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UN Slavery Memorial Design Competition Launched
Voice of America ^ | September 30, 2001 | Joe DeCapua

Posted on 10/01/2011 9:20:40 AM PDT by Iron Munro

The United Nations Friday announced an international competition to design a memorial honoring the victims of slavery. It’s estimated that over 500 years, more than 18 million people were abducted from Africa and forced into slavery in the Americas, the Caribbean and Europe.

The sculpture will be located at U.N. headquarters in New York. Its official name is The Permanent Memorial at the United Nations in Honor of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

“The issue of slavery and the trans-Atlantic slave trade stands out still today as a crime against humanity - one of the first manifestations of man’s inhumanity to man,” said Ambassador Raymond Wolfe of Jamaica, chair of the memorial committee.

The memorial, he said, is not an attempt to dwell on the past.

“It is to bring the international community to acknowledge, to take note of what has been one of the worst chapters in human history is finally being acknowledged and honored here at the United Nations and what better place,” he said.

The memorial is expected to cost around $4.5 million dollars. An urgent appeal is being made to both the public and private sector to raise the needed funds.

Wolfe said, “Now we also understand that we are still experiencing a very severe global economic recession and ability of member states to contribute from government coffers is limited. But there are a number of countries which really have gotten us to where we are in terms of very significant contributions.”

UNESCO, the U.N. educational, scientific and cultural organization, is playing a major role in the creation of the memorial – including an education campaign. Philippe Kridelka, UNESCO’s U.N. representative, says,”In order to build peace in the minds of men and women, it’s important not to forget the tragedies of history,” such as the Holocaust and other events.

“That is why,” he said, “UNESCO has put the cell where Nelson Mandela was detained on Robben Island on the list of World Heritage of Sites mankind. That is now why with partner countries working on school programs on apartheid so that apartheid is never forgotten. That is why we’ve been working Ethiopia, Italy and the African Union so that the Obelisk of Axum in Ethiopia, which had been stolen during the colonial period, has been brought back to Ethiopia.

Efforts now begin to let designers around the world know that the Permanent Memorial Committee on Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade is now accepting their ideas.

The current timetable calls for the memorial to be completed by the end of 2013. It is not yet clear where on the U.N. grounds it will be located. The memorial will be erected under the theme: “Acknowledging the Tragedy; Considering the Legacy; Lest We Forget.”

Information about the design competition will be posted at www.unslaverymemorial.org


TOPICS: Foreign Affairs; Front Page News; Government; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: godsgravesglyphs; islamicslavery; islamicslavetrade; slavery; un
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"The sculpture will be located at U.N. headquarters in New York."

The U.N. has come up with another way to spit in our faces.

1 posted on 10/01/2011 9:20:46 AM PDT by Iron Munro
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To: Iron Munro

Slavery has only been in existance for 500 years? Who knew? /sarc


2 posted on 10/01/2011 9:24:04 AM PDT by Cowboy Bob (Greed + Envy = Liberalism)
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To: Iron Munro

No mention of the koranimals involvement with the slave trade or the modern day slavery going on in the ME anywhere in the article?


3 posted on 10/01/2011 9:26:53 AM PDT by bayouranger (The 1st victim of islam is the person who practices the lie.)
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To: Iron Munro

In keeping with the precedent set by the Flight 93 Memorial in Somerset, Pennsylvania, the UN Slavery Memorial will be in the shape of a noose.


4 posted on 10/01/2011 9:27:00 AM PDT by Erik Latranyi (Cain for President - Because I Like The Content of His Character!)
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To: Cowboy Bob

And again we get slapped in the face.
Why dont they devote a monument to slavery today Like what is going on in Muslim countries or China?
I guess they dont have the balls to piss off Muslims or Red Chinese.
If there was a true Conservative running for POTUS who promised that he would pull the US out of the UN if elected, He would get a crap load of support.


5 posted on 10/01/2011 9:27:21 AM PDT by Yorlik803 (better to die on your feet than live on your knees.)
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To: Iron Munro; wardaddy
That's right, folks, Evil White Men invented slavery 500 years ago.

And the only slaves worth remembering were the ones taken across the Atlantic. The far greater number taken across the deserts for thousands of years to be slaves of the Arabs just don't count. Their suffering doesn't matter, since it wasn't caused by Evil White Men.

Now, I shall pull on my hair shirt, and begin my self-flagellation.

6 posted on 10/01/2011 9:28:27 AM PDT by Travis McGee (www.EnemiesForeignAndDomestic.com)
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To: Iron Munro

Isn’t this kind of like building a memorial to AIDS, or the Black Plague?


7 posted on 10/01/2011 9:30:48 AM PDT by ConservativeChris
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To: Iron Munro; Cowboy Bob

The UN needs to recognize that slavery still exists in Middle Eastern and African nations but they never will, of course. They are loathe to interfere in tribal matters, you understand. There are many things that the UN needs to deal with in those regions but never will as long as the US is available for criticism. Dealing with the treatment of women would be good for starters.


