Accidental Blogger

It is always gratifying when a powerful entity apologize to a weaker one for past wrongs.  It doesn’t happen often. The US government has paid reparations for the internment of Japanese Americans during WWII and issued apologies for the infamous Tuskegee Study, but not for the plight of Native Americans or for slavery. Japan refuses to this day, to express regrets for the mistreatment of other Asian nations during its war mongering in the 1930s and 40s. The Norwegian government faced lawsuits and offered limited compensation to its Lebensborn children of Norwegian mothers and German fathers who were mistreated by their own countrymen for their ancestry but it still refused to take the blame. Now the Canadian government has admitted that for a long period of time Canadian Indian children were forcibly separated from their families and deprived of their own culture, making them victims of widespread abuse. The draconian steps were designed in order to assimilate indigenous populations into mainstream (European) Canadian society.  Canada’s prime minister has formally apologized to Canadian Indians for the past mistreatment meted out to their children and for tearing apart families. (Recently, a similar apology came from Australian prime minister Kevin Rudd for the emotional, physical and cultural havoc that was wreaked on aboriginal communities of Australia by government sponsored humiliation and abuse disguised as "civilizing measures").

OTTAWA – Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper apologized Wednesday to the nation’s Indians for "a sad chapter in our history," acknowledging the physical abuses and cultural damage they suffered during a century of forced assimilation at residential schools.

"Today, we recognize that this policy of assimilation was wrong, has caused great harm, and has no place in our country," he said to applause.

A group of 11 aboriginal leaders and former students sat before Harper in a circle in the House of Commons, some weeping as the prime minister delivered the government’s first formal apology to them. In the crowded, expectant chamber, Harper bowed his head as he read a carefully crafted speech, asking for forgiveness for separating children from their families and cultures, exposing the students to abuse, and sowing the seeds for generations of problems.

"The government now recognizes that the consequences of the Indian residential schools policy were profoundly negative and that this policy has had a lasting and damaging impact on aboriginal culture, heritage and language," Harper said.

The apology was billed by the government as a chance to redress a dark chapter in Canadian history and to move forward in reconciliation.

Over more than a century, about 150,000 native Canadian children were sent to boarding schools run by churches and the government to "civilize and Christianize" them. Expressions of native heritage were outlawed, many children suffered sexual and psychological abuse, and grew up with neither traditional roots nor mainstream footing, their ties to family and community unraveled.

Assembly of First Nations National Chief Phil Fontaine, wearing a feather headdress, took the floor to declare that the occasion "testifies nothing less than the accomplishment of the impossible." In 1990, he was one of the first to come forward with his story of abuse and push for an apology. "Finally, we heard Canada say it is sorry."

The deposed king of Nepal, Gyanendra, has moved out of the palace in the capital Kathmandu where his family lived for more than a century…..

…..A police and army escort followed the ex-monarch’s car as he left for Nagarjun, in the north-western suburbs of Kathmandu.

The couple will live in a large, comfortable but ordinary-looking house there.

A few loyalist onlookers called for Gyanendra to stay on as his car left but many in the crowd near the palace seemed happy to see him go, correspondents say.

"This marks the beginning of a new Nepal and the end of a dynasty that has done nothing but harm this country," Devendra Maharjan, a farmer who had come to Kathmandu to see the king leave the palace, told The Associated Press.

"If it had not been for the kings, Nepal would probably not have remained a poor nation."

Giving an unprecedented news conference at the palace earlier, the former monarch said he had given his priceless crown to the Nepalese government for its protection.

"I have no intention or thoughts to leave the country," Gyanendra said. "I have assisted in and respected the verdict of the people."