We're coming up to the 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade, probably one of the most horrific acts in our history, and quite rightly described by Tony Blair as a "crime against humanity."
But there's a foul aura around this 'celebration'. The Prime Minister is being asked by many sections of society to apologise for the slave trade. My understanding is that if he were to outright apologise, the government would be inundated with compensation claims.
I'm sorry. What?
What kind of messed up world do we live in where a) politicians are expected to apologise for something that they weren't involved in at all and b) people who weren't involved in the slave trade can sue people who weren't involved in the slave trade for compensation?
Blair has spoken of his "sorrow" at the act: that is surely enough. There are few in the West today who would actively support slavery. It is so blatantly immoral that there really is no need for all this hullabaloo over whether politicians should apologise.
What I also don't like is how little attention is being given to the fact that it was Britain that ended the slave trade in the first place. We did this by sending our ships to the African coast and preventing any other country from taking slaves - an act of unilateralism that not even the United States would dare attempt in this day and age. It was an act of political bravery of which this country should be proud.
Slavery is, of course, not a thing of the past. There are millions of people being sold around the world for labour and vile activities that I have no intention of going into here as we speak. Wouldn't our attentions be better served putting an end to the crimes of the present, not the crimes of the past?
The slave trade was a disgusting stain on the history of a civilisation that has brought so much to the world. We should of course reflect on the trade as a terrible thing, but we shouldn't go so tied up in the past that we stop looking at the present.
Want to show that we've moved on from the days of racist slavery? Then stop talking about it.
Published by The Culture Warrior
on Sunday, 25 March 2007 at 12:44. But there's a foul aura around this 'celebration'. The Prime Minister is being asked by many sections of society to apologise for the slave trade. My understanding is that if he were to outright apologise, the government would be inundated with compensation claims.
I'm sorry. What?
What kind of messed up world do we live in where a) politicians are expected to apologise for something that they weren't involved in at all and b) people who weren't involved in the slave trade can sue people who weren't involved in the slave trade for compensation?
Blair has spoken of his "sorrow" at the act: that is surely enough. There are few in the West today who would actively support slavery. It is so blatantly immoral that there really is no need for all this hullabaloo over whether politicians should apologise.
What I also don't like is how little attention is being given to the fact that it was Britain that ended the slave trade in the first place. We did this by sending our ships to the African coast and preventing any other country from taking slaves - an act of unilateralism that not even the United States would dare attempt in this day and age. It was an act of political bravery of which this country should be proud.
Slavery is, of course, not a thing of the past. There are millions of people being sold around the world for labour and vile activities that I have no intention of going into here as we speak. Wouldn't our attentions be better served putting an end to the crimes of the present, not the crimes of the past?
The slave trade was a disgusting stain on the history of a civilisation that has brought so much to the world. We should of course reflect on the trade as a terrible thing, but we shouldn't go so tied up in the past that we stop looking at the present.
Want to show that we've moved on from the days of racist slavery? Then stop talking about it.
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