Wednesday, 10 June 2020

7 historical figures who everyone still knows despite their statues being removed

A statue of the slave trader Edward Colston has been pulled down by Black Lives Matter protesters in Bristol and thrown into the dock where his slave ships would once have landed.

The statue's toppling predictably sparked the criticism that pulling down monuments to terrible people erases history and the opportunity to educate people about their legacy.

But as many people pointed out, statues aren't exactly history textbooks or documentaries. They do not impart information, but are rather intended to honour the person they depict.
People also pointed out that tearing down statues doesn't destroy history, but is actually a part of it.
Besides, the argument that statues are needed to educate us about historical figures does not stand up to scrutiny.

These are just some of the people whose legacies have managed to outlive the destruction of their statues.

1. Adolf Hitler
In the wake of the second world war, Nazi iconography was so thoroughly expunged from Germany that museums struggle to display original Nazi artefacts to this day. Memorials even to the German soldiers who died on the frontlines are extremely scarce in the country, and a racetrack where drivers can practice their donuts now cuts across the site of the Nuremberg rallies.

And yet, Brits and Germans seem to know their history when it comes to Adolf Hitler, not least because he is taught extensively in schools, and by countless books, films and documentaries.

2. Josef Stalin
A 26 foot high statue of Josef Stalin was famously pulled down in Budapest, Hungary in 1956. The statue's toppling by anti-soviet protesters is now recognised as an important symbolic moment of Hungary's October uprising.
3. Christopher Columbus
In 2004, Venezuelan protesters pulled down a 100 year-old statue of Christopher Columbus and renamed Columbus Day the 'Day of Indigenous Resistance'. Columbus is in no danger of being forgotten, unlike the indigenous people who resisted his colonisation of the Americas.

4. Saddam Hussein
In 2003, the toppling of a statue of Saddam Hussein in Baghdad shortly after the Iraq invasion was widely publicised and praised in the UK. The statue was pulled down by US marines after several unsuccessful attempts by Iraqi civilians, and strangely no-one seemed to mind too much about 'erasing history' then.

5. Vladimir Lenin
So many statues of Vladimir Lenin were pulled down after the fall of the Soviet Union that there's a word for it: Leninopad ('Leninfall'). And yet the destruction of literally thousands of statues of Lenin has somehow not resulted in the destruction of Soviet history.

6. Emperor Nero
A testament to the longevity a historical figure can have in spite of the destruction of their statues is Emperor Nero, who ruled Rome from 54 to 68 AD. Nero himself was famously unperturbed by destruction, as he is said to have fiddled while Rome burned.
7. Mahatma Gandhi
A statue of Mahatma Gandi was pulled down in 2018, just two years after it was erected at the university of Ghana.

Protests by students and professors which culminated in the statue's falling did not diminish Gandhi's fame, but rather drew attention to his lesser-known history of racism.

Statues honouring slave traders for their philanthropy do not teach us about the slave trade, in the same way that monuments built by dictators of themselves do not teach us about their crimes.

The falling of a statue is not going to destroy that person's role in history.
Instead, perhaps those who are concerned the toppling of Edward Colston will erase history will instead campaign for British colonialism and the slave trade to be taught more prominently in UK schools?

That'd be a start.

(Source: Independent)

1 comment:

  1. �� ARE YOU ABSOLUTELY IN NEED OF THE SERVICES OF A PROFESSIONAL HACKER?(CATCHING A CHEATING SPOUSE[Phone Hack], RECOVERY OF LOST FUNDS, CREDIT SCORE UPGRADE, WEBSITE HACK...)
    High prolific information and Priviledges comes rare as i would be sharing with you magnificent insight you wish you heard years before now. As it's been understood that what people don't see, they will never know.
    When you wonder “which hacking company should I hire, the first aspect that should concern you is quality. Clearly, you want to embark for services that povides swift response, Thanks to our talented and Astonish Hackers , you are rest assured that your expectations will always be met. You’ll be glad to find out that our services Implies precisions and actions.
    This post is definitely for those who are willing to turn their lives around for the better, either financial-wise, relationship-wise or businesses.
    Welcome to the Global KOS hacking agency where every request on hacking related issues are met within a short period of time.
    If your shoe fits in any of the required services below, you will be assigned to a designated professional hacker who is systematically known for operating on a dark web V-link protocol.
    The manual Operation of this hackers is to potentially deploy a distinguished hacking techniques to penetrating computers and various type of database system to meet your request.
    Penetration of computing systems are achieved using core software tools like Ransomeware, SQL/Keylogger injection. botnet, trojan and DDOS attacks.
    Providing value added services to clients as a hacker has been our sustaining goal.
    Are you faced with cyber challenges like
    ��Recovery of lost funds:✅It saddens our mind when client expresses annoyance or dissatisfaction of unethical behaviours of scammers. We have striven to make tenacious efforts to help those who are victims of this flees get off their traumatic feeling of loss. The cyber security technique used to retrieving back the victims stolen funds is the application of a diverse intercall XX breacher software enables you track the data location of a scammer. Extracting every informations on the con database, every requested information required by the Global KOS would be used to tracking every transaction, time and location of the scammer using this systematic courier tracking base method.
    �� Hacking into the mobile phone of a cheating spouse.✅ This type of hack helps you track every movement of your cheater as we are bent on helping you gain full remote access into the cheater's mobile phone using a Trojan breach cracking system to penetrate their social media platforms like Facebook, whatsapp, snapchat etc. This spy processing is used via an HDSI folder which synchronizes the target mobile operating system into a clone S-Drive unit.
    ��Credit Score Upgrade:✅Due to our transformed changes on Equifax tracking , upgrading of credit score are backed by our cyber tech breaching licence, This hacking process drastically generates you an undestructive higher credit score which correlates to a higher level of creditworthiness. The time frame for upgrading a credit score requires eighteen(18) hours
    ��️ BITCOIN GENERATOR:✅ (Higher job profile). This involves using the ANTPOOL Sysytem drifting a specialized hardware and software implementing tool in slot even-algorithms to incentivize more coins into your wallet which in turn generates more coins exponentially like a dream at specified intervals.
    The company is large enough to provide comprehensive range of services such as.
    • Email hacks��
    • Hacking of websites.��
    • Uber free payment hacks.��
    • website hack.��
    Our strength is based on the ability to help you fix cyber problems by bringing together active cyber hacking professionals in the GlobalkOS to work with.
    Contact:
    ✉️Email: clarksoncoleman(at)gmail • com.
    Theglobalkos(at)gmail •com.
    ®Global KOS™
    Copyright® 2030.•√

    ReplyDelete