Seasons Greetings and Best wishes for just and peaceful 2012
12/22/2011 04:53:00 PM
reflections
Dec 21, 2011
For most things in life, the more you have of it the less you desire it or the less it becomes productive for you. Our quest for power and wealth tend not to obey this rule. Human desire to accumulate power and wealth appears simply insatiable. But every once in a while, comes a remarkable person who forces us to rethink our assumptions about human nature.
This week, after much digging, The New York Times unmasked 80-year-old Charles F. Feeney as the anonymous donor who gave Connell University a $350 million donation to construct a new technology-based satellite campus in New York City.
A self-made billionaire who co-founded Duty Free Shoppers Group in the 1960s, Charles Feeney has been donating quietly and anonymously to universities, hospitals and charitable foundations for much of his lifetime. In 2009, he gave $125 million to build a new medical center for the University of California-San Francisco that would treat women, children, and cancer patients. Over the course of the last decade, he's given more than €46m to the University of Limerick in Ireland. Hs total donations for Cornell over the years -- not counting the latest $350 million -- exceed $600 million.
Even more remarkable is Mr. Feeney’s steely resolve to give anonymously and without the publicity and self-adulation that is often associated with philanthropy. He is reluctant to do press interviews or even pose for a publicity photograph. According to The Atlantic Wire, “Nearly every profile makes note of how unimpressed Feeney is with what his wealth can buy him, noting that he flies coach, wears a $15 watch, and doesn't own a house or a car.”
When asked why he decided to give everything away, Feeney replied, "I simply decided I had enough money."
Now, that is something you don’t hear every day: “I simply decided I had enough money.”
The world desperately needs more Charles Feeneys.
Meet Charles Feeney, Cornell's $350 Million Donor (The Atlantic Wire)
Cornell Alumnus Is Behind $350 Million Gift to Build Science School in City (New York Times)
"I simply decided I had enough money"
12/21/2011 11:18:00 AM
Development, media, Tributes
Dec 18, 2011
This lighthearted story about the debate over replacing the beaver with the polar bear as Canada’s national emblem was one of the most read stories on the BBC website this week.
Apparently the rest of the world is as concerned as some of us about the efforts currently been pushed on several levels to reshape Canadian national identity. Canada’s unilateral decision to withdraw from the Kyoto Protocol marks a radical departure from the values of moderation and tolerance that the country has long been known for. These values are part of the reasons why some of us, chose to make this country home. It is a source of grave concern that these values seem to be slipping away.
"In a world of eagles, bears, dragons and other fearsome beasts, surely we need more, not less, of the beaver."
Beaver or bear? Fur flies over Canadian sense of identity (BBC)
Beaver or bear? The Battle over Canadian National Identity
12/18/2011 05:54:00 PM
politics
Dec 14, 2011
Time Magazine has declared “the Protester” the person of the year for 2011. It is a fitting choice. 2011 was indeed the year of the protester. From Cairo’s Tahrir square to New York’s Zuccotti Park, ordinary citizens protesting against political repression and economic inequities took to the streets to voice their complaints. They found an ally in technology. Facebook and tweeter were the vectors of their protestations.
Street protests have always been a part of social ferment. What makes these noteworthy is their efficacy. Sit tight dictators were forced to abdicate and nervous corporate oligarchies have been forced to take note. "Massive and effective street protest" has moved from being an oxymoron to become the reality of our internet age.
But what struck me most about the Time Story was the discussion of the life the 26-year-old street Tunisian vendor Mohamed Bouazizi whose self-immolation on December 17 2010 set off an unrelenting wave of street protest across the Arab world. Mohamed Bouazizi has become the unlikely martyr and icon of the year of the Arab Spring and the age of “effective street protest.” It is a compelling story:
“On a Friday morning almost exactly a year ago, he set out for work, selling produce from a cart. Police had hassled Bouazizi routinely for years, his family says, fining him, making him jump through bureaucratic hoops. On Dec. 17, 2010, a cop started giving him grief yet again. She confiscated his scale and allegedly slapped him. He walked straight to the provincial-capital building to complain and got no response. At the gate, he drenched himself in paint thinner and lit a match.”
