Dec 31, 2012

Wishing all of God's children and men and women of goodwill everywhere a happy, healthy and fulfilling 2013. One of my New Year resolutions is to update my blog more regularly. Yes, this has been my resolution the past 5 years but this time I really mean it ... ;)

A new year wish in the words of the American novelist Edward Abbey in a tribute to a friend from his classic Desert Solitaire :

“May your trails be crooked, winding, lonesome, dangerous, leading to the most amazing view. May your mountains rise into and above the clouds. May your rivers flow without end, meandering through pastoral valleys tinkling with bells, past temples and castles and poets towers into a dark primeval forest where tigers belch and monkeys howl, through miasmal and mysterious swamps and down into a desert of red rock, blue mesas, domes and pinnacles and grottos of endless stone, and down again into a deep vast ancient unknown chasm where bars of sunlight blaze on profiled cliffs, where deer walk across the white sand beaches, where storms come and go as lightning clangs upon the high crags, where something strange and more beautiful and more full of wonder than your deepest dreams waits for you -- beyond that next turning of the canyon walls.”

This music video Skrillex & Damian Marley (Make It Bun Dem) was one of my favourites for the year for two reasons. First, it brings together two unlikely music genres - reggae dub and electro music in a tribute to cross-cultural dialogue. Secondly, it pays homage to aboriginal culture, something we don’t often see in popular culture. The rain dance is always an enthralling spectacle. Enjoy!

Happy New Year 2013

12/31/2012 10:10:00 PM ,

Dec 24, 2012

The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.
- Dante


Idle No More: In Solidarity with Indigenous People's Rights

12/24/2012 09:33:00 PM , ,

Nov 3, 2012


I attended a Catholic High School. It was a small boy’s college founded by Irish Priests in the heart of Africa. Like most Catholic Schools of the time, my teachers did not ‘spare the rod.’ Discipline was almost martial. Looking back, there is much that those well-intentioned and dedicated teachers could have done better. But one thing they did exceptionally well was inculcating the values of honor and integrity. I recently had cause to mingle with my “old boys”, as we call our Alumni, and we reminisced about the ‘’Honor Code.” I thought I should share it. It still rings true….


The Honor Code

11/03/2012 08:11:00 PM ,

Sep 26, 2012

The Gandhi Peace Festival which is an initiative of the Centre for Peace Studies at McMaster University in collaboration with local NGOs is in its 20th year this year. Over the years, the festival has provided an opportunity for students to engage with the local community to raise awareness about issues of peace and human rights around the world. This year's event promises to be quite an exciting one. Everyone is welcome to the festival and the universal cause for peace and justice.


Gandhi Peace Festival

9/26/2012 02:29:00 PM , ,

Sep 20, 2012



Friends and followers of this blog have asked for my take on the controversial film about Prophet Mohammed (The Innocence of Muslims) and anger and violence that it has triggered throughout the Muslim world.

The topic reflects a classic tension in human rights and peace advocacy – the tension between free speech and hate speech. On one hand there is the question of freedom of speech which is a fundamental human rights that must be protected in all free societies. On the other hand, there is the question of whether a film produced with the express intent to demean and disparage members of a religious group rises to the level of hate speech.

But first, the basic premise: nothing justifies violence and killings of innocent people. There have, at the last count, been demonstrations against the film in 55 countries. Most have been peaceful. The violent outbursts and killings in Libya and Egypt stand as exceptions that should be denounced.

Secondly, freedom of speech should not be construed as a license to offend the sensibilities of others. Linked with the freedom of expression is the obligation of civic responsibility. Nowhere in the world is there absolute and unfettered free speech. Societies recognize that this could be a prescription for chaos and intolerance. Even in Western liberal democracies restrictions are imposed on hate speech and expression likely to disrupt public order -- like falsely shouting "Fire" in a crowded theatre.

Between Blasphemy and Free Speech

9/20/2012 06:08:00 PM , , ,

Sep 14, 2012


I had an epiphany today.

A routine visit to the optometrist to check out my failing eyes gave me a new perspective on the withering deprivation and poverty that is illiteracy.

