Ordinary Gweilo

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Diego Garcia

I know that John Pilger is a bleeding heart liberal, but if even half of this is true then the British Government has behaved in a totally outrageous way:

During the 1960s and 1970s, British governments, both Labour and Tory, tricked and expelled the entire population of the Chagos, a British colonial dependency, so that their homeland could be given to a foreign power, the United States, as the site for a military base. This "act of mass kidnapping", as one observer describes it, was carried out in high secrecy, along with the conspiracy that preceded it.

For almost a decade, neither parliament nor the US Congress knew anything about it, and no journalist revealed it. BBC newsreaders still refer to US aircraft flying out to bomb Afghanistan and Iraq from the "uninhabited" island of Diego Garcia. Not only was the Chagossians’ homeland stolen from them, but they were taken out of history. This scandal is unresolved today – even though the high court in London has twice ruled that the islanders’ "wholesale removal" was an "abject legal failure".

Worth reading, I think.

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8 responses to “Diego Garcia”

  1. Hustler avatar
    Hustler

    Man… your blog is serious stuff man. I never thanked you for the link so here I am. Thanks dude!
    It’s flattering to be linked by you.
    Cheers!!!

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  2. Ken avatar
    Ken

    I have always been proud to be British. I’m not so sure now.

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  3. Xi Hu avatar
    Xi Hu

    By the way Ken wrote(from all his other posts I read),
    I thought English is his second language(it’s mine).
    Without getting into some language technicality
    stuff, reading his writing is like seeing someone
    swinging a hammer but unable to hit the nail right
    on the head. I think it might have a lot to do with
    him not making clear of who he is — his basic
    identity. Is he gweilo(white)? Is he ethnic Chinese
    who still has the old, left-over, die-hard colonial
    mentality? What is his definition of “local” as he
    claimed himself to be? He definitely is not the type
    of local I born with and live with.
    By the way, I’m sure Mahatma Gandhi and Lee Kuan-Yew
    (I think he used to call himself, Henry or Harry or
    something like that during the height of colonial days)
    were pretty proud of being British at one time. And
    then, reality hit…..
    Xi Hu.

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  4. Ken avatar
    Ken

    Thanks for Xi Hu’s interest in my identity, and the lot. That’s a broad one. Obviously the way I write has caused some misgivings. No, things like identity, mentality or definition of a local is beyond me. I think I should keep to sandwiches, Spring Rolls or the like, just to keep going.

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  5. Xi Hu avatar
    Xi Hu

    Ah Ken,
    So poetic and so civil.
    Whoever you are,
    it doesn’t really matter.
    Apparently,
    you are one decent fellow human being. 😉
    Xi Hu.

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  6. Ken avatar
    Ken

    Yes, Xi Hu xiansheng, whoever we are really doesn’t matter. When I was a kid, a portrait of the Queen was on the classroom wall. The school flew the Union Jack. For television we had Rediffusion. The station would end a day’s programme with a run of ‘God Save The Queen’. I happened to live near an RAF base, and some barracks. Soldiers to me then were all ‘gweilos’. All the time when I was brought up, however, I was told I was Chinese! Alas, it was not explained to me why. I followed the herd and came to think that I am Chinese because I am Mongoloid; speak Cantonese; eat rice with chopsticks etc. I was also told the Brits got Hong Kong by some ‘unequal treaty’. I was always perplexed. When adulthood approached, I gradually came to know, as a people, what the Chinese are, and to which lot I should think I belong. I chose to become British because I was fortunate to be able to CHOOSE. Otherwise something else would be imposed upon me.
    Xi Hu xiansheng, can you enlighten me as to my ‘identity’? I am lost. Be warned though, whatever you say, I remained convinced that, afterall, it really doesn’t matter . Cheers.

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  7. Xi Hu avatar
    Xi Hu

    Ah Ken,
    The two words, “chose” and “fortunate” you used in
    your previous post tell it all(or the crux of it).
    Though the Empire is no more, but there are still a
    few good things come with a “real” British passport
    — not too many left but still some.
    As you suggested, the issue of one’s identity could
    be broad and complex. I’m not sure if I’m a person
    can shed much light on it for you, or if this is a
    forum for such heavy discussion. I always know who
    I am and that I belong here. After all, I was born
    on this land, through circles of good and bad times,
    my forbears had walked on this soil for eon.
    However, Let me say this one thing, wherever you are,
    the gweilo would smile at you but in some ways make
    you feel you don’t belong there. And they think they
    own everything, even though it doesn’t really belong
    to them. I’m speaking from my own personal
    experiences here and abroad. They do it because they
    could do pretty much what they want and get away
    with it in their good old days. But it’s changing. 😉
    By the way, there is no need to call me, xian sheng.
    Though, I’ve been called many much worse names than
    that by gweilo because of my outspoken way. 😉 And
    I do appreciate your “lai mao”. Ah Xi or Lo Hu is
    fine. It’s been my pleasure. Cheers!
    Xi Hu.

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  8. Patch avatar
    Patch

    Xi Hu,
    I read your posts whith a pinch of salt as it seems to me now that either youre just racist or just plain ignorant of how off the mark your comments are. You seem to think that bad treatment of “chinese” is an inherent quality of gweilos and is in no way repeated or performed by your own people. You also seem to equate actions taken in secret and against the law by a foreign government as somehow indicative of the populance as a whole. I am sorry that you find the gweilo so objectionable (though that does lead me to question why you visit this site and leave such baseless and inflammatory comments) but if I was to judge the chinese by some of the comments I have had in the past 15 years of living here, I too could get pretty wound up. I do not however and I also choose not to equate the entire global population of those who call themselves chinese, with the actions of an unelected and misrepresentational government.
    I would also like to say that in case yesterdays date illuded you, it was not so long ago that the majority of the people here did not regard China with anything other than deep mistrust and suspicion, and Hong Kong was seen by many as a haven, albeit one run by Foreign Devils.
    A sign of nations maturity is when it can take genuine criticism not as a personal racist insult and be able to accept and act upon it.
    Patch

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