Talk:Eddie Ndopu

This article must adhere to the biographies of living persons (BLP) policy, even if it is not a biography, because it contains material about living persons. Contentious material about living persons that is unsourced or poorly sourced must be removed immediately from the article and its talk page, especially if potentially libellous. If such material is repeatedly inserted, or if you have other concerns, please report the issue to this noticeboard.

If you are a subject of this article, or acting on behalf of one, and you need help, please see this help page.

Biography

This article is within the scope of WikiProject Biography, a collaborative effort to create, develop and organize Wikipedia's articles about people. All interested editors are invited to join the project and contribute to the discussion. For instructions on how to use this banner, please refer to the documentation.BiographyWikipedia:WikiProject BiographyTemplate:WikiProject Biographybiography articles

University of Oxford Low‑importance

	University of Oxford portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject University of Oxford, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of the University of Oxford on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.University of OxfordWikipedia:WikiProject University of OxfordTemplate:WikiProject University of OxfordUniversity of Oxford articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

Disability

Eddie Ndopu is within the scope of WikiProject Disability. For more information, visit the project page, where you can join the project and/or contribute to the discussion.DisabilityWikipedia:WikiProject DisabilityTemplate:WikiProject DisabilityDisability articles

South Africa Low‑importance

	South Africa portal This article is within the scope of WikiProject South Africa, a collaborative effort to improve the coverage of South Africa on Wikipedia. If you would like to participate, please visit the project page, where you can join the discussion and see a list of open tasks.South AfricaWikipedia:WikiProject South AfricaTemplate:WikiProject South AfricaSouth Africa articles
Low	This article has been rated as Low-importance on the project's importance scale.

First

I am aware of WP:VNT and of how relatively few black African people have attended Oxford Uni but concerned nonetheless about the origin of the "first" claim. It seems to have originated from around the time he was crowdfunding to covers the costs for his carer etc.

Disability is a broad term, personal details about early students from Africa at Oxford are sketchy, the university does not seem to support the claim (as in neither confirms nor denies). I recall the case of Jessica Rees in the 1980s, who was claimed to be the first deaf person at Oxbridge - a statement that it turned out originated with her and which was patently untrue if only because I was at Cambridge at that time and was born profoundly deaf. As it happens, and for completely different reasons, Rees was later "found out" on an unrelated claim connected to her time at Oxford and suffered reputational damage because of it - you can google that.

Given the lengthy history of the ancient universities, extraordinary claims such as these are pretty much impossible to verify accurately, regardless of journalistic sensationalism etc. And when they are verifiable by narrowing scope through intersection, you can end up with ridiculous claims. A cartoon in the Manchester Evening News once mocked this situation in a different context, being the love held by cricket commentators for statistics: it showed a batsman walking to the crease with a commentator in a radio booth saying "Jim, is this the first time an England cricket captain has ever taken to the field with dirty bootlaces?"

Just food for thought because I am really not convinced about this claim and think it may need to be qualified in some way. (And not in some way that further narrows the scope of achievement.) - Sitush (talk) 03:48, 6 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

I should clarify that the cited sources refer to him as the first disabled African at the university, not the first at the Blavatnik, which is a much narrower and less significant claim. I have amended the article accordingly. - Sitush (talk) 08:35, 6 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

And I have amended it again in the light of comments here. It is now an absurdly narrow claim that really has no significance. - Sitush (talk) 05:05, 7 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]

NMC meeting

The NMC meeting referred to in the article was vaguely connected to a UNESCO project but my googling suggests that it was a one-off event in 2010. NMC = Ni, Mondlokaj Civitanoj (Esperanto for We, Global Local Citizens) and the full name of the meet was the First NMC World Youth Meeting for a Sustainable Future. Pp 35 and 37 of this covers it but I'm not sure how best to deal with the clarification tag that I added - we have no article for it. - Sitush (talk) 07:13, 7 May 2019 (UTC)[reply]