Só mesmo o Dr. Salles, para me fazer ler
na estopada da língua inglesa um discurso tão necessário, que por azar tinha
que vir em inglês. Como está conscienciosamente e naturalmente bem exposto, deu
para entender, na maioria dos seus argumentos, que são os de qualquer pessoa,
ainda que minimamente ilustrada mas bem formada. O Dr. Salles teve confiança na nossa percepção linguística e nem
se deu ao cuidado de o traduzir, para uma língua menos chocalhante, embora
nobre, como deve ser quem tem uma Universidade da categoria dessa, de Oxford.
De toda a maneira, trata-se de um discurso honesto, que todos os elementos do «BLACK LIVES
MATTER» deveriam acolher sem o parti pris dessa moda anti qualquer coisa, que é o que está a dar
nestes tempos movimentados, apesar da covid-19, a exigir menos berreiro. Mas são
argumentos vãos, esses de Lord Pattern. O activismo esquerdista, em pandemia
destrutiva, supera qualquer vírus. E a ignorância, então, nem se fale. Inútil
lógica, portanto.
HENRIQUE SALLES DA FONSECA
A BEM DA NAÇÃO, 24.06.20
Lord Patten, The Oxford University
Chancellor, addresses to black students attending as Rhodes Scholars who demand
the University removes the statue of Oxford Benefactor, Cecil Rhodes. BBC, Radio 4 – 2020-06-23 – 6 p. m.
*
* *
Interestingly,
Chris Patten (Lord Patten of Barnes), The Chancellor of Oxford
University, was on the Today Programme on BBC Radio 4 on precisely
the same topic. The Daily Telegraph headline yesterday was "Oxford
will not rewrite History".
Lord
Patten commented: “Education is not indoctrination. Our History is not a
blank page on which we can write our own version of what it should have
been according to our contemporary views and prejudice.”
"Dear
Scrotty Students,
Cecil Rhodes's generous bequest has contributed greatly to the Comfort
and well being of many generations of Oxford students - a good many of them,
dare we say it, better, brighter and more deserving than you. This does not
necessarily mean we approve of everything Rhodes did in his lifetime - but
then we don't have to. Cecil Rhodes died over a century ago. Autres temps,
autres moeurs. If you don't understand what this means - and it would not
remotely surprise us if that were the case
- then we really think you should ask yourself the question: "Why am I at Oxford?"
Oxford,
let us remind you, is the world's second oldest extant University; scholars
have been studying here since at least the 11th century; we've played a major part
in the invention of Western Civilization, from the 12th century intelectual Renaissance
through the Enlightenment and beyond. Our alumni include William of Ockham,
Roger Bacon, William Tyndale, John Donne, Sir Walter Raleigh, Erasmus, Sir
Christopher Wren, William Penn, Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), Samuel Johnson,
Robert Hooke, William Morris, Oscar Wilde, Emily Davison, Cardinal Newman,
Julie Cocks. We're a big deal. And most of the
people privileged to come and study here are conscious of what a big deal we are.
Oxford is their alma mater - their dear mother - and they respect and revere
her accordingly.
And what were your ancestors
doing in that period? Living in mud huts, mainly. Sure, we'll concede you the
short lived Southern African Civilization of Great Zimbabwe. But let's be
brutally honest here: the contribution of the Bantu tribes to Modern
Civilization has been as near as damn it to
zilch[i].
You'll probably say that's "racist".
But it's what we here at Oxford prefer to call "true." Perhaps the rules are different at other Universities.
In fact, we know things are different at other Universities. We've watched with
horror at what has been happening across the pond from the University of
Missouri to the University of Virginia and even to revered institutions like
Harvard and Yale: the "safe spaces"; the «Black Lives Matter»;
the creeping cultural relativism; the stifling political correctness; what Allan
Bloom rightly called "the
closing of the American mind".
At
Oxford however, we will always prefer facts and free, open debate to
petty grievance-mongering, identity politics and empty sloganeering. The
day we cease to do so is the day we lose the right to call ourselves
the world's greatest University.
Of course, you are perfectly within
your rights to squander your time at Oxford on silly, vexatious, single-issue
political campaigns. (Though it
does make us wonder how stringent the vetting procedure is these days for
Rhodes scholarships and even more so, for Mandela Rhodes scholarships). We
are well used to seeing undergraduates - or, in your case - postgraduates,
making idiots of themselves. Just don't expect us to indulge
your idiocy, let alone genuflect before it. You
may be black - "BME" as the grisly modern terminology has it - but we
are colour blind. We have been educating gifted undergraduates
from our former colonies, our Empire, our Commonwealth and beyond for many generations.
We do not discriminate over sex, race, colour or creed.
We do, however, discriminate
according to intellect.
