Bigger Than Some

Today being the sixtieth anniversary of Congolese independence, the king of Belgium has expressed regret over the wounds of the past, linking them with the pain and discrimination of the present. He stopped short of an apology, which might have traumatised patriots by implying reparations of a more substantial nature; and with similar tact he also stopped short of the view recently expressed by the Imperial Haystack, that the only problem with the colonial era was that the violence and brutality didn't go on long enough. Before giving up its independence to Brussels, plucky little Belgium was quite the global benefactor; and even during the post-colonial era the Belgian state so far raised its game as to stand by in spiritual Britishness while US-backed freedom fighters assassinated Patrice Lumumba. Although its entrepreneurialism never buccaneered as extensively as that of the British Empire, Belgium under Léopold II did manage to bestow upon the natives of the Congo a comprehensive lesson in respect for royalty. The king's courtly pleasures provoked a degree of disapproval among his more hypocritical contemporaries, although remarkably few British commentators seem to have observed divine retribution descending with the implementation of the Schlieffen Plan.