I have heard some question whether this aggravation was enough to warrant self-immolation. That is a matter for debate. However, we must never underestimate dehumanizing effects of humiliation and indignity. Bouazizi set himself on fire not because he was starving or homeless. He went to that extreme length because he was tired of a life of humiliation, dehumanization and indignity. Perhaps for him, setting himself on fire was a means of escape and the ultimate statement of defiance.
Bouazizi’s mother puts it succinctly, “My son set himself on fire for dignity." Her 16-year-old daughter Basma, put it even better: "dignity is more important than bread."
"Dignity is more important than bread"
12/14/2011 06:06:00 PM
human rights
Dec 10, 2011
On December 9, 1947 Dutch military forces deployed in the village of Rawagede in colonized Indonesia committed an unspeakable crime.
In their fight to maintain Dutch colonial rule and suppress the Indonesian Republicans seeking independence for their country, they killed nearly all the males in this remote Indonesian village. Almost 500 men were rounded up and summarily executed, in many cases right before their families. The widows recall that it was left to the women and children in the villages to bury the corpses of their slain husbands, brothers and children. Rawagede became a village without men.
Although the Dutch army and state acknowledged that the massacres occurred, no one was ever prosecuted or convicted for the massacres. A 1948 United Nations report described the killings "deliberate and merciless."
Since the publication of the report there have been pressures on Netherlands to officially apologize for the massacres and pay compensation to the victims and survivors. None has been forthcoming. The best that the people of Rawagede got was statement that the Netherlands "deeply regrets" the massacre.
Finally on the sixty-fourth anniversary of the massacres, the Dutch government through its ambassador to Indonesia formally apologised for the massacres. It was a terse public statement which included the words that the survivors had waited for over six decades to hear: "On behalf of the Dutch government, I apologise for the tragedy that took place in Rawagede on the 9th of December, 1947."
But the apology came only after some survivors successfully sued the Dutch government for the massacres and a court in the Netherlands ordered the government to pay compensation over the killings. Only 9 relatives are still alive and each will receive a paltry Euro 20,000 ($27,000) compensation.
The apology is welcome since its better late than never. But for the traumatized people of Rawagede, it provides only cold comfort. The apology is too little too late. State apologies for historical crimes and injustices are notoriously difficult to get. In this case, the belated apology from the Netherland seems to have been driven more by insular legal and public relations considerations rather than a genuine sense of national contrition for the massacres. The Dutch apology is a classic example of how not to do state apology.
For more on the debate over state apology for historical crimes see a recent book to which I contributed:
Dutch Apology for the Massacre at Rawagede (Indonesia): How not to do State Apology
12/10/2011 07:04:00 PM
human rights, war and peace
Nov 24, 2011
I saw this movie by chance. I was recently on a transatlantic flight and it was one of the few movies available that sounded interesting. The title certainly caught my attention. “Exit through the Gift Shop” is a comedic documentary about the subversive underground world of graffiti artistes centred on the character of an eccentric French immigrant shopkeeper in the US who immerses himself in that world. It is a hilarious and somewhat irreverent insight into a shadowy dissident subculture of graffiti street art.
The movie was produced by Banksy, the enigmatic and faceless graffiti artiste who has gained a global reputation for his satirical street art and subversive epigrams done in a distinctive stenciling technique.
The movie which was nominated for an Academy award comes highly recommended. Some of Banky’s works certainly make you think about the power of Art as an agent of socio-political commentary.
Subversive Art: “Exit through the Gift Shop”
11/24/2011 10:36:00 PM
arts and culture, media
Nov 22, 2011
Something in the news caught my eye this week. The United Nations reported that the World population hit 7 billion this year and would hit 10 billion by 2100. That’s a lot of people!
At 7 billion, the world’s population has tripled from what it was in 1930. In just 90 years, we will have 50 per cent more people on this planet than we did at the beginning of the century, competing for the same food, water, space and attention.
Whether we like it or not, we will all have to learn to share, compromise and negotiate to survive as more and more people compete for limited resources. The waste, profligacy, over consumption and gaping inequalities of our world are simply unsustainable. The problem is not so much the lack of resources. There is more than enough in this world to meet everyone’s basic needs but not everyone’s greed.
To wage peace, we have to first wage war. But not the kind on war on each other that we have become accustomed to. We have to wage war on the injustice, inequities and dispossession that are often at the roots of conflict and violence. We now have 7 billion urgent reasons to do so.
