Thursday, January 19, 2006

Namibia's German Genocide: How far back are we going?

OK, we all accept that killing a race of people is a bad thing. You don't even have to kill them all. Even a few thousand will raise an eyebrow or two. To quote John Lithgow in Cliffhanger and Megadeth1, "Kill a man, you're a murderer. Kill a million, you're a conqueror. Kill them all, you're God." Its a question of scale and context. Many atrocities were, and are, committed during wars.

Historically, you don't even have to declare war. If you had enough soldiers, and couldn't understand the natives, you could quite cheerfully kill them and nick their country, which, to quote Grandpa Simpson, "was the style at the time". That was how the Europeans built their Empires. Britain had one, Germany had one, France, Holland, everyone had an Empire. Britain had an Empress, Queen Victoria, Empress of India. She never even went there. Britain's Empire was the daddy; to quote Blackadder again, "The British Empire at present covers a quarter of the globe, while the German Empire consists of a small sausage factory in Tanganyika".

Evidently this is somewhat wide of the mark, as the Herero people of Namibia are trying to get compensation for the "genocide" visited upon them during their failed uprising against the German colonialists in 1904. It is thought three quarters of the Herero people were killed. Now, firstly, I'm not sure this qualifies. Genocide is defined as "The systematic and planned extermination of an entire national, racial, political, or ethnic group". Some of them survived. Strictly, then, the Holocaust wasn't a genocide either, not that I'm suggesting that it is somehow less heinous as a result. Secondly, they were fighting the colonialists. It was a war. It's not like the Germans smothered them in their beds.

My question is, is there a cutoff point after which you can't apply for compensation? Could Scotland apply for compensation from England for years of war and bloodshed? Could the Native Americans get compensation from the USA? Should the Jews get compensation for the Holocaust? Could England get compensation from Italy for the Romans? Could the whole Middle East get compensation from Macedonia for Alexander the Great? Could Eastern Europe get compensation from Mongolia for Genghis Khan? When does it become stupid?

Maybe we call a halt to any more retrospective compensation claims. What's done is done. If you want to invade somewhere in the future, you have to pay compensation up front. That would make them think twice about invading. That would make Africa in particular very scared. They've been getting aid for years, and latterly countries are pledging to cancel Third World debt. That would sort bullying as well. It'd be like a toll. If you want to beat me up, it'll cost you ten pounds.

1 Now there is a juxtaposition that can't occur too often.

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