De lezersbrieven van maandag 10 augustus.Redactie9 augustus 2020, 16:54
Brief van de dag
Het frappeert mij dat nu, 75 jaar na de bevrijding van de naziterreur, nog steeds wordt ontkend of gebagatelliseerd dat de Brits-Amerikaanse bombardementen op Duitse steden oorlogsmisdaden waren.
Natuurlijk was er een achtergrond: nadat tijdens de Blitz bij Duitse bombardementen op Britse steden meer dan 40.000 Britse burgers om het leven waren gekomen, volgde de vergelding, niet alleen uit wraak, maar als middel om de Duitse oorlogsindustrie en economie te treffen. Een ander belangrijk doel van die Britse bombardementen was de hoop dat de Duitse bevolking tegen het naziregime in opstand zou komen.
Nogal ongerijmd, lijkt mij, omdat de dood uit de lucht door de geallieerden werd veroorzaakt, die hiervoor dus volledige verantwoordelijkheid droegen. Het was dan ook vanzelfsprekend dat de Duitse bevolking steeds vijandiger werd tegen de geallieerden, die immers verantwoordelijk waren voor de dood van hun naasten.
Niet alleen zijn bombardementen op burgerdoelen moreel verwerpelijk, ook in die tijd wees artikel 25 van het Landoorlogsreglement (Haags Verdrag, 1907) er al op dat het viseren van burgers en burgerdoelen verboden was, in tegenstelling tot militaire doelen.
Toch werd er gebombardeerd, met brandbommen, die hele vuurstormen veroorzaakten, op Duitse steden, zelfs dorpen, waarbij mensen stikten in schuilkelders of levend verbrandden.
Zo werd Keulen in 1942 aangevallen met duizend Britse bommenwerpers en werd in febru-ari 1945 het stadje Pforzheim zodanig te grazen genomen dat 30 procent van de bevolking om het leven kwam. Werd de nazitop getroffen? Welnee, gewone burgers.
Tientallen steden werden aangevallen: Keulen, Hamburg, Berlijn, Düsseldorf, Osnabrück, Karlsruhe, Dessau, Potsdam en ga zo maar door. Het meest genadeloze was, dat er nog in mei 1945, toen Duitsland zich al bijna overgaf, werd gebombardeerd.
Niet alleen het bombardement op Dresden (februari 1945) was een oorlogsmisdaad, al die andere bombardementen ook. In totaal zouden meer dan een half miljoen Duitse burgers het leven laten, miljoenen werden dakloos.
Hoog tijd om te erkennen dat de ‘goede kant van de geschiedenis’ ook misdaden op zijn geweten heeft en niet alleen in Hiroshima en Nagasaki.
Astrid Essed, Amsterdam
Reacties uitgeschakeld voor Volkskrant/De Gevaarlijke Pen van Astrid Essed/Ingezonden Stuk/5
RISHI SUNAK NEW UK PRIME MINISTER/A BLESSING AND A CURSE
”I will bring that same compassion to the challenges we face today.
The government I lead will not leave the next generation, your children and grandchildren, with a debt to settle that we were too weak to pay ourselves.
I will unite our country, not with words, but with action.
I will work day in and day out to deliver for you.
This government will have integrity, professionalism and accountability at every level.
On 25 november 2022, Rishi Sunak was appointed by king Charles III
as UK prime minister, making him the first British Asian prime minister
in the British history! [1]
I call it a Blessing and a Curse.
Why I call it a Blessing, the reader will soon know.
Why I call it a Curse, likewise.
WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE
Rishi Sunak, who had made career in the Conservative Party from
2014 [2] became UK’s Prime Minister after the former Conservative Prime
Minister, Liz Truss, made a mess of her prime ministership
with her ”cutting taxes for the riches” plan [together with
her Chancellor of the Exchequer, Kwasi Kwarteng], which even was
criticized by the IMF [3] and
had to resign after 45 days! [4]
AND ironically, Sunak initially lost the UK prime minister
race from Liz Truss…….[5]
And then, dramatically SHE vanished and HE won
CONSERVATIVE, RICH, AGAINST POOR AND REFUGEES
Look, I am not naive or either a Fool and I know exactly,
where the Conservative Party, which leader Rishi is now,
stands for:
This is the Party of the anti refugee ”pushbacks” [6] and other migration
regulating plans like the Rwanda deal and the favouritism for the ”Australian refugee system [7], from which human rights organisation Human Rights
Watch called ” abusive offshore processing policy” [8]
This is the Party, that wages war on the poor, not
just by the Kwarteng taxes advantage for the super-rich [9], but in general and decennialong.
