Stealing A Nation

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After watching the film, "Stealing a Nation", I was able to learn about the secret removal of the inhabitants that lived on the island of Diego Garcia. After removing the people from their homes, or how the United States stated it "swept and sanitized", declaring the entire "expendable, all of them were to be deported" (John Pilger Stealing a Nation). When using critical thinking skills, one is able to see more than just a group of people being forcibly removed from their homes, but one can see human right violations, genocide, racism and ethnocentrism, and many other issues that would put both the United States and the British in the horrible light. When looking at the beginning of the film, as it lists the changes that have taken place…show more content…
What the film, Stealing a Nation, does not explain is to place those "two bomber runways" (John Pilger "Stealing a Nation") the area had to be bulldoze to the ground displacing all the trees that took hundreds of years to reach that age. Additionally, those bulldozing to clear land for the buildings, probably eliminated, or displaced, much of the wild life that claimed that land as home for decades. Also, now that the island is used as a place where United States warships could dock at, has caused problems for the wildlife that remain in the water, as fish may use those docking areas as a breeding grounds. Even worse, oil could be leaking from the warships causing pollutants that would eventually kill the aquatic wildlife that inhabit the waters. Not only there were environmental problems, but racism and…show more content…
According to History.com, when "the Treaty of new Echota, which traded all Cherokee land east of the Mississippi for $5 million dollars..." (History.com Staff, "Trail of Tears") was negotiated; the Cherokee had not actually representation in the federal government. Though the people of Diego Garcia did not have to march across the ocean, as stated before, the islanders were placed in the hull of the ship, as they were forced to sleep on top of bird fertilizer. Another idea that can be added to the list of similarities is of the interests of core nations when looking at periphery nations. The want of resources can be concluded as one of the issues for both of these events, as the Indian lands, "of Georgia, Alabama, North Carolina, Florida, and Tennessee, was valuable..." (History.com Staff, "Trail of Tears") as those regions could bring more cash crops, such as cotton. In Diego Garcia, though they did not hold any resources that could be of worth, the island was a prime staging ground for America's fight in the Middle East making the Island hold some strategic

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