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January 25, 2007
Unshackle B'klyn minds
Atlantic Yard foes are picking a hollow fight in decrying arena sponsor's 'blood money'
NY Daily News
Errol Louis
Errol Louis is shocked, shocked:
I didn't think it was possible, but the already bitter public fight over Brooklyn's $4 billion Atlantic Yards project has turned even nastier.
After outlining the questions and concerns about the Barclay's naming rights deal, Louis remarks:
Gimme a break.
I readily concede, and have no doubt, that Barclays - like many companies with household names - profited from an untold number of monstrous crimes over the centuries.
But Barclays is hardly alone - and the people and newspapers trying to claim moral ground by throwing around terms like "integrity" and playing politics with horrors like the slave trade and the Holocaust know this. Or they should.
NoLandGrab: We've been giving Errol Louis a break for some time now, which is why we're still listening even though he regularly omits and conflates the facts.
For instance, in today's column he mentions "apartheid" once, but his rebuttal of opponents concerns is limited to the bank's history of involvement with the Holocaust and slavery. He conveniently overlooks the fact that Barclays profited handsomely from its relationship with South Africa's apartheid regime until 1986 — hardly ancient history by any estimation. And he completely ignores the fact that Barclays was cited by the United Nations for involvement in “shady networks of business and military figures” in the war-ravaged Congo just four years ago.
In addition, his argument for the Barclays Bank deal amounts to an everyone's-doing-it defense, an argument that most people give up trying on their parents by the time they are teenagers.
Just because the Barclays Bank deal didn't raise the hairs on Louis's neck doesn't mean that other Ratner supporters weren't offended and didn't consider the deal tone-deaf at best, a slap in the face at worst.
Posted by lumi at January 25, 2007 7:46 AM