Time to end celebration of Columbus
Dear Editor,
Sir Ronald Saunders, Antigua and Barbuda’s ambassador to the Organization of American States and the US, against the backdrop of Spain trying to commemorate the intervention of Christopher Columbus in the New World has come out with all guns barking, appealing instead for the total discontinuation of the iconic status of criminals such as Columbus.
The extermination of the people of the New World was solely at the hands of Columbus and those who came in search of gold with him. The mass genocide and ethnic cleansing carried out by this man have had men celebrating his despicable and horrendous behaviours centuries later. This is due solely to the amount of wealth his expeditions have accrued at the expense of the dignity of millions of men, women, boys, and girls.
The Mayans, Aztecs, Incas, Caribs, Ciboneys, and Tainos were killed in the most unfortunate manner in South America, Latin America, and the Caribbean. They were overpowered and overworked and some surrendered to incurable sexually transmitted diseases being spread by the Europeans.
European diseases such as syphilis and gonorrhoea killed millions of innocent natives of these islands and changed the direction of the lives of some who were quite advanced in their developmental processes.
Columbus and his men looted and killed entire communities of people.
The new call by many in the black diasporas and other advocacy groups to stop the celebration of the lives of sinister people of the past has been met with mixed reactions in certain places. However, it seems like the majority has embraced the call in many of the regions where these people were being celebrated.
Christopher Columbus and his men could clearly be considered despotic rulers of the New World and Christianity is the tool from which these cruelties emanated.
Paris Taylor paristaylor82@hotmail.com
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