Belgium regrets the assassination of Patrice Lummumba

First create caricature; then demonise; and kill! As it happened with Patrice Lummumba! (Artist: Michael Cummings; Published: Sunday Express, 21 Aug 1960)

Belgium expressed regret for its role in the 1961 murder of the former Belgian Congo’s first prime minister after independence, there has been no talk here of a British apology for imperial wrongs. (via Displaying An Empire For Posterity – NYTimes.com).

Patrice Lummumba - before his execution. (Picture by Horst Faas - AP). Patrice Lummumba led the movement for Congo’s independence from Belgium (June 1960). In his independence day speech, Lummumba reminded "Nous ne sommes plus vos macaques!" (We are no longer your monkeys!). Within 10 weeks, the new Congolese Communist Govt. was deposed by a CIA backed-coup and Lummumba arrested. Lumumba escaped from his house arrest, but was rearrested from a plane in Elizabethville, publicly beaten and humiliated, put on the truck and taken away. This was Lumumba’s last photo. A few weeks later, he was executed, and his body dissolved in acid.

Familiar pattern! First create stereotypes, then caricature these stereotypes. Preferably demonize these people. After this, killing these ‘demons’ is not a problem. Nobody remembers Patrice Lummumba anymore, anyway! No tears for you, Patrice!

Killing you wuz public service! Right, Leopold!!

Muslims in India are under pressure, post-Mumbai – Economy and Politics – livemint.com

Leaders of India’s 140-million-strong Muslim community have denounced the 26-29 November Mumbai attacks and thousands of Muslims have marched in protests against the bloodshed. It has been the strongest rejection yet of Islamist violence by Muslims.

“We have lost our children in the Mumbai attacks too. And we, as Indians, share a common grief and demand justice,” said Maulana Mehmood Daryabadi, general-secretary of the All-India Ulema Council, one of the biggest groupings of Muslim sects.

In Muslim neighbourhoods in the capital, residents observed low-key celebrations during an Islamic holiday in December.

Imran Ahmed, a bookseller, did not buy any new clothes for his children during the festival and did not distribute kebabs to neighbours as he does each year.

“So many people were killed by the terrorists. How could I celebrate?” asked the bearded bookseller, sitting outside his shop in the narrow, congested streets of Old Delhi. (via Muslims in India are under pressure, post-Mumbai – Economy and Politics – livemint.com).

Krittivas puts out some swill again

In an earlier article, Krittivas Mukherjee had written how Indian debtors were prostituting their wives to money lenders in rural India – with out any source or data or frequency of incidents.

In his latest story (now joined with another Westernized bhadralok brother, Bappa Majumdar), they write about how afraid Indian Muslims are after the 26/11 Mumbai attack. Does he have data on how many Indian Muslims were attacked by Indian Hindus after 26/11? To put that in perspective – after 9/11 in the US, more than 200 attacks occured in the US on 500,000 Sikhs in a US population of 30 crores (300 million). I am not even counting attacks on ‘guilty’ Arabs and other Muslims. Let us not even talk about the Afghan and Iraqi invasions by the US – after 9/11.

Muslims cannot be patriotic …

When Krittivas writes “That anger is mixed with fear of a backlash” he seems to imply that Indian Muslims cannot be reasonable, patriotic – and hence their anger against these attacks and subdued celebration were forced.

His source and authority for this statement – a general statement by a (possibly senile, nearly) 80 year old journalist, whose claim to fame was his imprisonment, more than 30 years ago, by Indira Gandhi during the emergency. What is the data? None.

Their view of India …

According to Krittivas, India is, after all, “a country where Hindu nationalists often whip up anti-Muslim sentiment after such attacks.” How many such incidents have occurred where anti-Muslim sentiment in India has been whipped up? How many Muslims have been affected? No data. Sweeping statements. Would he like to mention any other country where such a large minority Muslim population, has greater freedom and opportunity.

Minorities in India

Muslims in India are persecuted as “Official figures show Muslims are under-represented in government jobs and the judiciary.”

