I remember how it was -- JR
Public University in Hong Kong Orders Removal of Statue to Commemorate Tiananmen Massacre Victims
The oldest public university in Hong Kong, the University of Hong Kong (HKU), has ordered the removal of a statue from its campus that have for many years commemorated the victims of the Chinese Communist Party’s (CCP’s) Tiananmen massacre in 1989.
The statue dubbed the “Pillar of Shame” was created by Danish sculptor Jens Galschiøt and has been standing in the university for more than 20 years.
The 26-foot high copper statue depicts 50 anguished faces and tortured bodies piled on one another. It was the centerpiece of Hong Kong’s candlelit vigil on June 4 to commemorate those killed when Chinese regime’s military opened fire on unarmed pro-democracy college students and citizens in Beijing.
The organizer of the city’s huge annual Tian’anmen vigil that worked with Galschiøt, Alliance in Support of Patriotic Democratic Movements of China, recently dissolved due to the CCP’s increased pressure to silence political opposition to its rule in Hong Kong and China.
The alliance is a pro-democracy organization that was established during the Tiananmen Square protests. Several of its members have been arrested under the Beijing-imposed so-called Hong Kong national security law. The alliance is going through a liquidation process at the moment.
The liquidators of the alliance received a letter dated Oct. 7 from law firm Mayer Brown representing the university, asking the alliance to remove the statue from university premises “no later than 5:00 p.m. on 13 October 2021.”
The university cited that its decision was made based on its own legal advice and risk assessment, but didn’t provide further explanation, according to media reports.
If the alliance fails to remove the statue by the deadline, the statue will be deemed abandoned and “the university will deal with the sculpture at such time and in such manner as it thinks fit without further notice,” according to the letter seen by Artnet News.
Galschiøt sees the action as an attack on his freedom of expression through his art and an attempt to erase history.
“They really want to destroy everything about a story that China doesn’t want people to know about,” Galschiøt told Artnet News.
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High School Bans Police, Then People with AR-15 Show Up in Parking Lot
The left’s destructive “defund the police” frenzy has backfired in spectacular fashion as unprecedented crime waves roil Democrat-run cities across the United States.
In the latest iteration, students at a Seattle public school were threatened by an armed duo toting an AR-15 rifle, KOMO-TV reported Wednesday.
The incident occurred Monday afternoon in the parking lot of Ingraham High School, according to a parent whose son witnessed the terrifying confrontation.
The father, who asked to remain anonymous, said a man and a girl drove up to four students in the parking lot. He started yelling at the kids and then threatened to kill them.
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“The girl that was in the passenger seat, clicked in and loaded in a magazine into the AR-15,” the dad told KOMO.
His son told him the girl handed the gun to the male driver, who then pointed it at the four frightened students.
“It was the middle of the day and somebody decided to, who knows,” the father said.
He said all parents should be angry that armed thugs freely roamed the school campus and threatened to kill four children. “You should be outraged,” the father said. “You should be pissed out of your brain.”
Another parent told KOMO, “Hearing that kids are on the property with guns, I want to move my kid away from this region as quickly as possible.”
Amazingly, most students at the school and their parents were unaware of the incident until the following day, when Principal Martin Floe sent out a letter to parents.
In his letter Tuesday, Floe did not share many details about the menacing event.
“Around 2:45 p.m., students reported interacting with two people in a vehicle on the periphery of Ingraham property,” the principal wrote, according to KOMO. “The students also reported seeing a weapon, believed to be a firearm.
“The driver then briefly drove into the visitor parking lot on the west side of campus and then turned into the student parking lot. Neither of the occupants are believed to be Ingraham students.”
Floe said the school alerted the Seattle Police Department about the episode, which is currently under investigation. The principal then paid lip service to protecting students without specifying any actions he’s taking to ensure their safety.
“We will continue to work to resolve this as the safety of our students, staff and school community is our top priority,” he said. “We have been, and will continue to be, a school community where everyone feels safe, respected, and engaged.”
Several parents said Floe’s letter left out key details about the confrontation, including that the car had returned to the parking lot a second time and that the school never went into lockdown.
Some parents told The Post Millennial on Wednesday that the Seattle Police Department was called because there were no security guards at the school.
This is because Seattle Public Schools banned police who had served as school resource officers from campus for one year following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis police custody in May 2020. A city government report in March said “there are no plans to restart this program.”
Erika Nagy, a parent at Ingraham High School, said students are being endangered because Seattle’s left-wing school district caved to Black Lives Matters’ false narrative demonizing all police as “racists” who are hunting down black people for no reason.
