#cecil rhodes

[londonedge]

Balconies at Park View House in Camden, London

Park View House was formerly known as Cecil Rhodes House until 2021 when it was officially renamed Park View House. Before that, in the 1980s, there had been an attempt to rename it Robert Mugabe House. The lesson here is that it is probably safer for a local authority not to name a building after a person.

[zaperseus-der-zauberer]

"[...] November 11, 1918.

All across the Western front, the clocks that were lucky enough to escape the four years of shelling chimed the eleventh hour. And with that the First World War came to an end.

From 10 o’clock to 11 — the hour for the cessation of hostilities — the opposed batteries simply raised hell. Not even the artillery prelude to our advance into the Argonne had anything on it. To attempt an advance was out of the question. It was not a barrage. It was a deluge. [. . .] Nothing quite so electrical in effect as the sudden stop that came at 11 A. M. has ever occurred to me. It was 10:60 precisely and — the roar stopped like a motor car hitting a wall. The resulting quiet was uncanny in comparison. From somewhere far below ground, Germans began to appear. They clambered to the parapets and began to shout wildly. They threw their rifles, hats, bandoleers, bayonets and trench knives toward us. They began to sing. —Lieutenant Walter A. Davenport, 101st Infantry Regiment, US Army

And just like that, it was over. Four years of the bloodiest carnage the world had ever seen came to a stop as sudden and bewildering as its start. And the world vowed “Never again.”

Each year, we lay the wreath. We hear “The Last Post.” We mouth the words “never again” like an incantation. But what does it mean? To answer this question, we have to understand what WWI was.

WWI was an explosion, a breaking point in history. In the smoldering shell hole of that great cataclysm lay the industrial-era optimism of never-ending progress. Old verities about the glory of war lay strewn around the battlefields of that “Great War” like a fallen soldier left to die in No Man’s Land, and along with it lay all the broken dreams of a world order that had been blown apart. Whether we know it or not, we here in the 21st century are still living in the crater of that explosion, the victims of a First World War that we are only now beginning to understand.

What was World War One about? How did it start? Who won? And what did they win? Now, 100 years after those final shots rang out, these questions still puzzle historians and laymen alike. But as we shall see, this confusion is not a happenstance of history but the wool that has been pulled over our eyes to stop us from seeing what WWI really was. [...]"

[postcard-from-the-past]

Cecil Rhodes visiting “Fort Rhodes”, an important position defended by the Kenilworth Defence Force during the siege of Kimberley, South Africa

British vintage postcard

[tenth-sentence]

That old bastard was rich enough to name African countries after himself and in a draft of his will he laid out plans for a secret society dedicated to planetary domination by English-speaking peoples.

"Right Story, Wrong Story: Adventures in Indigenous Thinking" - Tyson Yunkaporta

[hungrytravellers]

Bulawayo #2: The Blue Whale And Three White Rhinos

[my-passion-for-travel]

Kimberly and The Big Hole

[mxtxfanatic]

Hi! If you don't mind me asking:

What does mxtx says about jc's character? Like some jc stans claim that she has said he has a knife tounge and tofu heart, (I don't believe it still) is it true? I don't know where to find her interviews, so I asked you instead:)

Thank you 💕

MXTX speaks on Jiang Cheng’s character in two places that I know: the old version of the postscript of the novel (absent from the official 7seas release) and an interview from before she left socials.

In the postscript, she only has this to say about Jiang Cheng:

Everyone should know what Jiang Cheng’s keyword is without me saying it. In the beginning, I thought with with XY’s [Xue Yang] existence, Jiang Cheng’s negative energy would definitely seem skimpy. Who knew he became the ultimate superstar of the comment section? Compared to him, XY was almost a poor, has-been idol. Only now and then would someone decide to drag him out again. Of course, in the end, under the combined PDA attacks of WWX and LWJ, the past and present superstars were obliterated.

And in this interview, she goes more in-depth. Sidenote: while I appreciate the interview for what it, I do not appreciate the ways in which they insert their own opinions about how they think MXTX should feel about Jiang Cheng into the actual interview commentary, and it shows how much of a bias even the interviewer had towards his character to have asked so many leading questions in an attempt to get a positive response out of her about him.

Anyways, here's some expansion by @jiangwanyinscatmom on the nuance of what mxtx meant by “not heinous/evil” that was lost in translation here and some more re-translation (still of the same interview as above):

墨香铜臭：本性不是特别坏，但是有人要讨厌他的话，那也没办法。因为你讨不讨厌一个人，也是……也是自己的问题。

He is not a 坏 (basically spoiled broken, corrupt) person by nature, but if someone wants to dislike him, there is nothing I can do about it. Because whether you dislike someone or not is also... your own choice.

