Geoffrey Plourde wrote: >> Well where will it stop? If we have a project, we should have a >> memorial project for all disasters. I echo Mr. Bimmler in his >> concerns about the motives behind this proposal.
I'm in some agreement here because my experience of UK charity law is that it is not generally permitted to have a "political" purpose, and certainly taking such a strong line on any "repression", "genocide" etc, would appear to be anathema to a charitable objective. It's OK, I suppose, if the United Nations has used such terminology, but I don't think we should be seen to be taking partisan sides in political disputes, because that dilutes the educational charitable status of the Foundation. It's entirely a different issue to support humanitarian aid to the victims, however, and I am open to the idea that such memorial projects might have that idea as a focus. However, the way it's been put forward seems to militate against that construction. >> >> ________________________________ >> From: Fred Bauder <fredb...@fairpoint.net> >> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List >> <foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org> >> Sent: Wednesday, December 24, 2008 2:12:25 PM >> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] New project proposal: Soviet Repressions >> Memorial >> >>> 2008/12/24 Michael Bimmler <mbimm...@gmail.com>: >>> >>>> A project which is motivated in such a way cannot possibly be >>>> anything else than biased...and indeed, the very concept of >>>> memorials is biased: Why should we have a memorial of the victims >>>> of Soviet Repression, when we don't have a memorial of Nazi >>>> victims, victims of the Armenian Genocide, victim of the Rwandan >>>> Genocide, victims of various repression regimes in South-East Asia >>>> and China, victims in Darfur, Chad, the Central African Republic >>>> etc. etc. >>>> No one can sensibly suggest that we can have memorial sites for >>>> every "repression" (in lack of a better word) in history and thus, >>>> we had better none, in my opinion. (Yes, in other cases I argued >>>> and would argue that it is better to have "something" than >>>> "nothing", but in this case, I'm afraid I am not convinced of the >>>> merits of the proposal at all and of the propriety of the motives >>>> behind it) >>> >>> >>> Yes. However, it could be a valuable wiki to create privately. >>> Generic hosting is (a) really cheap (b) often includes MediaWiki >>> out the box. The wiki is unlikely to be vastly overloaded, so cheap >>> hosting would do for a start. >>> >>> See http://www.sep11memories.org/wiki/In_Memoriam for a memorial >>> project for victims of the World Trade Center attack, for example. >>> >>> Although started with a strong POV, such a project could >>> nevertheless accumulate material of high quality historical and >>> scholarly interest. >>> >>> >>> - d. >> >> I support this project, and don't think it should get pushed off into >> some obscure corner of the internet. We should host it. We should >> host it >> because we stand against totalitarian repression; and reject the >> position >> that some knowledge, knowledge of the consequences of totalitarian >> repression, is to be repressed and not readily available. >> >> Fred Bauder >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l >> >> >> >> _______________________________________________ >> foundation-l mailing list >> foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org >> Unsubscribe: >> https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l >> > > > > > No virus found in this incoming message. > Checked by AVG - http://www.avg.com > Version: 8.0.176 / Virus Database: 270.10.0/1862 - Release Date: > 23/12/2008 12:08 _______________________________________________ foundation-l mailing list foundation-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l