UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres is either a fool or dark as night.
Or he is simply playing to keep his post, with the support of African countries. His latest brainstorm is otherwise incomprehensible.
"Countries should consider paying financial reparations for slavery"
he stated, adding, "No country has yet comprehensively accounted for its past."
The latter's comment is of course correct, especially when we think of the countries to which we owe so much. So many bad things. There is, for example, the Kingdom of the East Franks, made up mainly of Bavarians, which wanted to sweep the Hungarians off the earth in 904.
Although they lost the Battle of Bratislava, they did not pay us a single gold compensation for the damage caused and the Hungarians killed. Or Turkey because of 150 years of occupation and free robbery and enslavement. What did Austria pay to the victims of the bloody reprisals after the suppression of the 1848-49 revolution and war of independence?
How did they account for what they did to us with Trianon? How much reparations did we receive from the Western states for handing us over to the Bolshevik dictatorship without batting an eye? How much did Russia pay us for the Hungarians dragged to the Soviet Union and killed in the GULAG? (Although this should probably not be mentioned, because today's "clean-handed" West might support this one reparation wholeheartedly against the ugly Russians.) What kind of compensation did we receive from the USA and the European core countries because they promised help in 1956 to insurgents fighting for freedom, and then let our revolution bleed into blood in a vile way?
Yes, Mr. Guterres, certain countries have something to account for, but not only for slavery. Or why do you think it's just because?
Didn't you think, Comrade General Secretary, that the Africans themselves also played a major role in the slave trade, since the members of the enemy tribes were often delivered to the hands of their opponents by the traders? Now who would pay whom?
The Portuguese is very brave in pushing for reparations, fine, do it. But then don't forget about the USA either, because if I'm not mistaken, those Democrats seem to have exterminated the Indians a bit, right? When will you call them to pay compensation to the accidentally left descendants? Or would this be too big a step, too bold a step that could jeopardize your position?
Viewed from the 21st century, was slavery truly inhumane and barbaric, or what was it like? It still exists today. Who will pay reparations for this child labor, for forcing kidnapped people to work, for exploiting the vulnerable?
Because all three things are present in the world, but somehow the UN doesn't talk much about it (at most it issues condemnatory statements and thus dismisses the matter), what's more, it doesn't attack countries that are proven to buy products produced with slave labor.
The credibility of the World Organization can be classified in the dictionary of non-existent concepts for quite some time now. Any organization that advocates for LGBTQ rights and abortion is not worthy of being taken seriously.
It is a fact that it never fulfilled the role that its founders intended for it, but they cannot help it, since its very creators ensured that it remained a putty.
The only question is this: then why? What if it wasn't? I don't think we would even notice.
Featured image: Tamás Kovács / MTI
