« Around the World in 80 Canapés, cont... (various artists) | Main | Why did the peanut jump the shark? »
September 25, 2006
Around the World in 80 Canapés, cont... (St Vincent & The Grenadines)
Ralph E. Gonsalves, Prime Minister of St Vincent and the Grenadines, has a couple of chips on his shoulder. He is impertinent enough to suggest that the UN might lack a certain swiftness or decisiveness in its handling of important events:
Madam President, the world's marginalized and disadvantaged look askance at a United Nations which daily seeks to choreograph the dancing of angels on the head of a pin. They care very little for the bureaucratic harangue that the United Nations' "system-wide coherence has been addressed and enhanced," important as that may be for some professional diplomats. The world's people want to know, and see the practical evidence, that the United Nations is tackling in a purposeful way the issues of global poverty, environmental degradation, climate change, the empowerment of women, the protection of children, the promotion of peace and security, the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the provision of clean water and an adequate supply of food, among other such telling requisites.
And he's got a bit of a slavery hangup, too:
Madam President, next year, in March 2007, people of African descent and all freedom-loving peoples and nations commemorate and celebrate the 200th anniversary of the passage of the Act abolishing the British trade in African slaves to the Caribbean and the Americas. This is an occasion for historical reclamation and the righting of historic wrongs. The trade in, and enslavement of, Africans was a monstrous crime against humanity and an exercise in genocide unmatched in the history of the western world. European nations and their North American cousins have failed and/or refused to acknowledge this sufficiently or at all. There has been no apology for this crime against humanity and genocide, conducted over a prolonged period. There has been no practical recompense in the form of reparations to the affected nations and peoples in Africa, the Caribbean and the Americas. Surely, this issue must be put squarely on the agenda of the United Nations for speedy resolution.
Without in any way diluting the force of this representation, indeed in bolstering it, it is necessary, and desirable, to link it in our region with the genocide of indigenous peoples, including the Callinago and Garifuna of St. Vincent and the Grenadines, and the wholly wrong and inhumane exploitation by colonialism and imperialism of indentured labour from Africa, Madeira, India and China after the abolition of African slavery in the Caribbean. Europe has much to answer for on these matters and should be made to answer properly, appropriately. Historic wrongs not righted remain scars on the soul of the oppressor and the oppressed alike which continue to haunt over the ages; it is a hateful burden which must be lifted. This dark night must give way to a brightened day.
Posted by Chris Selley at September 25, 2006 10:02 PM
Trackback Pings
TrackBack URL for this entry:
http://www.tartcider.com/cgi-bin/mt-tb.cgi/524