And as far as I know they've never done anything to meaningfully fess up, let alone atone.
The fourth atrocity has been the post-Mobutu era in which Belgium and other Western countries continue to loot DRC’s natural resources, resulting today in the citizens of one of the most naturally endowed countries in the world being the second poorest.
:parenti:
tfw a devastating civil war completely ruin your country because the US and Belgium didn't want to share the colonial loot
I can't even imagine how that was logistically possible at the time and I think I'll sleep better not knowing.
I think they did worst when their Princess said they should apologize but they aren't responsible for what their ancestors did and a former Foreign minister said that Leopold was a "hero with ambitions".
Hexbear post about him. https://hexbear.net/post/144325
but they aren’t responsible for what their ancestors did
ancestor does something bad: "we're not responsible"
ancestor does something impressive: "WE WUZ INVENTORS N SHEIT"
Suddenly the holy sacred godly European heritage and values are actually ancient history not worth remembering.
Do you think they're trying to weasel out of it by blaming it entirely on Leopold? It was exclusively "his" and I imagine the Belgian people and government are leaning heavily into that to avoid any association or guilt or responsibility for fixing
Belgium also wants people to forget that they were behind the assassination of Lumumba, where they dug up his body after he was laid to rest in order to dissolve his corpse in acid until a single gold tooth remained, which they then kept before graciously returning Lumumba's single gold tooth that didn't dissolve in acid to the DRC less than 2 months ago.
Definitely. I've heard a few anecdotal stories of college educated Belgian kids who have no idea it even happened.
I'm reading the Assassination of Lumumba by de Witte rn. Highly recommended
Also when they left Congo they quite literally stripped out the copper wires out of the buildings.
I do remember something like two years ago that they were gonna start tearing down statues of him around Belgium and even the main Conservative party didn’t even try to contest it. Idk if anything came from it, and it obviously doesn’t come close to addressing the damage. There’s absolutely no absolute squirmy way to redeem him as a historical figure in any context like they do with confederates here. Out of my family ik there and the few other Belgians I’ve met it does seem to at least be a deep cultural stain on their conscious, Outside of the emergent explicitly fascist party there. That all said tho, Belgiums government from all my second hand knowledge does seem deeeeeply evil.
Read King Leopold's Ghost. It is very good if you want to hate everything just a little bit more.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/King_Leopold%27s_Ghost
Just re-read this for like the 7th time. Then listened to ‘Heart of Darkness’ performed by Sir Kenneth Branagh. And it’s a whole experience.
7th is a low guess
(I“Audible" read. Yes it’s the same thing. And if you don’t like your internal reading voice, thanks to Capitalism, you can pay for someone to read for you. And, it’s not a one time thing, you can re-listen as many times as you’d like!)
I'm with you, comrade. My commute can be up to 90 minutes, so I burn through audiobooks. I also put on The Great Courses to fall asleep. If audibly stimulating my brain with literature is wrong, I don't want to be right.
I'd pirate books, but the ease of downloading and syncing is worth for the sub, for me.
Back to the book: people stealing hands to account for spent ammo is some bleak shit.
