Happy Columbus Day

That’s what Thor Heyerdah set out to prove, but he was proven to be dead wrong.

 

I dunno, you've historically had a colorful opinion on lots of world wide topics.

If other countries around the globe have similar experiences, why would only "Americans" really get it? I'm sure Australians get it, and New Zealanders. South Africans, Eastern Europe etc. Definitely regions in Asia. The topic may be American, but the outcome was nothing new to the world, nor the most recent either.

 

there may be many more, or at least possibly one or two, paths by which the western hemisphere came to first be populated, the point still being, that 13 thousand years, is a hell of a lot longer then five or six hundred. and that the doctrine of discovery, is quite simply a big fat lie. and so is the myth, that by using their resources sustainably, and i don't mean everyone was doing that perfectly either, but generally most of the cultures intended to, that they were somehow underutilizing its their potential. that's another excuse that's often given.

columbus did not set out to make peaceful contact with anybody, not with three crowded boatloads of gyreens. if he had reached india, he would have raped, pillaged, burned, looted and took slaves there, just as he did the carribian islands where he did make landfall. the whole purpose of his expiditions was not to open new territory, that came latter, but to bring gold and other valuable commodities, including slaves, back to spain, to finance their wars with their internal factions and the rest of europe.

three crowded boatloads of men at arms, was not, just to have two spare tires, it was an invasion force. that was its purpose and its intent.
he may not have known what they would find, but his mission was to rob and take, whatever they did.

 

Wait until November the fifth.
The UK celebrate Bonfire night.

 

The wicker man?

 

Noo Guy Fawkes.

 

America has lots of European cities.
I think the only America places they took effort in name end in ville. everything else might be stolen.

 

lack of imagination combined with call it anything as long as its not what anyone already living there might have called it.
in the sierras in california we do have some places with interesting names, like: red dog, you bet, cammel's hump, ham bone, grizzly flats, pesky deer road, and so on.
(those first three were actually on a sign indicating a turn off to a road that went to them in the sequence "you bit, red dog, cammels hump")

 

The best one ever is in Canada though.

Newfoundland

LOL. Which I think may have been settled by the Vikings, so they obviously couldn't be arsed when they off the boats on the long voyage.

 

FYI There’s also a Camel's Hump mountain in Vermont..

Short by Western Standards at only 4000 feet but very distinctive

 

The best place I heard is in Australia in Western Australia called Norseman, the discoverer named it after his horse.

Hammerfest also sounds cool.

 

Was this still back in the times before I was even born?

 

Appalachia has some interesting names too. I know of one town called Bland. And another called Stinking Creek

 

I like this. Recently, New Zealand had the 250 year anniversary of Captain Cooks first arrival. There was a simultaneous celebration of this and of Polynesian navigation as they were also incredible sailors and navigators who arrived here 800 years earlier. There were the usual protests and the local iwi welcomed the Polynesian vessel but refused to do the same for the Endeavour replica.
The British High Commissioner apologised for Cook's men's shooting and killing of local Maori in that first encounter. Fair enough, no problem.
But there was no apology from Rangitane and Ngati Kuia for the murder and eating of 10 of Cook's men and it made me think...
What about an apology from the New Zealand Company for the screwing over of local iwi on land deals for colonists? An apology from Maori to the Moriori for their invasion of the Chatham's and slaughter of most of the population? One for the Treaty of Waitangi where the Maori and English translations differed, the English saying Maori ceded sovereignty to the British Crown, the Maori saying something quite different? One for the Wairau massacre where Ngati Toa slaughtered 20 settlers?
In short, where does it end? Does one side apologise for all time for the actions of their ancestors? Do people have to be ashamed of the figures and groups that brought their ancestors to a new place that I and others now call home?
Or can we acknowledge the ugly history of colonialism on both sides, learn from it, and move forward together? I can't speak for the US, but here in New Zealand there is a huge effort to revitalise Maori language, culture and values that has taken place over the last 30 years. There are grants for Maori to study, set up enterprises and be involved in government policy. There are now steps being taken to understand how the effects of colonialism have trickled down throughout the years resulting in a disproportionate amount of Maori in prison, living in poverty and struggling with drug and alcohol addiction. I can totally see the value of all of these things, they are justified.
What I struggle to see the value in is Europeans of today being told to apologise over and over again for the actions of ancestors of a totally different time, while other cultures come out squeaky clean when colonial history is messy and ugly on BOTH sides.