![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
Nov. 6th, 2022 01:10 pm
Disheartening Worldcon News
Borys Sydiuk, writing from Kyiv on Facebook (October 12), says:
"Wordcon-2023's GoH Sergei Lukianenko celebrates the Russian missile attack on Ukraine and hails the murder of Ukrainian civilians.
"The Russian young-adult SF author Sergei Lukianenko says in his post that all Ukrainians are fascists and should be murdered. After the mass attack of Russian terrorists on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on October 10, he made a post hailing the destruction of power plants, heat suppliers, and other civilian infrastructure: 'Finally, I wish it would be so in February, deliberately and ruthlessly, fascist scum should go to hell,' meaning all Ukrainians.... It is really a pity that the main American Science Fiction convention to be held in Chinese Chengdu in 2023 invited this racist and haters as Guest of Honor. It is the decision of the organizing committee of the 81st Worldcon, but maybe it is time to change their mind and cancel such an unwanted guest whose participation would pollute the great name of Worldcon."
I got this from the November 2022 issue of Ansible, which goes on to say:
"Even Western members of the Chengdu Worldcon committee prefer not to comment on their guest's fulminations. Of the remaining guests, Liu Cixin of China has publicly supported Chinese mass internment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang while Canada's Robert Sawyer seems blithely unconcerned about sharing a platform with the other two.”
They seem nice. All they need now is someone from Saudi Arabia who supports the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi and they’ll have a full set. Glad I never joined, though if I had I could have written the committee and let them know why I’m not coming.
"Wordcon-2023's GoH Sergei Lukianenko celebrates the Russian missile attack on Ukraine and hails the murder of Ukrainian civilians.
"The Russian young-adult SF author Sergei Lukianenko says in his post that all Ukrainians are fascists and should be murdered. After the mass attack of Russian terrorists on Ukrainian cities and civilian infrastructure on October 10, he made a post hailing the destruction of power plants, heat suppliers, and other civilian infrastructure: 'Finally, I wish it would be so in February, deliberately and ruthlessly, fascist scum should go to hell,' meaning all Ukrainians.... It is really a pity that the main American Science Fiction convention to be held in Chinese Chengdu in 2023 invited this racist and haters as Guest of Honor. It is the decision of the organizing committee of the 81st Worldcon, but maybe it is time to change their mind and cancel such an unwanted guest whose participation would pollute the great name of Worldcon."
I got this from the November 2022 issue of Ansible, which goes on to say:
"Even Western members of the Chengdu Worldcon committee prefer not to comment on their guest's fulminations. Of the remaining guests, Liu Cixin of China has publicly supported Chinese mass internment of Muslim Uighurs in Xinjiang while Canada's Robert Sawyer seems blithely unconcerned about sharing a platform with the other two.”
They seem nice. All they need now is someone from Saudi Arabia who supports the murder and dismemberment of Jamal Khashoggi and they’ll have a full set. Glad I never joined, though if I had I could have written the committee and let them know why I’m not coming.