8 posted on 10/01/2011 9:31:27 AM PDT by davisfh
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To: Iron Munro
I Win.


9 posted on 10/01/2011 9:32:07 AM PDT by UnbelievingScumOnTheOtherSide (REPEAL WASHINGTON! -- Islam Delenda Est! -- I Want Constantinople Back. -- Rumble thee forth.)
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To: Iron Munro
Who will fund this? sarc
10 posted on 10/01/2011 9:34:16 AM PDT by boomop1
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To: Iron Munro

I honestly don’t mind a slavery memorial or museum. Slavery was a scourge on the World and the United States for years and should be explored and memorialized. Having said that, I’m sure they will find a way to turn this into just another opportunity to attack the US.


11 posted on 10/01/2011 9:36:14 AM PDT by Opinionated Blowhard ("When the people find they can vote themselves money, that will herald the end of the republic.")
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To: Iron Munro

Reagan was so right to pull us out of UNESCO- we should have STAYED out.

What about all the other groups throughout history who were forced into slavery? What of the victims NOW? Will there be a distinction between those enslaved in America and those (the greater number) enslaved in the Caribbean and So America?

The UN sux!


12 posted on 10/01/2011 9:38:31 AM PDT by 13Sisters76 ("It is amazing how many people mistake a certain hip snideness for sophistication. " Thos. Sowell)
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To: Cowboy Bob

Abducted???? The Europeans were not allowed to go inland and capture their own slaves; they were stopped at the coast by the black tribes along the coast who were in the business of capturing and selling slaves. Slaves were abducted or bought from arab-muslim traders by the dominant black tribes and were sold for a handsome profit. Many of the tribes who dealt in slaves including der Fuehrer’s fathers Luo tribe are still in the business today. It was all about empowered black men running successful businesses; that is the real story to be told in any slavery memorial.


13 posted on 10/01/2011 9:41:48 AM PDT by RJS1950 (The democrats are the "enemies foreign and domestic" cited in the federal oath)
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To: Iron Munro
The sculpture will be located at U.N. headquarters in New York. Its official name is The Permanent Memorial at the United Nations in Honor of the Victims of Slavery and the Transatlantic Slave Trade.

As soon as it is erected, that would be a good time to hire some Muslim terrorists (whom the UN are so fond of) to blow the d@mn thing up!

This insult to their American hosts should NOT be allowed to soil our soil!!

After the "sculpture" is destroyed, we can invite the UN to get the h#ll off our property and take their dog and pony show to some third world haven they love so much!!

14 posted on 10/01/2011 9:43:45 AM PDT by DustyMoment (Congress - Another name for white collar criminals!!)
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To: Iron Munro
How about a monument to the current victims of slavery? Oh, right. It already exists.


15 posted on 10/01/2011 9:45:50 AM PDT by LostInBayport (When there are more people riding in the cart than there are pulling it, the cart stops moving...)
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To: Iron Munro

Once erected, it’ll be a good place to gather to protest slavery being actively conducted in our time.


16 posted on 10/01/2011 9:47:43 AM PDT by Steely Tom (Obama goes on long after the thrill of Obama is gone)
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To: Opinionated Blowhard

***I’m sure they will find a way to turn this into just another opportunity to attack the US.***

Wonder if they will honor the half million casulties during 1861-1865 who died getting rid of slavery?

Yes, I know slavery was just ONE issue in this conflict.

Great great Grandaddy fought on the losing side.


17 posted on 10/01/2011 9:52:32 AM PDT by Ruy Dias de Bivar (Click my name. See my home page, if you dare! NEW PHOTOS & PAINTINGS)
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To: Steely Tom

There are STILL thousands of slaves in Northwest Africa and in the Sudan.

I suppose those won’t be mentioned.

As well as slaves in many Islamic countries (Yes, Iraq, Saudi Arabia, etc.)

Nor will the slaves of the forced labor camps of the USSR,
China, East Europe, etc. (who fared generally worse
than the slaves brought across the Atlantic);

Nor will this monument likely mention slavery in Brazil (which was much worse than its North American cousin).


18 posted on 10/01/2011 9:52:57 AM PDT by CondorFlight (I)
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To: Iron Munro
Slavery was a good thing. If not for tribes (hundreds thousand years ago) attacking and taking slaves, they would have been killed. Those who lost in a tribal war were at least allowed to live, and many escaped. Many of the European slaves lived pretty good lives, were educated, and many freed.

If America had not allowed slavery, think how much worse off the Africans would be if still in Africa. If you look at African Americans GDP, it is higher than any country in Africa, and many western countries as well.

We know Islam still believes in Slavery and killing non-believers.

Just sayin

19 posted on 10/01/2011 9:56:19 AM PDT by stubernx98 (cranky, but reasonable)
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To: Iron Munro

Isn’t there still slavery in Sudan??

I’m sure this memorial will make that point very clear /s


20 posted on 10/01/2011 9:57:18 AM PDT by KosmicKitty (WARNING: Hormonally crazed woman ahead!!)
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