Heya, Jessie here aka Jinsella aka the chick that is about to get aggy with the Head of
the university of Manchester…I just want to do a quick intro to explain that I went to this
Q&A to try and discover a little more about why the university is ignoring all the work
done by student activist, particularly that of the BDS campaign (Boycott Divestment and Sanctions of Israel) who are trying to draw light to the that fact
that the uni is still invest in companies who supply military regimes,
this includes Israel and this includes Saudi Arabia…
having graduated I am trying to go full time on this campaign under the name demilitarise education,
dED for short this is so we can continue to untangle, expose and end university
ties to the global arms trade.
So this is my first clip I am just learning how to make videos so I can start sharing
with you all the details of our research and the campaign.
All the statements I'm about to make in this Q&A and the responses from Dame Nancy Rothwell
I will be breaking down and discussing in future video's
so help get us started and like and subscribe…
and yeah enjoy this video, I would apologise for interrupting our VC so much but what's
the point of playing to the rules when the game already rigged.
Especially when our uni claims to be politically neutral yet we have evidence that shows their investments
decisions supports oppressive members in conflict…and while our university isn't willing to admit
doing anything wrong…this bias will continue…
so stay tuned, sit back and remember we ain't dED yet!
Hi my name is Jessie and I am a final year fashion student, in 2017 the university signed a contract with BAE
and BAE is the world's 3rd biggest arms dealer
BAE has been called out for sealing whats been called the most corrupt deal ever using £6 billion worth of tax payers money to secure an arms deal
with Saudi Arabia which was worth £43 billion.
The UN has now reported that 80% of Yemen's population is in urgent need of humanitarian aid,
50,000 children are expected to die of starvation this year (2018) so when we asked
The Freedom of Information Act for this contract, it got sent back to us
there was no student body signatures and a lot of the contract was blacked out and it just said that this is to protect our commercial interest.
So my question is at what point does the universities commercial interest and research
take a lower importance than human life in different countries?
Nancy: so we have quiet a strong ethical investments and contracts policy
Jessie: You are not sticking to it in a lot of ways though
Nancy: No could I answer please,
we have quiet a strong ethical and we consider the fact that BAE Systems is involved in defence not necessarily
be a reason for us to not have a contract with them, because of course we have contracts with lots of organisations
the British government has defence policy obviously there are some we particularly don't engage with
but most of those I would think we would do,
a contract such as that will always be redampted because it's commercially in confidence so you would never
Jessie: What about the no student signatures?
Nancy: Sorry?
Jessie: There was no student signatures?
Nancy: Why would there be a student signature on a research contract?
Jessie: Well there is a student signatures page in the contract?
Nancy: no idea about this specific contract but I have never known a research contract with a student signature on it, I mean I can look into it but I have never know…
Jessie: The investment policy states that the investment will aim to eliminate and definitely not be involved in the armament of military regimes?
Which I mean we are involved with maybe like 10 different arms companies, including like
Versarien with the graphene application and stuff
Nancy: So in term of how you define an arms company I would certainly not define Versarien
Jessie: Selling, they sell parts which…
Nancy: They sell some small parts, I think we find
Nancy: Do you want me to answer, do you want me to answer or not
Jessie: I'm just saying we have researched into this so please answer something which tells us something significant actually explains
to us why it is being done when it is in our policy that it shouldn't be happening if it is effecting human life.
Nancy: So if I could answer, you will find just about every manufacturing company in this country
and in the world makes something that is used somewhere in armaments,
it would be impossible for us to be in a school of materials, working on materials,
just about every airline uses components made by, if you go on an aircraft if you go on a bus
are riding on things that have components made by companies that are involved in armaments in some way.
Jessie: So do you condone BAE selling £43 billion worth of arms?
Nancy: I don't know about that
Jessie: Since the Yemen conflict started they sold £2 million of just bombs
Nancy: I don't know the details about that I'm afraid
Jessie: But you know that they sell…
Nancy: So have you recorded me just because of this specific topic
Jessie: We recorded you because there are a lot of students here who wanted to ask questions
todo with arms todo with BDS todo with the pensions stuff who couldn't be here.
Nancy: Ok alright, thanks
Jessie: And you haven't really answered the fact that actually these investments are going into damaging,
they are going against humanitarian principles and you know that so much is going to arms companies
Nancy: As I said most of the companies that we have contracts with or invest in are companies that have a very broad portfolio,
Rolls Royce would be one for example but make the engines for most the buses, trains and things that we travel on
and they make their own components, they also have so involvement in armament
Jessie: So they get the ultimate power, I mean it is pretty clear that BAE Systems are hugely selling,
y'know they sell jets they sell bombs it's not that hard to differentiate that from solid academic...
Nancy: It is hard
Jessie: But like graphene, why is 85% of its application sold to technologies company
which is a part of the uni and selling arms to Israel
Nancy: Oh I can tell you 85% is not sold I can tell you that fact is incorrect
Jessie: Please can we have the facts
Nancy: I don't know what facts you want if you want to write in
Jessie: How much of the application do they own
Nancy: Who Versarien?