As part of the process of testing my eyes for reading glasses, the optometrist put in some eye drops to dilate the pupils of my eye. It would take about 30 minutes for the eye drops to work, so she asked that I return to the waiting room to wait for further test. One effect of the eye drop, she told me, was that I would have very blurry vision and be unable to read or see clearly.

I didn’t think much of this until she put in the eye drops and I returned to the waiting room. The world suddenly became a blur. Posters and images on the wall became fuzzy and distorted apparitions that made no sense. So were the images on the TV.

Everyone else in the waiting room seemed to be reading something, so I pulled a magazine from the rack. All I could see were meaningless wiggly black lines. I could make out some of the pictures on the page but the words meant nothing to me.

There was a beep on my blackberry. I had an instant message; perhaps the message from the office that I had been expecting. I snatched the phone from my holster in anticipation. Alas, it was all a blur. I couldn’t even make out the alphabets on the keypads.

Then it hit me. How was I going to spend the next 30 minutes of my life without the ability to read? How do you spend a lifetime without literacy? What quality of life does one have in today’s world without the ability to read?

An hour later, my vision was back in focus and I was literate again. I left the optometrist's office with a new found appreciation of the gift of vision and the value of literacy. I have always believed that literacy and education are fundamental human rights to which everyone should be entitled. But now, I believe that more strongly than ever before.

The Poverty of Illiteracy

9/14/2012 08:20:00 PM , ,

Aug 12, 2012


I am currently in Sydney, Australia participating in a conference on “Human Rights and Empire,” organized by Prof. Marco Durant and Prof. Samuel Moyn whose fascinating book; The Last Utopia had contributed significantly to historicizing and contextualizing human rights.

Anyway, yesterday, I had the opportunity to join Prof. Moyn and others at a post conference dinner and was fortunate to sit with Prof. Jay Winter, the distinguished professor of 18th Century British History at Yale. The ebullient and delightfully humorous professor regaled us with jokes and tales from his many years in the academe that kept everyone at the table reeling with laughter.

The story that made me think as much as I laughed was a true story Prof. Jay recounted about his time as a professor at Cambridge University in the UK working with the renowned development economist and Nobel Prize winner, Amartya Sen.

Amartya Sen who is of Indian ancestry was at the time, Master of Trinity College at Cambridge University, the equivalent of the Provost of the College. Sen had travelled to India on vacation and upon his return to the UK, was confronted by a UK immigration officer at Heathrow Airport who became curious when he saw that Sen had written “Master’s Lodge at Trinity College” as his address.

“Do you know the Master at Trinity College well?” asked the puzzled immigration officer, assuming of course that this just-arrived Indian could not possibly be the Master of the College. Perhaps a domestic servant just recruited from India to serve the Master, or at best an old acquaintance of the Master visiting from India.

Rather than take offence at the officer’s imprudence and pejorative presumption, Sen, always the gracious man of wit and humor, replied: “Sir, I am not quite sure whether I know the Master well enough, for you have asked a deeply philosophical question in self-knowledge.”

Prof. Winter got us all reeling with laughter at this story. But beyond the humor is an object lesson in the illogic of stereotypes and a testament to the wit of a sage.

Of Stereotypes and Assumptions

8/12/2012 05:51:00 AM ,

Jun 13, 2012


There has been much furor over the controversial statements credited to Canadian journalist and bestselling author, Malcolm Gladwell that Apple’s Steve Jobs will likely be forgotten for his contributions to the technology industry while Microsoft’s Bill Gates will be remembered for his philanthropy rather than entrepreneurship.

According to Gladwell, "Gates is the most ruthless capitalist, and then he wakes up one morning and he says, 'enough.' And he steps down, he takes his money, he takes it off the table… I firmly believe that 50 years from now, [Gates] will be remembered for his charitable work, no one will even remember what Microsoft is." Gladwell was referring of course to Gates' charitable work through the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation which has given over $2.6 billion in grants to causes around the world since 1994.