That
means, inter alia, that when our undergrads or postgrads come up with fatuous
ideas, we don't pat them on the back, give them a red rosette and say: "Ooh,
you're black and you come from South Africa. What a clever chap you are!"
No. We prefer to see the quality of those ideas tested in the crucible of
public debate. That's another key part of the Oxford intellectual tradition you
see: you can argue any damn thing you like but you need to be able to justify
it with facts and logic - otherwise your idea is worthless.
This ludicrous notion you have
that a bronze statue of Cecil Rhodes should be removed from Oriel College,
because it's symbolic of institutional racismo and "white slavery". Well even if it is – which we dispute - so bloody
what? Any undergraduate so feeble-minded that they can't pass a bronze statue
without having their "safe space" violated really does not deserve to
be here. And besides, if we were to remove Rhodes's statue on the premise that
his life wasn't blemish-free, where would we stop? As one of our alumni Dan
Hannan has pointed out, Oriel's other benefactors include two kings so awful – Edward
II and Charles I - that their subjects had them killed. The college opposite -
Christ Church - was built by a murderous, thieving bully who bumped off two of
his wives. Thomas Jefferson kept slaves: does that invalidate the US
Constitution? Winston Churchill had unenlightened views about Muslims and India:
was he then the wrong man to lead Britain in the war?"
Actually,
we'll go further than that. Your Rhodes Must Fall campaign is not merely
fatuous but ugly, vandalistic and dangerous. We agree with Oxford historian RW
Johnson that what you are trying to do here is no different from what ISIS and
the Al-Qaeda have been doing to artefacts in places like Mali and Syria. You are
murdering History.
And
who are you, anyway, to be lecturing Oxford University on how it should order
its affairs? Your «Rhodes Must Fall» campaign, we understand, originates in
South Africa and was initiated by a black activist who told one of his
lecturers "whites have to be killed". One of you - Sizwe Mpofu-Walsh
- is the privileged son of a rich politician and a member of a party whose
slogan is "Kill the Boer; Kill the Farmer"; another of you,
Ntokozo Qwabe, who is only in Oxford as a beneficiary of a Rhodes scholarship,
has boasted about the need for "socially conscious black
students" to "dominate white Universities, and do so ruthlessly and
decisively!
Great.
That's just what Oxford University needs. Some cultural enrichment from
the land of Winnie Mandela,
burning tyre necklaces, na AIDS epidemic almost entirely the
result of government indifference and ignorance,
one of the world's highest per capita murder rates, institutionalized
corruption, tribal politics, anti-white racism and a collapsing economy.
Please name which of the above items you think will enhance the lives of the
22,000 students studying here at Oxford.
And
then please explain what it is that makes your attention grabbing campaign to
remove a listed statue from an Oxford college more urgent, more deserving than
the desire of probably at least 20,000 of those 22,000 students to enjoy their
time here unencumbered by the irritation of spoilt, ungrateful little tossers
on scholarships they clearly don't merit using racial politics and cheap
guilt-tripping to ruin the life and fabric of our beloved University.
Understand us and understand this clearly: you have everything to learn
from us; we have nothing to learn from you.
Oriel College, Oxford
Tags:: "política
internacional"
COMENTÁRIOS:
Anónimo, 24.06.2020: Maravilha. Adorei. Parece que
continua a haver gente que pensa. Os meus respeitos para Lord Partem e para
quem divulgou isto.
Henrique Salles da Fonseca, 24.06.2020: Preclaro Amigo, Obrigado pelo envio deste naco de sensatez.
O tempora o mores! Educação não é doutrinação! Tal como Oxford, não aceitamos reescrever a História!
História que - como ensina e repete Adriano Moreira - não se recebe a benefício de inventário! Forte abraço do
Elias Quadros
O tempora o mores! Educação não é doutrinação! Tal como Oxford, não aceitamos reescrever a História!
História que - como ensina e repete Adriano Moreira - não se recebe a benefício de inventário! Forte abraço do
Elias Quadros
Henrique Salles da
Fonseca 25.06.2020 K verdadeiro discurso, até arrepia. A comunicação social não
divulgou nada, devíamos ter ouvido alto e bom som. Ainda há gente por aí com
algo na cabeça e com coragem... são tão poucos. Isabel Pedroso
Anónimo, 25.06.2020: Concordo plenamente, nunca poderemos apagar a História por muito que ,por
vezes, não concordamos com os métodos utizados a época DeIxaria apenas para
reflexão se. a raça negra nos USA (e não só) tem tido de facto as mesmas
condições de acesso ao conhecimento que lhe permitam ombrear com os demais. Recordo
que nos anos 60 nos USA ainda se discutia a igualdade entre brancos e negros Carlos
Costa CFC
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