let these lies of history sleep?

from ammocity.com

politics and society
let these lies of history sleep?
by nii parkes
jul 18, 2003, 13:39

'history' will neither forgive nor forget. i stopped making 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 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