Jessie: Yeah
Nancy: I…at a guess would say 5% but it's a guess
Jessie: That's not what Versarian said
Nancy: I was with the chief executive of Versarian actually
Jessie: Niel Ricketts yeah I looked into and he said
Clive: The danger of this conversation is the intention here is to come
and you are right to raise these issues but the danger is me only go onto one topic, and I think
it is important you get a chance to ask these questions but Nancy has explained the ethical investment structure to you.
Jessie: OK but back to the fact its not sticking to uni policy
Nancy: it is sticking to university policy
Jessie: Your investment policy aims to avoid any investments which sells to military regime, that is not happening
Nancy: I think you'll find it is actually, we are about to review our policy and where we are up to again
Jessie: OK but are not very convincing
Student Unions Rep: Can I just say if you do want to get involved in a campaign you can do at the students union
Nancy: ok yeah do talk to them
Jessie: Its all very well saying, oh get involved…
Nancy: Sorry
Jessie: I don't know you haven't really answered any of my questions you have just told me that the information is wrong
Nancy: No I said so of it is wrong, no some of your
Jessie: Is your 5% backable too?
Nancy: Some of your information might be correct and I just don't know the details
Jessie: I wanted to ask about in 2016 you had an interview with the students union and apparently, they received a lawsuit yeah afterwards?
Nancy: No but anyway carry on…
Jessie: Well what's your side of the story?
Nancy: That they quoted me out of context on quite
a number of things so for example when they asked me a question I said no I don't think so it's a difficult topic and they just put no in
Jessie: What kind of difficult questions?
Nancy: I can't honestly remember now, but we asked them to clarify and change it and they said they refused to
Jessie: So would the money come out of, if the lawsuit went through
Nancy: There wasn't a lawsuit
Jessie: I mean it's been reported that there was a lawsuit
Nancy: It might have been reported but there was no lawsuit I can ensure you, well not that I'm aware of anyway,
it was a discussion between our head of commons and the editor of the Mancunion
Student Union Rep: and the CEO of the students union I don't remember any lawsuit involved
Students Union Rep: I think Micheal was threatened
Nancy: I don't know I wasn't part of those discussions, but there was certainly never a lawsuit
Jessie: But it is true that because you got taken out of context
Nancy: That was..there were some changes that we
suggested to my quote and they didn't want to accept those
Jessie: Well I think the article got pulled as well?
Nancy: Yes...no no it appeared...
Students Union Rep: I think because I was an officer last year and the important thing we took away was, is that our student newspaper should have full editorial
autonomy within the law and then also our relationship with the university needed to improve and I think it did
Nancy: I have done other interviews with the Mancunion and they have been great
and I am actually doing a load with the editor on Thursday evening
so I'm all for it but I don't think it's right that I should be miss quoted or miss represented…I'm not sure
it was intentional actually I think it was by mistake
Jessie: Do you think there was a bad opinion about you after you censored a holocaust survivor's talk…Merika Sherwood
Nancy: After I Sorry?
Jessie: There was some censoring and we have the emails from um the Israeli Embassy and censoring
Nancy: Yes I met the Israeli Ambassador
Jessie: and censoring a talk for holocaust survivor Merika Sherwood
Nancy: So no we didn't censor it, actually, I wasn't
involved in the talk at all, but there was a request to change the title but it was completely
unrelated to any discussion I had with anybody from Israel
Jessie: What kind of things were you discussing with them?
Nancy: We were discussing about attracting Israeli students to the university as many of them feel fearful that they will be discriminated
against at British universities, how they feel afraid and we tried to ensure them that shouldn't be the case
we absolutely hold the right for people to have an opinion and
debate, but that wasn't to my knowledge targeted against specific Jewish students
or Israeli students, that was the major concern and topic we were worried about the welfare of Jewish and Israeli students
Clive: Can I just make sure that other people get a chance to ask questions because I know you have had a fair chance and I just want to
make sure that other colleagues and parts of the school also have a chance to ask questions
Jessie: I think that it would be a safer space for everyone, Palestinian, Iraqi all sorts of students if we weren't involved with any arms companies,
like Technion which is…we have likes with Technion here at the uni which is
Nancy A university, it's a university
Jessie: Yeah it is a university which is big on industry, aerospace and stuff like that
and of course those weapons are being used to attack Palestinian places and of course that's not like anything against you but we are help creating this bias.
For more infomation >> Amazon Raising Minimum Wage For US Workers To $15 Per Hour - Duration: 0:24. 
For more infomation >> How to find your PIN for printing - Duration: 0:37. 
For more infomation >> Shoes On Sale For $17M - Duration: 0:59. 
For more infomation >> 'Real Housewives of Atlanta' releases tease for 'boldest season yet' - Duration: 0:29. 
For more infomation >> How to sign up for Offsite loans - Duration: 1:08. 
For more infomation >> Amazon raising minimum wage for US workers to $15 per hour - Duration: 0:30. 
For more infomation >> Houston Forecast: Chance for showers Tuesday afternoon - Duration: 2:29. 
For more infomation >> How to find your PIN for borrowing - Duration: 0:29. 
For more infomation >> Jim Harbaugh proud of his team for comeback win on the road - Duration: 0:33. 
For more infomation >> Brevard mom arrested for throwing pepper into students' faces - Duration: 1:38. 
For more infomation >> Chance for thunderstorms today - Duration: 2:54. 
Không có nhận xét nào:
Đăng nhận xét