Re: I would rather hear
Who did we pay precisely? Oh, we basically paid ourselves after we had taken the islands as part of the booty of the Napoleonic wars. That is to say, we paid £3 million compensation to the British colony of Mauritius.
Eventually when Mauritius became independent and kicked up stink, we generously gave them a whole £650 000.
We treated the islanders as merely an administrative inconvenience in the way of not having any pesky natives near a US base.
So, rather unlike your example, it's like us going and stealing a Tescos. Then we give it to Morrisons, which we own. Then later on we give Morrisons some money to take it back. Then we sell off Morrisons. Then we say "Hey, we don't want all the stock in this Tescos, you can have it." And they ask for a restocking fee.
But we still stole the Tescos in the first place.
Biting the hand that feeds IT
