The Written Word: The Bible, The Koran, Mein Kampf and.....

[Franken]

UK: Cardiff Library Backs Down on Protocols

Anti-racism campaigners have urged Cardiff City Council to remove a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion from a city library. Anti-racism campaigner Dave Shipper, 85, wrote to the library in February that the book was written to “foster hatred of Jews”. The edition of the anti-Semitic forgery, printed in 2010 in Milton Keynes, is the translation by Victor E Marsden and has no academic annotations or indication that the content is fraudulent, according to Mr Shipper. He said: “I hope it is by accident rather than design, and that this copy could have been donated and accepted [by the library] unwittingly. I am anti-censorship, and the text should be available for research, but this was on an open shelf, with nothing to modify it. It was alongside many textbooks on anti-racism.”

Cardiff Council has now agreed to remove the book from the open shelf, but will not restrict access to it when requested. A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “Cardiff Library Service does not restrict access to publicly available material, unless it is against the law. We do not therefore exclude material on the basis of moral, political, religious, racial or gender grounds. However, following the correspondence with Mr Shipper, we have decided to remove the book from open shelves and make it accessible on application only.” Mr Shipper, whose father was Jewish, said library staff had told him that the book was clearly categorised as “racism”. He said: “If that is categorised as racism, then what on earth are the other books available in that category?” A spokesman for the Community Security Trust urged Cardiff to remove the book altogether. “It is outrageous that such a prominent anti-Semitic book should be available in a public library. CST urges the relevant authorities to remove it immediately. Failure to do so would be a moral disgrace.”


What book would like to have if you were marooned on a Desert Island?

[LilyThePink]

UK: Cardiff Library Backs Down on Protocols

Anti-racism campaigners have urged Cardiff City Council to remove a copy of the Protocols of the Elders of Zion from a city library. Anti-racism campaigner Dave Shipper, 85, wrote to the library in February that the book was written to “foster hatred of Jews”. The edition of the anti-Semitic forgery, printed in 2010 in Milton Keynes, is the translation by Victor E Marsden and has no academic annotations or indication that the content is fraudulent, according to Mr Shipper. He said: “I hope it is by accident rather than design, and that this copy could have been donated and accepted [by the library] unwittingly. I am anti-censorship, and the text should be available for research, but this was on an open shelf, with nothing to modify it. It was alongside many textbooks on anti-racism.”

Cardiff Council has now agreed to remove the book from the open shelf, but will not restrict access to it when requested. A Cardiff Council spokesperson said: “Cardiff Library Service does not restrict access to publicly available material, unless it is against the law. We do not therefore exclude material on the basis of moral, political, religious, racial or gender grounds. However, following the correspondence with Mr Shipper, we have decided to remove the book from open shelves and make it accessible on application only.” Mr Shipper, whose father was Jewish, said library staff had told him that the book was clearly categorised as “racism”. He said: “If that is categorised as racism, then what on earth are the other books available in that category?” A spokesman for the Community Security Trust urged Cardiff to remove the book altogether. “It is outrageous that such a prominent anti-Semitic book should be available in a public library. CST urges the relevant authorities to remove it immediately. Failure to do so would be a moral disgrace.”


What book would like to have if you were marooned on a Desert Island?

I think a good book on advanced survival skills (including medical stuff), no-one on the radio show ever seems to think of this, they get a record, but probably nothing to play it on.


It's probably a given that once someone has challenged a controversial document (that doesn't already have a good amount of tenure), a public institution is going to remove it, just for a quiet life. Libraries are going to have it very tough soon anyway.

It would be nice if there was a section for 'controversial books'*, a bit like Arkham University, then there would be no complaints that it is being pushed as mainstream.

(chucked a vague literary reference in there for you Franken)


*Edit: On rereading, I see they've sort of done that. I think I meant an open 'controversial section'
also, that should be Miskatonic University, Arkham

[Franken]

I think a good book on advanced survival skills (including medical stuff), no-one on the radio show ever seems to think of this, they get a record, but probably nothing to play it on.


It's probably a given that once someone has challenged a controversial document (that doesn't already have a good amount of tenure), a public institution is going to remove it, just for a quiet life. Libraries are going to have it very tough soon anyway.

It would be nice if there was a section for 'controversial books'*, a bit like Arkham University, then there would be no complaints that it is being pushed as mainstream.

(chucked a vague literary reference in there for you Franken)


*Edit: On rereading, I see they've sort of done that. I think I meant an open 'controversial section'

also, that should be Miskatonic University, Arkham

My book would have to be, "From simple to advanced survivial skills in all situations." A book that I could believe in.

[LilyThePink]

My book would have to be, "From simple to advanced survivial skills in all situations." A book that I could believe in.

I think, on a desert island, I would be a novice too. I'm probably ok in a UK environment, for a while at least.

I wonder if Ray Mears has done a series on desert islands, he done one for a lot of other scenarios

[Tillerman]

If I could only take one book to this hypothetical desert island, it would be one that's the only good thing to have come out of China in the past sixty years or so: The Barefoot Doctor's Manual, a very useful hold-over from my hippie days.

It might be a cool thing to have a thread based on the Desert Island series in this sub-forum.

[Franken]

If I could only take one book to this hypothetical desert island, it would be one that's the only good thing to have come out of China in the past sixty years or so: The Barefoot Doctor's Manual, a very useful hold-over from my hippie days.

It might be a cool thing to have a thread based on the Desert Island series in this sub-forum.

You mean picking your 8 best records/tracks and if you could only pick one to take to the Island, which one? The 8 would reveal something about the poster.

[LilyThePink]

You mean picking your 8 best records/tracks and if you could only pick one to take to the Island, which one? The 8 would reveal something about the poster.

I couldn't live with just eight diverse tracks, I would take one album: Dark side of the Moon

......Tired of lying in the sunshine staying home to watch the rain.
You are young and life is long and there is time to kill today.
And then one day you find ten years have got behind you.
No one told you when to run, you missed the starting gun.

So you run and you run to catch up with the sun but it's sinking
Racing around to come up behind you again.
The sun is the same in a relative way but you're older,
Shorter of breath and one day closer to death.

Every year is getting shorter never seem to find the time.
Plans that either come to naught or half a page of scribbled lines
Hanging on in quiet desperation is the English way
The time is gone, the song is over,
Thought I'd something more to say......

Sounds a bit depressing from a whizzy, modern life perspective, but just right for spacing out to, and being philosophical.


Talking of this sort of stuff, I've recently rewatched 'Into the Wild' (Christopher McCandless). That always makes me pretty philosophical

[Franken]

I couldn't live with just eight diverse tracks, I would take one album: Dark side of the Moon



Sounds a bit depressing from a whizzy, modern life perspective, but just right for spacing out to, and being philosophical.


Talking of this sort of stuff, I've recently rewatched 'Into the Wild' (Christopher McCandless). That always makes me pretty philosophical

I would choose from folk/blues/trad. jazz with one from rockblues (the Stones) and one classical. Representing all the types of music I like.

[Tillerman]

McCandless did almost everything wrong. A little Thoreau's a dangerous thing.

There are a lot of good reasons why hunter-gatherers live(d) in groups.

ETA: if I could only have a single disk, it would probably have to be Coltrane's Giant Steps.

[Bevois]

I am rather partial to jew/negro 60s pop music. 'Spanish Harlem' Ben E King is about as sublime and perfect as a record could be. For classical music though I agree with the Great Leader, Wagner