let these
lies of history sleep?
posted by nii parkes on Jul 18, 2003,
13:39
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'history' will neither
forgive nor forget. i stopped making political outright political
statements when i was 16. i began to stuff my sentiments between
lines of my poetry and i was perfectly happy with that. i became
akin to the saxophonist wetting her reed with the tears of her mouth
so the world can hear her pain without seeing it.
enough. the arrogance of our world leaders today has ripped the
lid off my voice box and i must speak. our system of democracy has
succeeded in picking out men so competitive that admitting guilt
that when they make mistakes feels to them like a fate worse than
hanging. any excuse, any explanation, any deflection will be
offered, but no apology.
they are as surly as a baby boy who has broken a toy; they expect
to be hugged and rewarded with another chance. well I am sorry. am i
supposed to be impressed when tony blair gets 17-19 (the accounts
differ) standing ovations from the u.s. congress; a selection of
people who were raised in a system where all men are created still
not equal? i think not.
when tony blair says, “if we are wrong we will have destroyed a
threat that, at its least, is responsible for inhuman carnage and
suffering. that is something i am confident history will forgive”
what does he mean? does he mean the history that will be written in
books, or real history? like the history of slavery? like mass
murder of american Indians? like hiroshima? like the famines created
by william the conqueror? like the lands the conqueror confiscated
to create the class system that continues to plague england today?
the truth is, written history has always been economical with the
truth. it is men who have ties with the powers that be who write
history. in history books slavery has been justified; the taking of
aboriginal lands has been defended; the treatment of the irish has
been de-fanged; colonialism has been tempered with fine words;
western apathy in the face of apartheid has been polished; western
apathy in the face of fascism and genocide has been elegantly
refined to read well.
indeed, history IS the problem. tony the smiling spinner and
george the idiot are so obsessed with cementing their place in
history books that humanity has become a pawn in a sick game of
influence chess. history for them is what is written in the same
books that tell us that europe discovered the world. the truth for
them is what they say, what the media repeats, what the radio
mimics…
they are temporary despots keen to make the best of their time in
power and I have no respect for them. the truth is when bill clinton
apologised for slavery it improved my opinion of bill clinton but it
doesn’t mean that i will forgive slavery. not until i am reunited
with the family i lost through slavery will i even consider
forgiveness.
history is a 50-year-old mother whose only child dies in a bomb
raid, whose womb will no longer bless her with eggs. history is a
child rendered orphan by unjustified declarations of war. history is
the cripple suckled on western landmines. history is the wind-driven
cries of innocent ghosts in lands as far flung as the excuses of
leaders. if tony blair wants to know about forgiveness, let him ask
the victims of his history and he will find the truth.
niiparkes.com
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