
Saint-Barthélemy 1784
a look at how incredibly far we have come in merely 230 years
230 years ago, the world was rife with profit-hungry entrepreneurs and the seven seas and all their shores lay open for the ambitious. The beggars and pirates, the warlords, priests, lords. Merchants, peasants, and kings, they all laid to waste and took with all their might.
Yes, I know. By now you are thinking, well, dear Mike, is that at all any different from now?
And in some ways, no, you are so absolutely right dear reader. In some ways, not much have changed. But gladly, the world is for all its remaining faults a far better and kinder place to live in today.
What is that?
You don't believe me and prefer to view the ancient past with rose tinted and romantic forget me not glasses? That is perfectly ok. But if you walk with me for a brief few moments I will help you see the world for what it is.
We still have the religious fanatics and selfish minded ones that refuse to acknowledge the importance of maintaining a healthy and equal and fulfilling life on Earth for all its citizens.
That is absolutely true.
We still have political leaders tucking their heads in a greedy pot hole down by the beach. People that should be governing the world, yet they spend their time banning intelligent and responsible conversations about climate change and science. And yes, we still have warlords and national leaders, slavery still exists, and industries that take with all the might the law and their financial influence will give them is abundant, probably matching the amount of grain you can find on the black shore of Hawaii.
But we are also living in a world where women vote, not everywhere, but in most of the world.
A world where men of all colors are equals, where people of all genders can marry whomever they wish.
We live in a world where the influence of planet destroying enterprises such as Exxon is diminishing.
And while slavery sadly still exists, it is just like the oil industry, a relic of the past that no one sane actually think is entitled to continually drag its ugly feet around.
So yes, the world have slowly grown a healthy conscious and just mind, and slowly the world is growing more responsible and equal and real, just not yet without its obvious to all speed bumps and beauty spots.
But for now, let us take a walk through 1784, back to the year that the land of Vikings laid claim to a beautiful little island called Saint-Barthelemy that soon would be a global central point of evil and deranged profiteering of inhuman views and slavery.
Kings and Priests - profit was their creed
Carl Adolf Carlsson, The Swedish island vicar, considered by his peers as a good and wonderful Christian leader of his flock had the following to say about the African slaves of that time ”negern sådan jag i Västindien haft tillfälle att observera honom är knappt till hälften människa, resten är apa och tiger.”
"Till och med djur skyr dem, negrer kan därför utan problem bada i hajrika vatten.”
Which when translated into English reads like this "The negro, as I have witnessed in west India, is barely half a human, and the remaining parts is surely all ape and tiger. Even animals stay clear and the negro can therefore without problems swim in shark infested waters".
And keep in mind that this was a prominent leader of the church and good Christian people.
Meanwhile, back in Sweden, the ruling king had made sure to collect his 25 percent of the profit that the island and its slave trade would generate.
Now, in all honesty, while the island was an important part of the global Slave trade between America and Africa, Sweden itself only shipped about 0.14% of the unfortunate people that ended up being trafficked to America during more than 34 941 shipments. But that was of course 0.14% that should never have happened, just as how no one should, today, invest in bad health, inequality, and fossil fuel. Nor should anyone be excused for making money on others misery.
Slaves were, however, expensive to own.
But like virtually all property today can be rented, so could yesterday's abused slaves. And on that gorgeous island,it would cost you as little as 8 daler to rent a slave for a full month. Sort of like going to the hairdresser once a month.
Other inhuman aspects of life, 200+ years ago were that slaves could be burned, whipped, hanged and killed for pretty much anything that their rental owners decided.
Yes, there where rules and law, of course, that dictated how to treat a slave, good upstanding citizens need the guidance of rule and law after all.
And as such, those caring laws included that a pregnant slave woman had to lay face down on top of a hole in the ground when she was whipped as punishment. Not at all to protect her own health in any way, but to protect the unborn child, since the child, after all, was the future property of the slave owner as soon as it was conceived. And as such, it had to be protected from its own mother's guiding punishment and wicked ways.
The Swedish botanic Bengt Euphrasén once described the process of whipping a slave in graphic detail.
”Varje slag smäller som ett pistolskott och stora skinn- samt köttstycken följa ofta med från kroppen.”
In English:
"Every lash of the whip sounded as if a pistol had been fired, and it would often result in big chunks of flesh and skin and blood flying off the body".
The slavery on the island was put to an end, when Sweden, as the last of the European countries ended slavery in west India 9 October 1847. The remaining 523 slaves on the island at that point in time were paid for by the Swedish state so the poor slave owners would be properly compensated for their unfortunate loss of income. The youngest slave, named Rosalie, was but 20 days old, but she still generated 19 daler for her owner.
Today, slavery has thankfully been put to an end in most of the world ( even tho some countries, like India still have millions of slaves, and others, like Saudi Arabia, are choosing to treat the entire female gender as something far less deserving than the male population ).
But as I write that, even if there were no slaves and no gender inequality, I, like many others would want to make the argument that underpaid and or unemployed people are today's corporate and national slaves, paying for their greedy national and corporate masters profit with their own health and lack of fulfilling lives.
And while it is not directly comparable, it too of course needs to change.
But for now, we can all at least find comfort in knowing that as slow as the wheel of time keeps turning, the world somehow does grow more intelligent and caring by each day that pass us by. All while we should of course, also not forget the 45.8 million people who still ( as of 2016 ) finds themselves trapped as victims in some form of modern slavery in 167 countries around the globe, they, like you and I, deserve much more.
music of the day while you are reading our article
Towering clouds over the fields of Carnuntum by Bornholm
The Mouse In our Wall
We play in the snow, under the shooting star
Told to you, as I once told, a mind and girly soul, so beautiful.
Inside the walls of our homes, and lives. There are Undraped windows through which we see both in and out, and at night I look out and up with you.
A shooting star stirs and moves the northern lights. Like a spoon through water, it moves before our eyes. Clear as day yet slightly obfuscated through the sheets of glass, the world is silent and it could be a dream as I witness the star cut through the puffy clouds.
And at night.
Some other times, there we are, walking through life's small moments and we are holding hands.
Together, we stand outside having walked amongst the falling leafs and the subtle snow.
Rain or sunshine matters not.
Looking in, through the of night, all chilly frosty glass, the burning lamps the pleasant light and warmth that moves and lives inside.
Is it empty we ask out loud, or is there someone looking out? Back at us. Do they hear our silent minds, can they feel our burning soul and warming hands.
In between these two sides. Neither looking in or out. Or perhaps, they do them both all the time.
There live a gnarly little furry mice that move about with his love and all their friends.
At night, you can hear them talk and hug it out. They move, play and dart around, inside and outside the walls that people build. Sometimes they walk our floors, sitting near, our sleeping faces.
We kiss and make a cute little snowy angel. Your arms whisp around and I kiss your pretty lips, yet again.
And right there. In the corner of my eye. I swear the little mice sits right nearby. Looking out at us as we hug it out.
And perhaps he too thinks the very same. Looking out and about, at us and all the shooting stars.
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