tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67002835146033331872024-03-16T11:51:27.562-07:00Rights & Rightlessness: Rhoda Hassmann on Human RightsRhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.comBlogger174125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-89557240499136789022024-02-28T09:39:00.000-08:002024-02-28T09:39:31.807-08:00Why Palestine, Why Not Sudan? The Racism of Low Expectations<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">A while ago I heard a Sudanese immigrant on the CBC
asking why there was so much Canadian support for the Palestinians, and so
little for Sudan.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-pagination: widow-orphan; tab-stops: 1.5in 2.0in 168.0pt 204.0pt 3.5in;">
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There’s a civil war in Sudan between the Rapid Support
Forces (RSF), a paramilitary group, and the Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF). As a
consequence, according to a recent report from the World Health Organization, about
6 million people are internally displaced in Sudan and another 1.8 million
people are displaced externally in bordering African countries that can ill
afford to help them. As in Gaza, these displaced people suffer from
insufficient food, drinking water, and health services, with many people at
high risk of diseases such as cholera.<span style="color: #434343;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Israel is subject to a quadruple set of expectations.
First, like all other states, it is bound by international laws forbidding
genocide, war crimes, and crimes against humanity. Second, expectations are
high because it is a democratic state. Third, many critics consider it a
colonial state. Finally, it is a Jewish state. Anti-Semites leap with glee onto
any evidence of Israeli wrongdoing. Others—including hundreds of thousands if
not millions of Jews within Israel and elsewhere—are horrified by Israel’s current
assault on Gaza. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">One
reason for the difference between Gaza and Sudan may simply be that information
on the Gaza crisis is much more immediate and available than information on
Sudan. News media are full of day-to-day counts of those killed. Despite the terrible
death rate among journalists, many are still reporting from Gaza. Gazans still
have sporadic access to cell-phones and the ability to tell their stories to
relatives and<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>journalists. By contrast,
news media do not deliver day-to-day accounts of the suffering in Sudan. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;">Many
Canadian doctors have served in Gaza in the last few months, and returned with
horrific accounts. If Canadian doctors are also serving in Sudan, their stories
are not being reported at the same rate by the media. </p><p style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><o:p></o:p></p>
<p style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="color: #434343;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p style="background: white; line-height: 15.0pt; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin: 0in;"><span style="background-color: transparent; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Perhaps there is so little concern with Sudan because Canadians
simply don’t know enough about the intricacies of Sudanese politics. We don’t
understand why the two sides are fighting each other. We also don’t know which
other countries are intervening in Sudan, on which side, and why.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And it doesn’t seem as if Canada has a stake in this
civil war, so there’s no reason to protest our own government’s actions in it,
whereas many Canadians want our government to call for an immediate ceasefire
in Gaza. . <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another reason may be that we don’t think there is any
way we can influence the competing factions in Sudan. We know that Israel wants
to cultivate an international image of a democratic country fighting a legal
war of self-defense, but it doesn’t seem to matter to either of the current
factions in Sudan what Canadians or other Westerners think. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Israel fits the narrative of evil colonialism, of
special concern to Canadians today given our own colonial past (and present). Sudan,
by contrast, is a post-colonial state. No matter how long a country has been
independent, anti-colonialists assume that their leaders have no independent
capacity to make decisions. Any war crimes or crimes against humanity committed
by either side can be attributed to the legacy of their former colonial rulers.
So the leaders of the warring sides are not to blame. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">And while Israel is a Jewish state, Sudan is Muslim.
