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Originally Posted by gurkharifles
So its sad that a generation that doesn't read beyond the Headlines will now believe that the CWGC is "institutionally racist" - when nothing could be further from the truth.
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I've just read the Executive Summary of the report and one paragraph stood out :
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Most of these men were commemorated by memorials that did not carry their names – in part because the IWGC was never furnished with their names or places of burial by the military or colonial authorities, in part because it chose to diverge from its principles in the belief that the communities these men came from would not recognise or value such individual forms of commemoration.
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So , the IWGC is being blamed because information was not passed on to them !
Also , many nationalites/religions did not routinely mark graves (this still applies today) and the IWGC was (perhaps mistakenly) trying to repect their cultural beliefs.
Yet the governor of a British colony is accused of making "racist comments" for stating this.
The problem today is that if you do not agree 100% with certain opinions you are branded a racist or an apologist for past events.
Britains involvement in the slave trade was wrong (by todays standards) but slavery has existed in Africa for thousands of years . Who built the pyramids ?
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Slavery has historically been widespread in Africa. Systems of servitude and slavery were common in parts of Africa in ancient times.
When the trans-Saharan slave trade, Indian Ocean slave trade and Atlantic slave trade (which started in the 16th century) began, many of the pre-existing local African slave systems began supplying captives for slave markets outside Africa.
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The CWGC were (and are still) doing great and worthy work and their reputation does not deserve to be tarnished .
Edit : Just been reported that the Government has also now issued an apology !
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