Stealing a Nation
Hidden from Parliament and the U.S. Congress, the deal was this: the Americans wanted the island, in their words, “swept and sanitized.” An entire population was declared expendable; all of them were to be deported.
Stealing a Nation (John Pilger, 2004) is an extraordinary film about the plight of people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean – secretly and brutally expelled from their homeland by British governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to make way for an American military base. The base, on the main island of Diego Garcia, was a launch pad for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.
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“Stealing a Nation (John Pilger, 2004) is an extraordinary film about the plight of people of the Chagos Islands in the Indian Ocean – secretly and brutally expelled from their homeland by British governments in the late 1960s and early 1970s, to make way for an American military base. The base, on the main island of Diego Garcia, was a launch pad for the invasions of Afghanistan and Iraq.”
I must applaud John Pilger for this extrodinary effort in bringing this important story to the publics attention. so much “wrong” has been done by the British and American governments in the name of what we call today, “national security” or, as one Brit said, 40 years ago times called for certain things to be done…such rational excuses these politicians make without conscience, since they are so locked into their work, position, and the “system” that they lack the courage to take a stand for fair play and justice.
The excuse of the British unable to ber the cost of relocating these people is so ludicrous it defies believability, so common when the establishment is confronted with tough issues they can’t in good conscious justify. They lie, misrepresent, fabricate, mislead, and pretend to be doing the best they can for all concerned or insuate they can not do anything more to help…
Anyway, great effort by Pilger and all those who worked on this film and courage and compassion to all those islanders who lost their families, pets and homeland all these years, a true humanitarian disaster…perhaps one that the United Nations might take up, considering the British violated their own court decision to declare the people’s exile illegal.
Knowing that evil exists in this world is one thing, but to see it is quite another.
All involved need to be brought to justice, including the Queen of England, the Americans be expelled, and any who allowed it either by their silent assent or direct participation imprisoned for life.
Then and only then after this has happened and the people allowed home could justice said to have been done.
A commendable Documentary drawing attention to the plight of a dispossessed people.
There is a similar issue that is happening in the US. Gentrification of cities and neighborhoods pushing out the poor to make way for new development and new homes for more affluent people. I think this is really sad and unforgiveable what has happened to these people. I have never heard of this island nor that this happened. This should be brought to the public and the people responsible shoule be held accountable for their actions. The people who were relocated should be given back their land. It hurts me to think in this modern day that this is still going on. Like our true Americans, the Native Americans. I am saddened by this.
How can such injustice be tolerated? And doesn’t look like many people have watched this documentary.
Bless the digital age. Such horrendous acts wouldn’t have reached the masses if not for the internet.
You should watch other documentaries by John Pilger… there are more cases like these, including how the USA diliberately makes South American countries poor and keep them that way, as well as how the USA supports South America’s regeimes.
Im sickened, yet not surprised by the content of this WONDERFUL film.
It is absurd how history repeats itself and no correction or relief of such disrespect of the human condition to avail along the way. We as the careless inhabitants of these nations who are comfortably blinded, mislead, deceived, misinformed and lied to.Yet with no reason!
The information is there for us to learn from and read between the lies written and spoken, although we stumble upon excuses after excuses of unethical and amoral illusions created to reality by intellectually demonic tyrants who quench their thirst for power.
I truly enjoyed this wicked story or trickery,egotism,superiority. I recommend this to all!
I am part Pacific Islander, and I cannot believe that these people haven’t been compensated properly. It’s the same situation that happened to the people of Bikini Island in the Marshalls. Wow!! I am out of words witnessing this atrocity.
double standards has always been the characteristics of tyrants.
That island is British owned and is rented to the US. Sounds to me like the Brit’s Government wanted more income from the island…
This is a tiny problem compared to what the US and UK are doing now and have done in the last 50 years.
So why are these people not home already and compensated ???
Our government stink hypocrisy, selfishness, cruelty, it as no honor, i’m sick of their s*** around the world !!! how can they even pronounce the word GOD ???
5 million $ is a joke !!! Where are the so called philanthropist that like their photo on magazines ??? How much money they gave to jp morgan ???
Diego Sanchez will never be given back to the native inhabitants as long as the United States rules the world through empire. The military base in Diego Sanchez is one of the biggest in the world and situated perfectly for the US to act as “policeman of the world” or should I say “global fascist empire.”
If americans stopped voting for the same established parties every election maybe it would be a bit better yes?
no erik americans cant do nothing
only thing u can do is stop paying taxes and people are afraid to go to jail
so they keep on paying
i cant believe that ********** at the end saying he would do the same if it was now or 40 years ago cause he backs his buddys ? lol
thats harsh
where is the human
i hope people homejack his *** so he knows how it feels to get kicked out or be powerless
A lot of good comments. And, yes. There doesn’t seem to be a lot of people watching this extrordinary film. I’m an American…or I live in a country that used to be America. Our “professional” polititions no longer stand for the same thing I was taught America stood for. Same in Great Britain I guess. It changed long before I was born in 1951. So what’s new in world history? It’s been going on since man swung his first weapon. The weapon just keeps getting bigger, faster, and global. Always remember, though… It’s the foot-soldier that wins the war. Thank you all for the film. My heart goes out to those deprived people of island of Diego Garcia!
Sorry to post again, here is the website of Chagos Refugee group as well. http://www.chagosrefugeesgroup.net/
Shameful stuff.
I’m British and this is the first I’ve heard of this. I wrote a letter to my MP about the issue asking questions about their postition and for the Chagossian issue to be raised in Parliament. I don’t expect anything back as I know our democracy to be a sham.
The fact that the queen still has the power to overrule the high court is amazing! A pampered worthless figurehead who can sign off the lives of over 2000 people without a second thought! The whole system stinks, absolutely stinks.
I can only hope that somehow the Chagossians get their home back before the old generation fades away.
And before anyone starts lecturing, I know it’s only the tip of the rotten iceberg!
this was really sad , but its shows the mechanism by which the the world has been ruled until today , Im not pointing to the English or the US goberment ,they are one of the world leaders and if they dont show the example there is little hope this is going to change in the near future.
Russia should refuse to ratify the treaty. Perhaps Russia can do something compassionate for citizens of the world. Clearly, America does not look out for all beings – although turtles are apparently of the utmost importance.
lol, i never heard this before, 10 out of 10 for this documentry.
my gawd. it’s the same ‘ole thing, over and over and over and over and over – the rich, the powerful … control everything and we are powerless to stop them – i think I will die of sadness. almost every time i watch one of these docs i want to throw up afterwards. i cannot even imagine what we’d have to do to turn it around ? ? ? could it ever be ? ? ? with enlightenment comes great pain it is why most choose to remain in the comfort of darkness – - – -
I was so upset after watching this I can’t think straight. Destroying paradise to build a military base. This is absolutely infuriating! Why do the evil people always rise to power while the benign and gentle get trampled. All I can do is cry for the poor people of this island that shares my name.