(Daily360.com) – The prime minister of Barbados believes their little island is entitled to roughly $4.9 trillion in slavery reparations. Mia Mottley is ramping up the pressure to maneuver the payments to Barbados in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter (BLM) uprisings and George Floyd unrest that blanketed the United States in 2020.
She believes that not only the U.S. but most nations of the West that have a history of expanding past their borders and partook in the slave trade owe her nation money now. Mottley, a socialist and leader of the Barbados Labour Party, made these remarks while speaking at the London School of Economics. Mottley says she understands that amounts of money this large will likely take time to transfer into her coffers, but she would like to see the process begin as soon as possible.
Mottley arrived at this sum after consulting with a firm called Brattle Group out of Boston, Massachusetts. Whatever metric the Brattle Group used states that Britain owes 14 different countries a total of $24 trillion. They also assert that France owes $9.2 trillion, Spain owes $17.1 trillion and the Netherlands owes $4.86 trillion.
Barbados runs at about $6 billion in Gross Domestic Product (GDP) annually; if it were to receive the $4.9 trillion its economic output would increase by about 800%. Mottley says the reality of nations transferring such enormous sums from their economies does not concern her because these nations must pay so that her people can “move on” from this “disgraceful history.” She also said that the amount she’s demanding is “miniscule” compared to the time that has elapsed from the days of the slave trade to today.
Mottley is largely responsible for Barbados removing British influence as well as removing itself from the British monarchy in 2021. British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak responded to Mottley’s demand by calling it the wrong way forward and trying to “unpick our history” is not a way he will spend his time or energy.
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