I refer to my previous post and to yesterday's news announcement that, although the commission supported the statue's removal, it will in fact remain in place for the time being because it would be too expensive to remove it. Which comes across as rather a lame excuse even though I was and still am in favour of leaving things be. Because you cannot change history by merely deleting all reference to it.
It was as an Oriel alumni, I suppose, that I received a long email from the Commission of Inquiry the opening of which I quote below (click on to enlarge), and...
...which ended with a link to the even more verbose full report. The amount of effort and associated expense that must have gone into this conclusion defies my imagination but already the campaigners for the removal have reacted in dismay.
So once again, does my own opinion to leave the statue and associated memorabilia in place (but by all means decorate them with an explanation, for example via a bronze plaque placed at street level, of our present understanding of Rhodes' political agenda), and the education which I received and still enjoy the fruit of and which might have been in some part made possible by Rhodes' endeavours, make me in some way culpable?
Floreat Oriel!
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