A simple marker for persecution Krittivas, is decline in populations. Has the Muslim population in India declined? Like the Native American population has or the African-American has? Or the Jewish and and Roma Gypsy populations has (ignoring the limited population recovery of Roma Gypsies in post WW2 West). Or the genocide of the poor Congolese by the Belgian emperor. Post colonial census started with a Indian Muslim population of about 11.2% – which has now crossed 15%. Is that persecution, Mr.Krritivas? Is the ‘perceived’ Muslim backwardness (as defined by the Sachar Committee report) an effect of Indian public policy or are social choices made by Indian Muslims the cause?

Would he also like to show that a few years ago, the richest Indian (Azim Premjee) and the highest political post (APJ Kalam) in the country were held by Muslims. Would he like to show any other country where Muslims have greater freedom – and comprise such a large population? Maybe France, where they are not allowed to dress as they please. Or Britain where 1 out of 200 Muslim (man, woman and child) is imprisoned – that is 0.6% of the British Muslim population is in prison.

Prison Population in India

Yet he does make a point how Muslims “are over-represented in the prison populations in many Indian states.” Yet does he give any comparative statistics? None! Does he mention that India anyway has the lowest prison population in the world. That Muslim prison population in India is about 75,000 from 14 crore Muslims – compared to 10,000 from 16 lakhs in Britain.

Divide et impera

His knowledge of history is further revealed when he writes how “Centuries of rule of Hindu-majority India by medieval Muslim invaders drove a wedge between the two communities”. Would he like to know how the Morley Minto reforms communalized India. How divide et impera was British state policy in India.

That the Deoband School, which he quotes earlier, which rivals the Al Ahram Mosque of Egypt in authority, was against the formation of Pakistan.

Who was responsible for the Partition …

He would however, not like to hold the British Raj responsible for “the blood-soaked birth of Pakistan, carved out from Muslim-majority areas of India in 1947.” The abdication by the Colonial British administration, its response to the communal riots, are conveniently ignored. These riots, managed by criminal elements, were given a free hand by the British administration, to ‘demonstrate’ to the world, that Hindus and Muslims could not live together. It took Gandhiji to disarm this population.

He however does not miss to write about “communal riots in Gujarat in 2002, when around 2,500 people, mostly Muslims, were hacked and burnt to death” – against 200 attacks across US of the Sikhs.

Well paid hacks …

This kind of propaganda does not wash in the West anymore – but when it lands on Indian shores, and carried by Indian media, this kind of glop makes me think of censorship …

Maybe there is some merit in Shariat! And flogging …

King Leopold’s Slavery

BBC – History – Slavery and the ‘Scramble for Africa’

King Leopold sold his ‘personal colonies’ to the Belgian state for GBP3.8 million. Finally, this massacre stopped only when the Belgians realised that there might not be people left for ‘forced’ labour.

The Belgian Government should be put up on Nuremberg type trial.

Another form of population control by the West!

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Nuremberg Trials For The King Of Belgium

Only 90 years ago, the agents of King Leopold II of Belgium massacred 10 million Africans in the Congo. Cutting off hands as we see in Sierra Leone today, was very much part of Leopold’s repertoire. Today, Leopold’s “rubber terror” has all been swept under the carpet. Adam Hochschild calls it “the great forgetting” in his brilliant new book, King Leopold’s Ghost, recently published by Macmillan. This is a story of greed, exploitation and brutality that Africa and the world must not forget. (via The Butcher of Congo).

The colonisation of Congo – by Belgium

10 million dead. Hitler seems like an angel. At least, he used advanced decent industrial systems to kill the Jews. The Belgians just went ahead and butchered the people of Congo. It happened just 30 years before Hitler.

How come

Why is there no Nuremberg Trials against King Leopold and the Belgium. I can see One reason – race. One word – colour. Because Hitler butchered the Europeans, he is demonised. Because King Leopold did that against the Africans, he is sanctified and possibly will be cannonised.

And to think that Sonia Gandhi values medals in Leopold name.

The Scramble For Africa

Belgium’s imperialist rape of Africa: A review of King Leopold’s Ghost

Behind the current state of Africa is the West. Behind Western prosperity is blood of the colonies. This is the story of Belgium – and its colonisation of Africa.

Standard Operating Procedure

Make Dubious agreements
Enslave
Send in Rapacious companies
Use Mercenaries
Extinguish local populations.
Claim glory of the west for having settled or civilised the world.

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