Racist bigotry against Gurkha veterans by British government

Joined
Dec 30, 1999
Messages
475
A Gurkha veteran with 15 years' exemplary service in the British army receives only *one-tenth* of the pension paid to white servicemen after the same length of service.

(see http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/wales/newsid_1031000/1031443.stm

and
http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid-1032000/1032135.stm )

This discrimination on the part of the British government is at best a contemptible way of saving a few bucks at the expense of brave, loyal men; at worst, it's blatant and unforgivable racism.

Stealing from veterans (which the British government has been doing for the last 50 years, by its shameful treatment of ex-PoWs from the Pacific theater) is bad enough; to steal from veterans who come from one of the poorest countries in the world, on the basis of skin color alone, is despicable.

Once again, the conduct of my government makes me bitterly ashamed to be British.
 
:
Tom this despicable act has been brought up before here and this is the 1st time that I recall seeing anything even half way being done about it.
Since this man was actually born in the UK does the actions of the army and anyone else involved mean that he is not recognized as a citizen of the UK?

I can only pray that the mistreatment of the Ghorkas will soon be a thing of the past and that the UK will start giving all their soldiers equal treatment.

Oh, and I couldn't get the bottom link to work.
A "popup" tells me there is no web page or information there.
Thanks.

------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website
 
Yvsa -

The only reason this guy has been able to bring a suit against the British government is that he was born in Britain; all the other Gurkha vets currently being cheated of their pensions on account of the color of their skins have no locus standi in the courts, and won't be able to claim even if this guy wins.

As to whether he's a 'UK citizen' or not; British law quite blatantly divides people into first and second class citizens, depending on their ethnic origins (it's phrased differently, but in practice that's the criterion the decision goes by) so the fact that this man was born here doesn't necessarily make him a 'full' citizen.

The question of whether any right-thinking person would *want* to be a citizen of such an overtly bigoted and racist nation as the UK is another matter entirely...
 
Everytime I go to the VA Hospital anywhere I hear at least a dozen horror stories of how the VA has cheated some poor old vets. It is not just the UK. Mistreating vets is very much alive and well right here although I don't think is is based on skin color. The VA does not disciminate. They cheat anybody they can.

------------------
Blessings from the computer shack in Reno.

Uncle Bill
Himalayan Imports Website
Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Archives (18,000+ posts)
 
:
AHO to that Bro.!!!
We will see if the three days I was let out early will prevent me from getting some help with some of my meds. Wanna bet they won't screw me outta that too? Another one that ain't to fond of the VA.

And Tom, I agree. I wouldn't want to be a part of that either. However if I came to your country I would be oohed and awwed over due to the fact that I am an ndn.
I do have to admit it is nice since it has became "cool" to be ndn, but I keep wondering when it is going to quit being popular and things will get all over once again like they still are on some of the rezes.


------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website
 
I just wondering why sometimes cats and dogs gets better treatments than certain species of homo sapiens!

NEPAL HO!
 
Bill said that when boss Kami Sherpa came over he walked thru a supermarket and looked down the pet food aisle remarking there was more food for pets here that food for people in Nepal.

And though I'd been told of the famine in India during WW2 I'd only lately heard that the British had foodstocks in warehouses but were afraid an unstarved population might fight with the Japanese against them. Does anyone know how many million died in India in that famine?

I'm horrified to this day to think how Ghandi told stories to earn his living during this time, and received a single grain of rice from each person in the audience in return.

Then I look at the holocaust of jews, gypsies, mentally infirm, homosexuals under the Germans in Europe. The slaughter of Armenians by the Turks, The trail of tears in America, the burning of the compound in Waco, Texas...

------------------
" You can crop a jackass's ears, but that still don't give him no horse-sense. "

Himalayan Imports Website
 
Rusty, its why we must never forget the past as we will be condemned to repeat it in the future(Santayana, I believe).



------------------
Harry
 
This just in on CNN - a woman has become the first female Chief Executive in this "nation's" history. And I bet Yvsa knows what I'm talking about don't you? Didn't catch which reservation it was, but it was Cherokee NDN
biggrin.gif


------------------
" You can crop a jackass's ears, but that still don't give him no horse-sense. "

Himalayan Imports Website
 
In the Billings Gazette this morning:

Geri Small was elected Tribal President of the Northern Cheyenne. Her Cheyenne name translates into "Thunder and Lightning Woman".



