Human Rights and Global Justice

http://philosophyandculture.org/seminar1303MCigneski.html

I join two of my colleagues to discuss issues of human rights and global Justice in the "Crossing Boarders Series" of the Society for Philosophy and Culture.

Human Rights and Global Justice

2/20/2013 01:09:00 PM education, human rights

From Libya to Mali: Triumphs and Consequences

When the Gaddafi regime in Libya collapsed in 2011 following a mass uprising and civil war, the international community welcomed the ousting of a tyrannical dictator. But even in the euphoria of the moment, some observers of the region urged caution.  I wrote in a article in The Mark at the time:

“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, Gaddafi 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.”

The broader fallouts of the Libyan civil war and the collapse of the Gaddafi regime are now becoming evident. The insurgency gathering pace in Mali has been exacerbated by an influx of arms from the 2011 Libyan civil war. Among the Islamist rebel groups sweeping south from northern Mali is the National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA) led by Malian Tuareg who, while in exile in Libya, fought  alongside Gaddafi’s forces. Once the Gaddafi regime collapsed, some of these well trained and battle-hardened militants retreated south to Mali.

The international community led by France is now scrambling to do what should have been done much earlier – engage effectively to strengthen security and reconstruction in post-Gaddafi’s Libya. It is estimated that only about a quarter of the surface-to-air missiles accounted for before the conflict in Libya could be accounted for afterwards. It is almost inevitable that some are now Mali being used by the Islamist rebels.

This is the tragedy of how the international community has addressed conflicts in this region – false steps, missteps, too little too late. The circle simply continues. There is simply no political will to act until security situations get totally out of hand; then there is a scramble for a Band-Aid solution. Peace is not actively cultivated. We must learn to wage peace as vigorously as we wage war. It would have much taken less of the international military efforts now being put into pushing back the Islamist insurgents in Mali to enforce security and promote reconstruction in Libya. It reminds me of the old adage - a stitch in time saves nine.

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Also published in The Mark

From Libya to Mali: Triumphs and Consequences

1/18/2013 12:04:00 AM politics, war and peace

Happy New Year 2013

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 media, reflections

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

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 human rights, politics, reflections

The Honor Code

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 education, reflections

Gandhi Peace Festival

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 education, human rights, war and peace

Between Blasphemy and Free Speech

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 human rights, politics, war and peace, world

The Poverty of Illiteracy

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 education, human rights, reflections

Of Stereotypes and Assumptions

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 reflections, Tributes

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

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 education, history, reflections