Many Canadians who are unafraid to criticize Israel are afraid to criticize any
authorities if they are Muslim, even the most brutal and cruel.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But perhaps part of this is just the racism of lower
expectations. There’s a long Western history of assuming that Black people are
naturally barbarous. So, it’s not fair to hold Black elites in Black countries
to the same standards we hold “white” Israelis to. In this view, we can’t
expect any better from Black people. When Black babies die, that’s just the way
it is. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><br /></p><br /><p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-85905821392365634592024-02-21T13:24:00.000-08:002024-02-21T13:24:45.448-08:00A Day in the Life of Abed Salama, by Nathan Thrall: Book Note<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1jHUYuD-hkdP4RmzxOLQ6R2BNY5IFCaLuOv57uLHSs96YZw6OONjDVPq_sq3hqtMINUSwidADATlBhonSzh_37L2UQBRUrPEW2Efkg73egSh42oIHHuJu6G-FK1dskXYABKUKSbg5sYjwC9iEzyD_UINj3Zv-ft5CeAjpTZN6AkW2jSKEeBe8zU9tSA/s320/91XLu0FO3rL._AC_UL320_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="211" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiv1jHUYuD-hkdP4RmzxOLQ6R2BNY5IFCaLuOv57uLHSs96YZw6OONjDVPq_sq3hqtMINUSwidADATlBhonSzh_37L2UQBRUrPEW2Efkg73egSh42oIHHuJu6G-FK1dskXYABKUKSbg5sYjwC9iEzyD_UINj3Zv-ft5CeAjpTZN6AkW2jSKEeBe8zU9tSA/w447-h320/91XLu0FO3rL._AC_UL320_.jpg" width="447" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">A terrible accident occurred in the West Bank
(Palestine) in 2012. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">An ill-maintained truck
driven at very high speed in very dangerous weather crashed with a busload of pre-schoolers
on their way to a park for an outing. One of those pre-schoolers was Milad, the
son of Abed Salama.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This book explores
the accident and everyone involved in it, including parents, other relatives,
the truck driver, the bus driver, rescuers, and doctors. The author, Nathan
Thrall, interviewed all these individuals.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thrall details Abed’s search for his son, once he learns
of the crash. Abed searches in hospitals all over the West Bank as well as in
Jerusalem. He is constantly delayed in his search by road-blocks, questioning
by Israeli soldiers, and the circuitous routes that Palestinians have to take
in order to get around the West Bank without wandering into any settler,
military, or otherwise reserved (for Israel) territories. All the other parents
and relatives experience the same problems, although those with Blue ID cards,
indicating they are Israeli citizens, are somewhat better off.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The men in this book have terrible patriarchal
attitudes. Abed himself is self-destructively impulsive. He does not marry Ghazl,
his first love, after a jealous sister-in-law tells him Ghazl’s father
disapproves. Instead of confronting the father and finding out he actually favours
the marriage, Abed calls off negotiations. He impulsively marries someone else
he doesn’t love, then some years later, after they’ve had four daughters, he
decides to take a second wife without telling the first. The third wife is
Milad’s mother. Another father of a child who dies in the crash blames his wife
for letting the child go on the trip. When she asks for a divorce, the father
demands, and receives, full custody of their remaining children as well as the
entirety of the $200,000 compensation the Israeli government pays because the dead
child was an Israeli citizen (no such compensation was offered to non-citizen
Palestinian residents of the West Bank). The husband of one of the doctors
involved, a high Fatah official, gives her no help at all raising their
children while she learns both Russian and Romanian so that she can complete
her studies as an endocrinologist.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Although the proximate cause of this tragic accident
was the truck driver’s unsafe driving, the ensuing deaths were also caused by
what can only be called apartheid in the West Bank. The 27-year-old truck
itself would have been in better condition if the Palestinian owner had had
more resources to repair his truck. More importantly, it took ages for either
Israeli or Palestinian emergency vehicles to arrive at the scene of the crash.
If the Palestinians had been throwing stones, several parents remarked, Israeli
soldiers would have arrived at the site immediately. As it was, Israeli fire
and medical vehicles took over an hour to reach it.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Meantime, Palestinian emergency vehicles were
blocked by segregated roads and checkpoints.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Even getting ambulances through checkpoints to access hospitals within
Israel itself was difficult. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Recently I also read Daniel Sokatch’s “Israel for dummies”
book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Can we Talk About Israel? A Guide
for the Curious, Confused, and Conflicted </i></span><a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Can-Talk-About-Israel-Conflicted/dp/1635573874/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.amazon.ca/Can-Talk-About-Israel-Conflicted/dp/1635573874/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Sokatch
is the CEO of the New Israel Fund, which tries to help all citizens of Israel