7 Billion Reasons to Wage Peace
11/22/2011 07:47:00 AM
human rights, war and peace, world
Nov 14, 2011
This article by the Kenyan author BINYAVANGA WAINAINA was originally published in the Journal "Granta." The scathingly ironic article captures the often unspoken truth about much of what is written and published about Africa in the West.
"How to Write About Africa"
Always use the word ‘Africa’ or ‘Darkness’ or ‘Safari’ in your title. Subtitles may include the words ‘Zanzibar’, ‘Masai’, ‘Zulu’, ‘Zambezi’, ‘Congo’, ‘Nile’, ‘Big’, ‘Sky’, ‘Shadow’, ‘Drum’, ‘Sun’ or ‘Bygone’. Also useful are words such as ‘Guerrillas’, ‘Timeless’, ‘Primordial’ and ‘Tribal’. Note that ‘People’ means Africans who are not black, while ‘The People’ means black Africans.
Never have a picture of a well-adjusted African on the cover of your book, or in it, unless that African has won the Nobel Prize. An AK-47, prominent ribs, naked breasts: use these. If you must include an African, make sure you get one in Masai or Zulu or Dogon dress.
In your text, treat Africa as if it were one country. It is hot and dusty with rolling grasslands and huge herds of animals and tall, thin people who are starving. Or it is hot and steamy with very short people who eat primates. Don’t get bogged down with precise descriptions. Africa is big: fifty-four countries, 900 million people who are too busy starving and dying and warring and emigrating to read your book. The continent is full of deserts, jungles, highlands, savannahs and many other things, but your reader doesn’t care about all that, so keep your descriptions romantic and evocative and unparticular.
Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it—because you care.
Taboo subjects: ordinary domestic scenes, love between Africans (unless a death is involved), references to African writers or intellectuals, mention of school-going children who are not suffering from yaws or Ebola fever or female genital mutilation.
Throughout the book, adopt a sotto voice, in conspiracy with the reader, and a sad I-expected-so-much tone. Establish early on that your liberalism is impeccable, and mention near the beginning how much you love Africa, how you fell in love with the place and can’t live without her. Africa is the only continent you can love—take advantage of this. If you are a man, thrust yourself into her warm virgin forests. If you are a woman, treat Africa as a man who wears a bush jacket and disappears off into the sunset. Africa is to be pitied, worshipped or dominated. Whichever angle you take, be sure to leave the strong impression that without your intervention and your important book, Africa is doomed.
"How to Write About Africa"
Nov 13, 2011
A Research Workshop presented by McMaster University, Department of History and the L.R. Wilson Institute for Canadian History, 1-2 March 2012.
Research Brief
In 2004 Mark Mazower noted that while the history of human rights in the 20th Century could be written as a triumph of civilization over barbarism, it must also be seen as a campaign imbued with politics, cynicism, and state interest. As he points out, we need to understand the political struggles and conflicts of interest that led to the emergence of human rights on the international arena as they had a profound role in the actual definitions of human rights that have largely triumphed. But not only were such struggles fought out in the international arena, or at the highest level of state policy making, they were also to be found at the level of civil society and amongst a variety of activist individuals and advocacy organizations within societies.
Taking Liberties: Historicizing 20th Century Human Rights in the English Speaking World
11/13/2011 09:29:00 PM
education, human rights
Nov 10, 2011
I do not consider myself a movie aficionado but every once in a while I delight in foreign movies to extricate myself from Hollywood’s stranglehold on our collective psyche. Old Iranian and Russian movies hold a particular fascination. But it is the 2001 French film “Amélie” that recently got me enthralled.
A romantic comedy film directed by Jean-Pierre Jeunet, it is the story of a reticent and quirky Parisian waitress who, confronted by her conflicted life, sets out to change the lives of those around her for the better. In so doing, she manages to transform not just the lives of others but unwittingly her own life too.
The movie reminds me so much of the equally remarkable film by the Italian director Roberto Benigni, “Life is Beautiful” which tells the story of a Jewish Italian whose resilience and fertile imagination helps his family survive a Nazi concentration camp. Both films are must sees and come highly recommended.
Viewing of the Month: Amélie
11/10/2011 07:25:00 PM
arts and culture
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