“Seattle Public Schools has become less and less about education and more about what’s the daily ‘popular’ political view,” Nagy told the Post Millennial. “Seattle public schools prioritizes a socialist narrative over the education and public safety of our children,” she said.
Nagy pointed out the farcical irony of anti-police school administrators calling the cops to protect them after they had chased law enforcement off the campus last year.
“The same taxpayer-funded ‘for the people’ institution that banned police because of false BLM narratives, had to call the police after armed trespassers entered school property at least twice,” she said.
This is one of many incidents around the country spotlighting how toxic left-wing policies are blowing up in everyone’s faces and eroding public safety
https://flagandcross.com/high-school-bans-police-then-people-with-ar-15-show-up-in-parking-lot/
*******************************************Academics accuse Oxford's Oriel College of depicting Cecil Rhodes as the 'devil incarnate' with plaque 'distorting his legacy'
Academics have slammed Oxford's Oriel College for pandering to Left-wing statue topplers by erecting a plaque which depicts British imperialist Cecil Rhodes as the 'devil incarnate' and 'distorts' history.
Cambridge professor David Abulafia said the plaque 'lacks balance', claiming it is 'only concerned with linking him to racist and imperialist policies' and is 'clearly a reaction to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign'.
Students began campaigning for the Rhodes statue outside Oriel to be removed in 2015, but the 'Rhodes Must Fall' protests were reignited after the toppling of a statue of slave trader Edward Colston in Bristol at the height of last summer's Black Lives Matter protests.
The new plaque describes Rhodes as a 'committed British colonialist' who 'obtained his fortune through exploitation of minerals, land and peoples of southern Africa. Some of his activities led to great loss of life and attracted criticism in his day and ever since.'
It adds: 'In recent years, the statue has become a focus for public debate on racism and the legacy of colonialism. In June 2020, Oriel College declared its wish to remove the statue but is not doing so following legal and regulatory advice.'
The wording has now sparked a backlash among a group of academics who intend to write to Oriel's Provost, Lord Mendoza, to express their concerns.
Prof Abulafia told the Telegraph: 'I am not trying to defend Rhodes's career right across the board. This is a man who was a great benefactor of Oxford University and who - it may seem strange to us - actually thought he was bringing benefits to the people who fell under his control.
'The notice is only concerned with linking him to racist and imperialist policies. This is clearly a reaction to the Rhodes Must Fall campaign and it's simply not how you do it.'
He added: 'It should look at the whole of Rhodes's career, explaining properly who he was and what he was trying to do. One needs to explain where he stands in the context of the attitudes of his day.
'He believed he was bringing benefits to Africa. We might now argue that he did more harm than good, but one has to understand what his intentions were. He is portrayed here as some sort of devil incarnate.'
Rhodes, an Oxford student in the 1870s who left money to Oriel on his death in 1902, was an imperialist, businessman and politician who played a dominant role in southern Africa in the late 19th Century.
He founded Rhodesia and served as prime minister of the Cape Colony in the 1890s. Rhodes was not a slave trader but supported apartheid-style measures in southern Africa.
Last year, Oriel's governing body said it was their 'wish' to remove the statue and it established an independent commission to examine the key issues surrounding it. The commission eventually concluded its inquiry saying it backed the college's original wish to remove the statue.
More than 100 Oxford academics are refusing requests from Oriel to give tutorials to its undergraduates. They have also pledged not to assist the college with its outreach work and admissions interviews, and they will refuse to attend or speak at talks, seminars, and conferences sponsored by the college.
But the academics have been criticised by Lord Wharton, chairman of the Office for Students (OfS), who said it would be 'utterly unacceptable' if students were left disadvantaged.
He said: 'Oriel College took a decision to retain the Rhodes statue after carefully considering all of the evidence.
'It would be utterly unacceptable if any 'boycott' of Oriel led to students, or prospective students, at the college being disadvantaged in any way.'
Tim Loughton, a former minister for children and families, told the Daily Telegraph: 'This is academic blackmail by a group of academics who think their own political views should trump everyone else's, and if they don't get their own way then any innocent students who happen to fall within their boycott will become the victims.
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My other blogs: Main ones below
http://dissectleft.blogspot.com (DISSECTING LEFTISM)
http://antigreen.blogspot.com (GREENIE WATCH)
http://pcwatch.blogspot.com (POLITICAL CORRECTNESS WATCH)
http://australian-politics.blogspot.com/ (AUSTRALIAN POLITICS)
http://snorphty.blogspot.com/ (TONGUE-TIED)
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