Yahoo! is carrying an Associated Press article describing the inane behind-the-scenes jockeying for position at the World Conference Against Racism.
Among other things, the AP reports that Turkey is blocking efforts by Kurds to describe Turkey’s war against its Kurdish population as racist. Why? Despite killing almost 40,000 Kurds, Turkey insists that the Kurds are not really an ethnic minority (they’re just Turks who think they’re a separate culture).
There’s a lot of debate and consternation over whether to refer to “indigenous people” or “indigenous peoples.” The natives concerned fear for the worst if “peoples” is not approved, but the whole matter seems moot since the draft proposal ultimately gives countries the final say in dealing with indigenous people/s.
India’s minister of state for foreign affairs is still outraged at the idea that anyone would consider India’s caste system to be racist. As Omar Abdullah put it, that would equate “casteism with racism, which makes India a racist country, which we are not.” Hopefully Abdullah won’t be teaching Logic 101 in India anytime soon.
Any sort of real protections for refugees fleeing from racism was quickly written out of the draft document, which should reassure Australia’s fears that a few hundred oppressed Afghanis will ruin their country.
Not that I think everything proposed by the conference is bad. In fact, I have long thought that reparations for colonialism and slavery are potentially workable, though so far I’ve found few people who like my particular plan.
The only real legal entity left to sue (at least for my country) would be the United States government. Sure there are some corporations around who ultimately can trace their origins back to previous companies that were tangentially linked to slavery, but realistically the only entity still alive and kicking is the U.S. government.
Now, it just happens that the U.S. government is also one of the largest landowners in the world. My proposal is that the United States should sell off every speck of land that it owns which is not used for conducting government business, and set the money up in an international fund to go to nations victimized by slavery and colonialism.
This kills two birds with one stone, simultaneously getting the complaints from the developing world taken care of once and for all, as well as doing something productive with the land that is just sitting there at the moment. It is a real win-win proposition.