>From: "Chris Alders" <[log in to unmask]>
>Reply-To: "Chris Alders" <[log in to unmask]>
>To: <[log in to unmask]>
>Subject: Judging Colonial Crimes By Modern Standards
>Date: Fri, 9 Jan 2004 20:09:45 -0400
>
>
>Greetings and salutations!
>
>A frequent critique offered by historians of people who may attempt to
>invoke some form of moral judgment on those who committed gross misdeeds in
>the past has been to refer to the concept of presentism.
>
>Presentism is usually defined as using modern-day standards as a means of
>explaining past acts or events. The theory is that those who were
>responsible for heinous acts in days gone by were under cultural influences
>unique to their time and place and that we ought not to criticize them on
>the basis of our own cultural and modern bias.
>
>One person who has disavowed this concept as a legitimate criticism is
>renowned American historian Howard Zinn who, in a speech at Saint Mary's
>University in Halifax, Nova Scotia in 2003 referred to his academic
>brethren as "sheep" for giving way to this practice.
>
>Award-winning author and human rights activist Dan Paul also has concerns.
>Below is a relatively recent newspaper column in which he clearly takes on
>the concept of presentism by questioning the way we view crimes committed
>by imperial and colonial powers.
>
>Take care and adios for now,
>
>Chris
>
>
>Judging Colonial Crimes by Modern Standards
>
>By Dan Paul
>
>APOLOGISTS for European colonial brutality have often criticized me for
>baring for public examination the genocidal crimes committed against the
>indigenous populations of the Americas by colonial leadership after 1492.
>Especially irritating is the accusation that I use today's standards when
>judging the criminals. Why not? Today's standards, although more
>sophisticated, are just as low as they were five centuries ago.
>
>For proof of the veracity of this statement, I'll give a short overview of
>the crimes of just three colonial officials who are indefensibly honoured
>as heroes by the majority of the Euro-descended population of North
>America, then offer comparisons of modern brutality.
>
>A piece in Column of the Americas, by Patrisia Gonzales and Roberto
>Rodriguez (April 3, 1998), tells of a statue being erected in honour of
>Juan de Onate, a Spanish conquistador, in El Paso, Texas: "In response,
>many people are insisting that if it goes up, it shouldn't be done at
>taxpayers' expense and that it include the truth about Onate's role in the
>killing of hundreds of Acoma Pueblo Indians. Onate ordered that all Acoma
>men over 25 years old have their right foot cut off, and had women and
>children enslaved. As a reminder, native people recently cut off a foot
>from the Onate statue in Alcalde, N.M. Though the statue was repaired,
>educator Sofia Martinez said the foot should have stayed off: 'It would
>have caused people to ask why it's missing.' "
>
>Alyssa Fisher writes of Civil War hero John M. Chivington, in a piece
>titled "A sight which can never be forgotten" (in Archaeology, Online
>Features, Sept. 16, 2003): "Not long after the massacre at Mountain Meadows
>came another savage attack, this time against a peaceful village of
>Cheyenne and Arapaho Indians living under Chief Black Kettle in
>southeastern Colorado Territory. Methodist preacher and Civil War hero
>Colonel John M. Chivington led approximately 700 volunteer soldiers almost
>40 miles in harsh winter conditions from Fort Lyon to attack the community
>along Sand Creek. At dawn on Nov. 29, 1864, Chivington's men approached the
>camp and opened fire. The soldiers chased the unarmed families up the dry
>stream bed where they frantically dug into the sandy banks of the creek,
>seeking shelter. It was in these pits that most of them were slaughtered,
>unable to escape the militia's small arms fire and exploding howitzer
>shells.
>
>"Despite Black Kettle's display of a white surrender flag and an American
>flag, the soldiers killed more than 150 Cheyenne and Arapaho, mostly women,
>children and elders. The attackers then dismembered many of the bodies and
>paraded limbs and scalps around Colorado. . . ."
>
>The third colonial era example comes from closer to home. Halifax has a
>park named in honour of the much-admired Edward Cornwallis, British
>colonial governor from 1749 to 1752, with a large statue of him as a
>centrepiece. At an Oct. 1, 1749, meeting, he and his council undertook an
>attempt to exterminate the Mi'kmaq, indigenous to what are now Canada's
>Maritime provinces. To try to realize the genocidal goal, they issued a
>proclamation offering a bounty of 10 pounds (British money) for the scalps
>of the people, including women and children. On June 21, 1750, perhaps
>because the scalps were not coming in fast enough, they issued another
>proclamation, raising the bounty to 50 pounds.
>
>Now, regarding today's standards, following are some of the horrendous
>crimes committed against humanity since I was born in 1938 - some are
>ongoing. Most of the world's leadership was, or is, directly or indirectly
>involved.
>
>During the Second World War, upwards of 40 million people were killed, six
>million or so of whom were dispatched in a barbarous manner in gas chambers
>in concentration camps. Another several hundred thousand were vapourized by
>atomic bombs in Japan.
>
>While the world sat on its hands, half of Cambodia's population was
>butchered.
>
>The UN stood by and watched as close to a million people were savagely
>butchered in Rwanda.
>One cannot leave out the crimes committed in the former Yugoslavia in the
>1990s. In one instance, 7,500 men and boys were slaughtered while the
>leaders of NATO, the most awesomely powerful military force ever, permitted
>it to happen.
>
>Now let's examine the horrendous poverty-related health conditions rampant
>in most countries of Africa. The horrific conditions could be quickly cured
>if the rich countries, which have enough food and medicine to accomplish
>it, had the compassion and generosity to do so. But because they've
>callously decided not to, millions are in various stages of starvation, and
>millions more are dying of AIDS.
>
>In a particularly repulsive offshoot of this neglect, some orphanages in
>many African countries are designated only for children with AIDS. These
>orphanages are death houses because the operators can't afford the medicine
>to save the innocents. Lovely, modern standards, aren't they?
>
>If the likes of barbarous colonial figures such as Onate and Cornwallis
>deserve statues to honour them, shouldn't modern barbarians such as Hitler
>have the same? Definitely NOT! If, in fact, we are going to build a better
>world, we must have standards that recognize that civilized society cannot
>honour barbarians of any stripe, historic or modern. Nova Scotia and Canada
>could make a good start in this direction by expunging Edward Cornwallis
>and Charles Lawrence from their honour rolls, and by becoming far more
>generous with aid to poorer countries. I offer no apologies!
>
>Chris Alders
>24 Fairview Street
>Kentville, Nova Scotia
>B4N 1G2
>
>902-678-0326
>[log in to unmask]
>
>"It is only with the heart that one can see rightly.  What is essential is
>invisible to the eye."
>
>The Fox in "The Little Prince" by Antoine de Saint Exupery.
>

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