Chris, it wasn't the countries "of German language and Scandinavia" that raped
the American continent. That honor belongs mostly to England, Spain and
Portugal. The conquest of Peru and Mexico by Spain are as iconic in the
history of the New World as the predatory "Manifest Destiny" sweep of English
speaking peoples across America north of Mexico. The French tried to be part
of the conquest, but got stuck in a few places like Quebec, Haiti and
Louisiana, where they didn't really last very long as conquering powers.
Ray does have a point about Europe having destroyed his people. Europeans not
only did so by shooting and killing, but also by the spread of disease, which
the righteous invaders saw as something like God's contempt for Native
Americans. As one source put it: " Six months after Cortes's victorious entry
into Tenochtitlan, hardly a village in Mexico had not been devÂastated by the
first wave of disease. In the words of one of the SpanÂish chroniclers, the
Indians "died in heaps, like bedbugs."" (Thomas R. Berger, A Long and Terrible
Shadow, 1991)
Why God's contempt? Because the Native Americans weren't very useful. They
didn't last very long as slaves on the plantations established by the
Europeans. Hence, they brought in Africans who were largely immune to Eropean
diseases.
Ray may also have a point about attitudes in present day Europe. There may be
some legitimacy to concerns expressed about growing Muslim populations, but at
times what is said strikes one as being more than a little racist, a little too
much like historic attitudes toward Jews. And one also has to consider
deportation actions taken toward the Romani. Is Europe a comfortable place for
"the other"? Not really, it would seem.
Ed
>> > But why didn't you ever visit the European continent either?
>
> REH replied:
>> Being tempted to move to Europe to work would then mean that I would be
>> forever in the midst of the attitudes that destroyed my family in the first
>> place. The attitudes that drove surplus human serfs to invade this country
>> and destroy 98 per cent of the population here. I chose not to be tempted
>> by the Art no matter how good it felt. I can forgive people but not the
>> attitudes that continue.
>
> My proposal would be to visit (not to work) in Europe, so that you can
> overcome your prejudice that all Europeans are the same. In fact, outside
> of the imperial countries that raped the American continent, i.e. mainly
> in the countries of German language and in Scandinavia, there are
> quite a few Europeans who sympathize with the Indian culture and share
> their environmental awareness and work towards sustainability. But the
> imperial countries within the EU oppress & exploit these European cultures
> in similar ways as they did to the Indians. E.g., German is not even an
> official language of the EU, although the native German speakers are the
> largest and the core language group in Europe.
>
> Also, you should distinguish between those who migrated to America to
> destroy your people, and those who remained in Europe.
>
> Chris
>
>
>
>
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