I'm sorry, I need to apologize

[pigdog47]

......is the title of a thought provoking essay, from a thought provoking fellow; Kenan Malik, back in August, 2007.  Brief excerpt:

"Twelve hundred years ago hordes of bloodthirsty Vikings descended on Ireland, pillaging, raping and killing. And they did not even say sorry.

Last week, finally, justice was done. Brian Mikkelson, the Danish culture minister, apologized to the people of Ireland for the ravages caused by his rampaging forebears. After a millennium of hurt and distress, Irish men and women can now rest easy in their beds, having at last found closure to a great historical trauma."

http://www.kenanmalik.com/essays/bergens_apology.html

[pierrelebel]

Closer to home:  http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/story/2008/06/11/pm-statement.html 

Here are excerpts from the text of Prime Minister Stephen Harper's statement of apology on Wednesday, as released by the Prime Minister's Office. French sections, which repeat the English text, have been excluded:

"Mr. Speaker, I stand before you today to offer an apology to former students of Indian residential schools. The treatment of children in Indian residential schools is a sad chapter in our history.

In the 1870's, the federal government, partly in order to meet its obligation to educate aboriginal children, began to play a role in the development and administration of these schools.

Two primary objectives of the residential schools system were to remove and isolate children from the influence of their homes, families, traditions and cultures, and to assimilate them into the dominant culture....."

[prior-of-verity*shake-hands-with-your-devil]

Harper did it for political gain. If he had of meant it.....he wouldn't have slithered Bill C 45 in without consulting the First Nations people.

[pigdog47]

"Political contrition has become all the rage. The Queen has apologized to the Maoris in New Zealand for dispossessing them of their lands and to the people of India for the Amritsar massacre of 1919. Tony Blair apologized for the Irish potato famine. Bill Clinton said sorry to the people of Nicaragua, Guatemala and Rwanda for failures of American foreign policy. Pope John Paul II expressed contrition on more than a hundred occasions including for the Crusades and the Inquisition. It is used to be said that sorry was the hardest word. No longer, at least for politicians."

especially when a politician gets caught doing something naughty.  For instance, that former Canadian Federal politician  who swiped an expensive ring for his boyfriend.  Or when Bill invited Monica for a cigar in the Oval Office.