A Perspective On The Legacy of Slavery

I have heard many comments about the issues surrounding slavery over the last few days, some of which have been thoughtful, sage even. Some have been a crock of manure. I have heard some eloquent discussions from blacks and whites and a lot of clichéd nonsense that borders on the edge of hallucination and hysteria.

On the one side there are those who despite recognising the tragedy that was slavery see it in its historical perspective. Wicked and brutal as it was, it was one human tragedy amongst many from a bygone age. That it happened at all is deeply regrettable and shameful but we cannot now re-write the history books. If we could we would do so in a flash but then there would be no history and without it there would be no present or future. We are where we are today because we have the lessons of history to guide us towards a brighter future.

We are entwined by our histories and history has tested all peoples and nations. What happened, happened. Nothing can change that. What is more important and much more majestic is that we have triumphed over the adversities, disasters and tragedies that have been inflicted upon us and which we have inflicted upon each other. Black people not only survived the horrors of slavery, they overcame it and forged a place of honour in the roll call of humanity. Whilst abhorring the inhumanity of slavery we can now only wonder at the courage and fortitude of its victims. It has made the survivors stronger and wiser and it was ever thus.

Yes slavery was an epic tragedy but in historical terms it was just one amongst countless others no less important, no less ignorant nor tragic. It is vital we remember and understand this episode of history. We should bow our heads in memory of those who suffered unspeakable pain and by doing so ensure it will never happen again. However, to pretend that this is a greater or lesser injustice than those suffered by billions of others of all races and cultures over millennia, is a nonsense.

From the dawn of time rape, pillage, torture and murder has been equally spread throughout humanity. Africans have been as guilty of these crimes against their fellow men, woman and children as Europeans, Indians, Arabs and Asians. We have all been colonised, some of us several times and Britain is no exception.

From the beginning of time, the most adventurous, advanced and powerful tribes, have always been curious as to what lay on the other side of the next range of hills or across the seas. They went, saw and conquered. That is and always has been the nature of the beast from which there is no escaping. It is in-built into our genes and part of nature's plan to ensure the survival of the fittest. In the course of this process genes are transferred along with knowledge and technology making the human race stronger as a whole. This is evolution at work.

The knowledge and technology of the Romans for example, was assimilated by the survivors of those they conquered. Whilst we do not forget those they enslaved, massacred or fed to the lions in the Coliseum nor do we demand an apology. We understand the inevitability of these events. History is littered with victims but from the darkness of ignorance comes enlightenment and progress.

Nothing has changed. Having colonised and de-colonised the globe, mankind driven by his innate curiosity is now looking to the stars and beyond. This is a natural process without which evolution would not nor could not flourish. Let us hope we have learned the lessons of history and will never enslave the occupants of distant galaxies. Let us also hope they have also learned theirs!

Lastly, there are those who say we should now apologise for slavery even if it was our ancestors and not us who were responsible because we are still living off the wealth of slavery. Yes, that is to some extent true but the survivors of slavery are also benificiaries of this wealth. This kind of argument is ill thought through and does not merit any credibility whatsoever.

May the souls of oppressed peoples everywhere rest in peace. However, until such time as we go to the aid of oppressed peoples irrespective of economic interests, the lessons of slavery cannot be said, to have been truly assimilated.

Rwanda, Angola, Somalia, Darfur, Zimbabwe, Congo/Zaire, are today’s humanitarian tragedies and we lift not a finger, black or white to help. What more is there to say?

Comic Relief – What Kind of World?

I watched Comic Relief on BBC television on the 16th March 2007. There were heart wrenching stories a plenty designed to entice money from our pockets. As usual the British public responded with typical generosity. In doing so the ordinary citizens of this country were exercising a duty of care that is the duty and the responsibility of governments; namely to look after the welfare of the sick and the poor.

Comic Relief highlighted brilliantly the inequalities and injustices that blight the world we live in. How is it that in the 21st century we tolerate these appalling slums with open sewers which run unchecked and unfiltered into the streams and rivers on which the inhabitants depend for cooking, washing and drinking? There are no words to describe such horror. What kind of governments do we have that would rather spend hundreds of millions on extravagant and monumental white elephants in the name of prestige, before they will supply clean water, hygiene, energy and education to millions who live in conditions so adverse it almost defies imagination?

