Plan of the British slave ship Brooks. 1788
When I started researching the civil defence measures taken
in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War I remember being
confused by press references to arrested fascists being sent to
Uruguay at the beginning of war.
In fact they were talking about the prison ship "SS Uruguay"
anchored in the port of Barcelona.
Dickensian I thought.
One learns humility.
As a "temporary measure to ease prison overcrowding" Britain
reverted to this shameful system with the prison ship, HMP Weare.
Between 1997 and 2005 four hundred prisoners floated in cramped
and often airless conditions off Her Majesty's Coast in Portland
Harbour. It was finally closed as "entirely unsuitable for its function."
But at least it was no secret.
On Monday The Guardian published an article on the covert prison
ships allegedly being used by the US to keep detainees, abducted in
their "war on terror," away from the public eye and in the attempt to
conceal their exact number and whereabouts.
I don't know how much will change if Barack Obama wins the next
presidential elections, there are ubiquitous and very powerful
interests involved in keeping war and fear and hunger as driving
forces in this world.
But...
Something about justice, retribution or one for Martin Luther King:
Please click on the graphic illustrating this post. It was drawn and
used by the British Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade to
lobby for change.
in Barcelona during the Spanish Civil War I remember being
confused by press references to arrested fascists being sent to
Uruguay at the beginning of war.
In fact they were talking about the prison ship "SS Uruguay"
anchored in the port of Barcelona.
Dickensian I thought.
One learns humility.
As a "temporary measure to ease prison overcrowding" Britain
reverted to this shameful system with the prison ship, HMP Weare.
Between 1997 and 2005 four hundred prisoners floated in cramped
and often airless conditions off Her Majesty's Coast in Portland
Harbour. It was finally closed as "entirely unsuitable for its function."
But at least it was no secret.
On Monday The Guardian published an article on the covert prison
ships allegedly being used by the US to keep detainees, abducted in
their "war on terror," away from the public eye and in the attempt to
conceal their exact number and whereabouts.
I don't know how much will change if Barack Obama wins the next
presidential elections, there are ubiquitous and very powerful
interests involved in keeping war and fear and hunger as driving
forces in this world.
But...
Something about justice, retribution or one for Martin Luther King:
Please click on the graphic illustrating this post. It was drawn and
used by the British Society for the Abolition of the Slave Trade to
lobby for change.
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