and promote peace among them. I am</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgyeOsjDq_zrCserQcAULBZKOpVFVHkLdYr8NdHwrDMolnjvBtvWRwivSxtuzmasfu6QXNrW6QaVFrhWc6ojYD1i6Kd5a5GFLjTgN4-zsQMuYWoUoM2WyL5y2AgfrBroVkN8_z1J8993xSk5QQ4dHSsOydkRwFbfn2aujagiHrxjh2BCojEMoSgBUOYy0/s342/81Dkrw8ckoL._SY342_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="342" data-original-width="231" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhgyeOsjDq_zrCserQcAULBZKOpVFVHkLdYr8NdHwrDMolnjvBtvWRwivSxtuzmasfu6QXNrW6QaVFrhWc6ojYD1i6Kd5a5GFLjTgN4-zsQMuYWoUoM2WyL5y2AgfrBroVkN8_z1J8993xSk5QQ4dHSsOydkRwFbfn2aujagiHrxjh2BCojEMoSgBUOYy0/s320/81Dkrw8ckoL._SY342_.jpg" width="216" /></a></div><br /> proud to say I am a regular donor to the
NIF, which Netanyahu has denounced<span style="background: #F7F7F7; color: #212121; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><span style="background: #F7F7F7; color: #212121; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">as a foreign organization that endangers “the
security and future of Israel as the national home of the Jewish people.”</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span><a href="https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/benjamin-netanyahu/netanyahus-slandering-of-new-israel-fund-accidentally-raises-them-massive-funds-549006"><span style="background: #F7F7F7; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.jpost.com/israel-news/benjamin-netanyahu/netanyahus-slandering-of-new-israel-fund-accidentally-raises-them-massive-funds-549006</span></a><span style="background: #F7F7F7; color: #212121; font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>Sokatch argues that “Israel proper does not resemble an apartheid state:
the Israeli-occupied West Bank does.” (chapter 20). Abed Salama’s search for
his son Milad shows us in excruciating detail how vindictive and harmful Israel’s
apartheid policy in the West Bank was, long before the current war.</span><span style="background: #F7F7F7; color: #212121; font-family: "Arial",sans-serif; font-size: 14.5pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Broadway; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Broadway; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-47392336787968320132023-11-05T12:03:00.001-08:002023-11-05T12:03:41.986-08:00Responsibility for the (Israel/Gaza) war is not one-sided<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">On October 27, 2023, Harry
Shannon, an emeritus professor at McMaster University, published the following
article (now slightly revised) in the Hamilton Spectator, p. 27.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I tried to post a link to it on my Facebook
account, but was prevented from doing so by Facebook’s ongoing dispute with the
Canadian government. Facebook does not permit sharing Canadian news at the
moment. However, Harry has given me permission to post the whole thing, so here
it is.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think Harry’s balanced and compassionate
opinion on the Israel/Gaza war is well worth reading.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Responsibility
for the war is not one-sided<o:p></o:p></span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><b><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">by Harry Shannon</span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Author’s
siblings in kibbutz near Gaza narrowly avoided fate of residents in nearby
community<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">"My brother lives with his wife on Kibbutz Saad, near
the Gaza border. That weekend, my sister was visiting from Jerusalem. Saad is
right in the middle of some 20 or so villages and kibbutzim which were attacked
by Hamas. Literally across the road is Kfar Azza, where there was a horrible
massacre. Documents recovered from dead Hamas terrorists showed detailed plans to
attack Saad. But for some reason, Saad was spared and my family members
survived.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">At the same time, I have Palestinian friends. I have
worked with health researchers in Ramallah. I know many Jews would be afraid to
visit the West Bank. Several years ago, I told an Israeli cabby that I was
going to Ramallah. “Don’t tell them you’re Jewish,” he said. “They’ll kill
you.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">He was very wrong. I have been warmly welcomed, not in
spite of being a Jew, but even because of it. The vast majority of Palestinians
just want what we in Canada consider a normal, peaceful life. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">But instead they’re subjected to arbitrary arrest,
separate roads, a separate legal system, travel restrictions, and so on, all
based on their ethnicity – apartheid by any other name.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">I’ve been appalled at some of the recent rhetoric, not
just what’s been said, but also what hasn’t been said. Sarah Jama’s post on X
(Twitter) on October 10 has been castigated for not condemning Hamas. She
certainly should have and she belatedly did so. Those who have criticized Jama
are absolutely right to revile Hamas. But they are equally wrong not to
denounce Israel’s grossly disproportionate response. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Israeli lawyer Michael Sfard believes “Israel is
racing to the moral abyss.” He writes that 75 years of imposing refugee status,
56 years of occupation, and 16 years of siege on millions of Palestinians “have
normalized a situation where there are people worth less. Much less.” He cited
a statement by Israel’s President Isaac Herzog, considered a moderate. Appallingly,
Herzog said that all Gazans are responsible for Hamas’ crimes. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Jews of all people should understand the potential
consequences of demonizing an entire population.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Justin Trudeau and other Western leaders have been
quick to condemn Hamas and support Israel, though they caution that
International Humanitarian Law (IHL) must be obeyed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;"> Yet it is clear that Israel is violating IHL.