Even as a historian, I am reluctant to get into the business of predicting who history will remember or forget. There are certain things we should simply just leave to posterity.

But this much I can say. If history is any guide, there may be a ring of truth to Gladwell’s statement. Having worked in many parts of the developing world as both human rights educator and researcher, I can attest to the fact that the American industrialist and philanthropist Andrew Carnegies is much better remembered today than most of his entrepreneurial contemporaries.

Andrew Carnegie is remembered today not for his pioneering innovations in the steel industry but for his public service. Between 1883 and 1929 the Scottish-American businessman and philanthropist built 2,509 Carnegie libraries around the world. 1,689 in the United States, 660 in Britain and Ireland, 125 in Canada, and others in Australia, New Zealand, Serbia, the Caribbean, and Fiji.

The story of the benevolent American who spent his fortune promoting public education and building libraries around the world has been passed on from generation to generation. The several Carnegie foundations he established continue to do great public service – The Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching; Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and the Carnegie Council for Ethics in International Affairs  where I was formerly a Research Fellow (Full disclosure)

So, although I am not inclined to be drawn into the debates on who history will remember or forget, the lesson of Andrew Carnegie is that public service has a much longer lasting legacy.

The Great "Who will History Remember" Debate: Steve Jobs or Bill Gates? The Lesson of Andrew Carnegie

6/13/2012 12:15:00 AM , ,

May 27, 2012


I woke up this morning to the disturbing headline: “108 Civilians Massacred in Syria.” The story was accompanied by a photograph of rows of corpses wrapped in cloth. Some of the victims were clearly children. The rest of the story was banal in comparison: The United Nations Security Council condemns the Syrian government for its role in the massacre; Syrian officials and opposition forces trade blame over responsibility for the killings; Russia opposes stronger language for the Security Council resolution condemning the Syrian government.

I get a feeling of déjà vu. We’ve seen several similar scenarios in the past few years – In Darfur, Libya, Yemen. Innocent civilians are being massacred in the thousands and the world “holds talks.” Everyone agrees that the Syrian government actions not only violate the cease-fire engineered under United Nations auspices but also jeopardize any effort at peace. Yet, there is obstinate unwillingness to take immediate concerted actions to stop the killings.

No doubt, the situation in Syria is a complicated one. The struggle to oust the Assad regime has metamorphosed into a regional battle between Sunni and Shiite nations – a proxy war, with Saudi Arian and Iran pulling the strings. But at some point people’s lives should matter more. It is time for world leaders to take decisive action to stop the killings.

American leaders facing upcoming elections are foot-dragging. The Russian and Chinese governments seem more concerned with strategic geopolitical calculations. Arab states in the region have been more hindrance than help. The Annan ‘peace’ plan has achieved little, allowing the Assad regime more time to execute its military onslaught. It is time to stop the killings.

Last year, I wrote comments below about the massacres in Libya. Help in that case came too little too late. The Story in Syria is turning out to be the same.

What will our excuse be this time?
When it happened in Auschwitz, we said we didn't know it was happening.
When it happened in Cambodia we said we were shut out by the Khmer Rouge.
When it happened in Rwanda we said we underestimated the scale of killings.
When it happened in Bosnia we said it was "ethnic cleansing," - not quite genocide - and acted hesitantly
When it happened in Darfur, we said he weren’t sure the killings merited the label.
Now, a voice cries out from Libya Syria that it's happening again before our very eyes.
What will our excuse be this time?

Time to stop the killings in Syria

5/27/2012 11:11:00 PM , ,

May 18, 2012

"A fundamental asymmetry in globalization is between capital and labour. Capital is now free to move across national frontiers; the daily flow of dollars and other major currencies runs into billions. There is no similar mobility for labour."
- Yash Ghai, Human Rights: Southern Voices (2009)

The quote for this week comes from a book I am currently reading with a graduate class. It is an edited volume titled Human Rights: Southern Voices which contains several excellent and insightful essays. One of the more persuasive essays in the volume is by the constitutional law scholar Yash Ghai. Ghai explores the value of human rights discourse as a framework for political negotiation and compromise between societies in the face of the gaping global inequalities and inequalities induced by globalization. His thoughts on the fundamental contradictions of contemporary globalization are spot-on.

