Apr 4, 2011

THE WORSE THING IS NOT TO DIE

BUT TO BE ALIVE AND NOT KNOW WHY...

Quote of the Week

Here is an insightful commentary from the Students’ newspaper of USC, on the hypocrisy and double-standards that is becoming all too evident in the West’s approach to humanitarian intervention. As one of my colleagues put it recently, “History shows that the West is not intervening because Gadhafi is a brutal dictator, but because he is not our brutal dictator.”

Like the writer below, I support the humanitarian intervention in Libya. But why not in the Ivory Coast? Could it possibly be because Libya has oil and Ivory Cost has not? Ivory Coast is the world largest producer of cocoa, without which there will be no chocolates to satiate our sweet tooth. In a consumerist and fossil-fuel addicted word, oil is a much more precious resources. We can survive without chocolates for a which, but without oil...?

Apparently responding to this growing question, President Obama offered the following response in his March 28 speech on the Libyan Crisis

"It's true that America cannot use our military wherever repression occurs. And given the costs and risks of intervention, we must always measure our interests against the need for action. But that cannot be an argument for never acting on behalf of what's right. In this particular country, Libya, at this particular moment, we were faced with the prospect of violence on a horrific scale. We had a unique ability to stop that violence: an international mandate for action, a broad coalition prepared to join us, the support of Arab countries, and a plea for help from the Libyan people themselves…"

Obama may be right but he must also realize that the optics simply do not look good. American strategic interest cannot be the sole justification for humanitarian interventions. At some point these begin to look more and more like calculated strategic interventions and less like humanitarian Interventions. There should be a place for humanitarianism without strings attached.

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Christine Detz | April 3, 2011
Associate News Editor

A bunch of Neon Tommy staffers sat around the office television last week watching President Barack Obama’s address to the nation about the U.S. role in Libya. Some of us were left wanting more as he outlined the mission and patted himself and the international community on the back for stepping in quickly to protect civilians.
One of my colleagues wanted the president to say “responsibility to protect.” We both knew he wouldn’t. If he had, it would mean a precedent had been set. The international community would now have to intervene wherever governments were knowingly and purposefully killing civilians. Places like Cote d’Ivoire (Ivory Coast) for example.

To be clear, I believe in the humanitarian intervention in Libya; I don’t believe in arming the rebels – that’s a whole different mission than protecting civilians. But why Libya? Why not Cote d’Ivoire?

It is unclear how many civilians have been killed since violence broke out in late November. The Red Cross reports between 800 and 1,000 civilians were killed in one town last week alone. The United Nations estimates more than 100,000 people have fled the country and up to 1 million people have been displaced internally.

The violence began after incumbent President Laurent Gbagbo lost his re-election bid to Alassane Ouattara. Gbagbo claims victory even though U.N. monitors declared the election fair and Ouattara the winner months ago.

The international community has known of the civilian casualties since the beginning. In a December 16, 2010 statement the Security Council said they were “deeply concerned about the violence, in particular against civilians in Côte d’Ivoire…. The members of the Security Council warn all stakeholders that they will be held accountable for attacks against civilians and will be brought to justice, in accordance with international law and international humanitarian law.”

These words ring hollow. Where is the sense of urgency to protect civilians in Cote d’Ivoire like we saw in Libya?

Sure, there is a U.N. peacekeeping mission in Cote d’Ivoire (it’s been there since 2004), but anyone who has studied peacekeeping mandates knows how limiting they actually are (remember Rwanda in 1994). The U.S. State Department called on the U.N. peacekeeping mission to “aggressively enforce its mandate to protect civilians” Sunday. An interesting choice of words considering a peacekeeping mission is usually anything but aggressive. U.N. peacekeepers have strict rules of engagement. In fact, if you read the Cote d'Ivoire mandate, protecting civilians in imminent danger is listed after protecting U.N. personnel, installations and equipment. That’s right, protecting equipment is more important than protecting civilians.

So again I ask, why Libya and not Cote d’Ivoire? The answer may be geography. Libya is only a few hundred miles from Italy and many refugees tried to flee to the European nation. Italy has some sway in the international community. The bulk of the refugees leaving Cote d’Ivoire are crossing into Liberia, which is not exactly a world power.

