Re:Have you ever tried to sell a diamond?
by cromulent on Saturday June 05, 2010 @12:15PM
(#1407025)
Rhodesia was named for him. He also set up the Rhodes Scholarship, which enabled people like Bill Clinton and Bob Hawke to go to Oxford.
Just because he set up a scholarship in his name doesn't make the things he did any better.
One of the aims of the Rhodes scholarship is Anglicization. A person who did not study in English cannot apply (even though he is fluent).
Until recently they also excluded women.
In any cases, the legacy of Rhodes is despicable - even if he left behind a scholarship program. His creation of the state of Zimbabwe (with two different ethnic groups) results in problems to this day.
"Just because he set up a scholarship in his name doesn't make the things he did any better."
I don't think I was suggesting that it did.
And the goal of Rhodes in establishing these scholarships for elite students to study in Britain was to establish a global British empire, including "the ultimate recovery of the United States of America as an integral part of the British Empire." (from Rhodes' will) I don't go looking for conspiracy theories but the Rhodes Scholarship is hard to ignore.
De Beers was basically formed by an English colonialist (Cecil John Rhodes). He controlled a company which basically owned a country (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_South_Africa_Company).
He also had his own private army and tried to overthrow a sovereign government (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jameson_Raid).