“There are times when one tragedy, one crime, tells us how a whole system works behind its democratic façade and helps us understand how much of the world is run for the benefit of the powerful and how governments often justify their actions with lies.”
A single, well-documented injustice can reveal the true machinery behind a much larger system.
— John Pilger, British Indian Ocean Territory
Source: John Pilger, opening narration, Stealing a Nation (Granada Television, 2004)
More Proverbs from British Indian Ocean Territory
The UK decided to lease our motherland to the US to build a military base.
A homeland can be signed away by distant powers without the consent of the people who belong to it.
Olivier Bancoult
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Since I was four years old, my people, the Chagossians, have lived in impoverished exile, while the US military has been enjoying the fruits of my homeland.
A single act of dispossession can echo across an entire lifetime and an entire people.
Olivier Bancoult
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My life has been buried… It's as if I was pulled from my paradise to put me in hell.
Losing one's home can feel like losing life itself, even while the body goes on living.
Rita Elysée Bancoult
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I maintain justice must be done.
However long a wrong is allowed to stand, the demand for justice does not fade.
Liseby Elysé
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This battle has just begun.
A single legal or moral victory is only a step, not the end, of a long struggle.
Sabrina Jean
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We Chagossians will continue fighting for our fundamental rights to be respected.
Dignity is defended by continuing to demand it, generation after generation.
Sabrina Jean
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