MXTX's answer about why Jiang Cheng never could marry and how she sees him as a character (parenthesis section for jiangwanyinscatmom's own translation notes):

墨香铜臭：就性格比较差劲吧，谈了几个，吹了。 (He just has an 差劲 (average/lame/disappointing, let down) temperament, he dated several times but they were all failures) 墨香铜臭：我眼中的江澄……我眼中的江澄，就……其实没怎么样，我写文还是比较客观的。我看他……我看他就、就像是在看一个作品。 女主持：如果让大大本人来介绍江澄这个人的话，你会怎么介绍他？ 墨香铜臭：我觉得他是一个负能量比较……重……的人。 女主持：这么简单吗？ 墨香铜臭：对，负能量比较重，但是也不是个、也不是个十恶不赦的人吧。对。 MXTX: In my eyes, Jiang Cheng... In my eyes, Jiang Cheng is... Actually, it's nothing special. I am relatively objective when writing. When I look at him... When I look at him, it's like looking at a work of art. Female host: If you were to introduce Jiang Cheng, how would you introduce him? MXTX: I think he is a person with a lot of negative energy... Female host: Is it that simple? MXTX: Yes, he has a lot of negative energy, but he is not a heinous person. Yes.

In short: MXTX describes Jiang Cheng as a character that is filled with negativity and unable to date, but he is not inherently evil nor to the point of being irredeemable. He is a product of the story and fulfills the role he was created to fulfill in the plot. He's not a good person, not overtly and not secretly. That's it.

[this-is-a-podcast-fanblog]

Night Vale Obscure Ship Tournament

Welcome one and all to the Night Vale Obscure Ship Tournament! This is to determine once and for all what is the best obscure Night Vale ship. This tournament brings together canon pairings from the supplementary media (like the books), fandom crack ships, rarepairs, and could-have-beens. Some of these ships have large fanbases on Tumblr, but are more lacking on other platforms. Some of these ships will genuinely make you question who in the world is interested in that. And all of these ships are up for your vote, starting tomorrow!

Official Bracket:

On the left we have:

Nilanjanet (Nilanjana Sikdar/Janet Lubelle) vs Kasvin (Kasper Rhodes/Kevin)

Cecearl (Cecil Gerswhin Palmer/Earl Harland) vs Charlos (Carlos Robles/Charles)

Josh/Monty vs Danielauren (Daniel/Lauren Mallard)

Kascil (Kasper Rhodes/Cecil Gerswhin Palmer) vs Blake/Larry Leroy

On the right we have:

Mallardinal (Lauren Mallard/Dana Cardinal) vs Pawn Sherrif (Jackie Fierro/Sherrif Sam)

Toxic Science (Blake Jones/Janet Lubelle) vs Pizzacat (Silas the Thief/Big Rico Goldblum)

Radio Scientology (Cecil Palmer/Kevin/Carlos Robles/Charles) vs Women's Wrong's (The Faceless Old Woman/The Woman From Italy)

Laurbelle (Lauren Mallard/Janet Lubelle) vs Kasplake (Kasper Rhodes/Blake Jones)

Vote correctly, or never see your loved ones again.

[thevoiceofdesertbluffs]

do you think. Cecil ever thinks back on what happened with Kasper and mourns. Mourns for what could have been, mourns for the lost famtasy of him and Carlos living forever, together. Mourns for their mortality, for the fact that one day they will die, one day one of them will potentially die first, leaving the other alone. Fears that he will be the one to go first, effectively leaving Carlos by himself. Do you think this ever crosses his mind or do you think he just forgot. Or are you normal

[asydicsydney]

My favorite silly science squad: Carlos Robles, Nilanjana Sildar, Blake Jones, and new addition, Harrison Kip (who can't remember his families names)

[postcard-from-the-past]

Late Cecil Rhodes' House in Rondebosch, South Africa

British vintage postcard

[hungrytravellers]

Travelling Back In Time In A City Called Slaughter

[dragon-swords-prophecies]

ah yes, the best way to name fictional cats:

look through your ap world history binder from last year and pick a random name and give it to the cat

[erinaceina]

Hey, let’s make fun of the English (oh wait, it’s actually the British, but no one wants to remember that) for long-standing ecological issues, the extinction of native large predators, which happened hundreds of years ago, and moorland burning, which is done by the rich and for the rich and which very few people are have any influence over, especially under this stinking Tory government.

Oh wait, let’s fucking not, hmmm?