In his speech, President Obama reminded the world it took 10 weeks to establish a humanitarian intervention in the Balkans in the late 1990s and only three weeks to set up the no-fly zone in Libya. Well Mr. President, it has been at least 18 weeks since violence targeting civilians broke out in Cote d’Ivoire, how much longer are you and the international community going to make the Ivorians wait?

Humanitarian Intervention or Strategic Intervention?

Mar 1, 2011

How will the ongoing conflicts shape the future of Libya and what will it mean for the country's neighbours, their allies, and the West?

Here are my views as published in The Mark

More than any of the other uprisings sweeping across the Middle East and North Africa, the one unfolding in Libya holds the gravest consequences for the region.

Libya is in the grasp of a more virulent autocracy – even by Middle Eastern standards. Moammar Gadhafi has made it clear that Libya is not Tunisia or Egypt, and that he will fight to the last man to maintain power. Given his antecedents, this comes as no surprise. Gadhafi would rather bring his country down with him than leave quietly. To make matters worse, no country in the region or the West has the kind of influence over Gadhafi that the U.S. had over Mubarak’s Egypt, or that the Europeans had over Ben Ali’s Tunisia. In dealing with Gadhafi, the international community’s options are much more limited. The unfortunate result is that – as is already becoming apparent – the Libyan uprising will be nothing like the relatively peaceful regime changes we have seen elsewhere.

The situation in Libya is also more precarious because of the damage that it threatens to unleash beyond the country’s shores. Already, EU leaders have begun scrambling to prepare for what the Italian foreign minister has described as “an exodus of biblical proportions.” There are also concerns about the implications for the global economy – particularly regarding the price of oil, which has seen a major spike since the crisis began.

But an even more disturbing concern – which has received very little attention in the media – is the impact that the Libyan crisis could have on the rest of Africa. During his 40 years in power, Gadhafi has thrown his influence and money across the continent to prop up or bring down governments. He has done this more than any other African leader. His fingerprints can be found on armed conflict from Chad to Sudan to the Central African Republic. He has also cultivated a loyal band of mercenaries from sub-Saharan Africa that he now uses to terrorize his own people.

But apparently his influence reaches even farther than this. The African Union’s response to the crisis has been feeble and belated. The union’s Peace and Security Council made a statement condemning the Libyan government’s crackdown on pro-democracy protesters, but this statement was much weaker than the reaction from the EU and even from the Arab League, which took the additional step of suspending Libya.

If Gadhafi remains intransigent and the crisis in Libya spirals into war, the fallout will not only be the upsurge in the price of oil and the masses of people fleeing towards the shores of Europe; it will also be the political instability and conflict that is likely to engulf fragile African states in which Gadhafi has been pulling the strings for so long.

The Crisis in Libya Could Spell Disaster for the Rest of Africa

Feb 26, 2011



“We are dying. …. I'm talking to you and you are listening to me and you are seeing the videos and people are talking to you from inside, outside of Libya. But the action -- there needs to be action. How much more waiting, how much more watching, how much more people dying?”

A heart wrenching appeal by an unidentified Libyan woman to the world to do something urgently about Gadhafi’s massacre of his people. This is genocide unfolding again before our very eyes.

I watched this on TV and my heart just sank. Are world leaders listening? How can anyone not be moved by the plight of this brave woman and the Libyan people?

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 killings.
When it happened in Darfur, we said he weren't sure the killings merited the label.
Now, a voice cries out from Libya that is happening again before our very eyes.
What will be our excuse this time?

The Massacre in Libya: What will be our excuse this time?

Feb 22, 2011


The revolutions sweeping across the Arab world have shone a spotlight on the Gene Sharp, described as the author of the rule book on non-violent revolution. His book “From Dictatorship to Democracy” has been widely credited with guiding and inspiring the uprisings in Egypt and elsewhere in the Arab world.

Although the rest of the world is just discovering the influential work of this America academic and political theorist, many of those interested in matters of social justice and peace have long been familiar with his name and his work.

In the past couple of weeks both the New York Times and the BBC have done lengthy exposés on the life and work of Gene Sharp and how his 198 methods of non-violent revolution have shaped non-violent uprisings against autocratic rulers from Eastern Europe to South America to Middle East.

