Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Abbas Beydoun: I would like to answer the next question which is: can one choose where to live, because I anticipated it. I would say that theoretically one has the right to choose freely where to live, but that is not happening practically. People are born in a country where they learn the language, grow up there and feel somehow that they are connected with this country. Language is main and essential thing in the culture of people, so it is not objective to talk about language being simple and changeable. That can be found out be reading poems and literature of the language. Another example is human being that has no belonging and does not own private thing. Is that good? Globalization tries to spread that, does not it? Some people believe that we should defend our names, culture and belonging because this is the essence of the diversity and without it we can not achieve the equality between the people.

by Abbas Beydoun

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Alvaro Restrepo: This question is difficult to answer as we do not know what would have happened. But possibly we would have permitted - the whole mankind would have allowed the different African cultures to prosper and thereby find their own ways of development. But somehow and for any reason which by now we have not been able to understand, Africa in some way has turned out to be a kind of penalized continent. I think that humanity is hugely and pricelessly indebted to Africa. The discrimination the black race has suffered from is one of the worst dishonours mankind has ever committed. I think that the countries that enslaved Africa have not cleared their debts yet and they never will. The circumstances we are nowadays witnessing in Spain with the arrival of all those immigrants who risk their lives in these fragile vessels in order to reach paradise, and searching for welfare and opportunities, is a proof that the misdeed committed on Africa was enormous. All the efforts done by the western world should be executed in order to help Africa to find its own way, a way of dignity and of development and thereby giving the western countries the opportunity to clear their debts, which are unaffordable in my opinion.

by Alvaro Restrepo

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Ana Lucy Bengochea: One of the human rights has to be the choice of the place where we live. To have liberty where we live. We like to live in the protected areas. We like to live in the habitat with a biodiversity but some powers want to influence us and they want to drive us out of the places where we lived mainly. They want to injure one of our rights of a functional habitat. The convention decree of 169 of the ILO(International Labour Organisation) that is about the right of the native people and their ancestral territories and this is being violated. ... to drive out the native people of their habitat to built big projects that are insulting. We should not allow this and we will fight for the claim of our ancestral rights.

by Ana Lucy Bengochea

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Andries Botha: Quite clear to me the world would be different. Perhaps America would be poorer. Perhaps I know America would be different. I know Africans would be different. Having slavery, genocide, [inaudible], whatever it is. If these things were never committed the world would be different. But this is academic. My question is rather, how could the world be better today despite the fact that the Africans were brought over to the Americas. Firstly, I think, race is the subtext of your question. About African-Americans, or Africans living in America, it’s quite clear to me that they feel that their lives have been lost somewhere, and they still - America has not really provided them with a labyrinth that embraces them. I think slavery - the world would have been in a far better shape. Psychically, emotionally, spiritually, if somehow we as a global world agreed that no human being can be in bondage. Certainly not in the manner in which Africans were brought over to the Americas to be used as economic units of labor. So the world would be in far better shape. Certainly America would be in better shape. And certainly Africa would be in better shape.

by Andries Botha

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Angaangaq Lyberth: I feel that the beauty would never have been seen for a long time. As bad as it was to enslave people the African people in North America brought joy to the eye of the spirits of many. I’m a Native and I knew long ago the arrival of the black ones, I just did not realize that they were going to be enslaved as I knew that the yellow rays would be arriving into my land. And I knew that the white man would be arriving and all the colors of the races would be coming together. I knew the hardship it would bring us through my stories I just did not know how bad it was until I lived it. So I cannot even try to imagine what would have happened if the black ones had not been enslaved and brought to the continent of the red man. No, I cannot imagine it. I do know the hardships. I can see it, I can feel it, I lived it for a long time. But imagine how boring it would have been to live in a country with no diversity. I pray to the Great One that he has enabled us to live together despite the hardships we have caused one another but seen the beauty within each of the races who now live together. For that I am grateful. I pray that tomorrow I will be better so that no hardship befall anyone of any race on Mother Earth. Did I answer your question? Let me know. Thank you.