What kind of world and what kind of people are we that we so easily assuage our consciences with a small pecuniary donation over a telephone line before erasing the images from our minds and returning to our vicarious passions for the latest celebrity gossip, mobile phones, reality television and designer clothes?

What kind of society thinks it’s alright for children to have to care for sick parents on their own, as long as we donate enough money to give them a day out each year? How unthinking, uncaring and insulting that is, to some of the most wonderful and compassionate beings on God’s Earth. It’s a shameful reflection on our priorities and our national psyche that we can believe for a single second that it is alright to burden theses children with such overwhelming responsibility and forlorn loneliness.

The burden of caring for sick and disabled relatives is extremely difficult, lonely and physically and financially crippling, even for adults. To leave these magnificent kids to fend more or less for themselves in such circumstances in a country as rich as the U.K., is quite simply morally reprehensible and unacceptable.

It’s time to act. It’s time to stop wasting millions and even billions on white elephant projects such as the failed Dome in this country, whose only purpose was to boost the political prestige of the nation and the political profile of a superficial image conscious government. There is an endless list of misspent public money, frittered away on unnecessary hair-brained schemes designed to “improve” that which needs no improvement.

The glut of new, totally unnecessary road markings and signs that is appearing along the length and breadth of Britain’s highways like an unsightly rash, is but one example. We have managed for decades without traffic lights and lane markings on roundabouts so why do we suddenly need them now? They do nothing for road safety or traffic flow except add confusion and distraction. Stop this madness. There are far more worthy causes that require attention.

Alleviating injustice and poverty and educating the illiterate will bring far greater social and economic returns than investing in white elephants or the non-productive Walter Mitty dreams of hair-brained bureaucrats, trying to justify their existence.

It is impossible to witness the misery and the unspeakable hardship in the slums of Nairobi or elsewhere and not feel deep in one’s soul that in a civilised world, such inequality is intolerable and unpardonable.

As individuals, we can all dip into our pockets as much and as often as we like but ultimately it is a drop in the ocean. As individuals we can do something. We can save some lives but we cannot solve the route problems of poverty or injustice, unless governments around the world dip much more deeply into their national treasuries and act in concert, to tackle the misery we witness in programs like Comic Relief.

They would find it a rewarding exercise. By boosting the productivity through education, of the billions who currently live below the so called poverty line, they would be enhancing skills and therefore potential global earning and buying power. More demand means expanding global economies. Everyone wins.

It’s time to outline and enact new strategies to combat the injustices that are responsible for so much misery around the World. Failure to act now will only lead us all to a darker place. This is the duty of governments not individuals. What we can do as individuals is hold our governments to account. This would be a much more effective way of tackling poverty wherever it is found.

There is only one way to bridge the gulf between the poorer and richer nations and that is through joint ventures in which all trading nations have a stake in the production, distribution and marketing of the goods we commonly produce and consume but this is for another day.

What Justice?

It has been reported that the International Court Of Justice in the Hague has issued arrest warrants against Sudanese Ministers for crimes against humanity. Why has no arrest warrant ever been issued against Zimbabwean Ministers, including President Mugabe for the same crimes?

If the law is applied unequally and inconsistently then it is not only unjust but it is totally lacking in any credibility. Why should anyone take these institutions seriously and why do we put up with their double standards and general ineptitude?

Mayan Leaders Cleanse Ancient Ruins

GUATEMALA CITY (Reuters) - Mayan leaders will spiritually "cleanse" ancient ruins in Guatemala after a visit by U.S. President George W. Bush, unpopular here because of foreign policies going back to Central America's civil wars.

The leaders said they would hold a spiritual ceremony to restore "peace and harmony" at the Mayan ruins of Iximche after Bush tours the site on Monday.
"No, Mr. Bush, you cannot trample and degrade the memory of our ancestors," said indigenous leader Rodolfo

"This is not your ranch in Texas."

Comment:

This is a sad reflection on how the World now regards America under George Bush but is he the sole cause or the natural spawn of ill conceived foreign policy spanning decades? You tell me.

