What do you think about $25000 given to the Holocaust and not to slavery?

Answer 1

I agree with you but where do you begin> As a Canadian of English/Irish descent I have to tell you that I'm very Proud of Her Excellency Michelle Jean, our Governor General & Head of State. Madame Jean came to Canada as a refugee from Haiti as a child, and now holds the Vice-Regal position here in Canada. She is a decendent of slaves and recently returned to Africa and .. I'll let you read the reports fro Africa........

Africa must ‘learn from the lessons’ of slavery

By ALEXANDER PANETTA
ACCRA, Ghana — Michaelle Jean told an African audience Tuesday that the continent must recognize its own role in the slave trade to help turn the page on a shameful chapter in history.
The Governor General used a state dinner to congratulate Ghana’s government for offering such an apology and suggested other African countries should do the same.
She made the remarks on the eve of an emotional pilgrimage to a seaside fortress where thousands of slaves were shipped to the Americas.
"The time has come to recapture that moment of African history in order to move ahead together," Jean said in a speech.
"As it looks to the future, Ghana has shown that it is willing to confront the past.
"I am impressed by your government’s decision to apologize for what was done hundreds of years ago by the people of this region involved in the slave trade."
More than 15 million men, women and children were captured and sold to Europeans during the colonial age and crammed onto wooden ships bound for the Americas.
Ghana was a major hub of the international slave trade concentrated in West Africa, and the national government has recognized the role Africans here played.
"As a descendent of slaves, that touched me very much. I know that we cannot go back and solve past injustices. All we can do is learn from the lessons of the past, even the painful lessons, and use that knowledge to build a better future."
Jean will visit Elmina Castle today and step up to its so-called Door of No Return, the infamous final spot where the captured natives were taken from African soil.
Jean said she planned to gaze at the ocean and reflect on what happened there.
"I will think of the millions of people packed tightly in rickety ships bound for unknown lands. Faraway lands where they were deprived of their memories, of their languages, of their heritage, of their dignity and, most of all, of their freedom," she said.
"I will stand and pray for those who never completed the journey and whose bodies were thrown out to the ocean."
"As I will stand there and reconnect with the land of my ancestors, I will salute your openness and I will accept your apology."
Ghanaian President John Agyekum Kufuor gave an extremely detailed account of the history of slavery to an international conference in July, where he drew attention to historical facts that many Africans would rather forget.
He described how Phoenicians and Greco-Romans had been enslaving Africans thousands of years ago and how Africans themselves profited from the trade with Europeans.

And the next day she visited the former prison, .....



Governor General Michaelle Jean leaves a room through which African slaves once passed before being loaded on slave ships in Ghana on Wednesday. (FRED CHARTRAND / CP)
‘We shall never be chained again’
Jean weeps during visit to slave castle in Ghana
By ALEXANDER PANETTA
ELMINA, Ghana — Michaelle Jean wept softly for several minutes Wednesday as she stared out from a seaside castle that still literally reeks from the stench of slavery.
The passing of generations has not erased the fetid trace of bodily waste in the dark, dank dungeons of Elmina castle where tens of thousands of human beings were stored like cattle.
The Governor General triggered a chain reaction of tears from her entourage as she broke into sobs while touching the rusty iron gate of the so-called the Door of No Return.
For more than three centuries, the chains of African captives scraped the rugged stone floor as they were shoved onto ships waiting below to carry them into slavery.
Jean gently touched the gate, then grabbed onto it tightly, and knelt as she wept for several minutes while praying in silence and gazing from the dark cellar into the sunlit horizon.
She said she prayed for millions of slaves, including her own ancestors, and for the untold millions who died during the journey and whose corpses were dumped into the ocean.
"My life will never be the same again," said Jean, the Haitian-born descendant of slaves.
"I said one thing (during my prayer): we shall never be chained again. We shall never be on our knees again. We shall never be humiliated again."
Upon emerging from the castle, the Governor General shook her head and waved off staff who attempted to set up a news conference with Ghanaian and Canadian media.
A moment later she regained her composure and changed her mind.
Jean then delivered an eight-minute monologue without a single reference to the joyful irony that a slaves’ descendent would return here as vice-royalty.
Jean was asked if she had a message for Canada’s black community and declined to offer one.
Instead she spoke about what she called modern-day slavery: the children who are forced into armies around the world, or to work for little or no pay.
"This doesn’t concern just the descendants of slaves," she said when asked for a reaction. "There are still children who are enslaved. I know that slavery is still a reality today."
"We can’t say that we’re unaware this is happening . . . Indifference is guilt. Indifference is a killer ..."
"Not only would we betray the people still living in those conditions . . . we would also be betraying ourselves."
A half-hour helicopter ride from the Ghanaian capital of Accra, Elmina Castle was first established as a Portuguese trading post in 1482 to exchange European goods for African gold.
But it was soon overtaken by the slave trade and served that sole purpose under the Portuguese, Dutch and British until the practice ended in the 1830s.
It has found a new vocation as a shrine to inhumanity.

