Letters to the Editor
A rock and a hard place
Dear Sir and Madam,
I was interested to read in Rachel Cornwell’s ‘The week in 60 seconds’ (Feb 23rd) that the White House’s refusal to to look into a UN report on Guantanamo Bay was ‘delusion on a far grander and more worrying scale’ than the crime David Irving was jailed for. I just wonder what delusion could be of more gravity than denying six million deaths.
Joshua Freedman
St Peter’s
Every Jew is different
Dear Sir and Madam,
In Daniel Calvert’s article on Isreali apartheid week last week, Omar Shweiki is quoted as stating, ‘Those students who claim it was an event that discouraged interaction between Jews and Palestinans are mistaken,’ a claim for which his proof is that ‘Three of the academics [who spoke] are Jewish.
Just like any other group of people, you will find Jews who advocate ideas that are not accepted as mainstream and to suggest that these three notoriously anti-Israel speakers are to represent dialogue between Jews and Palestinians is to make a mockery of the notion of dialogue.
Further, to suggest that JSoc making a complaint about the week is to take a political stance, would be to ignore the fact that the presidents of the society, unlike the signatories of the letter to the proctors, are in a position to know whether or not Jewish and Israeli students have felt threatened by the week.
Jeremy Seeff
Ex-president Jsoc
Pro-test, but quietly
Dear Sir and Madam,
I am the MD of Ab Initio, a consultancy specialising in offering risk-specific security solutions.
It was without surprise that I read that a new pro animal testing group, ‘Pro-Test’, had decided to hold a demonstration in Oxford in support of the new animal labs. Like the majority of Oxford students, I have little sympathy with the methods used by antivivisection activists. However, my experience is that protests of this sort will only make matters worse. The animal rights activists are largely concentrating their attentions on protesting and on tracking down ‘animal abusers’.
The students who took part in the Pro-Test demonstration may have become legitimate targets for attack by whatever means • the most radical elements of the animal rights movement have committed a catalogue of crimes including arson, blackmail, slander and even body-snatching. Free speech and the right to live your life free from harassment are rights worth fighting for. However, joining in this protest can only have made matters worse.
Michael Buckworth
Ex-Merton
The other point of view
Dear Sir and Madam,
I refer to the article by Laurie Pycroft in last week’s issue. I expect that he has moved on since he wrote the article, but I thought I’d add a thought anyway. He seems to have omitted a very essential element of the argument • the animal’s viewpoint.
Would it be worth mentioning that animals (the non-human kind) have no perception whatsoever of time or of life? An animal does not know if it should live for a day, a year or 100 years. It has no conception of the future. Death is a concept that it cannot understand, and to which it is totally indifferent.
Indeed, if it were not for the pain and stress element, an animal is virtually indistinguishable from a plant, and there is no reason at all why animals cannot be cultivated for any purpose at all. The idea of ‘rescuing’ animals so that they can lead out a ‘happy’ old age is merely a fantasy on the part of their rescuers. Putting a sea-bird through hell in order to remove tar from its feathers is quite wrong. The whale in the Thames should have been killed immediately it was found.
James Carey
Paris
Light up my life
Dear Sir and Madam,
I understand there is a petition being signed by St Hilda’s students who are worried about the lack of lighting in Cowley Place. I would like to assure your readers that East Oxford’s Green councilors are seeking funding to make the entrance to the college safer and more welcoming. We have been in correspondence with representatives of both St Hilda’s JCR and OUSU, and hope to have a satisfactory solution in place shortly.
Should any of our constituents have any other issues that they wish to see addressed, I would urge them to get in touch • we are always happy to help. Visit www.oxford.gov.uk for details of your local city councillors.
Councillor Craig Simmons,
Leader, Oxford City Council Green Group.
The editors reserve the right to cut letters for length and clarity. The views expressed in the letters do not necessarily reflect the views of The Oxford Student. Email letters@oxfordstudent.com
2nd Mar 2006