Post by Kiwi Frontline on May 22, 2024 19:00:08 GMT 12
Mike Butler: THE BRITISH EMPIRE – A FORCE FOR GOOD.
The British Empire – a force for good, a new book, is a refreshing antidote to the current zeal for decolonisation, which encourages us to reimagine history as “a morality play in which white men are the baddies”.
Author John McLean, a writer and publisher, who has a MA in history from Victoria University in Wellington and a Bachelor of Law from Gray’s Inn, London, tells the stories of Britain’s 101 colonies established over 400 years, capturing the boldness and zeal of the pioneers who built the empire......
.....McLean shows the extent to which independence was a disaster for many colonies. He quotes a London Times report on May 8, 2000, which said that:
“Sierra Leone was among the most developed British colonies in West Africa, whose diamond wealth provided a high standard of living. But in the past 30 years, the lure of diamonds has proved to be the country’s undoing, leading to chronic instability, a 10-year uprising, and some of the worst atrocities in Africa. It is now the poorest country in the world and comes bottom of the UN misery index. Many thousands have been mutilated by rebel fighters. The capital, Freetown, has been repeatedly looted, and most of the country’s educated people have emigrated. The diamond mines have been largely wrecked.”
Sadly, that story of armed conflict, atrocities, looting, and white flight after Britain granted independence to numerous colonies has been repeated many times. Such is the legacy of decolonisation, that “morality play in which white men are the baddies”.....
breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/05/mike-butler-british-empire-force-for.html
The British Empire – a force for good, a new book, is a refreshing antidote to the current zeal for decolonisation, which encourages us to reimagine history as “a morality play in which white men are the baddies”.
Author John McLean, a writer and publisher, who has a MA in history from Victoria University in Wellington and a Bachelor of Law from Gray’s Inn, London, tells the stories of Britain’s 101 colonies established over 400 years, capturing the boldness and zeal of the pioneers who built the empire......
.....McLean shows the extent to which independence was a disaster for many colonies. He quotes a London Times report on May 8, 2000, which said that:
“Sierra Leone was among the most developed British colonies in West Africa, whose diamond wealth provided a high standard of living. But in the past 30 years, the lure of diamonds has proved to be the country’s undoing, leading to chronic instability, a 10-year uprising, and some of the worst atrocities in Africa. It is now the poorest country in the world and comes bottom of the UN misery index. Many thousands have been mutilated by rebel fighters. The capital, Freetown, has been repeatedly looted, and most of the country’s educated people have emigrated. The diamond mines have been largely wrecked.”
Sadly, that story of armed conflict, atrocities, looting, and white flight after Britain granted independence to numerous colonies has been repeated many times. Such is the legacy of decolonisation, that “morality play in which white men are the baddies”.....
breakingviewsnz.blogspot.com/2024/05/mike-butler-british-empire-force-for.html