by Angaangaq Lyberth

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Anthony Arnove: This is a tremendously important question because the reality is the US role in the world today is built on the foundation of slavery, is built on the foundation of exploitation and enslavement, and also of course is based on the dispossession and genocide of the native peoples of the Americas, who were conquered, as the United States was settled and as the United States was formed to the westward expansion, and of course also the expansion of the American empire through colonial conquest of its island possessions as well. The role of the United States as a world economic power today is inseparable from the economic gains that were made on the back of slave labor in the United States, which allowed the United States eventually to control its greatest economic power to suppress, to surpass and to exceed the powers of the previous great countries in the world economic system, leading countries in the world economic system, themselves of course benefited from exploitation and slavery, but not to the extent that the United States ultimately was able to adopt. And so, it really raises a very important counterfactual to the history of empire dispossession of slavery, to begin to think of this question and to think of the kind of political development that could have occurred in Africa and also the kind of development that would have occurred in the Americas, had slavery not taken place. The question of course also has to be generalized to the other countries that economically, materially benefited from slavery, and the list of course unfortunately is very, very long. So, a reckoning of that and accounting of that desperately needs to be done. And yet, we have never even begun to truly explore the reparations that would need to be paid, to truly explore the economic consequences, the political consequences of slavery in the world today and begin to try to address the outrageous wrongs that were committed that allowed new wrongs to be carried out on the basis of the power and wealth that was accumulated.

by Anthony Arnove

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Anuradha Koirala:

by Anuradha Koirala

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Anuradha Mittal: Well, I think the way we know slavery would have been very different if the Africans were not enslaved and brought to the Americas. But more important I would say the history of Africa would be very very different where families, communities would not have been torn apart. A continent would not have been ravished if this phenomenon of slavery had not happened in Africa. But at the same time, I would say that the way we know resistance also, we would not have known the way we know it today. We would not -- yeah, we would have a very very different world.

by Anuradha Mittal

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Ashok Gangadean: This question I think needs some commentary in terms of enslavement. And it’s a hypothetical, and we can interpret it in different ways. We could just take it as an historical contingency, all things being the same. It just turns out, let’s look at the world as a thought experiment if Africa [inaudible] like the word "the Africa." But if African people were not brought to America as slaves, everything else being the same and all kinds of oppressions and slavery and colonialization and imperialism continues, that world is not interesting and that question isn’t interesting. But the thought experiment is interesting, if we think what if we did not have the kind of colonial imperialistic culture of enslavement that would have brought any people, let’s say the people of Africa, into the Americas? What would that world have been? I’d like to think about that. The world in which there was not enslavement and self slavery. And that’s what’s interesting in this question. And so for me, the alternative model of reality in which this form of slavery never occurred and all kinds of slavery and imprisonment of people, and enslavement of people, and oppression of others didn’t happen, that would be a different world. And what kind of world will that be? I hope it’s the world that is coming and the world that has long been emerging painfully. A world of freedom, a world based upon global consciousness and compassion and care. Where we humanize one another rather than dehumanize one another. Starting with ourselves, because ego selves are slaves. We are in a slave mind and we enslave ourselves. And we are enslaved to our ideology. A free culture that is not based upon enslavement and in which there is based upon mutual care and respect. And the sacredness of all life that is a free culture. And that is a global culture. And a sustainable culture and a culture of humanity in which we also respect nature, and other creatures and another beings. That kind of awakened culture is a culture I think that we would have, if that world did not happen. That’s the way I’d like to see this question.

by Ashok Gangadean

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Audrey Kitagawa: The Africans who came over to the Americas were very instrumental in helping to build the Americas. And it is the contribution of their labor that actually helped to move the country and develop the country in ways that would not otherwise have been possible. So the growth, the development, that we have seen, in the Americas would certainly have been slow but for the tremendous contribution of the African people. The Americas would also have been deprived of the rich cultural, spiritual heritage that the Africans brought with them and have been an enduring testament to the power of the African people to preserve their culture in many environments, even though they were taken out of Africa under the most degrading, heinous conditions. So we have much to be grateful to the African people for, for the, their tremendous contributions from which we've all benefited.

by Audrey Kitagawa

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Benjamin Fahrer: How would the world be today if Africans were brought over to the America as people, with a culture and a heritage? If we brought the Africans over to America with their song, with their culture, with that sense of village, and connectivity, and connection with the man, with the mother -- Africa. If we brought that over to America in that context, what would that world be like today? Oh man, I make a lot of compost in the world and I saw this film with Africans making compost, so taking waste products and turning into a soil. And they had this song and the dance and it was beautiful, so beautiful. And even put in to slavery, the song and dance continued and turned into a resistance, into a movement that then rose up out of the suppression and suppression. America would be different today if they were brought over in a positive way as opposed to being stolen. But, we have what we have in America. It is unfortunate that they were enslaved, but it is fortunate that they have risen up and overcome. And have, still, a connection with their roots. We see it in the hip-hop culture so much in America. The roots of dance and song, movement and music, being enlivened in their appropriate context of today. America would be very different if we brought these people over in celebration instead of slavery. What would the world be like if we didn’t bring many cultures into slavery? Not just Africans to America. And how can we help those cultures overcome their suppression?

