“What piece of work is a man, how noble in reason, how infinite in faculties, in form and moving, how express and admirable in action, how like an angel in apprehension, how like a god! The beauty of the world. The paragon of animals. And yet, to me, what is this quintessence of dust?”
Hamlet: Act 2, scene 2
Shakespeare’s bitter irony in describing man as an “angel” and “like a god” is one of the most profound statements on humanity ever written. Immediately after describing man in such heroic terms, he observes that, to him, “what is this quintessence of dust?” Man may be godlike in some ways, but in the end, he is no more than the dust to which he will return after death.
In Michael Shaara’s The Killer Angels, considered the best novel written about the Civil War and the basis for the majestic film Gettysburg, Colonel Joshua Chamberlain, reflecting on the costs of the war, repeats that Shakespeare soliloquy in tones of awe.
His hard-bitten fictitious Irish immigrant sergeant, Buster Kilrean, shakes his head at his colonel, saying, “Well, if he’s an angel, all right then… But he damn well must be a killer angel.”
I doubt very much if more than a baker’s dozen of delegates to the United Nations General Assembly ever read Hamlet or thought much about the duality of man. That much was obvious when the Assembly voted 123-3 to declare that the transatlantic slave trade was “The Gravest Crime Against Humanity” in history.
The United States, Israel, and Argentina were the “no” votes.
There are numerous examples in the historical record (and evidence before written history) of man’s utter disregard for the humanity of others. Adolf Hitler ordered the death of six million Jews and three million other “undesirables.” Josef Stalin deliberately starved 90 million Ukrainians to end private property rights and destroy significant opposition to him. Mao Zedong was directly responsible for at least 40 million deaths, and his idiotic “Great Leap Forward” killed another 80 million.
The naming of the transatlantic slave trade as the single worst crime against humanity is nothing more than a cynical ploy to shame rich nations into giving money to poor nations.
“Let it be recorded that when history beckoned, we did what was right for the memory of the millions who suffered the indignity of the slave trade and those who continue to suffer racial discrimination,” Ghana’s President John Mahama told the assembly ahead of the vote.
“The adoption of this resolution serves as a safeguard against forgetting. It also challenges the enduring scars of slavery,” he said.
I giggled a bit when Mahama said the vote was “a safeguard against forgetting.” It’s impossible for anyone in the Western world who isn’t in a coma to “forget” slavery. The foul deed is drummed into us as children. Our politics is besotted with references to it. Demands for “apologies” and money to the “victims” of slavery are only growing.
Slavery was America’s “original sin,” but not because the practice wasn’t widespread in the West, in Africa, in Asia, and anywhere human beings settled. We were a nation founded as “The New World,” and bringing the scourge of slavery to these pristine shores sullied them forever.
More than 600,000 Americans died to end it, which should be apology enough for anyone.
Great Britain’s ambassador to the UN, James Kariuki, told the assembly in his speech “that the resolution was problematic in terms of its wording and international law,” according to the BBC.
“No single set of atrocities should be regarded as more or less significant than another,” he said.
Yes, but then the UN peacocks couldn’t spread their tail feathers, puff out their chests, and demand “reparations.” This was made clear by Ghana’s foreign minister.
Earlier, his foreign minister, Samuel Okudzeto Ablakwa, told the BBC’s Newsday programme: “We are demanding compensation – and let us be clear, African leaders are not asking for money for themselves.
“We want justice for the victims and causes to be supported, educational and endowment funds, skills training funds.”
The campaign for reparations has gained significant momentum in recent years – “reparatory justice” was the African Union’s official theme for 2025 and Commonwealth leaders have jointly called for dialogue on the matter.
Ablakwa also said that, with the resolution, Ghana was not ranking its pain above anyone else’s, but simply documenting a historical fact.
In his speech explaining the United States’ “no” vote on the resolution, Ambassador to the United Nations Economic and Social Council, Dan Negrea, said that the United States “does not recognise a legal right to reparations for historical wrongs that were not illegal under international law at the time they occurred.”
In addition, Negrea said the US objected to the “cynical usage of historical wrongs as a leverage point to reallocate modern resources to people and nations who are distantly related to the historical victims.”
As well as the “legal problems” around reparations, the US ambassador said the resolution was unclear as “to whom the recipients of ‘reparatory justice’ would be”.
Negrea also responded to Mahama’s earlier criticism of Donald Trump’s administration for “normalising the erasure of black history”.
Since returning to power, the US president has targeted American cultural and historical institutions for promoting what he calls “anti-American ideology”.
Trump’s orders have led to moves such as the restoration of Confederate statues and an attempt to dismantle a slavery exhibit in Philadelphia.
The statues were not removed after careful consideration of the issues involved. They were torn down by mobs. That alone is a good reason to resurrect them.
The cynicism of this move by Africans is breathtaking. There was nothing in any African’s speech about several tribes cooperating with Arab slavers in capturing people and then profiting from the evil business.
Apologies and reparations will happen in the United States. There will be a battle royale to determine who gets how much, but it’s going to happen. Not enough people care either way, and those who are committed to the reparations project will see it through to the end.
Your children and grandchildren will be tagged with being accomplices in the “Gravest Crime Against Humanity” in history.
Related: Trump Uncancels Christopher Columbus
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