Blair refuses to apologise for slave trade. And the problem is?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6185756.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6187216.stm
http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk_politics/6185176.stm

Prime Minister Tony Blair has said he feels "deep sorrow" for Britain's role in the slave trade.

In an article for the New Nation newspaper, the prime minister said it had been "profoundly shameful".

But Mr Blair stopped short of issuing a full apology, which some commentators have demanded.

Esther Stanford, of the Pan African Reparation Coalition, said all countries that had ever been involved in slavery should give a full apology.

"An apology is just the start - words mean nothing," she told BBC News.

"We're talking about an apology of substance which would then be followed by various reparative measures including financial compensation."

She said: "If we do not deal with this now it is tantamount to saying that you can commit crimes against humanity, against African people and get away with it."

I really don't see how it's the business of any politician or citizen in modern Britain to apologise for something that happened many generations before they even existed. We all know slavery is wrong, that's why it is thankfully non existant in 21st Century Britain. A few words from someone who happens to be prime minister 200 years later won't compensate for the pain and suffering of the slaves at the time, if those demanding the apology really believe so then they may as well ask every caucasian in the country to issue one too. Obviously they won't, funnily enough it was none of their business at the time, not actually being born and all. I believe in some appropriate form of compensation, but getting hung up over an apology seems a little ludicrous to me.

"This statement of regret does not go far enough"
Ester Stanford
Rendezvous of Victory Campaign

Way to jump on the bandwagon 200 years later :dance: !

I think this world would be a better place if everybody started issuing and taking personal responsibility for actions. Racism itself is rooted in a mentality that almost everbody, included non-racists, have refused to let go of; guilt by association. I still hear people blaming the "americans" for the american government's decision to drop the A-bomb on Hiroshima, or the "White people" for enslaving africans (which, btw, falls under equal blame to the stronger African tribes who captured and sold these people to the European and American slavers). But the fact is, I'm not guilty of anything because of what my ancestors did anymore than I would be guilty because my brother (hypothetically) robbed somebody's house. British people aren't guilty of anything because they have a common national association to slavers, just like african-americans aren't responsible for sponsoring Jello-pudding because Bill Cosby made some commercials. It's high-time people start taking person responsibility and stop blaming others for association to those who wronged somebody who was associated to them. All this lumping people together makes an easy target that doesn't strain the brain too much, but as a consequence these stupid generalizations about groups of people relentlessly continue. Meanwhile we wonder why.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by mrdevious

I think this world would be a better place if everybody started issuing and taking personal responsibility for actions. Racism itself is rooted in a mentality that almost everbody, included non-racists, have refused to let go of; guilt by association. I still hear people blaming the "americans" for the american government's decision to drop the A-bomb on Hiroshima, or the "White people" for enslaving africans (which, btw, falls under equal blame to the stronger African tribes who captured and sold these people to the European and American slavers). But the fact is, I'm not guilty of anything because of what my ancestors did anymore than I would be guilty because my brother (hypothetically) robbed somebody's house. British people aren't guilty of anything because they have a common national association to slavers, just like african-americans aren't responsible for sponsoring Jello-pudding because Bill Cosby made some commercials. It's high-time people start taking person responsibility and stop blaming others for association to those who wronged somebody who was associated to them. All this lumping people together makes an easy target that doesn't strain the brain too much, but as a consequence these stupid generalizations about groups of people relentlessly continue. Meanwhile we wonder why.

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Agree 100% we got this, and

the best turd in the Toilet.....LOL