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Sorry State Of Affairs

Ted The Confessor sends his apology:
Shouldn't have given the Normans the nod.
Here is a telegram. Curse my theology,
Fire and brimstone, all the best, God.

O mea culpa say modern Italians:
Imperial phalanxes – vice, never valour.
Spain bows its head – all those gallows and galleons.
Here is a fax. It was my fault, says Allah.

New Chinese whispers, confessing what terrors
Were launched by their leaders from Ming through to Mao.
The Pope bows his head for his cardinal errors.
History's hangmen hang heads as they bow.

Being in love means you never say sorry:
Segal admits this was stupid to say.
Hunters pay homage to all of their quarry.
Men look to women; forgiveness, they pray.

The past offers field-days for shame, self-abasement.
Nations heal wounds with the humility's suture.
Mirrors reveal what the cruel old face meant.
But where's the apology sent to the future?

click here for article in The Times

Sorry State Of Affairs
“The Queen has to say sorry,” he said. “It was Elizabeth I. She commanded John Hawkins to take his ship.” – Toyin Agbetu, who interrupted a Westminster Abbey memorial service commemorating the two hundredth anniversary of slavery, attended by The Queen, Tony Blair and many other dignitaries. He was protesting against the absence of a public apology.
28 March 2007

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