Comments on: Papua New Guineans are, “Sorry we ate your forefathers…”

By: j

Fri, 04 Jan 2008 16:36:26 +0000

Apology is not enough. Eye for eye, roast meat for roast meat.

By: Fiona

Fiona — Fri, 07 Dec 2007 12:16:28 +0000

The question of apology is much more sophisticated than people want to believe. An apology is a form of memory as well as acknowledgement about the misdeeds of the past. For those calling for an apology as in the case of Australia’s Stolen Generations, an apology is something which is deemed healing. There are some wonderful philosophical texts written on the matter if anyone is interested such as Lazare, Tauvichis and Roy Brooks. Have a look it might help you change your mind on the relevance of apology

By: i’d say sorry too « un-Free Radical

i’d say sorry too « un-Free Radical — Wed, 22 Aug 2007 13:16:36 +0000

[...] 22nd, 2007 by mibi heehee. and i suppose next it will be europe’s turn to say sorry for their wicked forefathers who [...]

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 18:29:08 +0000

It might seem obvious to us that this should be so, but my guess is things will carry on in the same old way – for example, Australian PM John Howard is well known for his refusal to apologise to the so-called ‘stolen generation’ of Aborigine children who were forcibly separated from their families, in what has been described as a ‘misguided’ attempt to assimilate Aborigines into the white population – neither was he willing to stump up any kind of cash compensation – more details from here…

http://en.epochtimes.com/news/7-5-24/55682.html

By: afarensis

afarensis — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 02:07:56 +0000

Well, yeah, that goes without saying…

By: Tim Jones

Tim Jones — Mon, 20 Aug 2007 01:23:43 +0000

In the future, maybe it would be better if govts. etc behaved in ways that would not need to be apologised for later – for example, I daresay the Hadza would prefer to be left alone by the Tanzanian govt., rather than receive a meaningless apology for being stripped of their lands and lifestyle a few years down the road – assuming of course that the Hadza hadn’t become extinct in the meantime.

By: afarensis

afarensis — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 20:18:40 +0000

Yet, there were no apologies, by the government for overreacting and burning down several villages…

By: TerryT

TerryT — Sun, 19 Aug 2007 09:05:23 +0000

I think apologies do matter. People can bear grudges for generations, as we see prominently in the Middle East. In New Zealand we regularly (perhaps either not regularly enough, of too regularly for some people) have apologies over past european land seizures. This does seem to make everybody involved feel better. The apologies are usually accompanied by monetary settlements too of course and it may be this that provides the real balm. And there are regular calls in Australia for the government to apologise to the Aborigine people for past wrongs. I think apologies work.

By: Wet walk! « blueollie

Wet walk! « blueollie — Sat, 18 Aug 2007 21:19:53 +0000

[...] Well, this means that humans aren’t the only primates that practice cannibalism. Anthropology.net has a post about human cannibalism; evidently one group is apologizing to the descendants of those they cannibalized! [...]