I, Eroteme, wish to apologise for my children (still unconceived) who might bring difficulties to your life. I realise that they may trip you or your children, or your children's best friends while one or more of you were traipsing down the alley. I take full responsibility for the candy they might steal from the shop (thereby causing an irrecoverable loss of Rs. 2 or - if we take inflation into account - Rs. 20 to the shopkeeper's family). I suppose they would grow to be artists - and will hence offend your tastes - or techies - and will either introduce bugs in your product or mix vials of the wrong concoctions while preparing your medicine. Hence, I would like to apologise for that. My daughter is most likely going to break at least a few dozen hearts and I would like to apologise for her lack of faith in polyandry. If my son does the same, I am sorry that he couldn't respect your daughter's (or son's, in case my son is homosexual) lack of faith in polygamy. Do pardon them as I have not raised them well. I would also like to apologise for any evasion of tax that they might indulge in as well as for the tax that they paid which helped that country fund a war or the renovation of the presidential suites. I would like to apologise for the vehicles they bought instead of getting onto a cycle and refusing to participate in the fight against global warming. I am sorry that my son - were he to be half like me - will consume more food per day than three fourth of what Somalia does. I apologise for my daughter voicing her opinion against the government (she is quite likely to do that). Last but not the least, I would like to apologise for any SMSese or grammatical mistakes that they might allow to pass in their written communication. That might be the only event that might make me conduct a DNA test. In case the test does confirm them to be my children, I would like to apologise to them and all true children of their assigned parents.
I suppose it makes sense to apologise for something in the future which we might actually cause. than for something that happened a few centuries ago. How I laughed when I read this! I actually had to create a new tag for this post. How stupid can someone get when they accept responsibility for something that one hasn't even witnessed; even the people whom this Mayor represents have not witnessed it? No one living has witnessed it let alone participated in it. What are they apologising for? Why on earth did we have a whole drama of tears and the "two pauses"? And to think that people actually fell for it and consider it a noble act. How stupid can people get?
It is like the whole caste based politics that happen in India. A person who wants to study medicine/engineering should be first capable of doing so. The govt. can pay their fees or help prepare them through specially designed classes/tuitions, but allowing people of lower calibre to enroll is stupid and defeats the purpose of education. Why not directly give them a degree? Why should the present generation pay for something that a few people did in the previous generations? Why should the present generation apologise for anything that the previous generations did? If we are going to use the argument of building our worth and edge based on the advantages that our previous generations have accrued for themselves and hence, for us, then we can keep extending it back to our caveman days and resolve matters with brilliant stupidity.
Every generation has its grabbers and losers. What we need to learn from history is how not to continue with any form of exploitation or any act of depriving another human being or living entity (animals and plants included) of the right to their space on this earth (well, weeds are exempt). Foolish indulgence in self-aggrandisation or self-pity is just that: foolish. If people can't move on and live their life anew, then they really need psychiatric help and not Hallmark cards and apologies. Probably they should approach the govt. to provide the means (time, money, guidance, etc.) to accomplish what they want to do. How will an apology and the related drama help if nothing changes after the speech? How on earth, pray tell me, will having an Annual National Slavery Memorial Day help? So we all gather around in a park and talk about what happened 200+ years ago and then? What? What do we plan to do?
Stupid human beings!
