Blair expresses 'deep sorrow' over slave trade...

I agree with Blair expressing deep sorrow, regret etc., but I can't see any reason why the present generation should apologize for something that we didn't have a hand in, and had no decision over.

As far as recompense is concerned, I can't see how this could be done in a fair way, or even if it SHOULD be done.

Like you say, we could take it to the "Nth" degree when dealing with this.

For instance, would all the descendants of the African bounty hunters, ie the local tribesmen who captured the poor souls and brought them to the ships in exchange for goods and money, would they be included in this recompense?

My ancestors, when you go back the same number of generations, were little more than slaves. One side worked god knows how many hours down the mines for just enough money to buy food and get very basic shelter, the other actually went into the London Poorhouses about that time, and were like most of the working, or lower class Londoners of that period, shoeless, penniless and eking out what little they managed to obtain by hook or by crook.

There were vast fortunes made from the despicable "Golden Triangle", which were probably shared around less than 1% of the British population.
Maybe, if there is any compensation to considered, it should come from their descendants, as I would imagine that the dirty money from that awful trade is still floating around within those families somewhere.

Deep regret, or deep sorrow, if he is being genuine with his comment and not just paying political lip service to the whole thing, is pitched about right, I think.

Apparently he can't actually say 'I'm sorry' as that could lead to court action...

The words were carefully chosen.

x

Just as a good Politician/Lawyer should........

It's only because of the forthcoming 200th anniversary of the abolition that he's been forced into saying anything at all, IMO.

I'm SO cynical when it comes to Blair, nowadays.

(snigger)

It's just you and me on this Ellpus...

Trying to sound politikal an everyfink!

...we sound clever, don't we?

I'm going to use the word 'society' in a minute...

x

My opinion:
It is totally all right of Blair to apologize for that shabby history of slave trading. And this behavior should be encouraged, at least in my mind.
Actually it takes guts to confess and apologize for history, especially to a politician who represents not only himself but also a nation. We can not forget the day GERMANY premier Brandt kneeled in front of the monument of Jews who are killed by Hitler during world war 2 in the capital of Poland. Someone said that when he kneeled on the ground he was taller than those guys who were reluctant to confess the indign history. For this reason, I think I should give Mr. Blair some respect, though I always don't agree with most of his decisions.

Yes, people today have nothing to do with slave trading, and that ignominious history has become a common part of the long history as others, and it is going to be forgotton. But people should memorize that becauce history can warn ourslves against committing the same fault again. This is why we celebrated the 60th anniversary of the end of World War 2 last year. And 140 years later, our offspring ought to celebrate the 200th anniversary because peace is always the theme of the world. It is absurd of saying that there is no need to commemorate it just because it was not our business.

This is not in anyway an excuse for the practice of slavery. Which is by all reports still ongoing in some areas of No. Africa. I would like to remind all that slavery did not begin with the slave trade of the 15 th
century but was practiced throughout mankinds history.In fact for all practical purposes it spelled the end of that practice. The question should the descendents of these slaves be compensated? I would ask by whom the descendents of those who might have been slaves in some distant past.

I think the Romans should compensate all the Brits and others who they enslaved. Maybe we should all get a free Fiat Punto, or a lifetime supply of zabaglioni !

See what I mean?

It's a subject with many facets...

You could take this to absurdity!

x

I agree -

As for Blair - what a joke
The man's a war criminal himself - Three quarters of a million innocent people are dead and a whole nation is traumatised.
He should be apologising to the people of Iraq - and Britain.

In the last year race attacks in Britain have risen 26% !

If i was a black man i'd tell him to stick it

I have no opinion on the particular situation you are addressing, smorgs. Don't know enough about it, to be blunt.

I do have strong opinions regarding this issue in general though.
Having debated, listened, searched for some understanding regarding aboriginal rights and demands from some groups for recomp.
Also, special treatment and requests/demands.
Done some advocacy work.

So, that's the angle and circumstances I have some experience and knowledge of.

I am strongly in favour of working with the what is NOW.

I think that the practice of slavery needs to be remembered, and the horrors taught to children...........so that it would never happen again. As far as recompensing the decendents of slaves, to me that is an absurdity. We are not responsible for the misdeeds of others, who are dead and buried.

Agree with Phoenix.

Also, wanted to add: Many who make claims for recomp seem to assume that it will be a positive contribution to now.

In my opinion, that is simple minded thinking.

There are plenty of examples of groups who have suffered at the hands of others more than willing to throw money at a deep wound and troubles that are occuring Right in the Present. Failure to address the NOW fully: to me this is the big problem!

Well, smorgs, the U.S. did do one needed thing, and that is make reparations for the Japanese/Americans who were put in concentration camps after Pearl Harbor.

As far as reparations for slavery, I'm with Phoenix on that one.

Letty- Those reparations WERE reasonable. Our country had taken people, and locked them away, although they were innocent of any wrongdoing. It was perfectly appropriate for them to be compensated for the miseries that they suffered.

Now if a generation from now, the grandchildren of those people who were incarcerated asked for compensation, THAT would be wrong.

Well, expressing deep sorrow would be fine if it was genuine, but I can't see how it can be the case when politicians enact legislation that redistributes wealth from the poor to the rich (find any official stats of wages from any of US, Brittain, Australia, New Zealand etc, and you will see over the last 20 years that there has been a VAST redistribution, with a corolating increase in 'poverty').

Nor can I see it coming from a government participating in endebting the third world (it's around 3 trillion dollars the third world owes the Western World now - and that can't be an 'accident'..."oops, I accidentally lent you extra")... which amounts to a new form of slavery.

There are multinationals out there who's factories in third world countries do pay their employees a wage higher than the standard wage, but there are also multi-nationals whose employees survive on a subsistence poverty, working 12 hour days with little accrued benefit to the employees, but large benefits to the multinationals - a virtual form slavery (such that even some slaves had better working and living conditions).

Blairs view would be fair, if he would let the inhabitants of Diego Garcia go back to their homeland (they are still fighting for that right, while living in poverty on Mauritius), but we all know that's not going to happen.

I'm sure there are many other examples of hypocrisy - I just don't know them all. But it's not just Blair - the majority of western governments participate in this sort of thing.

I want to see Turkey acknowledge the mass slaughter of Armenians at the beginning of the 20th century. One generation apologizing for another doesn't make much sense, but all people need to know the truth about their past.

It's merely an affirmation of a current belief that past events and the human attitudes and decissions which caused them are not in accordance with the person making the statement.

When I wonder will we hear an appology from the Arab slave traders and Africans that were large element of the slave trade. In addition where is the outcry relative to the slavery that is still practiced in that part of the world. Oh! I forgot it does not count if you are not white.