Where debating everything under the sun is only the beginning

"I am the wali (leader) who presides over you, though I am not the best of you. So if you see that I am right, assist me, If you see that I am wrong, advise me and put me on the right track, and obey me as long as I obey God."

The Norwegian parliament has apologised unreservedly to minority groups and Indigenous people for more than a century of historical injustices committed against them as part of its “Norwegianisation” policy.

The forced assimilation policy – which included state-run boarding schools that banned minority languages and the forced relocation of whole villages – pursued by Norwegian authorities dated back to the 18th century and became official policy from 1851. Although parts were phased out in the 1960s, much of the policy continued into the 1980s.

The apology on Tuesday to the Sami, Kvens and Forest Finns by the Norwegian parliament, known as Storting, came after the publication of a report by the truth and reconciliation commission last year.

“Quite frankly, there is no excuse that this apology took 150 years to make,” Biden said in Laveen, Arizona, after calling for a moment of silence to “remember those lost and the generations living with that trauma.”

 At least 18,000 children were taken from their families and forced to attend more than 400 boarding schools across 37 states or then-territories between 1819 and 1969. Three years ago, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland, the first Native American to serve as a Cabinet secretary, commissioned the Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative to review the schools’ impacts on Native Americans.

Their final report, issued this summer, found at least 973 Native American children died while attending these federal boarding schools.

“As president,” Biden said on Friday, “I believe it is important that we do know there were generations of native children stolen, taken away to places they didn’t know, with people they never met, who spoke a language they had never heard.”

Biden’s remarks were made at the Gila Crossing Community School outside of Phoenix. It’s the first time he has visited Indian Country as president and the first time in 10 years a sitting president has visited tribal lands. Then-President Barack Obama paid a visit to the Standing Rock Sioux Indian Reservation in 2014.

Biden acknowledged that “no apology can or will make up for what was lost during the darkness of the federal boarding school policy.”

« Voilà dix ans, si on nous avait dit que le propriétaire d’un des plus grands réseaux sociaux du monde soutiendrait une nouvelle internationale réactionnaire et interviendrait directement dans les élections, y compris en Allemagne, qui l’aurait imaginé ? », a lancé le président lors de la trentième conférence des ambassadrices et des ambassadeurs, à Paris, en référence au soutien continu du milliardaire américain au parti d’extrême droite allemand AfD.

Tidigare har det ofta pratats om att Kina har en hållhake på USA i form av ett stort innehav av amerikanska statsobligationer.

Men jämfört med Kina äger Europa en betydligt större del av den amerikanska statsskulden. Totalt äger Europas länder över 2 700 miljarder dollar av USA:s statsskuld medan Kina äger blott 760 miljarder dollar.

Den enda skillnaden är förstås att Europa inte är ett enda land och därmed behöver fatta gemensamma beslut för att utnyttja denna hållhake.