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March 29, 2004
F**king Lawyers
While I sympathise with the descendants of slaves, and would never condone slavery, I can't help thinking that taking legal action against Lloyds of London for insuring the slave ships is going to prove mightily counter-productive to all concerned, apart from the lawyers themselves. Take a look at some of the leading lawyer Edward Fagan's comments on the matter...Lloyd's was one of the spokes in a hub-and-spoke conspiracy.
Conspiracy eh? Well, at the time slavery was considered a legitimate business, so to call the slave trade a conspiracy is an attempt to make it sound even more sinister.
Lloyd's knew what they were doing led to the destruction of indigenous populations.
I'd love to the evidence supporting this claim.
They took people, put them on board ships and wiped out their identities.
Now hey, I know insurers aren't perceived as being the nicest bunch on the planet, but I think Mr Fagan is confusing the roles here. Lloyds were in the business of insuring ships rather than being directly involved in the actual trade itself.
There's ongoing injuries that these people suffer from.
Can't argue with that.
Why is it too far fetched to say blacks should be entitled to compensation for damages and genocide committed against them, when every other group in the world that has been victimised in this way has been?
Well, for starters I think the main objection is to his chosen target. And there are plenty of other groups that have not recieved compensation. How about all the Saxons who suffered at the hands of the Normans. Should we now sue the French government? Or more recently, how about the British PoWs captured by the Japanese in WWII?
I suspect that Edward Fagan's action is more motivated by desire for celebrity, notoriety and financial reward than righting injustices. If he was truly concerned with bringing to account those responsible then his first action should be against the governments of those nations for whom slavery was a legal activity. Or even the inheritors to the slave trading companies. How about the companies that built the slave ships? The iron foundries where the shackles and chains were made? The chandlers that supplied the ships; the gunsmiths that manufactured the slavers weapons; etc, etc. The list is endless, and in going after Lloyds, Fagan is copping out and taking the soft option - picking on the only large business involved (no matter how slight) in slave-trade related activity and still extant with coffers worth plundering.
Perhaps the victims of terrorist bombings should sue the explosives manufacturers. Or the families of people killed in hit-and-run incidents sue the car manufacturers.
Slavery is evil, an activity that cannot be condoned and the descendants of slaves have to live with the legacy of the slave trade every day of their lives. However, responsibility needs to be accepted at a national level, not at a corporate level. If we are going to condemn those companies involved in the slave trade, then we should look first to those governments which considered it to be a legitimate, legal activity. But this search for financial compensation will just draw attention away from the real issues, the real injustices and may well result in the genuine victims simply being branded as money grabber.
And if previous actions against Lloyds are anything to go by, then they'll end up with nothing anyway, and the only winner will be Edward Fagan.
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Posted by Clive on March 29, 2004 5:49 PM in the category Old Stuff