Have you gone nuts?
Wait a minute? What is Banda and why would anyone in the right mind swap Manhattan for Banda. Where is this Banda and what the hell I am talking about. All these questions are valid and if you can give me five minutes I can explain.
Banda Islands
Banda is a small group of islands in the Maluku region now a part of Indonesia. Here is snapshot of the map to give you a better picture. It’s about 3500km from the Indonesian mainland. So it quite far.
Manhattan
I think everyone would know about Manhattan and it is most densely populated of all the five Burroughs with many world known places like the Empire State Building, Broadway Theatres and iconic Times Square.
Shall we go back in History Please!
Since we have covered both Banda and Manhattan, lets go back in time and we need go quite a bit and the year is 1621 and Dutch had a trading company like British East India (this came later) which was called VOC Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie which mean United East India Company.
Banda Island was famous for Nutmeg trees and during those days nutmeg (Jayaphal in Hindi) was a lucrative business that Dutch had done quite a bit to control. From 1609 to 1621 there were multiple campaigns and finally they staged a massacre commandeered by Coen, of the Bandanese people and almost everyone on the Island was either killed or moved to other places as refugees.
British had a small island under their control called the Run Island which was just 20km away from Banda Island and the Dutch did not want the Brits closer and in order to keep them away traded another obscure Island that they owner in Americas and that Island was nothing else but Manhattan
The colonial history is full of such stories and for the natural resources plunder of the local population was considered okay.
Why did this come to my mind now?
I started reading Amitav Ghosh Nutmegs’ Curse and it start with this story of Banda and its people.
Russia is waging a war on Ukraine and the reporters were kind of comparing Syria or Iraq or Afghanistan and were talking about a difference. Ukrainians are like them and its a war on their doorstep in the “civilized world”.
The displaced population is welcomed to certain extent whereas people from all other countries have been trafficked and crossing seas on dangerous dinghy boats risking their lives.
War is bad and it affects all common population in a very bad way. There is no difference be it Ukraine or countries like Syria, Afghanistan or Iraq that have been under occupation or military struggle for years now.
George Orwell in his famous book Animal Farm wrote
“All animals are created equal but some are more equal than others.”
And the extension of that is off course
“All men may be created equal, but some are more equal than others”