Quora is a cesspit. I remember doing some research to see if Portugal ever apologized or paid reparations or actively acknowledges and condemns their colonial history. I saw someone ask a similar question on quora and I swear to god the first answer basically said: there’s nothing to apologize for, nobody alive now is responsible (not what the question was implying), the colonies deserved it as Portugal made them civilized, etc.
It was fucking horrifying.
Like most people know that they aren’t personally responsible for what past people did, but like, we had colonial wars very recently, and history in Portugal was actively sanitized during the dictatorship. Shinzo Abe explicitly denied Japanese atrocities during WWII, it’s the same concept.
Nobody is asking the people of today to feel like they’re at fault. It’s just acknowledge the history and work to never repeat it again. Maybe establish friendly relationships with the countries that you colonized, I don’t know.
Portugal is a poor country so I didn’t expect to see monetary reparations, but it’s fucked up that they are actively proud of their colonial past and have monuments and statues dedicated to “explorers”.
I think instead of celebrating colonialism with pride and monuments, they should be replaced with love for the Carnation Revolution.
Also with Portugal stealing all of Brazil’s gold they’re still poor as hell.
“Russia lost respect from the West”
Did Russia ever have respect from the West?
Quora is a cesspit. I remember doing some research to see if Portugal ever apologized or paid reparations or actively acknowledges and condemns their colonial history. I saw someone ask a similar question on quora and I swear to god the first answer basically said: there’s nothing to apologize for, nobody alive now is responsible (not what the question was implying), the colonies deserved it as Portugal made them civilized, etc.
It was fucking horrifying. Like most people know that they aren’t personally responsible for what past people did, but like, we had colonial wars very recently, and history in Portugal was actively sanitized during the dictatorship. Shinzo Abe explicitly denied Japanese atrocities during WWII, it’s the same concept. Nobody is asking the people of today to feel like they’re at fault. It’s just acknowledge the history and work to never repeat it again. Maybe establish friendly relationships with the countries that you colonized, I don’t know. Portugal is a poor country so I didn’t expect to see monetary reparations, but it’s fucked up that they are actively proud of their colonial past and have monuments and statues dedicated to “explorers”.
I think instead of celebrating colonialism with pride and monuments, they should be replaced with love for the Carnation Revolution.
Also with Portugal stealing all of Brazil’s gold they’re still poor as hell.
Sorry for the rant, I tend to go off on tangents.