Harry's remark about Kreacher WAS: Re: JKR messed up........ no.

[Dana]

No: HPFGUIDX 178597

Magpie:
<snip>
> Yes, but she also created a sentient slave race and eventually made 
> her hero a slave owner. Harry can't "understand" the House Elves 
> needs without accepting his own place as a master of slaves as a 
> member of the superior race, the ones born to be served rather than 
> serve. She's made a form of slavery that actually conforms to 
> things that were claimed about real people (that they were better 
> off being slaves and happier that way). 
<snip>

Dana:
House-elves are not JKR's creations they are mythological figures 
said to inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. They are 
referred to as Brownies. 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brownie_(elf)

JKR only changed them to fit her own story but the concept of house-
elves and their servitude is not something JKR made up herself. 
Slavery has not been a predominant part of history in Britten or 
Europe as it has been in American history. That is not to say that 
Britten or other European countries have not made their hands dirty 
in relation to slavery as a concept, because there was certainly a 
lot of that going on in the colonies that these countries owned but 
within the countries themselves and especially Britten it was 
predominantly people of lower social orders that were exploited to 
deliver services to the aristocratic families or to factory owners. 
People did get paid but wages were low and working environments and 
hours bad and no one shied away for using child laborers. 

I understand your point of view but I just do not understand the 
concept of your objection for house-elves to want to be allowed to do 
what makes them happy. 
In my country they once tried to put a gipsy family into a normal 
house instead of letting them live their nomad lives in trailers. 
They were considered a nuisance when they lived in their trailerpark 
way of living, especially when they lived on land not owned by them. 
People wanted them gone, so the government thought it best to stick 
them in brick houses instead. This didn't work because these people 
were used to their nomad form of living and therefore could not 
adjust to living in such living arrangements and neighborhood, living 
in the way dictated to them. 
They liked to be gypsies and live a nomad life, it is not up to us to 
push them into another kind of living just because their life-styles 
do not fit ours. 

I think it is disrespectful to try to force your own concepts of 
living on to others that do not want to live in the same way you do. 
In case of house-elves they like to serve but that doesn't mean that 
wizards don't need to respect their being and the service they 
provide. 
As I said before to change the living conditions of house-elves you 
do not have to change the house-elf, if they do not want to change, 
what needs to change is the view the wizard has of them and treat 
them how they want to be treated. 

There are a lot of people who devote their lives in serving others 
and even if they are paid for their services doesn't mean that you 
are allowed to treat them badly just because you pay them for their 
services. You do not change the working arrangements of these people 
in something good by forcing them to chose a different profession. It 
is the attitude of those treating these people bad that should 
change. 

JMHO   

Dana