Methods of genocide: massacre, sterilization, mutilation, destruction of cultural symbols, deportation, starvation, forceful conversion, separation of families, slavery. ibid.
On these roads, the circulation of the most valuable and decisive commodities would permit the survival of the human race in its adaptation of the planet. And along these roads, for better or worse, silk of course would circulate, but also religion, language, refugees, artists, technology and pandemics. Exterminate All the Brutes III: Killing at a Distance or … How I Thoroughly Enjoyed the Outing *****
Sudan 1898 colonials wars. In Omdurman in 1989 the whole European arsenal was tested against a numerically superior and very determined enemy. One of the most cheerful depicters of war was Winston Churchill, later Nobel winner for Prize for Literature. Was the war correspondent of the Morning Post. ‘Nothing like the battle of Obdurman will ever be seen again’, wrote Churchill in a book published after the experience. ibid.
An Historical Account of the Reconquest of the Soudan by Winston Spencer Churchill: ‘They were a condensed mass: 2,800 yards from the 32nd field battery and the gunboats. The ranges were known. It was a matter of machinery. The mind was fascinated by the impending horror. I could see it coming. In a few seconds swift destruction would rush on these brave men … It was based on a fatal underestimation of the effectiveness of modern weapons. Within the space of five hours, the strongest best armed and savage army yet arrayed against a modern European power had been destroyed and dispersed with hardly any difficulty, comparatively small risk and insignificant loss to the victors. Thus ended the Battle of Omdurman, the most striking triumph ever gained by the arms of science against barbarians … only a sporting element in a splendid game. ibid.
The United States, a capitalist imperialist state. And having more arms allows more expansion. More expansion means more wars. For which you then need more arms. A profitable chicken and egg would ensue in a totally incestuous relationship between military, industry and governments. ibid.
The symbol of all evil: it is something odd, hidden deep behind two words: Hiroshima, Nagasaki. It was said that it was a war against fascism. It was said it was to prevent further American deaths, but hundreds of thousands died, the accounting is irrefutable. In a chess game, the objective is to checkmate the opponent’s king. All of the pieces then become collateral. Their respective value depends on the strategic value you assign to them. In the present case the King is an emperor, and Japanese death will provide the collateral. Shock and awe. A massacre determined by an algorithm. It came at eight o’clock on August 6th 1945. Nobody was expecting it. They were pawns in a sordid game. Killing at a distance had just taken on a new meaning. No explanation required, no cries tolerated. No pity. ibid.
Joseph Conrad’s book Heart of Darkness was influenced by the Battle of Omdurman. ibid.
A new era in the history of racism. Europeans started mistaking military superiority for intellectual and even biological superiority. That’s when things turned nasty. No-one had to pretend any more. ibid.
Baden-Powell writes to his mother: ‘I thoroughly enjoyed the outing. Except for want of a fight. Which I fear will preclude our getting any medals or decoration’. ibid.
Lord Salisbury, Albert Hall 4th May 1898: ‘One can roughly divide the nations of the world into the living and the dying. The weak nations become increasingly weaker and the strong, stronger. It was in the nature of things that the living nations would fraudulently encroach on the territory of the dying.’ ibid.
The Germans did not think that as a higher race they had any need to abide by treaties they made with the natives. As in north America, the German plans for immigration presupposed that the natives were to be relieved of all land of any value. When the Hereros resisted … every Herero found within the German borders with or without weapons was to be shot … 80,000 Hereros died in the desert. ibid.
Eugenics: The over-infatuation with genetic impurity, an impressive amount of energy put into the classification of people. A pathological obsession for the concept of race that scientifically doesn’t exist. ibid.
The Myth of Pristine Wilderness: a land with no people does not exist. The idea that America was virgin land, a wilderness inhabited by non-people called savages, is a myth. Only through killing and displacement does it become uninhabited. Before the arrival of the British, north America was a continent of villages, of nations, of confederations of nations. Exterminate All the Brutes IV: The Bright Colours of Fascism
The Navy Seal team members who carried out the assassination of Osama bin Laden on May 2nd 2011 were reporting in real time to President Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other officials in the sealed Situation Room. Following the operation, The New York Daily News commented, ‘Along with the unseen pictures of Osama bin Laden’s corpse and questions about what Pakistan knew, intelligence officials’ reasons for dubbing the Al Qaeda boss ‘Geronimo’ remain one of the biggest mysteries of the Black Ops mission.’ ibid.