By welfare cuts, driving poor people on the edge
of hunger [10], which, yet apart from the fundamental violation of social rights [11], reveals
contempt for the Poor [12]
And so was it in the Tory past….
Prime minister Margaret Thatcher, the ”Iron Lady” [13] destroyed the welfare state [14] and eventhough that’s a time ago, it’s worth remembring.
But back to Sunak:
That he is no Friend of the Poor, is obvious
Wasn’t it Sunak, who said [presently, in this year 2022, during the energy crisis], that it would be “silly” for the government to provide more help to struggling families now. Despite households across the country facing an average £700 ($879) increase in their gas and electricity bills immediately after April, with another 50 percent spike expected in October, Sunak said he won’t act before “knowing what the situation will be in autumn”…….[15]
YEAH, that’s easy for him to say, since his Family
income is worth more than £700 million ($879 million……..[16]
Some say, that Sunak is richer than the British Royal Family! [17]
Yet I don’t think this comparison is fair:
The British Royal Family was born into this wealth,
built his own Empire [18] and regardless men’s few
about capitalism [I certainly am NOT a fan of those
astronomic differences between the riches and
the poor, as my loyal readers should know] [19], I think it is an accomplishment
of a son of Indian immigrants, whose Indian grandparents migrated to East Africa firstly and
then to Great Britain, building up a newlife again. [20]
THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK Yet there is another side to this Story.Because however true, that the Conservative Party and it’s new leader, Prime Minister Sunak, is noFriend of the poor and refugees [the most neglectedgroups in society], this is different,For whatever Tory Hardliner [Sunak is in favour ofthe infamous ”Rwanda deal” against refugees] [21],Sunak is also the first Indian UK Prime Minister.The first Man of Colour, who ever had the highestpolitical Office in England. [22]That means something.It is a Historical Achievement and made myskin crawl and not only me, but thousandsand thousands people of colour in England anddoubtless over the world! [23][Now that I write it, I feel that crawling again….] BUT WHY IT GAVE ME THAT SKIN CRAWLINGAND IS THE SUNAK ELECTION SUCH A GRAVE ACHIEVEMENT Because in a way, it is a Victory against the century long Western colonial oppression, not onlyof India [24], but all Asia, Africa, parts of South America and other parts of the World.It is ”The Empire strikes back” againstWhite Supremacy, against the White Man’s Burden doctrine [25] And it is not just the colonial White Supremacy policy:Along came all the British colonial atrocities inIndia, in Africa, in the West Indies [26]Admitted:That is history, but it still has it’s consequences:It still bears bitter Fruits in institutional racism,in opression, in poverty and uneqality [27],not only in England, in all Western countries,once colonial Powers.And of course not all is due to colonialismand racism:Hardline capitalism plays it’s ugly part too.And affects many poor white people too.I don’t close my eyes to that. Back to Rishi SunakThe Bitter Fruits of racism, stemming from colonialism and the Western slavery ridden”concept of race” [28], were tasted by Rishi Sunakhimself:I quote him:
“I was just out with my younger brother and younger sister, and I think, probably pretty young, I was probably a mid-teenager, and we were out at a fast food restaurant and I was just looking after them. There were people sitting nearby, it was the first time I’d experienced it, just saying some very unpleasant things. The ‘P’ word.”
“And it stung. I still remember it. It seared in my memory. You can be insulted in many different ways.” [29]
Painful indeed and reading this, one must realize what a
great achievement it has been, descended from Indian immigrants and tasting racist experiences, not only relatively
”silly” remarks from stupid people in a restaurant, or store, or neighbourhood, but also in real challenges like discrimination in
the job market and in other cases, important in someone’s life,
to climb up in a Party like the Conservative Party and eventually:
Reaching the highest political position in the former Colonial
Motherland:
England.
A Motherland, which had in her clubs in India the rule
[this is NO joke, but real]
‘Dogs and Indians not allowed” [30]
EPILOGUE
I wrote it in the title of this article:”
RISHI SUNAK NEW UK PRIME MINISTER/A BLESSING AND A CURSE”
and that’s just the way I feel it, and with me, others also, as well rejoicing that a man of colour has the highest UK political position, as pointing out the fact, that although an Indian man of colour, he defends Conservative Tory interests, which are clearly not advantageous to the poor Indian community, black community or the communities of other people of colour [31]
BUT YET:
From ”’Dogs and Indians not allowed” [32] tothe Rishi Sunak first speech as a UK PrimeMinister [33], is a great step and an achievementthat crawls my skin.
