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UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

bbc.co.uk

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Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#221

Post by Thiez »

toyg wrote: post #32
bpodgursky wrote: post #30

Earlier quoted context omitted.

African voters, to the extent that they have any vote at all [1], have vastly more important things to care about than a tiny island in the Indian ocean. I would in fact bet a lot of money that vastly fewer than 1% of African voters, in any country, know about the Chagos Islands at all. [1] Mostly, not https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Democracy_in_Africa#/media/Fil...

Yeah but when $dictator shows up on tv and talks about figthing $bloodyColonialists at the UN, it's uncontroversial (regardless of the issue being fought) and takes time from talking about his embezzlement/corruption/etc. Meanwhile, behind the scenes, they can go cap in hand to $bloodyColonialists and ask "do you want me to shut up? Give me $something". This requires no shadowy influence from this or that supposed Gr…

This all just speaks in favor of decolonialization, does it not? When decolonialisation is complete the $dictator won't be able to use it as a distraction, nor can it be a source of corruption. And apart from that it's a noble and objectively good goal in itself.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#222

Post by frereubu »

noselasd wrote: post #204
logifail wrote: post #195

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Q: Is there a reason for making a lease 99 years, rather than - say - 999 years?

Historically 99 years was the longest term for leases in English laws. I don't think that's incorporated in laws any more, but it has just continued as common practice.

You may be right historically, but I don't think it's common practice any more - there are quite a few "virtual freehold" leases of 999 years, and most other domestic leaseholds are 125+ years when they start. When a leashold goes below 90 years its value dips sharply.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#223

Post by vkou »

ethbr1 wrote: post #80
shortrounddev2 wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think China is increasingly driven by the ego of Xi Jinping and not the internal machinations of party politics.

He is 71 and getting older. A lot of crazy things look more reasonable when you've had absolute power for a decade and aren't overly concerned about consequences in 20 years.

A lot of crazy things look more reasonable when you realize that your metric for 'crazy' and 'not crazy' is less about gauging the mental state of the person making those decisions, and more about how much/little they upset Western interests.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#224

Post by frereubu »

IncreasePosts wrote: post #98
avinash wrote: post #17

I'm a citizen of the Republic of Mauritius and, when this news was announced today, there was a general sense of relief. Mauritius has been fighting for its sovereignty over the Chagos Archipelago (with Diego Garcia being the largest island) for 56 years. Today, the Chagos Archipelago is part of Mauritius again and a treaty will (hopefully) soon be signed between the UK and Mauritius. From there, Mauritius will sign…

What exactly is the Mauritian connection to the Chagos Archipelago? Is it just because a lot of Chagossians went to Mauritius after getting kicked out? Obviously Mauritius and Chagos were ruled by the same people previous (French, then British), but is there a deeper history there? I ask this because the Chagos archipelago is like 1500 miles away from Mauritius - the Maldives, Seychelles, and even Sri Lanka and India…

I imagine for such a small island chain you'd need a "parent" country to provide services, so picking the one where most people when when they were exiled probably makes sense. May also be a language thing?

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#227

Post by impossiblefork »

peterashford wrote: post #166
klelatti wrote: post #123

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> It almost feels like China is involved in this because the number doesn't sound like something Mauritius would come up with on their own. See other 99 year leases the CCP is involved in, they're obsessed with this number Err 99 leases are common in lots of places. 99 years is a bit more than a lifetime so not many people care much about what happens afterwards. And it is a lot shorter than in perpetuity which would…

The forced dispossession of the islanders of their home was a crime against humanity by the UK in the first place. This is righting an abysmal wrong

But this doesn't quite right, since as far I understand, the Islanders aren't necessarily Mauritians.

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#228

Post by agos »

spookie wrote: post #183
BurningFrog wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm quite skeptical. If we lower the CO2 levels (carbon sequestering) and cool the planet by reflecting more sunlight (SO2 injection in the stratosphere), I'm sure these alleged tipping points will be tipped back again, given some time. It's good to be aware that doom sells, and the incentive to publish doom predictions for the money they make is very high. Of course, they can still be true... We'll see how it goes :…

I would assume that "given some time" outlasts the median life expectancy of humans. If it ever happeens. Like others said it's a chaotic system in many ways, not as if you can predict more than a few decades. Given this, after "giving it some time" a lot of people would be dead as a direct consequence of it not been given enough time.

we're talking about 99 years, so outside the life expectancy of a lot of people on this thread

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#229

Post by agos »

rightbyte wrote: post #188
ta1243 wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure. It's still there though, 65 years later. The US will go where it pleases and do what it wants, just like the great European empires of the 17th through 19th centuries. Sure it's Amazon and Google rather than an East India Company, but it's the same themes.

Luckely Amazon and Google does not have gunboats yet.

just give it a few more years and we'll see MAANG sponsored black sites

Re: UK will give sovereignty of Chagos Islands to Mauritius

#230

Post by rldjbpin »

diego garcia remains, so it really is a matter of semantics.

not that military bases like these are always great with the host nations (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nf-eHVa-2zE).

any potential windfall would be nice for Mauritius, but obviously does not remedy for the conflict.

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