Anne Mitaru

You're missing the far bigger picture. This isn't simply about apologising for slavery or paying reparations for historical atrocities. It's about an economic system that STILL perpetuates extraordinary global inequalities, with devastating consequences for millions of people. Colonialism didn't just steal lives. It extracted wealth, resources and opportunity, helping build the prosperity of nations that still dominate global economic governance today. And the extraction hasn't stopped. It's evolved through unequal trade relationships, debt dependency, exploitation of cheap labour and supply chains that strip value from poorer nations while concentrating profits elsewhere. We live in a world where countries rich in natural resources can remain desperately poor, while the wealth generated from those resources accumulates thousands of miles away. And then we offer aid, debt relief and reparations without fundamentally changing the economic machinery that perpetuates the imbalance. THAT is the conversation we should be having. Reparations and redistribution matter, but they're addressing the consequences of an economic system that continues to produce inequality. We need structural change. Fair trade, genuinely democratic global governance, economic sovereignty and regenerative economies designed to create and retain prosperity where it's generated. Not simply redistributing wealth AFTER it's been extracted, but redesigning the system so prosperity is shared from the outset. You say we should look forward, not backwards. Then let's actually confront the economic structures that continue to shape our world today, rather than pretending the injustice ended when slavery was abolished.