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Answer 2

The best way to say it is that slavery was eventually emancipated 200 plus years ago. Plus there are no slaves that are around today.

The Holocaust on the other hand was a not even 75 years ago and are still survivors still about.

But, sadly this probably has to do more with political gain and show ponying. It's easier to gasp at the Holocaust than at slavery due to the 60s ideal.

Answer 3

Survivors of the Holocaust are still alive. Children of people who died in the Holocaust are living. The belongings and money that was taken from them can still be identified and given back. The Holocaust was perpetrated by a government.

Slavery ended almost 150 years ago. No survivors living. Records are poor. Our government brought about the end of slavery.

The American Indians suffered too. What are YOU willing to pay them in reparation for their suffering?

Answer 4

Personally, I feel that if the person who was a slave and a person who suffered from the Holocaust were alive and kicking, then by all means, give them the money. Not the family. They don't deserve it, They are not the one's who suffered. If the person is deceased, then donate the money, in that person's name, to the local school, hospital, church, etc. It shouldn't be used for cell phones, designer clothes, and Coach purses. Besides, 25 grand really isn't that much now a days. You could piss that away in less than a hour.

Answer 5

The victims of slavery were slaves up until 1865.

Fast forward to 1965...civil rights restores full rights to all americans...and no one in the US has owned a slave for 100 years.

A person who would have there hand-out(who NEVER where surpressed, except in their own minds) to recieve compensation on the backs of others pain should be taken out in public and flogged for being a poser martyr.

The only thing that holds anyone back...is a bad attitude. Period.

Answer 6

The people who died in the Holocaust were tortured beyond anything you could ever imagine. They were just citizens like you and I. They did no wrong but were put to death. On the otherhand when you ask about slavery, back in those days it was natural. The owners of slaves fed, clothed and took care of all their needs. Why do you think this was a bad thing? All people have to work, even today. The only difference is you have to have your own place to live and pay your own bills, and take care of your ownself. I don't think they had it as bad as history makes it out to be. They were taken care of for the work they did. Much like a live in maid or nanny today. Do you consider them to be slaves or just someone doing a job and being cared for by their employers????

Answer 7

We as Americans owe nothing to the Holocaust victims the Germans should be paying that bill. As for Slavery get over it you as an AMerican have not been involved in Slavery for 100's of years. What about the irish who were killed digging for coal or the polish or the russian or the poor chinese who were killed building the transcontinent railroad.

Answer 8

Don't all those men Black & White that died between 1860 and 1865 count? Lets give all their families $25,000.00 too. But to keep things on an even scale. I think Germany is responsible for any Holocaust reparations, not the USA.
I think it would be more apropreate to give every American Soldier Dead & Alive $25,000.00 and screw anyone else. If it wasn't for them, none of you would be here nor have the freedom to ask! How much is that worth to you?

Answer 9

What are affirmative action programs, if not reparations? What was $7 trillion in poverty spending if not reparations? What were 500,000 dead men on the battlefields of the Civil War if not reparations? What are set-aside programs, and federal housing programs,and many billions to New Orleans poor if not reparations? For a person whipped and held in chains, no amount of money is great enough to wash away the wounds, but for great great descendants, what amount do we put on the check? For all of the college graduates, business owners, middle class, and wealthy…how much would it cost to wipe away the bitterness? How do we, as a country, soothe the wounds, and stay whole? Or do you, who cry for reparations care? Is it really about amends…or is it about money? Is it about making people’s lives whole, or is it about making people instantly well-off? What is this debate about?

Answer 10

In both cases lives were destroyed. During WWII property and possessions with monetary value was taken from the victims and that's why, in part, restitution has been make.

Answer 11

slaves were mistreated but there was no attempt at exterminating them on the contrary you cannot compare the two things. The Jews in Europe would have loved to be treated as the slaves were in the US.