Making expedient short term choices on the basis of perceived strategic self interest is not the same as making the right long term moral choices. Foreign policy that fails to recognise that self interest can never be served when the common interest and morality are ignored is doomed to the outcomes with which we have become familiar in South America and more recently in Iraq (the West's support of Saddam Hussein) and Afghanistan (the arming and financing of Bin Laden) where strategic allies metamorphosed into deadly enemies. This has been the unending pattern of politics throughout history. Is it not time we learned the lessons of past failures and altered our perverted political philosophy by doing what is obviously right rather than what is obviously wrong?

Let those who seek short term gain through perverted thinking and corrupt action dig their own graves. Their victories will be shallow and short lived and we will be there to pick up the benefits when their houses of cards come tumbling down, as they inevitably will and do.

Political philosophies founded on temporal moving sands, have never and will never stand the test of time.

The Pakistan Terror Groups

I cannot for the life of me understand how the Taliban and other rogue groups are able to to obtain training and launch attacks from Pakistan into Afghanistan and elsewhere with such impunity. The whereabouts of these training camps and "terrorist" hideouts must be known to every intelligence service worth the name. Why therefore can they not be surrounded and wiped out?

The excuse that these fanatics carry out their clandestine activities in wild and inhospitable terrain might have been a good excuse in 1807 but the age of modern and sophisticated communications systems, spy satellites and helicopters has eradicated any such excuses in 2007.

There is more to all this than meets the eye I suspect but what and why?

Britain's children

Britain has been rated by UNICEF 21st out of 21 of the World's leading industrial nations for child well being. Remember Blair's election slogan in 1997 - "Education, education, education"!

Britain's youth are amongst the least well educated, most badly behaved and unhealthy in the developed world. We have the highest rate of teenage pregnancies of any of the leading nations. This is Blair's true legacy and the future does not look bright. Although this downward spiral of shame may have started with the utterly daft, politically correct, soft headed and vociferous peddlars of liberalism that has so bedevilled Britain since the 60's, New Labour have only excasapated the situation since coming to power. The Thatcherite emphasis on individualism has also played it's part in the shocking social breakdown of communities and the family unit.

The disembowelment of principle in favour of vote catching political expediency is at the heart of Britain's descent into enfeebled decadence. Politicians have been undermining the authority of parents and the sanctity of family for decades. Political spin and duplicity at many levels, over many years has also undermined society's faith in our political institutions.

As one intelligent young woman in the audience of last week's Question Time on BBC television observed, Britain is a pushover. You can can get away with anything now, she said. No one has summed it up better.

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Unicef report: Key points at-a-glance

The UK has come bottom of a Unicef league table for child well-being across 21 industrialised countries.

The study looked at a total of 40 indicators in six categories. Here is a summary of some of the report's key findings:

REPORT SUMMARY
European countries dominate the top half of the overall league table, with the Netherlands, Sweden, Denmark and Finland claiming the top four places.

The UK and United States are in the bottom third of the rankings for five of the six categories covered. The six categories are material well-being, family and peer relationships, health and safety, behaviour and risks, and children's own sense of well-being (educational and subjective).
No country features in the top third of the rankings for all six dimensions of child well-being, although the Netherlands and Sweden come close to achieving this.

MATERIAL WELL-BEING
Child poverty remains above the 15% mark in the three southern European countries (Portugal, Spain, Italy) and in three Anglophone countries (the US, the UK, and Ireland).
There is no obvious relationship between levels of child well-being and GDP per capita. The Czech Republic, for example, achieves a higher overall rank for child well-being than several much wealthier countries.
A total of nine countries - all in northern Europe - have brought child poverty rates below 10%.

FAMILY AND PEER RELATIONSHIPS
Approximately 80% of children in the countries under review are living with both parents. This ranges from more than 90% in Greece and Italy to less than 70% in the UK and 60% in the US.
Even in the lowest ranked countries, almost two-thirds of children still regularly eat the main meal of the day with their families, with France and Italy maintaining the tradition most of all.

HEALTH AND SAFETY
Fewer than one in every 10,000 young people die before the age of 19 as a result of accident, murder, suicide or violence.
European countries occupy the top half of the report's child health and safety table, with the top five places claimed by the four Nordic countries and the Netherlands.
Infant mortality rates range from under three per 1,000 births in Iceland and Japan, to over six per 1,000 in Hungary, Poland and the US.

