Document talk:Falklands and Chagos - A Tale of Two Islands

FI: I have offered this as an article - attributable to me and referenced to WS - to a number of publishers because of its topicality towards the end of March 2012 - Notably 'Global Research', 'Voltaire.net', 'Strategic Culture Foundation' and the UK site 'OpenDemocracy'. I've not posted it here as a 'Document' because I'm relaxed about it being improved and added to like any other regular article. --Peter P 14:36, 20 March 2012 (UTC)

Simply appalling

The following email has been received from one of the people quoted in the article:

Wed, 12 Sep 2012 00:11:34 -0400
Subject:
SIMPLY APPALLING….
Dear Global Research/ Wikispooks,

In 2002 we crossed the Indian Ocean by yacht and stopped at the Chagos archipelago en route.
We made a few comments on our website 'blog' and after we had been there we began to research the situation regarding the removal of the Chagossian people.
We were horrified at the events that took place and monitored news about their situation.

However, imagine our further horror when comments from our website were quoted on a site called SIMPLY APPALLING in 2006, which were totally out of context and totally misrepresented our views and values!
As there was no way to contact the writers of that we did not have any redress on the matter & were 'simply appalled' at the audacity of the authors of that article.

We read John Pilger's article and also articles that appeared in the New African about the plight of the Chagossians.
We note that no mention has been made of the scientists interest in keeping the islands pristine for their study purposes, however the yachts people are lambasted for passing through the archipelago and making random, innocent comments on their websites.
I am sure that many yachts people, including ourselves, were horrified to find out just how appalling the situation of the expulsion of the islanders was and of course the fact that Chagossians were not only refused re-entry to the islands, but also refused work on Diego Garcia simply due to their links with Chagos.

In fact we did discuss ways to assist & even considered taking a group of Chagossians onboard our yacht for a return trip to the islands of their birth. Presumably if they were there as guests on our yacht they could not be expelled?!

We do not appreciate the way we have been misrepresented in these articles and wonder what course of redress is available to us?

We look forward to hearing from you.
Kind regards,

Lynne Sands & Eric Toyer
Yacht Amarula

Wikispooks replied as follows:

In spite of your claim to subsequent research and sympathy for the plight of the Chaggosians, Wikispooks regards inclusion of the quotations in the article as fair comment. The quotations are a telling illustration of the disconnect between average public perceptions and the appalling realities of much of UK/US foreign policy.

Please note that both your email and this reply have been posted on the article discussion page, as will any further correspondence. You are welcome to add to that discussion should you wish.

Webmaster

--Peter P 15:12, 13 September 2012 (IST)