As one long familiar with the work of Gene Sharp, I would be the first to agree that Sharp’s theoretical and practical approach to non-violence indeed directly influenced the recent events we are witnessing.

But here is my problem with the way much of this has been reported. Sharp is being made out as the “inventor” of the principles and strategies of non-violent revolution. It is a disservice to the work of this great intellectual. Even Sharp himself, I am sure, would object to such patronizing and aggrandizing representations of him and his work.

Long before Sharp, there was Mahatma Gandhi’s Satyagraha and of course, MLK's civil rights movement. Both men in their writing and actions outline concrete strategies for non-violent struggle. Mahatma Gandhi himself was influenced by ancient Hindu and Confucian principles of non-violence. Hindu traditions of passive constrains on recourse to violence shaped his strategies of dealing with British imperialism in India – from the idea of Ahmisa "non injury” to the defiant Salt Marches of the 1930s.

Satyagraha encapsulated non - violence in both theory and action. MLK, by his own admission, was influenced by Gandhi's Satyagraha. Sharp too, was no doubt influenced by these earlier ideas and strategies.

Nonviolence as a principle and political strategy has a long history. We must not be blinded to this rich history by our quest for heroes and supermen to explain the current wave of non-violent uprisings.

The young Egyptians who stood their grounds in Tahrir square to topple a dictator are justified in their resentment of the suggestion that their revolution can be credited to one Western intellectual (as reported in the BBC story). They are rightly offended. Their non-violent struggle against tyranny and injustice follows a long tradition of human struggles for change through non-violence. It is tradition that no single man can be credited with.

Before Gene Sharp there was Gandhi's Satyagraha

Feb 13, 2011

My congratulations to the vibrant and freedom-loving people of Egypt for their resilience and determination in ousting tyranny and dictatorship.

As I predicted in this blog a few days ago, it was only going to be a question of time and the extent of the people's resolve.

Tyrannical dictatorships not only in the Arab world but elsewhere have been put on notice from Libya to Myanmar; from North Korea to Zimbabwe.

The internet generation has shown that they will not be browbeaten and intimidated by the arrogance and brutality of power. They know they have a new and unprecedented power of knowledge and mobilization. The genie is already out of the bottle and although there are bound to be difficulties along the way, things are never going to return to the way they were in Egypt. The people of Egypt have ensured that.

As Egyptians celebrate their freedom, let them not forget the many that died during and before the uprising for the course of freedom. They are the true heroes of this struggle.

Egypt: Free at Last

Feb 11, 2011




Here is an inspiring and truly heart-warming story that captures the resilience of the human spirit and the power of human imagination. Eşref Armağan is a Turkish painter, who, in spite of the challenge of being blind from birth, has produced realistic and beautiful images of a world he has never seen. Most people with the gift of sight who see the world around them daily can hardly produce the images Eşref produces.

There are many insights that Eşref’s exceptional abilities provide us. Physiologists say that it demonstrates for the first time that a blind person can develop on his or her own pictorial skills the equal of most depiction by the sighted. For me, Eşref vindicates my belief in the power of questioning. As a former teacher once told me, there are only two kinds of people that are incapable of learning – the arrogant and the shy- those who either will not or cannot ask questions.

Eşref Armağan’s story is a reminder that we must never cease to question – our beliefs, our convictions, our prejudices, our fears, our teachers, our leaders and our world. For those of us privileged to be teachers and educators, it is a reminder that we must never tire of providing answers and guidiance to those who question in the search for knowledge.

Below is a tribute to the artist and a link to Eşref Armağan's Website.

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Making the impossible possible

A painter blind from birth shows us there’s many ways to learn, but are you asking enough questions?

There are many different ways to learn and make sense of the world around us, says Jorrit van der Togt, VP Learning and Organisational Effectiveness in Projects & Technology (Shell). The trick is to keep asking questions and not to stop until you’ve found all the answers.


I recently went to a presentation by Eşref Armağan, a Turkish painter who’s been blind from birth.

Blind? Painter? Surely, that’s some kind of trick? Not a bit of it. My initial scepticism turned to awe in just under five minutes when I saw him at work in front of 500 people.