------------------
Best Regards,
Rev. George
 
:
Thanks George. That makes a lot more sense to me now. Wilma Mankiller was the Chief of he Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma for I think 2 terms. The last Chief was Joe Byrd and now we have Chad Smith.
Every dayum-ed one of them including Smith have been or are crooks as far as I am concerned.
There is an awful lot of money that sees to be missing from the Tribal Coffers. Their policy on helping the Elders and poor of the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma leaves much to be desired!
There are some Cherokee that's trying to get the Constitution of 1839 reinstated and I am very much for that. As things stand now the CNO is nothing but an NDN Club.
Hmmpf!!! The CNO took the issue of the people fighting for the 1839 Constitution to the OK State
Courts and that's BS!!!!
The State of Oklahoma should have nothing to do with decideing what the CNO does IF it is Truly the Sovereign Nation it claims to be!!!

On a side note, there is no Cherokee Rez in Oklahoma. The 1839 Constitution would restore some land rights back to the Cherokee where it belongs and has always belonged.
And there are many of us that are ashamed that the so called leadership of the CNO bears such a resemblance to many of the things going on in Florida today.


------------------
>>>>---¥vsa---->®

Each person's work is always a portrait of himself.

---- Samuel Butler.

Khukuri FAQ
Himalayan Imports Website
 
It seems to be the same everywhere. Perhaps if we banned possession of soft body armor by lawyers and politicians...

------------------
" You can crop a jackass's ears, but that still don't give him no horse-sense. "

Himalayan Imports Website
 
Someone somewhere once said:

The USA was established as a "religious utopia", so there was no place to go but down.

Whereas, Australia was established as a "penal colony", so there was no place to go but up.

------------------
Best Regards,
Rev. George
 
An informed, involved, and active citizenry is the key to correcting a number of the world's ills. Many injustices, ranging from the situationin in Rwanda to world hunger, are ultimately the result of widespread apathy. If common people everywhere truly believed in the importance of civil liberty, took an active interest in their respective govenments, and held their leadership strictly accountable in every way possible, then, I think we would see some changes.

But, for the most part, we don't have a problem as long as it's not our ox that's getting gored. This point is well illustrated by this quote from Pastor Martin Niemoeller during the Holocaust:

First they came for the socialists, and I did not speak out because I was not a socialist.
Then they came for the trade-unionists, and I did not speak out because I was not a trade-unionist.
Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out because I was not Jew.
Then they came for the Catholics, and I did not speak out because I was a Protestant.
Then they came for me, and there was no one left to speak for me.


 
Steven, I've seen that quote before and I think you mean the communists in the first line. I remember that "Nazi" was the abbrevation for the National Socialist Workers Party of Germany.

Bob
 
Bob, the version I quoted is the one on permanent display in the Holocaust Museum in Washington. However, the quote has been translated and paraphrased in many different ways and there is even some question as to whether Niemoeller, a leader of the anti-Nazi clergy in Germany, even wrote it. That's why most reference books are careful to say "attributed to," instead of "by," Niemoeller. But the technicalities don't really matter; the basic message is the same and just as valid, regardless of whether we use "communists" or "socialists" and it really doesn't even matter who wrote it, IMHO.

Niemoller, by the way, was an impressive individual. In the last sermon he preached before his arrest and consignment to Dachau, he said: "No more are we ready to keep silent at man's behest when God commands us to speak . . . We must obey God rather than man." The man definitely had guts.
 
Interesting stuff Tom, but surely a bit late to be outraged? Didn't this come up in 1982 as an issue when widow's pensions were compared between the UK and Nepalese soldiers?
As I recall, the 'personification of evil herself' refused to discuss the matter.
As she also refused to discuss the fact that Argentine troops were being gathered for an invasion of the very islands she had just removed the right to reside in the UK from the 'native' population, who, oddly, were all UK citizens.
Didn't she also decommision naval services in the South Atlantic at the time? Oh, yes, so she did!
Of course, I'm not suggesting that Baroness Thatcher deliberately allowed an armed conflict to develop against a pathetically weak and underdeveloved nation, whose armed forces she knew could be obliterated in the blink of an eye... Simply to win an election in a disordered and angry country on a wave of patriotic nationism?
At the cost of how many lives?

On a lighter note, I heard a joke today that may be relevant.

"Blair's complaining again. He says it's hard to be Prime Minister in Thatcher's shadow".
"Why's that? Is it because he can't emulate her successes?"
"No. She doesn't cast one".

Moody David



------------------
"Kaphar Hunno Bhanda Marnu Ramro"
 
Back
Top