BEHAVIOUR AND RISKS
The overall OECD league table of young people's risk behaviours sees the UK at the foot of the rankings by "a considerable distance".
Risk behaviours considered in the study include smoking, being drunk, using cannabis, fighting and bullying, and sexual behaviour.
Only about a third of young people eat fruit daily.
Only about a third of young people exercise for an hour or more on five or more days a week - youths take most exercise in Ireland, Canada and the US, and the least in Belgium and France.

EDUCATIONAL WELL-BEING
Finland, Canada, Australia, and Japan head this particular table in the report.
The UK is rated in the bottom third of the table for educational well-being.
Four southern European countries - Greece, Italy, Spain and Portugal - occupy the bottom four places.

SUBJECTIVE WELL-BEING
Children's subjective sense of well-being appears to be markedly higher in the Netherlands, Spain, and Greece and markedly lower in Poland and the UK.
Approximately 80% of young people consider their health to be good or excellent in every OECD country except the UK.

The Netherlands, Norway and Austria, are at the head of the table with over a third of their schoolchildren admitting to "liking school a lot".

Capitalism Or Socialism

Capitalism without a conscience is as damaging as socialism without pragmatism. As separate ideologies they are both illogical and deeply flawed and doomed to failure.

The trappings of socialism are expensive and require a dynamic wealth building economy in order to build the schools, universities, hospitals, roads and so on. Socialism is therefore unobtainable as an ideology without the engine of capitalism. That is why so many "socialist" regimes fail. Another problem is that socialists tend to think that individuals are stupid and need nannying and this eventually leads to totalitarianism. Instead of nurturing and nourishing individuality, they squeeze the life out of them, losing massive potential benefits for society as a whole. This does not mean socialists ideals are wrong. They are not but it's the way one attains them that is most important.

So called free market capitalism is doomed to failure because it thrives on principles of exploitation that inevitably benefits the rich and powerful who have the means to exploit markets, labour and so on to a far greater extent than the poor and powerless. This inevitably breeds inequality, injustice and discontent which is a recipe for revolt and even revolution. Therefore unregulated free market capitalism sows the seeds of it's own destruction.

No society can function successfully in the long term without a balance between wealth creation and social consciousness. The key is getting the balance right. The problem with systems is that they depend on the integrity and abilities of those that manage them. In other words they are only as good or bad as the people that run them and far too often these people lack objectivity. They are driven by ideologies rather than logic, objectivity and common sense.

It is clear therefore that capitalism needs a social conscience and socialism needs a capitalist economy. One needs the other to succeed and ultimately they have the same objective which is to enrich and nourish individuals as well as societies and nations. They are in fact different degrees of the same thing and are inter-dependant and indispensable, the one to the other.

No End To Labour's Incompetence

Is there no end to New Labour's incompetence? Today the Home Secretary asked judges to send only the most dangerous criminals to jail as U.K. jails are now full. So burglars, shoplifters, joy riders and yobs everywhere, you may continue with your nefarious activities, free of fear of any custodial sentences. Given the police know that those they might or should arrest are unlikely to be locked up, what motivation do they now have to collar these types of criminal? It has been well documented over the last decade that new prisons would be needed but New Labour as is their habit continue to play their fiddles while Rome burns.

In similar vein, a senior police officer who was asked why we could not adopt a zero tolerance policy towards yobbish anti-social behaviour, similar to that introduced in New York, responded that his officers would be unable to tackle any other crimes; inferring that the problem is so widespread it is now beyond the capacity of the police to deal with it.

This man should be walking the beat! How does someone of such dull intellect get promoted to Chief Constable? It is beyond me. This dullard has so completely missed the point and purpose of a zero tolerance policy. If you implement a zero tolerance policy properly, the message will soon get through and put a virtual end to miscreant behaviour, freeing up more officers, who would otherwise be patrolling the streets on a Friday and Saturday night chastising violent drunks and those who use our streets and alleys as public toilets.

As my father-in law was keen on saying, "God give me strength" and I would add, save us from this awful mediocrity that pervades our town centres every week-end and struts the upper echelons of our political and social institutions.