Quote of the Week: A fundamental asymmetry in Globalization

5/18/2012 01:10:00 AM ,

Apr 23, 2012


The spate of teenagers committing suicides because of bullying is troubling. As a parent and teacher I have struggled hard to find an explanation for this disturbing trend. Is bullying just getting more pervasive in our culture or are today’s kids less emotionally equipped to deal with bullying? I am not sure. But whatever the reason, there is need for concerted public efforts to draw attention to the devastating impact on bulling on children, their parents and society at large.

In a bold and forceful act of advocacy, a local newspaper in Iowa devoted the entire front page of its Sunday edition to an anti-bullying editorial after a gay teen in the community committed suicide. According to news reports, relatives say 14-year-old Kenneth Weishuhn Jr. suffered intense harassment, including threatening cellphone calls and nasty comments posted online, after coming out to family and friends about a month ago. He died April 15 from what the local sheriff's office described only as a "self-inflicted injury."

There simply has to be one united message on this -- Bullying has no place in civilized society. Not in our schools, not in our homes and not in our workplaces.

Bullying is a Human Rights Violation

4/23/2012 08:35:00 AM ,

Apr 18, 2012

The editors of the Bulletin of the Canadian Historical Association invited me to do a reflection on teaching Africa in Canada. This appeared in the April 2012 edition.

***********************
“What Comes to Mind when you think about Africa?” Doing African History in the Canadian Academe

Every term, I begin teaching my undergraduate class in African History with the same question: “What images come to mind when you think about Africa?” And every year, I get pretty much the same answers: war and poverty; famines and starving children; safaris and wild animals; tribal people and exotic costumes. Sometimes, I get the odd “Nelson Mandela” or “The Lion King” (the Disney animated movie with an African theme). For the most part however, the images my students bring to class come, not from personal experiences, but straight out of the popular media.

These images sometimes prod their interest in African history. Students come to my class wanting to know more about apartheid in South Africa because they have seen the movie Invictus, or more know about the Rwandan Genocide after seeing Hotel Rwanda. But these images also pose enormous challenge for anyone teaching Africa in the Canada and many parts of the West. How do you get these students, products of the internet age and a pervasive sound bite media culture, to think about Africa beyond the ubiquitous stereotypical images and representations of the continent? It is a daunting task.

I started teaching African History over a decade ago, first in Africa and later in the United Kingdom and the United States. In these places, African history holds certain relevance. In Africa, African history is local history; in the United Kingdom it is an integral part of British imperial history; in the United States it is tied to the African-American experience. In Canada, the story is slightly different. African history does not enjoy the same interconnectedness with local history as it does in Africa, Europe or the United States. It should. One can point to several links between African and Canadian history dating back to the eighteenth century black loyalists of Nova Scotia. Still, many of my students come to my classes with very little background in African history. They may have learnt about ancient Egypt, the Pharaohs and the pyramids in High School, but chances are that they did so as part as a history of Western Civilization rather than African History.

“What Comes to Mind when you think about Africa?” Doing African History in the Canadian Academe

4/18/2012 09:36:00 PM , ,

Mar 9, 2012

Many of you would have seen the viral video "KONY2012" put out by the non-profit group Invisible Children. It is part of a campaign to make the Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony notoriously famous, raise awareness about his atrocities and facilitate his arrest for crimes against children. Although the campaign has been a hugely successful experiment in viral media and digital activism, some have raised concerns about the accuracy and effectiveness of the campaign. Here, I weigh in on the need to put the KONY12 campaign in proper context.


Watch the KONY2012 Campaign Here

Putting the KONY1212 Campaign in Context

3/09/2012 01:03:00 PM , ,

Jan 25, 2012

"...Those of you saying our politicians spend money like drunken sailors need to apologize to drunken sailors....Drunken sailors spend their own money."
-- Anonymous online comment on a news story about the penchant of politicians to be profligate with public funds.

