A Shot Of Anti-BIOT-ics
A lot of NSPM's activism has been focused around the obvious issues: Afghanistan, Israel-Palestine and, of course, Iraq. Nonetheless, there are many, many more causes around the world. The ever-present threat of conflict in South Asia is something we have touched upon only briefly, but is a major issue, probably constituting the greatest threat of nuclear war in the modern world. Elsewhere, the ongoing situation in Darfur, western Sudan may have claimed the lives of as many as 200,000 people and has been described by some as "genocide". One could continue like this for some time, citing the likes of Uganda, Chechnya, Tibet, Cyprus and Sri Lanka. Adequately dealing with all, or even most, of these issues would be a gargantuan task and so we are forced to chose and prioritise.
How we go about prioritising is a difficult question. To some extent this is determined by external factors over which we have little or no control. No-one ever decided that we should put so much emphasis on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. That said there is some filtering which goes on. I have always felt that we should focus most heavily on issues which we have some ability to influence. It wouldn't be difficult to pontificate on how evil Ghengis Khan was, but such criticisms are pretty much morally irrelevant. Criticising the actions of the British Government, however, are morally significant as they could, and hopefully will, impact upon those actions.
It is for this reason that I feel the little known exile of the Chagossians is an issue which British activists should be more aware. Detailing the full extent of this, in my opinion morally abhorrent, action would stretch this post to extensive length, so I'll instead direct you to an article I wrote for the August edition of the Nottingham Alternative News, a city-wide publication run by activists. Long story short: the indigenous population of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean were removed from their homes and prevented from returning, by machinations on the part of the British Government, in order to make way for a US military base.
The issue has attracted increasing attention in recent months, warranting a debate in Parliament, being the subject of an Early Day Motion, leading to diplomatic wranglings between the Mauritian and British Governments (Chagos should have become part of Mauritius when that country achieved independence in 1968, but was separated off into the artificial entity known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, BIOT) and seeing threats of protests from refugees and others. In light of these developments a discussion group for students concerned about the issue has recently been set up. I have no idea if anyone actually reads this thing apart from me and Dan and I have no idea if you're actually students or simply assorted randoms, but if you are and you're interested, please join up. Don't make me beg.
How we go about prioritising is a difficult question. To some extent this is determined by external factors over which we have little or no control. No-one ever decided that we should put so much emphasis on the invasion and occupation of Iraq. That said there is some filtering which goes on. I have always felt that we should focus most heavily on issues which we have some ability to influence. It wouldn't be difficult to pontificate on how evil Ghengis Khan was, but such criticisms are pretty much morally irrelevant. Criticising the actions of the British Government, however, are morally significant as they could, and hopefully will, impact upon those actions.
It is for this reason that I feel the little known exile of the Chagossians is an issue which British activists should be more aware. Detailing the full extent of this, in my opinion morally abhorrent, action would stretch this post to extensive length, so I'll instead direct you to an article I wrote for the August edition of the Nottingham Alternative News, a city-wide publication run by activists. Long story short: the indigenous population of the Chagos Archipelago in the Indian Ocean were removed from their homes and prevented from returning, by machinations on the part of the British Government, in order to make way for a US military base.
The issue has attracted increasing attention in recent months, warranting a debate in Parliament, being the subject of an Early Day Motion, leading to diplomatic wranglings between the Mauritian and British Governments (Chagos should have become part of Mauritius when that country achieved independence in 1968, but was separated off into the artificial entity known as the British Indian Ocean Territory, BIOT) and seeing threats of protests from refugees and others. In light of these developments a discussion group for students concerned about the issue has recently been set up. I have no idea if anyone actually reads this thing apart from me and Dan and I have no idea if you're actually students or simply assorted randoms, but if you are and you're interested, please join up. Don't make me beg.
posted by Disillusioned kid at 1:37 pm
0 Comments:
Post a Comment
<< Home