The call for "reparations"

is, at best, misguided. It fails to understand or acknowledge history.

May I suggest it is time to study history? No, people won't do that. It won't give them a reason to demand reparations now. There will be no money in it.

My ancestors invaded Scotland before Scotland was Scotland. My surname comes from the Norse word for "war".  Does that mean that the people who were living in what is now Scotland should be able to sue the Norwegians for reparations? 

Put like that it sounds ridiculous doesn't it? Is it really so different for anywhere else? How likely is it that some Pictish chief "sold" a woman into "slavery" for his own benefit? Did they ever negotiate a treaty with the invaders? Who took what out of it? 

Take a look at Africa, particularly western Africa. The British did not simply sail there, round up whoever happened to be wandering around and cart them off to England or America. No, they bought people from "kings" and "chiefs" - people who were powerful and already wealthy. Those enslaved were often seen as "criminals" because they had broken harsh laws in their own countries - in much the same way as people were transported to this country. The countries on the modern maps did not even exist then.

And yes of course it was wrong, very wrong, that there were others who made still more money selling people on to plantation owners who also exploited them and failed to give them respect, care and consideration as human beings. I am not making excuses here but I am suggesting there might be more to the story that is told when demanding "reparations".

There is a "stolen generation" story in this country. It is a story which suggests hundreds upon hundreds of indigenous children were forcibly taken from their families. They were, it is said, abused and made to follow "white" ways of life. There was a Royal Commission which seemed to confirm all the horrors we were told about in the media. We were told all this was worse than the story of the convicts and even of the slave trade. 

Nobody seems to want to mention that children were willingly sent off to get an education or that they were mixed race and being rejected by both sides of their families. Yes, some of them were very badly treated if we judge their care by modern standards. In many instances they were being cared for by the standards of the day and the expectations of them were also judged by the standards of that day. There is a complete failure to acknowledge the slave trade to the north of us in what is now Indonesia. 

I don't want to suggest there was nothing wrong in the past. There is an awful lot wrong in the past, especially viewed through today's glasses. That said all the calls for reparations and treaties and truth telling seem to me to be more about "what's in it for me" than any real concern about the past. It is a grievance industry which is unlikely to satisfy those making the most noise. Their lives have purpose while these things are not settled. They will need another cause if they get what they say they want.  

Surely it would be much better if we concentrated on the future, not the past?