You see, Eşref has a special gift. Through stubborn persistence and a unique genius, he’s learned to trace lines with one hand and paint with the other – both at the same time.

This ability – crafted through endless questioning and feedback – has won him widespread recognition and exhibitions in Turkey, New York, Shanghai, Italy, Rotterdam and the Czech Republic.

What struck me most was that Eşref started, like you and me, with an intriguing question and an insatiable curiosity to make sense of the world around him.

We all embark on learning and development programmes to ensure we have the right skills for the business to deliver on its plan and benefit our customer base. This model differs from individual to individual. As Eşref’s story proves, there are many ways to learn and - even if we are weak in one particular area - there are plenty of other ways to make a connection....

Learning should be innovative and fun. We use many modern learning techniques. Classroom work is about putting knowledge into practice, not just listening to presentations.

We aim to get our people skilled up as fast as we can. Still, it’s their engagement, their questions and their curiosity that will truly bring each class to life and help create that value.

In fact, together we can make things happen tomorrow which everyone thinks are impossible today!

Eşref Armağan: Blind Painter Exemplifies the Power of Questioning

Feb 7, 2011

It is humbling and gratifying to be found deserving of an honor as prestigious as the Rev. John Holland Award. The intriguing and inspiring life of Rev. John Holland makes the award even more meaningful. Awarded "Distinguished Citizen" for the year in 1953 (the first person of African heritage to be so named in Canada), John Holland rose from a lowly newspaper boy to become one of the most prominent citizens of Canada. It is an honor to be associated with this award and the other 2011 recipients which included the great baseball Hall of Fame pitcher Ferguson Jenkins.


Recognizing success at John C. Holland awards
February 6, 2011

It didn’t matter how far along in their careers they were, receiving a John C. Holland award inspired winners to keep contributing to their communities.

For 18-year-old Beatrice Boateng getting a youth achievement award meant she could help her family financially and set aside some money toward her future.

“I actually needed this to support my family and also for school, so it was a really great opportunity,” the St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School student said after receiving her prize. “I plan to use this for my university (tuition) to go higher and pursue my career.”

Boateng hopes to become a nurse practitioner.

For Joe Halstead, chairman of the Ontario Place Corporation and a key player in bringing the 2015 Pan American Games to Toronto, winning an award of merit that night was validation of his years of service on the federal, provincial and municipal levels.

“What it says to the community more so than anybody else is that they are being watched. People care about you. And they see that you have made a contribution and that contribution is being not only appreciated but recognized,” Halstead said. “So I think it’s important to support these things. They’re a source of encouragement and inspiration.”

About 400 people attended the 15th annual John C. Holland Awards Saturday night at the Michelangelo Banquet Centre. The program was emceed by spoken word artist Dwayne Morgan.

Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher and Chatham native Ferguson (Fergie) Jenkins was also honoured Saturday night, as a stamp with his image issued by Canada Post for Black History Month was unveiled.

“Sometimes it’s overwhelming,” Jenkins said during the dinner. “You think that they’re printing four million stamps with your face on it and they’re going to be distributed around the country which is pretty awesome in itself.”

The event was hosted by the Hamilton Black History Committee and is named after Rev. John C. Holland, who was the son of a runaway slave and worked as a railway porter for 33 years before becoming a minister at Stewart Memorial Church.

He died a year after he was named Hamilton’s Distinguished Citizen of the Year in 1953. Holland was the first black person to be named a citizen of the year in any community in the country.

“This particular event acknowledges the rich contributions of the African presence in Canada since the early 1800s and we want, really want, all of us as Canadians to know about each other,” committee co-chair Evelyn Myrie said.

The award recipients:

Ferguson (Fergie) Jenkins
Award of Merit

The Chatham, Ont., native and Baseball Hall of Fame pitcher has won 284 Major League games, led the National League twice in wins and had six-straight seasons with 20 or more victories.

He started in the big leagues in 1965 and played most of his career for the Chicago Cubs.

In 1971, he was the first Canadian to win the Cy Young Award as the National League’s best pitcher.

