Over the past few years, I have read Mr. Chidiac's column, and often walk away angry. In his columns in the Citizen, he has expressed his own narrative with regards to history and more often than not it is the British to blame.
There is no denying that the British did many wrongs, but I would remind Mr. Chidiac that it was Great Britain and the Commonwealth that stood in the way of Adolf Hitler, leader of Fascist Germany, a Nazi tyrant, megolomaniac, and scourge in the modern world. Mr. Chidiac seems to revel in condemning the British for many things, but seems to not remember what Germany did twice in the last century
It is true that Britain was part of the slave trade. It is also true that they were the first to outlaw slavery, fight against slavery and that other nations we travel to as tourists, kept slavery intact until recently. It may be worth pointing out to him that today, there are roughly 40 million slaves in the world, a larger number than the population of Canada.
In Africa, it was Africans going back to Ancient Egypt that had slaves, it was Arabs later on in Africa, that developed a strong slave trade in Africa, one thousand years before the British set foot in Africa. The Romans, Huns, Macedonians, and Greeks invented the concept of conquest, genocide, and enslavement, yet we look at them as important history.
When the British stepped back from most countries in the last century, the vacuum was filled by national despots who created more genocide than during the Empire. They murdered and raped their own people and their nations. To point the finger at the English only ,when France, Spain, Portugal, Belgium, the Dutch, Japan, China, and Korea did the same for centuries and millennia is wrong and irresponsible.
Great Britain gave this magnificent country a great deal and helped save humanity in the Second World War. Maybe Mr. Chidiac should omit opinion and speak about history that is fair to all sides? If he cannot, maybe his offensive rants in the Citizen should end. Yes, I'm British and proud of it.
Michael Maslen
Prince George
