Not too fat for fashion

leotheyardiechick:

moniquill:

karnythia:

orup:

A father stares at the hands of his five year-old daughter, which were severed as a punishment for having harvested too little rubber.

This is what was happening in the Congo at the hands of the Belgians under King Leopold. Let us be clear dear people who like to claim that because their parents were immigrants to America they never benefited from the slave trade. People were taken from Africa & exported as slaves to other countries, but Africans were also enslaved & killed on the continent. For generations. That’s the legacy of the colonialism & imperialism that made the West so wealthy & created the “Third World”.

Not to detract from the point of this, but see this people who got this on the ‘steampunk’ tag?
The above is why dressing like this:

Is not fucking ON.

Right……I bet she harvested a ton-load of rubber after that! *sarcasm* as if child labour wasn’t terrible enough, I don’t even want to think about how depraved you have to be to sever a child’s hands.

Congo is too often forgotten by people, and I think it is great that images like these - horrifying as they are - raise awareness of what happened in Africa during colonial times. The cutting off of hands was not only a punishment for a rubber quota not being met, it was also a way for those in charge to account for the bullets they wasted. If you killed someone, a hand had to be cut off as proof that the bullet was actually used to kill someone and not say, for hunting. Of course this led to hands simply being cut off from people who were still alive, when those in charge had wasted bullets on a hunt. It was absolutely horrible. Being a Belgian myself, however, I take a bit of offence at the phrase “at the hands of the Belgians under Leopold”. It is an undisputed fact that we as a population absolutely benefited from the rubber trade, but Congo was private property of king Leopold 2 from 1885 up until 1908. All the blood money (because let there be no doubt that that is what it was) he made off the rubber trade went to him directly. Needless to say, he made a fortune. Come to think of it, one can only assume that our royal family still benefits from the fortune he made during those times. It’s disgusting. After the horrible things he did in Congo came to light (and of course, the benefits of having a colony with that much rubber during a time when the first cars etc. were made, became obvious) Congo became a colony of the Belgian state until 1960. The conditions improved after that, though you won’t hear me say that everything magically got better. A lot of beautiful buildings in our capital city (Brussels) were build at the request of Leopold 2 with Congo-money. Some of those have signs that acknowledge the fact in front of them, but they should ALL have them. And more. Apologies should be made; acknowledging what happened simply isn’t good enough. Congo can never be forgotten.

moniquill:

karnythia:

orup:

A father stares at the hands of his five year-old daughter, which were severed as a punishment for having harvested too little rubber.

This is what was happening in the Congo at the hands of the Belgians under King Leopold. Let us be clear dear people who like to claim that because their parents were immigrants to America they never benefited from the slave trade. People were taken from Africa & exported as slaves to other countries, but Africans were also enslaved & killed on the continent. For generations. That’s the legacy of the colonialism & imperialism that made the West so wealthy & created the “Third World”.

Not to detract from the point of this, but see this people who got this on the ‘steampunk’ tag?

The above is why dressing like this:

Is not fucking ON.

Right……I bet she harvested a ton-load of rubber after that! *sarcasm* as if child labour wasn’t terrible enough, I don’t even want to think about how depraved you have to be to sever a child’s hands.

Congo is too often forgotten by people, and I think it is great that images like these - horrifying as they are - raise awareness of what happened in Africa during colonial times. The cutting off of hands was not only a punishment for a rubber quota not being met, it was also a way for those in charge to account for the bullets they wasted. If you killed someone, a hand had to be cut off as proof that the bullet was actually used to kill someone and not say, for hunting. Of course this led to hands simply being cut off from people who were still alive, when those in charge had wasted bullets on a hunt. It was absolutely horrible.

Being a Belgian myself, however, I take a bit of offence at the phrase “at the hands of the Belgians under Leopold”. It is an undisputed fact that we as a population absolutely benefited from the rubber trade, but Congo was private property of king Leopold 2 from 1885 up until 1908. All the blood money (because let there be no doubt that that is what it was) he made off the rubber trade went to him directly. Needless to say, he made a fortune. Come to think of it, one can only assume that our royal family still benefits from the fortune he made during those times. It’s disgusting.

After the horrible things he did in Congo came to light (and of course, the benefits of having a colony with that much rubber during a time when the first cars etc. were made, became obvious) Congo became a colony of the Belgian state until 1960. The conditions improved after that, though you won’t hear me say that everything magically got better.

A lot of beautiful buildings in our capital city (Brussels) were build at the request of Leopold 2 with Congo-money. Some of those have signs that acknowledge the fact in front of them, but they should ALL have them. And more. Apologies should be made; acknowledging what happened simply isn’t good enough. Congo can never be forgotten.

1,172 notes | Reblog | 3 months ago

Posted on February 2nd at 11:18 AM
Reblogged from: faysbook
Originally posted by: orup