Is it only me that is sickened by seeing this on TV?

[RogerS]

And of course we can ignore the sanitation, health care, education etc that we brought to these countries as a by-product. There are two sides to every coin.

And that justifies enslaving a nation\people? And of course we know\knew what was in their best interests.

"I would rather die on my feet than live on my knees" springs to mind.

My 2p Worth

Dibs

No, I never said that it justified it. Just that there were at least some benefits.

 

[graduate_owner]

I hope my comments aren't going to start fistecuffs here. It was only an opinion. The forum users seem such a nice, helpful bunch it would be a shame to have been the cause of bad feelings.

And - to stoke the fires a bit more (no, to change the subject actually) did anyone see the news item about Ireland's use of unmarried mothers in laundries?

I saw a film a few years ago called 'Catholic Laundry'. (Now I'm not knocking any religion here - that was the name of the film, that's all). It was about a teenage girl who got pregnant by her brother - I think parents had died. Anyhow she was sent to the care of the nuns in the laundry. He, of course, carried on with his life - he wasn't to blame I suppose. The film showed the ill treatment meted out by the nuns, some of it quite brutal. Then, after she had the baby - which was immediately taken away from her without her consent - she thought she could go home, but no. She was kept at the laundry against her will in case she sinned again. She escaped, but was recaptured by the police, and returned to the laundry. Happy ending though - the man in who's house she hid (and who called the police) visited her to see if she was alright, and eventually agreed to marry her, at which point the nuns could no longer justify keeping her imprisoned.

The thing is, I thought it was just a disturbing film. Now I know it was based on a factual system - even more disturbing.

Then there's the rounding up of young orphan children and sending them to Australia for a better life, only for some of them to be exploited out there. There's the ongoing Jimmy Saville (oops, sorry, I meant Sir Jimmy Saville OBE) enquiry - who knows how far that will go? And now we have allegations of paedophile MPs and their cronies in guest houses.

Where will it all end? Whoever said 'power corrupts etc' wasn't so far off the mark. And this has nothing whatsoever to do with a workshop forum either - so easy to get bogged down in these topical issues.

K

 

[Phil Pascoe]

Magdalen Laundry - I suspect.

 

[Jacob]

Often terrorists can gain a foothold in a country because of internal strife - like in Afghanistan and Mali. Why is there internal strife? Well here's my opinion, which may be fair or may be a load of pineapples.

I think it's because generations ago governments like ours ( and French, Belgian, German, Dutch etc etc) drew up arbitrary, convenient boundaries which split tribal homelands and created ethnic imbalances. Those imbalances led to situations where a majority of people may be ruled by a minority of different origin, a definite cause of discontent - they shouldn't be in the same country. (Like hutu's and tutsi's, Serbs and Croatians, Muslims and Hindus, Kurds in Iraq etc). As soon as a chance emerges they are at war with each other, settling old scores. We started it, to expand the empire i.e. for profit. And where did that wealth go to? Well to better the lives of the Victorian working class of course - I don't think.

Our glorious past is in reality a shameful past. I don't agree with terrorism (obviously) and I applaud any moves made to assist and stabilise countries where possible, but let's just remember that when the 'sun never set on the British Empire', it wasn't necessarily good for those in the colonies, or for vast majority in the UK either. The legacy of stately homes and gardens that we all love to visit, including myself, are really built upon foundations of slavery and forced exploitation of poor people from around the world.

end of pineapples.

K

And of course we can ignore the sanitation, health care, education etc that we brought to these countries as a by-product. There are two sides to every coin.

I do so agree. Slavery was not very nice but at least they all had access to the bidet and the NHS.