PRIME Minister David Cameron’s visit to Jamaica may not have generated the publicity he was hoping for, but it was quite helpful in revealing his refusal to consider UK reparations to Jamaica for past involvement in slavery. Pity that, considering his own family’s benefit from slavery to the tune of £3 million payment for the loss of slaves.
Professor Geoff Palmer’s suggestion of developing a Scottish/Jamaica Project in the way the Scottish Government has developed links with Malawi, seems to me a very practical and positive idea ("Call for Scotland to atone for decades of slavery in Jamaica", The Herald, October 2).
Just as the links with Malawi had their roots in Empire and missionary activity, a similar Jamaica project could well develop educational and health links that could produce better long-term benefits, than a one-off payment to salve the uneasy conscience.
I also believe there is a case for considering the setting up a Scottish Slavery Museum that could include information about the many Scottish victims that were sentenced to years of indentured Labour in the Colonies in the 18/19th centuries.
This is not to diminish the horrors of the Jamaican slave plantations but to widen the parameters of that history. Liverpool has developed a marvellous museum about slavery that is always full of school children and tourists from all over the world.
It would be an opportunity to bring together exhibitions of some of the paintings and artefacts of the Glasgow merchants of the wealthy tobacco families, from Jamaican plantations, and mansions across Scotland that were built on the profits of slavery.
There are many ways to develop an anti-racist, diverse, multi-cultural, multi-faith Scotland. A project of this kind could add to this process by acknowledging these shadows from the past and developing a creative and positive narrative for our future.
Maggie Chetty,
36 Woodend Drive,
Glasgow.
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here