Diego Garcia

John Pilger is justifiably upset by forty odd years of British Government lies and obfuscation over the Indian Ocean island of Diego Garcia and its people, the Chagossians (named for the Chagos Arhipelago). In return for expelling the Chagossians the British Government got a discount of five million pounds off the waste of time and money that were Polaris missiles. The campaign is, I believe, a valid campaign and compensation is in order for the mistreatment of the people.

Pilger's ire is raised by both the mistreatment of the Chagossians, and the fact the island became a U.S. military base used in the bombing of Iraq and Afghanistan.

I fully support the campaign of the islanders in seeking compensation for their removal, and the sneaky underhanded manner of the removal.

The question must be raised, is a small isolated population, 3000 miles from the nearest major hospital, really a viable long term community?

And another thing, here are some of the rules pertaining to Diego Garcia:

In accordance with current regulations, no type of attire with degrading or obscene comments may be worn on or brought to Diego Garcia. This includes pictures, phrases or slogans depicting drug paraphernalia, anti-war slogans, ethnic slurs or issues of a sexual nature. Biker, hippie-culture or mercenary magazines will be confiscated. All obscene or pornographic publications including pornographic videos will be confiscated. All videotapes brought to Diego Garcia will be retained by British Customs for screening. Tapes will be returned within 10 days. Prohibited material will be burned by British Customs

What is this hippie culture, of which you speak? Rullsenberg comments "I like the idea things are on video tapes still. So you can bring in dvds without inspection but not video tapes? What about a video playing iPod?"

Keep up with the programme Daddio. Hippie-ish culture indeed.