Gravest Crime Against Humanity?

[Beebo]

What has been histories gravest crime?

The UN have voted the transatlantic slave trade as the Gravest Crime.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rxqng5pyno

Have the UN not got anything better to do at the moment?

The slave trade wasn’t one crime involving one country, it was an economic model of business undertaken by many countries and individuals throughout history.

In terms of actual crimes, you would think the Nazis or Stalin have been pretty high up there. What about the Mongolian hoards, the Vikings or the Chinese and Cambodian communists?

How about all the other historical slave trades? It just seems a bit to simplistic to pick on the transatlantic slave trade.

 

[AuroraSaab]

I'm guessing they deliberately chose to exclude genocide or genocidal attempts or political deaths, eg 60 million under Chairman Mao. Choosing the Atlantic slave trade avoids singling out other individual countries and reflects the UN's western focus. The UN seem pretty useless to me, these days anyway. Just another organisation that lines the pockets of its high up employees with not much benefit to the disadvantaged in the world.

 

[Ian H]

While it's invidious to attempt to rank atrocities, it's difficult to disagree with the UN's choice, given the sheer scale of slave-trading across the Atlantic, the inhumanity of the transportation by ship, the brutality of lifelong enslavement, and - not least - the lasting effects on US society which persist even today. The evils of slavery didn't cease with its abolition.

 

[Dorset Boy]

One of the early crusades didn't get out of eastern Europe, they were enjoying killing the jewish population too much,
Then there are the atrocities mentioned above which were awful.
Slavery has existed for thousands of years so unfair to single out one part of it

 

[Psamathe]

I agree with the questionable ranking of atrocities as being always open to question and as to how useful it is.

But one factor must be knowledge that what is being done is wrong, an atrocity. When people knowingly commit or contribute to or fail to prevent or even fail to condemn atrocities being committed.

In some respects, knowingly committing or contributing to an atrocity in full knowledge that what is being done is an atrocity must be in some respects worse than when those involved do not have the knowledge available highlighting the actions as an atrocity.

 

[spen666]

What does it benefit anyone or any group to rank historical atrocities?

By their very nature all atrocities are wrong. We should / must acknowledge the atrocities that have taken place and do all we can to prevent them ever happening again
Not sure saying some atrocity was worse than another benefits anyone. Are we saying this atrocity isn't important because it only ranked lowly in some subjective league table

 

[TailWindHome]

The Jon Bon Jovi cover of Fairytale of New York.

 

[Beebo]

The Jon Bon Jovi cover of Fairytale of New York.

It does make you realise that Shane had a good strong voice.

Same with the Springsteen cover of rainy night in soho. Although that is a passable version.

 

[TailWindHome]

It does make you realise that Shane had a good strong voice.

Never sure which is the worst part; singing both parts himself, the mock Boston-Irish accent or the rewrite of the lyricals.

 

[ebikeerwidnes]

What has been histories gravest crime?

The UN have voted the transatlantic slave trade as the Gravest Crime.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/c0rxqng5pyno

Have the UN not got anything better to do at the moment?

The slave trade wasn’t one crime involving one country, it was an economic model of business undertaken by many countries and individuals throughout history.

In terms of actual crimes, you would think the Nazis or Stalin have been pretty high up there. What about the Mongolian hoards, the Vikings or the Chinese and Cambodian communists?

How about all the other historical slave trades? It just seems a bit to simplistic to pick on the transatlantic slave trade.

It was clearly bad - pretty much as bad as it gets

but was it worse than the slave trade from the same sort of areas to the North
not many people survive related directly because all the men were castrated - only some survived obviously
but as a result the only babies from it were from female slaves to Arab fathers (using a purely biological definition of father)

or other slave trades in other parts of the world that were just as bad but are not mentioned

 

[stephec]

Do you think it's going to be the next version of Top Trumps?