by Benjamin Fahrer

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Benson Venegas: This is a very interesting question. Rivers never turn back. So bad or good is decision in history, we can never turn back to change those decisions. What you can do is to look forward, try to understand the positive influence where changes built our history. And I think there's a legacy, positive legacy if Africans and some of these countries where they were pushed out of the continent and they went over other continents as slaves. Then a lot of these Africans become to be free in new continents, and they also were very important in constructing or building the societies and economies of their new countries. And I have to say this in the case of my country, where black people really give a lot of efforts and support to the building, the development of the country, in terms of the railroad, in terms of fishery, in terms of other aspects that's a very important [inaudible] that really give the country a legacy that, with the music, with the art, with the creations, and this is also part of a new synthesis in which our society are really bring in all this multicultural approach to continue as a unity to the future.

by Benson Venegas

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Bianca Jagger: Answertext will be available soon.

by Bianca Jagger

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Bill Joy: Well, slavery’s clearly a great abomination and unfortunately for most of history there was slavery in different parts of the world. I think in this particular case when you had slaves being made of a certain race it created a problem that we’ve had trouble getting past in America for a very long time. I think the economic system in the south of the United States was dependent on inexpensive labor. Crops like cotton and tobacco were very labor intensive. Perhaps those economic things would have changed, it wouldn’t have been economically possible perhaps to have the kind of tobacco farms. Maybe we wouldn’t have gone that way. And that probably would have been a good thing. A lot of people’s health have been clearly ruined by the consequences of tobacco. So I think the negative impact of slavery has had a long, for the slaves and for the people whose lives are poisoned by the racist attitudes they still hold is really saddening to me. I have real trouble with all of those attitudes. And I wish we could clearly imagine what it would have been like if this had never happened, if the people had come freely and find a way to reinvent and get ourselves to the point where we could live in the world that was like it would have been if the slaver had never been part of the equation. Maybe someone will write a great novel that will inspire us to a new attitude.

by Bill Joy

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Bora Cosic: Finally a question from a philosopher was asked. Beside all painful episodes thru which black population went on the way to the relative equality in American society, beside all victims of this innocent people, by the force of events there was a brake thru to the mixed society, a step towards a united word and colored world not only in sense of the skin colors. If Africans weren’t brought to America maybe something else would have happened, there world probably tends toward some kind of unity in the worlds metaphysical means. However it can not always achieve it without agony. If we look back at Napoleons wars which were very aggressive, where those good dressed soldiers occupied so many territories and poured so much blood, however along the way by the force of the events big areas were united, similarly to the peaceful unification of Europe which is slowly happening nowadays. There are strange events in history that even philosophers can’t explain.

by Bora Cosic

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Brian J. Weller: I guess the world would be very different. I find it really difficult to speculate on this question. I just don’t know. I really don’t know. My God, I don’t know. I mean if there hadn’t been slavery, and there still is slavery around the world, we’d certainly have a world which is probably more equitable. That would be an amazing thing. Because if you think of the incredible – out of this pain resulting from slavery and so on – I mean just think of the extraordinary beauty that our African brothers and sisters have brought certainly to the West and to America. I mean we wouldn’t have [taboos]. We wouldn’t have maybe rock and roll; all that incredible culture. Maybe that would have happened anyway without us having to enslave that beautiful people. I really don’t know.

by Brian J. Weller

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

Catherine David: We cannot change history but we could probably be a little bit more attentive concerning the consequences and the today’s question – once again – is not to reshuffle the cards and to take the Africans back to Africa. The Africans, the diaspo-africans are a little bit everywhere and I think what is much more current today, is to be aware of the injustice that has been done to these people and not in a way of flagellation because I do not think that this is very useful, neither for the diaspo-africans nor for others but it can lead to attitudes, to ways of behaviour, to treat the Africans, regarding history, a little bit fairer and honourable.

by Catherine David

Sep 9, 2006 1:25:00 PM cite

China Keitetsi: I think that we as a world would have missed a lot of knowledge, because today the world - the entire world - have learned so much from African American and also I personally learned that African are very strong people. Because these people, the way they were brought chained, humiliated, put down, spit at, made to believe that they were nothing, they were worth nothing, and yet they brought this music to the world. Yet they didn't give up. Some became professors; some became powerful men of our time. I'm very impressed to have learned that you can learn a lot from being oppressed, from humiliation, from unwanted eyes. And yet some of these people who faced violence because have read a few books how they were treated, and yet, for example, Martin Luther King, he left the world with a legacy, not only African American, but the entire world, his words. I’m sure some have used them to do good. But also I feel sad that that had to happen; to be broken away from where their souls, where everything lies. Men who left their relatives. Men who are separated forever from everything they knew as little boys, as little girls; and yet survived and taught us to do good.

by China Keitetsi