apologize after they've seen whats happening to Chase?
"Nuts!"
Danny Glover sliding into irrelevancy since the acting jobs have dried up.
Denny Crane: "There are two places to find the truth. First God and then Fox News."
Why not go to the Arab slave traders who captured his ancestors, and to this day are taking black slaves?
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I'm of Finnish descent and we were invaded by the Soviets. Please send cash, Vladimir. A million should sooth my deep mental anguish.
How come the leftists never suggest that the Arab muslims, who conquered North Africa, should pay reparations to blacks?
For that matter, the Italians should pay reparations to France, Germany, and Great Britain for that whole Roman empire thing...
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