The Economist - USA (2020-06-27)

12 The EconomistJune 27th 2020

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Letters

The statues of limitations

You described the fortune of

Cecil Rhodes as “grubby”,

which is far from true (“Marble

monsters”, June 13th). In fact,

his fortune was rather clean,

even if his colonial ambitions

were not. His riches started

with claims in the De Beers

mine, land which had been

bought from the eponymous,

and white, brothers. It was

secured with the formation of

De Beers Consolidated, essen-

tially by purchasing Kimberley

Central from Barney Barnato

for £5,338,650, a huge sum at

the time. It was expanded

through Gold Fields, which

purchased properties on the

Rand from their Boer farmers.

What was “grubby” was

making black workers live in a

compound for the duration of

their work and subjecting

them to strip searches for

stolen diamonds and still more

degrading acts. Rhodes’s Brit-

ish South Africa Company

drove black people off their

land north of the Cape (and

worse). And he backed the

Jameson Raid, the slapdash

failed coup attempt in the

Transvaal, albeit with the tacit

backing of the Colonial Office.

However, these activities were

subsidised by his fortune, not a

cause of it, which would have

been far greater without them.

trevor bradley

London

The difficulty with your prag-

matic proposal on which

statues should stay and which

should go is illustrated by your

argument that Oliver Crom-

well’s positive contribution to

democracy in Britain out-

weighs his responsibility for

mass murder in Ireland. What-

ever the merit of Cromwell’s

contribution to democracy

(which include executing his

predecessor, having himself

appointed head of state for life,

and appointing his son to

succeed him), the “terrible

suffering” he caused in Ireland

(in fact, killing at least 10% of

the population), surely makes

his main contribution to his-

tory “baleful”, in your terms.

Public statues are too often

an effort to overturn Shake-

speare’sobservationthat“the

evilthatmendolivesafter

them;thegoodisoftinterred

withtheirbones”.Ratherthan

liberalsandconservatives

talkingpasteachotheronthe

meritsorotherwiseofeach

statue,perhapstheycould

agreetoremovethemall.

markhayden

Sauvian,France

It isnotenoughtotakedown

statuesofJeffersonDavis.

Somesouthernstates celebrate

hisbirthdayasa legalholiday

andsomedesignateit Confed-

erateHeroesDay,butthepur-

poseisthesame,toremind

blackpeopleoftheirplace.The

practiceshouldend.

georgerichmond

Albuquerque,NewMexico

A waterygravewasanentirely

fittingplaceforEdward

Colston’sstatue,untilit was

retrievedbyBristolcouncil.In

alllikelihoodtheseabedwas

thefinalrestingplaceforsome

ofthoseslaveswhoformedhis

miserablecargo.It wouldhave

beenbetterif hadbeenleftto

thefish,whoseforebearsfed

onhishelplessvictims.

stephenpowers

London

Onthephilanthropythat

Colstonprovided,Theodore

Rooseveltoncesaidthat“No

amountofcharitiesinspend-

ingsuchfortunescancompen-

sateinanywayforthemis-

conductinacquiringthem.”

jockchandler

Charlotte,NorthCarolina

Yourleaderontheremovalof

historicalstatuesremindedme

ofa smallareaoutsidetheback

ofthenationalmuseumin

Tirana,Albania’scapital.Enver

Hoxha,JosephStalinandtheir

ilkbroughtdowntoearthand

standingaroundnotsure

exactlywhatwentwrong.

bobrutherford

Victoria,Canada

Make mine a triple

Schumpeter (May 23rd) missed

one key opportunity for small

booze brands during the lock-

down, which is online sales

direct to the consumer. Sales

throughourownwebsiteand

tootheronlineshops(suchas

MasterofMalt)grewby300%

fromMarchtoMay.If any-

thing,beingabletobypass

supermarkets’buyingdepart-

mentsandgostraighttothe

consumerisa bigopportunity

forsmallcompanies.

paddyfletcher

PortofLeithDistillery

Edinburgh

Hotmetal

InregardtoButtonwood’s

articleonrisingmetalprices

(June13th),it isimportantto

distinguishrawmaterialfrom

finishedsteelprices.It istrue

thatthepriceofironorehas

beensurprisinglystrongthis

year.Someofthisisdrivenby

supplyissuesrelatedto

covid-19affectingBraziland

othercountries,butanother

factoristhehistoricallyhigh

raw-steelproductioninChina.

Evenwhileplaguedbythe

complexitiesofbattlingthe

coronavirus,Chinahasstill

produceda record415mtonnes

ofsteelintheyeartodate.As

domesticconsumptionslows,

it becomesharderforChinato

absorbthissteel,hencemore

ofit isexported,depressing

internationalsteelprices.

Thelingeringeffectsfrom

thepandemicwillslowdown

consumptionevenfurtherthis

yearandsteelproductionisset

toreachnewheights:Chinais

onpacetoproduce1bntonnes

ofsteelthisyear.Thisdoesnot

bodewellforfinishedsteel

pricesglobally.

gintaskryzius

London

Be open about PPE

Another vital part of Medellín’s

data-driven response to the

pandemic has been to publish

all of its emergency procure-

ments openly (“Medellín’s

medical marvel”, June 4th).

Colombia has made all its

procurement spending acces-

sible online in a user-friendly

way, regardless of the amount

or procurement method, a

contrast to most other coun-

tries, which try to hide the

figures. It is free for anyone to

analyse, which has helped

uncover a number of cases

where politicians abused

emergency contracts.

So you can buy equipment

fast and still buy openly. If

Colombia can do it, we think

there are no excuses for other

countries not to come clean on

their covid-19 contracts too.

nicolas penagos

Head of Latin America

Open Contracting Partnership

Bogotá

Build your own country

Your appreciation of “Civiliza-

tion VI”, the latest in a long-

running series of video games,

has inspired me to admit to a

guilty pleasure (“Will to pow-

er”, May 30th). I have been

working harder during this

pandemic than I ever have. One

of the things that has kept me

sane is playing little snippets

of Civ6 between Zoom calls or

doing chores. Playing the

game, in which you have to

co-ordinate diplomacy,

religion, the armed forces,

industry and the economy, has

been comforting and useful, as

I work with a team building an

integrated response strategy to

covid-19.

e. glen weyl

Co-chair

Harvard Edmund J. Safra Cen-

tre for Ethics Rapid Response

Taskforce on Covid-

Cambridge, Massachusetts

Starman

I was perplexed by your state-

ment that “no other business

figure holds a candle to Sir

Richard Branson when it

comes to public-relations

stunts” (“Still smiling, cap-

tain?”, June 13th). Where were

you in February 2018, when

Elon Musk launched his own

sports car into space as part of

the inaugural test of SpaceX’s

heavy-lift rocket?

justin hotter

Eugene, Oregon