The Begining Of Everything

In the beginning their was helium and hydrogen. Oh! and there were gaseous clouds floating about. They collided causing a huge reaction of chemical elements and dust particles, which condensed, eventually resulting in a massive nuclear explosion; from which the sun and the planets were formed. We are all made from star dust according to scientists.

It must have been some spectacle, shock and awe on a magnificent scale. Imagine the magnitude of an explosion that created an entire universe. It's almost incomprehensible; as incomprehensible as the the origin of all those gases that just happened to be floating about, in a space and time that did not apparently exist, prior to the Big Bang! So where did they come from? Were they the residue of a previous universe perhaps or did they just sort of materialise as if by magic from nothing out of nowhere? This is of course, the billion dollar question scientists avoid, in order to make their equations add up.

If those gases were the residue from a previous universe and why shouldn't they be, one must assume it had collapsed in on itself. This may have happened countless times, in which case universal evolution stretches back aeons upon aeons further into the distant past than we had hitherto imagined. But it still does not answer the fundamental question, how did it all begin? The only certainty as far as I can see, is that it did not begin with the Big Bang. That was a consequence of pre-existing matter. The Big Bang may explain the birth of our Universe but it does not explain the conception.

In fact it explains precious little and it certainly fails utterly to prove or disprove the existence or otherwise of a God. What we can say without fear of contradiction is that the forces of good and evil are present in the minds of man. However, these forces may simply be our interpretation of the interplay between the forces of construction and destruction which are visible in everything we see. That which destroys, we regard as evil and that which constructs we interpret as good.

The solar winds for example, destroy the atmosphere of some of the outer planets but the Earth's magnetic field shields us from its malevolence. Paradoxically, without the energy supplied by the Sun, there would be no life either. The Sun is therefore both a destroyer and a creator of life as are water and fire and all the other elements and every living thing.

It is so because life could not evolve any other way? It is so because without these opposing forces at work there could be no evolution and no enlightenment. Knowledge is born of experience and observation from which comes wisdom. But what good is the acquisition of knowledge, if in the end there is nothing but death and ultimate universal destruction? To serve any purpose knowledge has to evolve continuously as does life. Temporary knowledge like temporary life, is an exercise in futility.

These are the questions the scientists cannot answer and until they can, we should not place too much emphasis on their assertions anymore than we should believe Popes, Archbishops or Mullahs who have allowed power and politics to corrupt their "truths". We are as far away from understanding the origins and mysteries of life as we ever were. I just have a feeling that even now, with all the scientific knowledge we have, we will not believe our eyes or any of our other senses when and if, all is finally revealed.

Perhaps the key to this eternal mystery might be better understood if we spent less time looking through telescopes and more looking at the nature of life itself. We need to try and understand what we can see, before we try to understand what we cannot. The purpose of life cannot be found through a telescope or in a laboratory, nor is it explained by a big bang. These tools can tell us how life has evolved but cannot, I believe shed light on the purpose of life or the objective of enlightenment. These are the questions we all want answered above all others. I hope that when and if we get the answers, it will be shock and awe on an unimaginable scale. I just hope that we do not find that life is nothing more than a ridiculous exercise in futility.

My head is hurting now, so I'm off to bed to ponder all the ramifications in my sleep! Goodnight.

Destiny Rides Again

Every possible destiny is laid out for us on the great celestial map of life. The first path we travel is that which our parents are already on when we are born and on which we remain until such time as we are mentally and physically able to make independent choices.


However, control over our own destiny is as much subject to the direction being taken by others, over whom we have little or no control, as the choices we make for ourselves. If a burglar chooses to rob my house, his destiny crosses mine through no choice of my own.Thus the choices the burglar makes affects my journey as well as his. Our personal destiny is therefore tied to that of every other being and every other living thing. We are as dependant on each other as we are on ourselves. If we look after each other and of course our environment, our destiny will take us to a brighter future. If we abuse each other and destroy our environment, destiny will lead us all, to a darker place.


Thus to believe that individuals have absolute control or no control over their own fate is a complete misnomer. Our individual destinies are self evidently, inextricably linked to the collective journey of life. Politicians in Israel and Palestine and all over the world where nations and cultures are in conflict, would do well to remember that the destiny of nations as well as individuals are inseperable. No man or nation is an island unto himself or itself. Understanding this will help us navigate the map of life more effectively and rewardingly.