NEW YORK - ESPOUSE OF LIBERTY

NEW YORK – LIBERTY – WILL IT LIVE UP TO ITS NAME

New York is named after the Duke of York who led an onslaught to gain it from the Dutch in 1646. It used to be under the control of the Dutch West India Company in 1624. After purchases and subsequent battles with the Manhattan Indians the territory included Manhattan, Long Island, Connecticut & New Jersey. It had been named as New Amsterdam by the Dutch. In 1664 New Amsterdam passed onto English control. After this it was regained by the Dutch until finally going back to being under English rule in 1674.

The statue of Liberty [by Frederic Auguste Bartholdi] is named after the Roman Goddess of Freedom “Libertas”. It was donated by the French to America in 1886 – a celebration of the Union victory in the Revolution and abolition of slavery; it had Dutch and Spanish support together with fundraising campaigns to allow its completion. She holds a torch and tablet upon which is inscribed the date if the American Declaration of Independence – July 4 1776. The 7 spikes represent the 7 Oceans and 7 continents of the world – introducing the unusual concept of liberty. It also was a statue representing liberty to immigrants from Europe [largely] who fled to America to seek a new free life.

The American Civil war was between the Northern free union states referred to as the United States {governed by President Lincoln} versus the Confederate States of America in the South from the middle to the east coast Florida. After the victory by the union states the Unites States became a Constitutional Union – United States of America.

The United Nations has its headquarters in New York. Motto: Peace, dignity & equality on a healthy planet. Aim: to maintain international peace and security, develop friendly relations among nations, achieve international cooperation, and be a centre for harmonising the actions of nations. This is the hope or maybe a dream!

Will it encourage world development and freedom in a world that still has a hangover from the colonial brutal, exploitative & inhumane past over the last few centuries, and a world that is sadly also still largely controlled by ex-colonial countries or their heads of states? An exploited country or group rarely gets very far when demanding reparations or compensation or seeks to redress the imbalance caused due to forceful extraction or exploitation from the colonised lands and people. Mugabe did not get very far in Zimbabwe. The financial system is still largely controlled by London & New York. There has been and is an effort to indirectly partially reparate or compensate. There are concessions for trade for the least developed countries by the UN through the “Generalised System of Preferences” (UNCTAD) – but the imbalance has continued.

More is needed.

Naresh Sethi, 28 October 2021