155
submitted 6 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

Portuguese President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa had called for Lisbon to find ways to compensate its former colonies, including canceling debt. The government says it has not initiated any process to that effect.

Lisbon is not planning to pay reparations for trans-Atlantic slavery and colonialism, Portugal's government said on Saturday.

The statement comes in response to remarks by President Marcelo Rebelo de Sousa, who said Portugal could find ways to compensate its former colonies.

Portugal said in a statement that it seeks to "deepen mutual relations, respect for historical truth and increasingly intense and close cooperation, based on reconciliation of brotherly peoples."

It stressed that it had not launched any "process or program of specific actions" for paying reparations.

you are viewing a single comment's thread
view the rest of the comments
[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world -2 points 6 months ago

Now you're just outright lying.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 2 points 6 months ago

I literally pasted the information about it. More than once. Not my fault if you're going to ignore it.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Except that's not even described as "Slavery" in the source you quoted.

It was basically the same shit that US companies like Chiquita did in South America and the US still does now in its private prisons.

Using the same logic as you used, then the US still has Slavery because people in its prisons are forced to work all of which is legal hence the State approves of it.

Similarly by that logic of yours the UK also had Slavery until the 20th Century since they had Indentured Servitude.

Oh yeah, and pretty much every single instance in any country (Communist China being a good example) were people were forced to move to the fields and work there is per your logic Slavery.

It's still exploitation, there is still a duty of compensation for the victims (and I have actually defended it in the past, though not here in Lemmy), it's however not the same evil as Slavery were people were actually owned and so were their children as soon as they were born.

As I see it, the people who did the exploitation or their direct descendants are still alive so it's only fair if the victims or direct descendants of victims are compensated with whatever can be clawed back from those who did the deeds or those who inherited the proceedings of those deeds. That is however not what the President Of Portugal was suggesting, especially because he comes from well off families in the Fascist regime who directly or indirectly benefited of those actions approved by top people in that very regime (were his own father was a Government Minister).

What I'm a little more concerned about is your idea that any people who happen to have been born in Portugal have to pay for the evils of a Dictatorship they did not chose and which they even threw out when they finally could.

[-] FlyingSquid@lemmy.world 3 points 6 months ago

Using the same logic as you used, then the US still has Slavery because people in its prisons are forced to work all of which is legal hence the State approves of it.

Similarly by that logic of yours the UK also had Slavery until the 20th Century since they had Indentured Servitude.

Oh yeah, and pretty much every single instance in any country (Communist China being a good example) were people were forced to move to the fields and work there is per your logic Slavery.

Correct. A slave by any other name is still a slave.

[-] Aceticon@lemmy.world 0 points 6 months ago* (last edited 6 months ago)

Well within that definition of yours, I have to agree.

All that shit is exploitation and people who suffered should be compensated, with the money for the compensation coming from those who profited from the exploitation and those in positions of authority who made it possible for it to occur.

[-] idiomaddict@feddit.de 3 points 6 months ago

What you’re describing (enslaved people’s children are automatically also enslaved) is chattel slavery, it’s a special kind of evil.

However, those other things you listed are also slavery (people forced to work against their will). No, they’re not the same, but they’re both forms of slavery. The definition is broader than you might expect.

this post was submitted on 27 Apr 2024
155 points (97.5% liked)

World News

38977 readers
2364 users here now

A community for discussing events around the World

Rules:

Similarly, if you see posts along these lines, do not engage. Report them, block them, and live a happier life than they do. We see too many slapfights that boil down to "Mom! He's bugging me!" and "I'm not touching you!" Going forward, slapfights will result in removed comments and temp bans to cool off.

We ask that the users report any comment or post that violate the rules, to use critical thinking when reading, posting or commenting. Users that post off-topic spam, advocate violence, have multiple comments or posts removed, weaponize reports or violate the code of conduct will be banned.

All posts and comments will be reviewed on a case-by-case basis. This means that some content that violates the rules may be allowed, while other content that does not violate the rules may be removed. The moderators retain the right to remove any content and ban users.


Lemmy World Partners

News !news@lemmy.world

Politics !politics@lemmy.world

World Politics !globalpolitics@lemmy.world


Recommendations

For Firefox users, there is media bias / propaganda / fact check plugin.

https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/addon/media-bias-fact-check/

founded 1 year ago
MODERATORS