Friday 18 January 2013

Colonialist BBC


The BBC, while being bien pensant and continually spouting anti-colonialist sentiments, is actually institutionally colonialist.

Let me explain.  A number of British people went to work in Algeria, a known unstable country with a history of civil war and Islamic terrorists.  Said workers will have known this and accepted the risks.  Then terrorists grab the workers in a raid on a gas plant in a remote area of Algeria.

Then shock horror from the Beeb. The Algerian military take what they consider is appropriate action, based on their experience of the terrorists, on their own soil. "What?" says the Beeb, "they didn't wait for the UK to give permission or to send in the SAS?" "Their forces are good by local standards but not up to ours".  A damning colonialist sentiment.

It appears there was some collateral damage, something the Beeb takes in it's stride in Afghanistan, Pakisatan, Iraq, Sierre Leone, ... and now by the French in Mali. The Beeb treats collateral damage lightly when it only involves locals going about their daily lives.

Now, shock horror, some of the British workers appear to be involved in the collateral damage. But they were there by choice, knowing the risks. Why is collateral damage only an issue when the British are on the receiving end?  A damning racist sentiment.


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