Governor Augustus Jaspert is right with his anti-corruption initiative, but his anti-reparation standpoint is nothing but institutional corruption
Fighting corruption is fantastic. BVI desperately needs it, not more but just as much as the UK (and every other country) also desperately needs it internally.
Just as so many other "developed" nations, BVI people should welcome such a blessed and refreshing initiative that may suddenly hold accountable those officials and semi-officials and their middleman's food chain, who are making their country poor and themselves rich. Because BVI has enough money for everyone’s needs, but not for everyone’s greed.
However, there is a hypocrisy in hearing a call for justice from a person who dares to raise his voice against reparation.
Selective justice is a corrupt way of delivering any justice at all.
First should come first. Before running after the unexplained wealth of the illegal traffickers and drug-dealers and their ill-gotten gains of tomorrow, anyone who seeks justice needs to clear the past first. Starting with clearly-explained wealth gained by the crimes against humanity by the slave-traffickers and opium drug-dealers of yesterday.
Because of this simple fact of life: if the slaves had received the salaries they deserved for building Britain and enriching its Elites, the slaves’ descendants would be as rich as the Lords and Barons who stole this money to buy the fake-respectable status they enjoy today.
So before pointing your fingers make sure your hands are clean.
The rule of law must be blind and work both ways. Otherwise the selective rule of law just leads to a new form of slavery.
Sorry Gov. Jaspert: double-standards and hypocrisy are not the way to fight corruption.
Before declaring war against the money-laundering of tomorrow, it would be appropriate first to declare peace for a change, by clearing the money-laundering of yesterday. To share some - if not all - of the fortunes of criminals who became rich by laundering their dirty money, an act of grand theft that left the slaves’ descendants poor to begin with.
Fake-fighters for the "rule of law" are fooling no one but themselves by protecting a bunch of thieves, robbers, opium-drug-dealers and criminals against humanity from the past, who produced, through the illegal money they made, a pack of fake knighthoods and honours. A pack that they dealt to each other as if the world did not know that hiding behind all these so-called “honours “ was actually a gang of criminals who bought their fake honours with dirty money, while refusing to say sorry and to share with their victims some of the illegal fortunes they made from them.
Only criminals fight crimes with laws, courts and prisons, instead of justice: give the people the money they deserve so they are not pushed to survive by committing petty crimes.
Fight today’s criminals by sharing the stolen wealth of the past with those who were pushed into poverty -and therefore petty crime- to begin with.
Once they recover the money you took from them, they will also not need to commit petty crimes to buy their respectable statues and fake Honourable status as your "Excellency" guys did.
The only different will be: their forefathers worked very hard to earn it by their own and real blood, toil, tears and sweat – not as yours did.
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