The Clearances

[###KILTEDKIWI###]

Right ok then, I have purchased through a local Uni', a copy of (for my own continuing education)

Lands for the People?
The Highland Clearances and the Colonisation of New Zealand
A biography of John McKenzie, by Tom Brooking.

And from the back of the book.

"...Tom Brooking traces McKenzies background as a child who witnessed the highland clearances, and as an immigrant of modest means who believed strongly in the right of ordinary people to own land. He points to the paradox that his legislation advanced the process by which Maori were dispossed of their lands..."

Hhmmm, this sounds like my above post...funny that.

But on a side note, obviously MAc' Rath' was upset by my comment, and deleted his post, if you would like to continue this discusiion in private please feel free to PM me, and I assure you it will be an open and honest converstaion between us.

Phil C

[Bruno]

One thing I do know for certain is that no one living now has any right to judge historical people and their actions. The fact is the world is a very different place every 50 years changes thing immensely.

What our grand parents held as the norm (racism was institutionalised as was sexism, homosexuals were locked up and or chemically castrated etc) we would find terrible. What we hold as the norm now, one day will be judged by others.

Its easy to sit here in our ivory towers and judge the clearances, but they were different times with different values and different people.

[macwilkin]

One thing I do know for certain is that no one living now has any right to judge historical people and their actions. The fact is the world is a very different place every 50 years changes thing immensely.

What our grand parents held as the norm (racism was institutionalised as was sexism, homosexuals were locked up and or chemically castrated etc) we would find terrible. What we hold as the norm now, one day will be judged by others.

Its easy to sit here in our ivory towers and judge the clearances, but they were different times with different values and different people.

History instructor bonnet on: I thank you, sir!

Todd

[BoldHighlander]

History instructor bonnet on: I thank you, sir!

Todd

As do I!!

[Ozark Ridge Rider]

One thing I do know for certain is that no one living now has any right to judge historical people and their actions. The fact is the world is a very different place every 50 years changes thing immensely.

What our grand parents held as the norm (racism was institutionalised as was sexism, homosexuals were locked up and or chemically castrated etc) we would find terrible. What we hold as the norm now, one day will be judged by others.

Its easy to sit here in our ivory towers and judge the clearances, but they were different times with different values and different people.

Right. As one who had ancestors on both sides in America's civil war, and who likely had ancestors on both sides at Culloden, and all of whom suffered for what they believed in, I am just profoundly grateful for the heritage they left to me.

I owe them much respect. As much as anything for the fact that, whether they were on the "right" side, or the "wrong" side, they were survivors. They did what they had to for what they believed in and just to get by.

[MacMillan of Rathdown]

But on a side note, obviously MAc' Rath' was upset by my comment, and deleted his post, if you would like to continue this discusiion in private please feel free to PM me, and I assure you it will be an open and honest converstaion between us.Phil C

I actually deleted my post because I felt dragging the Darien catastrophe (1698) into the argument as possibly the economic trigger that fired off the clearances of the 18th and 19th centuries was really prolonging the agony of what I considered to be a rather well-worn, if not worn out, topic.

I did find your posting interesting, but flawed in its one-sided presentation of the conflict between the Maori and the European settlers. As any first year student of the lead up to the Maori wars knows, the Maori were in the vanguard of asking the British to step in to what was a lawless outpost prior to New Zealand being annexed by London.

However, as this forum is about kilts and kilt wearing-- and thus, by extension, tied to things Scottish (hence "X Marks the Scot")-- I really didn't think an on-going discussion about the 19th century British colonial expansion in the Southern hemisphere was really germane to the core topics at hand.