Jenkins, whose ancestors were slaves who came to Ontario through the Underground Railroad, started the Fergie Jenkins Foundation about 12 years ago to support various charities.

Joe Halstead
Award of Merit

Halstead is the chairman of the Ontario Place Corporation and is a member of the board of directors of the Metrolinx Corporation, the regional transportation authority. He also sits on the board of the Maple Leafs Sports and Entertainment Team Up Foundation.

His capacity as the vice-chair of Toronto’s Pan American Games bid committee helped secure Toronto as the host city for the 2015 event.

Halstead has also served as the commissioner for economic development, cultural and tourism for the City of Toronto from 1998 to 2006. He was also the chair and CEO of the festival management committee for Caribana, from 2006 to 2010.

Frederick Dryden
Community Service Award

The 39-year-old is the founder and executive director of Liberty for Youth, a nonprofit organization that works with at-risk young people.

He has 23 years of experience as a mentor, tutor and counsellor for youth in group homes, prison and detention centres.

About five years ago, Dryden started a partnership between the at-risk youth his organization serves and Hamilton police officers, bringing both sides together in a basketball event to raise money for Liberty for Youth.

About $35, 000 has been raised for scholarships.

“To me it’s so awesome because … it just shows that what we do is important and what we do does have an impact,” Dryden said. “We can go back and say to them: ‘You are important.’ This is not an award for me; it’s (about) the end result.”

Ashleigh Montague
Youth Achievement Award

The first-year McMaster University commerce student recently created a theatre and dance group called the Guava Tree Theatre Company.

Montague has also been involved with the Afro-Canadian Caribbean Association (ACCA) by helping children prepare over a 16-week period for a regional spelling competition and helping run an ACCA summer camp.

The 18-year-old is also active with her church, through which she ran a March Break soup kitchen. She is also part of the local Jamaica Foundation and active in high school, volunteering for Neighbour 2 Neighbour, Hallowing for Hunger and the Utopia Club, which raises awareness on global issues and raises money for charities.

“I’m greatly honoured. Last year, me and my friends – we sat and we watched and we said, ‘One day, that’s going to be us,’” Montague said. “I didn’t expect that this year it would me, so I’m greatly honoured to receive it.”

Beatrice Boateng
Youth Achievement Award

The 18-year-old St. Thomas More Catholic Secondary School student has volunteered with a range of local charities and fundraising events.

Boateng spends time with the elderly at Shalom Village and helped raise funds for Kenya and the Dominican Republic by participating in the Catholic board’s Pilgrimage Walk.

She is also a volunteer for the Hamilton Public Library and baked goods and organized seating for her school’s MORE Extreme fashion show last year, which raised funds for Angelman Syndrome research.

Boateng wants to study nursing and become a nurse practitioner.

Sholeh Morgan
Youth Achievement Award

The George Brown College student is studying culinary arts and wants to become a chef and open a restaurant and catering business.

The 18-year-old raised money for War Amps and world hunger relief during her time at Westdale Secondary School. Her teachers also selected her to help Grade 9 students adjust to high school in their first semester.

Morgan served three years as a member of the Hamilton Wentworth District School Board’s Black History Month committee. She is also involved with Stewart Memorial Church and has volunteered at the John C. Holland Awards gala for eight years.

“It’s such a big award that I can’t believe it was me … It’s very important but also it’s deeper than that because my dad and my grandma are very involved,” she said. “So this … is a representation of how well they raised me. How much they pushed me toward my goals.”

Aleesha Harris
Youth Achievement Award

The 23-year-old head coach of the Niagara Thunder bantam basketball team lead her girls into their best year last year, placing seventh in the province.

Harris started coaching the minor league basketball league team in Grimsby more than three years ago when the girls, who were about nine years old at the time, were starting out as soccer players without experience in the new sport.

She now has three basketball travel teams and runs summer and fall basketball camps.

“All I’ve ever said with coaching is that I just wanted to give back half of what I’ve learned and I feel like I was able to do that and this award solidifies the great job that I’ve been doing.”

Brenda Chuinkam
Youth Achievement Award

Chuinkam is in her fourth year of life science at McMaster University with hopes to attend medical school this fall.

