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Europe
Sarkozy tells Algeria: No apology for the past
2007-07-11
French President Nicolas Sarkozy, due to start a one day visit to Algeria on Tuesday, defended his refusal to apologise for colonial misdeeds saying leaders should focus on the future and not “beat their breasts”. Algeria, France’s largest trading partner in Africa but also its touchiest former overseas possession, has long demanded that France apologise for killings during 132 years of colonial rule which ended with independence in 1962 after an eight year war.

Sarkozy, reiterating a long-held position, told Algeria’s El Watan and El Khabar newspapers: “Young people on either side of the Mediterranean are looking to the future more than the past and what they want are concrete things.” “They’re not waiting for their leaders to simply drop everything and start mortifying themselves, or to beat their breasts, over the mistakes of the past because, in that case, there’d be lots to do on both sides.” Sarkozy is due to arrive at about 1000 GMT on his first visit outside Europe since his election to the presidency in May. The Maghreb, a zone of French commercial influence, is traditionally the first destination outside Europe for newly elected French presidents.
Posted by:Fred

#9  JFM has it down perfectly. The Algerians are scumbag liars who can't be trusted any further than one can throw their country. Look at how well they kept their end of the Evian Agreements for proof.
Posted by: Mac   2007-07-11 20:17  

#8  JFM - hold on, surely if Psarko grovels enough, Abu Qatada & the GSPC will "make friends, shake friends, never break friends again" too?

Everybody just needs to be more sorry.

And more Islamic.
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar   2007-07-11 13:17  

#7  I disagree wholeheartedly. Nobody can move on until the sins of the past have been fully expiated through confession. Forgiveness follows repentance. Sarkozy should offer Algeria a full and unconditional apology and institute reparations for the destruction of Algiers and should immediately bulldoze all of the hideous colonialist architectural phallusses they built.


...right after Algeria apologises for hundreds of years of piracy, naval terrorism, for enslaving tens or hundreds of thousands of white europeans in the European slave trade and for slapping the French Consul in the face with a fly whisk.
Posted by: Admiral Allan Ackbar   2007-07-11 13:12  

#6  Mr Steve White

Frnace invaded Algeria because she was tired of centuries of Islamic piratry. So in case there apologies to be given let start with the Algerians.
Posted by: JFM   2007-07-11 12:59  

#5  Go google the Monty Python bit. Of course the Romans did the stuff for themselves as well. However, in the greater perspective, after the initial incorporation, the locals generally benefited too. Notice that when the Romans disappeared the period that followed was known as the 'Dark Ages'. Things can be worse. And it has in Africa. All the natives have shown is that they can be even more exploitive and destructive than the former Euros. There is no perfect. And the demand for perfection results, as amply demonstrated, more hardship and lower life expediency for the majority of the people, while other parts of the world are actually evolving forward.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-07-11 12:28  

#4  colonial misdeeds

Let's not get to carried away here. Yes, the Euros built roads, sewers, hospitals, etc., in their colonies.

Mostly for themselves and their own ability to exploit the colonies.

Let's not have rose-tinted glasses. The imperial powers treated the colonies and their inhaibitants poorly (at best). They exploited the natural resources for themselves and generally played the population off against each other to keep them under control.

And now after all that, the French, who were not the nicest imperialists, are telling their former vassals to 'look forward'.

That's not going to go over well, I predict.

Don't get me wrong, it's the right message.

But the wrong messenger.
Posted by: Steve White   2007-07-11 11:06  

#3  colonial misdeeds

Which include sewers, electricity, hospitals, etc [insert Monty Python 'Life of Brian' routine on "What have the Romans ever done for us?"]. It's not like the rest of Africa has grasped the future and shown skills and abilities to wrench its existence to catch up with the developed world much in the past forty years on their own. More like driving over a cliff. Its enough to actually give old fashion Euro colonialism a good name. What a match. Thinking about it, the snobbish paternalistic self important class conscious EU bureaucrat weenie in charge, as they desperately want to be, are just a bunch of wantabe old school African colonial administrators. When someone figures it out, maybe the Euros will save themselves and Africa by merging the lot of them again. It fits. Now drop the guilt routine and make everyone's life better.
Posted by: Procopius2k   2007-07-11 10:49  

#2  I like this guy. He has some large cajunes. It is a "clear" message.
Posted by: JohnQC   2007-07-11 09:27  

#1  This is a very important concept to get across in much of the potentially good Muslim world (as opposed to the majority of the Muslim world), that they should pay far more attention to the future than the past.
Posted by: Anonymoose   2007-07-11 09:08  

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