Kill anything that moves. Take no prisoners. In California, hunting Indians was both legal and profitable. $5 a head, 50 cents a scalp. In 1849 the American government paid more than a million dollars to Indian hunters. ibid.
Make America Great again, he said. When exactly was it great? I mean really great? And for whom? ibid.
In the beginning, the slaves had to clean the cotton with their bare hands. The invention of the cotton gin by Eli Whitney would change everything. But Cotton also destroyed the soil, while using slaves’ bodies like a commodity became the most lucrative enterprise around. More profitable than all lands, banks, railroads, factories and gold products put together. Slaves were used as collateral for mortgage, a newly developed tool of commerce. ibid.
By 1890, disarmed, held in concentration camps, their children taken away half-starved, the Lakota and Dakota survivors found a new resistance: ghost dancing. ibid.
Wounded Knee Massacre: East Indians killed: 300; Survivors: 51 (4 men, 47 women), Army casualties: 25 dead. ibid.
Frank Baum: The pioneer has before declared that our only safety depends on the total extermination of the Indians. Having wronged them for centuries we had better in order to protect our civilisation follow it up by one more wrong and wipe these untamed and untamable creatures from the face of the Earth. The fact is, the Native Americans are still here, and this is still their home … The real fight remains the fight for self-determination and restitution. ibid.
As writer James Baldwin says, ‘There is scarcely any hope for the American dream. Because people who are denied participation in it, by their very presence will wreck it.’ ibid.
Lost souls on a pile of human confusion. The absence of any trace of empathy and genuine humanity is unbearable. The nightmare is buried deep in our consciousness. So deep that we do not recognise its ghosts. ibid.
The limits of superiority: privilege makes you vulnerable, and panic blended with ignorance and bigotry creates anger. Limitless and blinding anger. Everyone else becomes the enemy. The fortress becomes a prison. Everyone else looking in at you. ibid.
So educated Europeans today know how children die when the whip of debt and bombs whistle over poor countries. It is not knowledge that is lacking … Imperialism is a biologically necessary process that according to the laws of nature leads to the inevitable destruction of the lower races. ibid.
This knowledge is a fundamental prerequisite. That is why the narrator can tell his story as he does in Conrad’s novel, Heart of Darkness. He has no need to count the crimes Kurt committed. He has no need to describe them. He has no need to produce evidence. For no-one doubted it. ibid.
In 1960s and ’70s Britain hundreds of black children were caught up in an extraordinary scandal. They were labelled as educationally subnormal by the state and wrongly sent to schools for children with low intelligence. A decision that would have a devastating impact on their lives. Subnormal: A British Scandal, BBC 2021
This is a story that exposed assumptions at the heart of the British’ schools system that has an enduring legacy today. ibid.
But how did these ideas about race and intelligence find their way into the British schools system? ibid.
The leaked report from the ILEA contained a multitude of damning admissions: it revealed that the education authority was well aware that Caribbean children were being wrongly placed in ESN schools at much higher rates than their white peers. ibid.
In 1982 thirteen young black British people died after a house party ended in fire. The fire and its aftermath would ignite an uprising by the black British community. Uprising, captions, BBC 2021
‘There was a lot of racism within the police force. People were fitted up with bags of drugs, people were fitted up with offensive weapons. And so often they were young black people.’ ibid. former PC Peter Bleksley
21 Held After Muggins: A 24-year-old housewife and 20 young men will appear at Camberwell Magistrates’ Court, London to-day changed in connection with a series of muggins. ibid.
They were arrested after a number of raids in South East London on Monday, and followed a rooftop watch by police on shops and streets in Lewisham and Deptford. ibid.
The Metropolitan Police at five o’clock in the morning smashed the doors down of 21 houses and arrested 21 young people … A campaign for freeing of the Lewisham 21, and some of the people were little more than children. But it was what inspired the National Front to set up what they called the Anti-Mugging Branch. ibid. Sid Shelton, photographer and activist
The Battle of Lewisham: ‘The police were attacking us’. ibid.