She volunteers at the endoscopy clinic at the Juravinski Cancer Centre and organizes activities for elementary school students at the Eva Rothwell after-school program. The 21-year-old is also a volunteer with the Canadian Red Cross Society and is set to travel to Ghana in May to teach English to elementary school students and educate women about HIV/AIDS.

At McMaster, Chuinkam has been a peer mentor for international students, a member of the school’s chaplaincy board, the treasurer for the McMaster African Students Association for two years and the director and co-ordinator for the Afrofest Cultural Show.

“It’s the first big recognition I have ever had in my entire life and it’s encouragement for what I’m doing.”

Klyde Broox
Arts/Arts Achievement Award

Broox was recognized as a promising poet in Jamaica in the 1980s and brought his artistic zeal to Hamilton when he immigrated in 1993.

He co-founded Dub Poets Collective and has been hosting PoeMagic, a performance-oriented, monthly poetry event, since 1997. He also partnered with the Hamilton Centre for Civic Inclusion in 2007 to host the intercultural multi-arts event, Hamilton Speaks!

The 53-year-old Hamiltonian’s 2005 poetry collection, My Best Friend is White was a Number 1 best-seller on Amazon.com last year and his work is used in English and creative writing courses at McMaster University and the Ontario College of Art and Design.

“It feels good to be acknowledged and recognized for the work that one does and it’s inspiring. It’s an engine for future effort,” Broox said.

Dr. Bonny Ibhawoh
Professional Award

Dr. Ibhawoh is an associate professor with the department of history at McMaster University and was the director of the school’s centre for peace studies from 2006 to 2010.

The professor researches legal history, African history and politics and international human rights and has been published in the Human Rights Quarterly, Human Rights Dialogue and the Canadian Journal of African Studies.

His book, Imperialism and Human Rights, was named the Choice Academic Title in 2007.
Ibhawoh could not attend the awards Saturday because he was on research leave in South Africa.

Recognizing success at John C. Holland awards

Feb 4, 2011

Random Thought: If your Government Shuts down the Internet, shut down your Government!

Feb 3, 2011

The developments in Egypt following the clash between anti and pro Mubarak supporters in Cairo’s Tahrir square have been gripping. What had been a largely peaceful protest against the dictator quickly deteriorated into an urban free-for-all brawl allegedly instigated by government forces. Innocent lives have been lost and hundreds wounded. As one earnestly hoping that this uprising eventually succeeds in bringing true democracy to Egypt and the Arab world, I am saddened but not surprised by this turn of events.

After thirty years in power, Mubarak and his cohorts are growing desperate. His pledge to leave power is September has not dampened the resolve of the protesters. The people have lost their fear of the instruments of state terror that have held them captive for so long. The dictator’s options are narrowing. What I see in the apparently coordinated attempt to derail the uprising is the proverbial last kick of a dying horse.

The battle of Tahrir Square would be funny if it wasn’t so tragic and if the stakes weren’t so high. Some of the news reporting read like comedy scripts. If one can put a positive spin on this event, it would be that the battle of Tahrir Square has so far been fought with “crude” medieval weapons -- pavement stones, whips, horses and camels. This must explain why after two days of fierce clashes, the reported fatalities are in the single digits. The lesson: A people committed and desperate enough will use whatever they have to defend their revolution. One AP report best captures the scene:

“... In one almost medieval scene, a small contingent of pro-Mubarak forces on horseback and camels rushed into the anti-government crowds, trampling several people and swinging whips and sticks. Protesters dragged some riders from their mounts, throwing them to the ground and beating their faces bloody.

The horses and camels appeared to be ones used to give tourists rides around Cairo. Dozens of men and women pried up pieces of the pavement with bars and ferried the piles of ammunition in canvas sheets to their allies at the front. Others directed fighters to streets needing reinforcements.

The protesters used a subway station as a makeshift prison for the attackers they managed to catch. They tied the hands and legs of their prisoners and locked them inside. People grabbed one man who was bleeding from the head, hit him with their sandals and threw him behind a closed gate.

Some protesters wept and prayed in the square where only a day before they had held a joyous, peaceful rally of a quarter-million, the largest demonstration so far.”

The Battle of Tahrir Square: Defending a People’s Uprising

 
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