Fed up with the blah blah blah?

[reachesme]

I live in Bristol where we are building a new shopping centre, the name was going to be Merchants Wharf, celebrating or nautical history..... But certain people are getting their hair off and want us to name it something else because of the slave trade hundreds of years ago, Enslaving people is an evil act and this country has bent over backwards to help the decendants of it's evil for many many many years... Now all i see around the world are non white people being twice as bad as us in our history to their own people, Sudan, Somalia, the Congo, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Eritia and so on and so on... Now, why don't these people who care about people being slaughtered, raped, tortured and enslaved stop trying to get us to say sorry for something that happened years ago and start moaning and rallying around to stop this, Africa is dying of aids, starvation and ethnic cleansing and the black person in this country seem to care more about the dead than the living. Mothers sell thier kids on a daily basis over there, thats what they should be fighting for. How do you lot feel?

[naomi24]

Reaches, are you sure you wanted to post this question in Religion and Spirituality?

[reachesme]

I only want the people in ths place to comment, you lot seem to be the brightest on this site and i respect your views, even the god squad, so thats why it's in here.

[naomi24]

Oh, ok. Sorry, I thought you meant to put it elsewhere.

It's the victim culture, isn't it - and it's pure nonsense. Of course you are absolutely right - there are more important issues that the world should be addressing. Those who want apologies for the slave trade conveniently forget that African traders became very rich indeed by selling their own people into slavery. Have you heard any requests for apologies from their descendants? No, I don't think so.

[luna-tic]

Will it change anything or even make people more aware of what went on by calling the place something to do with the slave trade?
I don't think so.

Blimey somebody called me bright? I looked over my shoulder when I read that.

[wizard69]

I find it pathetic. Why should we apologise for something that we (in this day and age) havnt done. I have German relatives...should I expect them to apologise for Hitler? Of course not. Its not their fault that their were d!ckheads around in the 1940's is it?.
What really gets me is the suggestion, that the white people of this earth are responsible for all racism and acts of terror.

[reachesme]

You would have thouht they would have learned by our mistakes. On another note;Is anyone watching the three in a bed thing on five?

[jake-the-peg]

I don't think appologies are appropriate when there is no longer anybody living who directly experienced the issue.

So appologies for things that happened in WWII are appropriate, WWI only just but further away not so - that's just a personal opinion.

However I do think that you have to remember that Bristol was a major hub for what was as you point out a truely evil trade as as such naming a building there Merchant's Wharf on the anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade is definately sending the wrong signals - especially when as you point out slavery is far from abolished.

You don't have to go abroad either people trafficking especially from Russia the old Eastern block to the sex industry in this country is rife now.

Maybe there is too much waffle but Merchant's Wharf ? this year? that's just insensitive

[tompaine]

Are you on the naming committee then Reachesme? (want US to name it something else!) You also appear to have an unprecedented insight into the collective opinions of millions of people. How else could you so confidently decide that "the black person" in this or any other country thinks or acts uniformly? Perhaps you should reflect on the possibility that your own prejudices may contribute to the sensitivity that you find so misplaced. Why don't you spend your time trying to sort out problems in Africa rather than argue about the naming of a shopping centre?

[reachesme]

Please can you tell me where i said 'ALL'. And i have tried to help, i have given money to Live aid and a few other charitys along the way but the leaders of these African countrys have kept the money and kept on killing thier own people.
I am not a racist, i am a realist, just because i tagged the argument, does not mean i hate anyone, sometimes you have to face the truth my friend and stop hiding behind something.
The race card is too easily produced when someones back is againsnt the wall, If the sh** fits, wear it.

[PappaLarge69]

I also live in Bristol and have been subjected to this nonsense for far too long. Bristol City Council has wasted enough council tax money on this, when they should be spending it on more important local issues.
They wanteds to bring over Nelson Mandela for the occasion, but were told by some of the local black population not to bother.
Maybe Mandela shoould pop up the road to Zimbabwe and sort that out (i dont think so! ) if he is that interested in saving his own kind.

[tompaine]

I apologise for crediting you with coherent thought. Obviously your charitable donation in 1985 would have saved africa but for their evil rulers

[reachesme]

Now you�re just being silly.... I think the slave trade was a disgusting act, i wish it had never happened but it did and i wasn't there to do anything, so i have squat to say sorry for. Besides that, my ancestors were probably slaves as well at the time, not everyone in this country made from it.

So your saying that me giving money is not enough, what have you been doing to stop this terrible genocide, have you been marching for the cause?

And who is still affected in this country by the actions of the British all those years ago, i think it's more of a case of 'show us the money'. I care about this planet and it�s people. And I don�t think diamonds are more important than the slave who still digs them up, tell that to Poof Diddy and his clan.

[tompaine]

.

Slightly better argument but you are still framing your argument as if someone is asking you personally to say sorry. That is not the case. but at least you've dropped the us and them rhetoric. I would agree that africa would not benefit from an apology for slavery but would benefit greatly from trade and democracy. A bit of respect goes a long way, however, and it shouldn't be beyond planners in bristol to avoid connotations to slavery when naming a major shopping centre

[reachesme]

So who do they want to say sorry?
Whats going to happen when who ever does say sorry, says sorry what will change?

[snug]

On the subject of all these apologies for things past. When are the Italians going to apologise for invading us, and the Norse, and the Saxons, and the Jutes, and the Danes and--oh I give up.

[Theland]

It's terrible that before posting a comment, the politically correct paranoia compels many to begin by saying, "I am not a racist, but ....."
This scaremongering makes honest debate so difficult, as there is always the fear of mud slinging.

[reachesme]

People don't like the truth.
I am still wiating to find out what they are going to bring to the table when we say we are sorry.