So, when countries steal and plunder other human beings and their resources, can they be described as thieves or, for political correctness, should we use some other acceptable nomenclature?
The United States (US) and some of its partners, notably the United Kingdom (UK) went to Venezuela and carted away 13.5 kilogrammes of enriched uranium. The material, which can be used to fuel commercial nuclear plants or in research reactors, are from an inheritance research reactor in Venezuela. The research, which was concluded in 1991, had been in the fields of physics and nuclear sciences.
The uranium was transported 100 miles overland to a Venezuelan port, transferred to a UK cargo, the Nuclear Transport Solutions, and transferred to the Savannah River Site (SRS) in South Carolina, US, for processing to obtain low-enriched uranium for the super power.
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This is part of the on-going looting of Venezuela since the January kidnapping of President Nicholas Maduro and his wife from their bedroom, in Caracas.
The US had claimed the abduction was to bring the Maduros to justice on alleged drug charges. But immediately the invasion was carried out, the US commenced the systematic looting of that country, especially its oil. Apart from oil seized from hijacked tankers, the US, in the first quarter of President Maduro’s abduction, extracted 24.25 million barrels of crude oil from Venezuela. That reinforced the fact that what the US establishment wants is to loot that country, which has the largest oil reserves in the world.
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Now, the US focus, as revealed by President Donald Trump, is to convert Venezuela into its 51st state. He told the media on 11 May that the American establishment is “seriously considering making Venezuela the 51st US State.”
However, Venezuela’s Acting President Delcy Rodriguez vowed that this attempt will be resisted. She told the world: “We will continue to defend our integrity, our sovereignty, our independence, our history.” Rodriguez added that Venezuela is: “not a colony, but a free country.”
Apart from its undisputed natural resources, Venezuela is engaged in an international dispute with Guyana over a 62,000-square-mile territory, which is rich in gold, diamonds, timber and other natural resources. The territory also sits near massive offshore oil deposits currently producing an average of 900,000 barrels a day. All these, the Trump administration is eyeing.
In the case of Belgium, it tried to own what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo outright. In its quest to do so, the country and its King Leopold II murdered about fifteen million Africans in their own homeland. It is the most horrific massacre in human history, which Belgium and its European brothers and sisters have tried to hush up. Yes, Europe is loud about the Holocaust in Hitlerite Germany, which insanely killed some six million Jews. But it is silent about Leopold II.
Although Trump had suggested that Canada be added to the US as its 51st state and has so far not made any move in that direction, it may be costly if his latest desire in annexing Venezuela is taken for a joke.
The US was a colony of the UK; it was seized following the genocide against the indigenous American-Indian population. It expanded in 1848 by forcing Mexico to cede more than 525,000 square miles or 1,360,000 square kilometres of its territory to it. Those Mexican lands are today’s Texas, California, Kansas, New Mexico, Nevada, Wyoming, Colorado, Oklahoma, Utah and Arizona. In 1898, it colonised Puerto Rico and has until today refused to grant independence to that country.
I am not implying that the US has seized more territories than the UK or stolen more resources from other countries. That dubious crown, undoubtedly, belongs to the UK. That country, in order to take New Zealand and Australia, wiped out their indigenous populations. Following British colonisation of Australia, in 1788, about ninety per cent of the aboriginal and Torres strait Islander population were wiped out. In its genocide, in order to take over New Zealand from its indigenous owners, Britain introduced diseases and wars, which by 1840 reduced the indigenous population from 200,000 to 60,000.
Britain tried the same tactics in Zimbabwe and South Africa, but did not succeed. It also tried it in Kenya, but the people resisted.
France, in its own case, massacred about two million Algerians in an attempt to annex that African country to itself.
Various European countries wiped out indigenous populations in order to take their lands. Spain, for instance, still occupies the West African Canary Islands. Till date, Spain has refused to evacuate territories in Africa like Ceuta, Melilla, Penones and the island groups including Chafarinas, Alhucemas and Penon de Valez de la Gomera.
In the case of Belgium, it tried to own what is now the Democratic Republic of Congo outright. In its quest to do so, the country and its King Leopold II murdered about fifteen million Africans in their own homeland. It is the most horrific massacre in human history, which Belgium and its European brothers and sisters have tried to hush up. Yes, Europe is loud about the Holocaust in Hitlerite Germany, which insanely killed some six million Jews. But it is silent about Leopold II.
…there are worse acts. For instance, Western Europe and the US, for four centuries, stole human beings from Africa and transported them over the Atlantic Ocean. The objective was not to convert them to Christianity, but to steal their labour. Over twelve million able-bodied Africans and their children were transported in this evil ‘free trade.’
Some of the current conflicts in the world were exacerbated by Western countries giving out lands they never owned. For instance, Trump, on 10 December, 2020, gave out the Sahara Arab Democratic Republic (SADR), better known as Western Sahara, as a gift to Morocco. For this act of criminality, parochial Morocco awarded Trump its highest national honour.
The seemingly unending wars in the Middle East were lit by Britain, which on 2 November, 1917, gave Palestinian lands to the White Jewish Zionist Movement. These were lands UK did not own, whether by purchase or inheritance. That way, it imported European terrorists who repressed and suppressed the indigenous Jewish, Palestinian and Arab peoples into the region. Today, the West, through the racist Zionist movement, intends to expand this European state that it built in the Palestine by trying to seize Gaza, West Bank, Lebanon and Syria. Therefore in that region, it is war without end. So, what do we call these acts – taking or stealing?
But there are worse acts. For instance, Western Europe and the US, for four centuries, stole human beings from Africa and transported them over the Atlantic Ocean. The objective was not to convert them to Christianity, but to steal their labour. Over twelve million able-bodied Africans and their children were transported in this evil ‘free trade.’
African nations and countries with conscience had this year taken this crime to the United Nations General Assembly and asked for reparations for those four hundred years of stolen labour. The UN described the transatlantic slave trade as the “the gravest crime against humanity.” But in May, the UK Reform Party led by Nigel Farage threatened African countries who seek the implementation of this UN resolution with visa ban, if it forms the next government. It is an indication that the slave masters are not remorseful for their inhuman deeds. In all probability, if people like Farage have the opportunity, they will resume the enslavement of human beings.
So, when countries steal and plunder other human beings and their resources, can they be described as thieves or, for political correctness, should we use some other acceptable nomenclature?
Owei Lakemfa, a former secretary general of African workers, is a human rights activist, journalist and author.