Quote of the Week

1/25/2012 04:05:00 PM ,

Jan 21, 2012


It was Rev. Martin Luther King who stated: “The arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” There can be no truer statement.

Very often, the positions we take as individuals and society are shaped by today’s realities and exigencies. Our decisions are concerned with the here and now. We are less concerned about the verdict of history. We rarely ask: How will future generations judge today’s expedient decisions? Will our decisions stand the “moral test of time?”

The story of Richard and Mildred Loving is an example of why, as a society, we must consider the verdict of history in the decisions we make today.

Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple, were arrested in their bedroom a few days after their marriage in 1958 for violating Virginia’s “Racial Integrity Act,” a state law banning marriages between white and non-white persons. At the time, the couple did not know that they were breaking any law. When the group of arresting police officers invaded their bedroom, the couple showed them their marriage certificate from another state, hoping that it would be a defence. It became the evidence the police needed for a criminal charge.

Richard and Mildred Loving were sentenced to one year in prison and banished from the state of Virginia for 25 years. Their legal appeal against this verdict ultimately reached the US Supreme Court which declared Virginia’s anti-miscegenation law unconstitutional. The landmark case of Loving v. Virginia marked a turning point in the civil rights movement in the United States. This was not just a legal verdict, it was a moral verdict. Fifty years later, the verdict of history is also clear. The authorities in Virginia were on the wrong side of history.

The positions that we take today on social and political issues will also be judged by future generations. Knowing this, such positions should be informed not only by the contingencies and exigencies of today but also by the key question: What will the verdict of history be? We cannot always be sure of the answer, but we must never cease to ask this question.

The Moral Verdict of History

1/21/2012 10:45:00 PM ,

Jan 19, 2012

I am teaching an undergraduate course on "Human Rights" this term and last week the topic was "Universalism vs. Cultural Relativism." As always, it was interesting to get the students' perspective on a debate that has long dominated human rights scholarship.

I began with a survey of the class of about 60 students. “How many of you here think human rights are universal?” Only 6 hands went up. “How many think that human rights are culturally relative?” 40 hands went up? “How many cannot make up their minds about this?” About 10 hands went up. Verdict: Most of my students think that human rights, despite the claim to universality, are in fact not universal. It’s a conclusion that proponents of human rights will find rather disheartening

But then, I tweaked the question a bit. “How many of you think human rights OUGHT to be universal?” 42 hands went up. “How may think human rights ought not to be universal?” Only 6 hands went up? Verdict: Although these students thought that the contemporary international human rights regime/movement is far from being universal, they nevertheless saw in it the promise and ideal of universalism. This offers some consolation. But whether this Universalist utopia can ever really be attained was the subject of another debate.

After the class, one of the students sent me the cartoon above. For him, it captured humorously but quite eloquently, the unending debate over the universality and cultural relativism of human rights.

Cultural Relativism and Human Rights: Are human rights only in the eyes of the beholder?

1/19/2012 01:46:00 PM ,

Jan 15, 2012

What qualifies to be called “Genocide”? These days, it depends on who you ask. Although the UN Genocide Convention is very clear on what constitutes genocide, controversies abound. Not every mass killing amounts to genocide and in fact, the term did not even exist before 1944 when Raphael Lemkin used it to describe Nazi policies of systematic mass murder of European Jews. Before then, Winston Churchill simply called it “a crime without a name.”

The United Nations Genocide Convention of 1948 which established “genocide” as an international crime defines genocide specifically in terms of acts committed with the intent to destroy, in whole or in part, a “national, ethnical, racial or religious group.” For some strange reasons, “political groups” are omitted. So, theoretically, all the members of an opposition political party in a country can be massacred by a ruling regime and it still would not amount to genocide.

“Genocide” and the politics of labeling

1/15/2012 11:04:00 PM
"I've worked in an economy that rewards someone who saves the lives of others on a battlefield with a medal, rewards a great teacher with thank-you notes from parents, but rewards those who can detect the mispricing of securities with sums reaching into the billions." – Warren Buffett

Quote of the Week

1/15/2012 06:09:00 PM
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