Britain Fixing The Mistakes of the Past

Former Member

When Britain had it's empire and ruled a lot of the planet it took advantage of a lot of people in other countries exploited them for their natural resources.

And in many cases turned the natives there into slaves, etc

Many of those countries such as India, Kenya, etc have moved on, but should we be helping people of tiny countries that can't really help themselves?

I just finished watching a BBC2 Open University documentary on the island of Banaba which is quite small and was found to be very rich in materials used for making fertilisers. The British basically came and mined the entire island, shipped off many of the natives to island hundreds if not thousands of miles away.

Now some of the people who were born and grew up there and forced out want to return ..but the island had been left to ruin... so people live in the decaying buildings

So Question is for these very small places should our goverment be helping them now?

http://www.banaban.com/histovie.htm

http://www.janeresture.com/banaba/

http://www.pacificislandtravel.com/kiribati/about_destin/banaba.html

Former Member

It's a bit like that Dresden bombing situation, why should we say sorry for something done before our time but I think Britain, as the institution it is should help these people.

Former Member

Question is, what do we do about it now?

Former Member

Man Of Kent wrote:

Question is, what do we do about it now?

Exactly. We defintely do have a responsibility (and it's a privileged position as well as a duty) to support former colonies and protectorates which want support.

The fact that English has become the global language of communication is in no small part due to the old British Empire and its influence. That a country the size of Great Britain is still a global superpower (at least economically) is due entirely to the trade and resources of the Empire. So we cannot justifiably ignore people in need, particularly when the need is a direct consequence of British imperialism.

Although it must also be known that the British Empire had largely positive effects on most countries, which is why the Commonwealth alliance has lasted so long.