The blockade of water, food, and medicines (and more arguably, fuel) is
collective punishment of civilians – not just a breach of IHL, but also
thoroughly immoral and indeed a contravention of Jewish law. The demand by
Israel that over a million civilians move from northern to southern Gaza is
likely a violation – and most certainly inhumane. Even so, Trudeau, Biden, and
other leaders issue Israel a free pass. They are spinelessly silent on Israel’s
flouting of IHL and they have failed to press for a ceasefire.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">Hamas’ murders and abduction of hostages, while
horrendous, did not come out of thin air. When I spoke to my sister on October
7, she reacted (albeit before she knew the full extent of what happened): “I
guess we [Israelis] deserve this – but that doesn’t make it any easier when
you’re going through it.” She knows that Israeli settlers on the West Bank have
for years committed terrorist attacks on and murders of Palestinian civilians,
usually with impunity. Unlike terrorism by Hamas, they are almost never
condemned in the West. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 115%; margin-bottom: 6.0pt;"><span lang="EN-CA" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-CA;">As does Michael Sfard, my sister acknowledges that
responsibility for the war is not one-sided. If the conflict is ever to
be resolved, both sides and their supporters must first own up to their crimes."<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-23221032794426135732023-10-21T12:05:00.000-07:002023-10-21T12:05:07.063-07:00My Letter to Prime Minister Trudeau urging him to encourage Israel to lift its Siege of Gaza<p>Note: I am not an expert on Israel/Gaza, although I have posted some blogs on Gaza and the West Bank from research I conducted for my book, State Food Crimes (Cambridge University Press, 2016). I've posted blogs on water rights of West Bank Palestinians, https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/6700283514603333187/7075056415597328037/; on<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> Palestinian property rights:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://rhodahassmann.blogspot.ca/2013/05/property-rights-of-west-bank.html" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: purple;">http://rhodahassmann.blogspot.ca/2013/05/property-rights-of-west-bank.html</span></a>, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">and a blog explaining my position on criticizing Israel:</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><a href="http://rhodahassmann.blogspot.ca/2013/06/on-criticizing-israel.html" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"><span style="color: purple;">http://rhodahassmann.blogspot.ca/2013/06/on-criticizing-israel.html</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif"; font-size: 12pt;">I believe that Israel is a state that has the right to exist in peace, but that it must also obey international law. </span></p><div class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: normal; margin: 0in 0in 0pt;"><span style="mso-ascii-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-hansi-font-family: Calibri; mso-no-proof: yes;"><span style="font-family: Calibri;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></div><p> So I am not going to post blogs on what I think should be done regarding the current Israel/Gaza conflict.. But I do oppose the siege of Gaza. I post below a letter I sent today to Canada's Prime Minister.</p><p class="MsoNormal">Dear Prime Minister Trudeau,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I am a Jewish Canadian living in Hamilton Centre.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am also a scholar of international human
rights: in that capacity I have researched the high rates of malnutrition in
Gaza and the West Bank before recent events, and the responsibilities of Israel
and Egypt in creating that malnutrition.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I appreciate your support for Israel’s right to defend itself,
a right asserted in international law. I also agree with you that Hamas is a terrorist
organization holding the majority of the population of Gaza hostage. I also
appreciate your insistence that Israel should obey international laws of
warfare. In that connection I urge you to continue encouraging Israel to cease
its siege of Gaza, and to permit the normal 100 truckloads of aid Gaza needs
every day to survive. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Aside from urgent humanitarian reasons to cease the siege, there
are compelling political reasons. Nothing can be gained from a siege of 2.2
million people who have no means of escape from Gaza.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This siege will only encourage the enemies of
Israel and of the West in general. That these enemies include many
dictatorships such as Iran does not obviate the need for world peace.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Yours sincerely,<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, CM, FRSC, Ph.D.<o:p></o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-77572529957035329152023-08-10T12:55:00.000-07:002023-08-10T12:55:23.597-07:00A Stranger in Your Own City, by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad: Book Note<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Last month (July 2023) I read </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">A Stranger in Your Own City</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">, by Ghaith Abdul-Ahad (New York, Alfred
A Knopf, 2023). Abdul-Ahad’s city is Baghdad, before, during and after the US
invasion of Iraq in 2003, now twenty years ago. Originally trained as an
architect, Abdul-Ahad spoke very good English and became a translator for foreign
journalists during the invasion, then a journalist in his own right.<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr_Qi9wiiBr3juSo_tAhO4t32CRdNiD4QpanFY-3_6lwHHFFow2udmJ9b060cbPUEMakNhdh4feGyqYyScBKZSsnmjY2vB3bdlCF0dUJ7jWg6rC0E9-xAgVF4cIPEwvdNWMluS7iC5JX2I8q3INkEn73Som_yPaphhj4NZMI0yFGzxLAWGZ3JHaxiZk3s/s260/abdul-ahad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="260" height="160" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhr_Qi9wiiBr3juSo_tAhO4t32CRdNiD4QpanFY-3_6lwHHFFow2udmJ9b060cbPUEMakNhdh4feGyqYyScBKZSsnmjY2vB3bdlCF0dUJ7jWg6rC0E9-xAgVF4cIPEwvdNWMluS7iC5JX2I8q3INkEn73Som_yPaphhj4NZMI0yFGzxLAWGZ3JHaxiZk3s/w320-h160/abdul-ahad.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Ghaith Abdul-Ahad</td></tr></tbody></table></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">This is not an outsider’s book about Iraq, it’s an
insider’s, and therefore all the more disturbing. Abdul-Ahad describes the years
of the UN-imposed sanctions on Iraq after the 1991 Gulf War and the damage they
did, causing the deaths of half a million children. </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12pt; text-align: left;">Then he turns to the American invasion.</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqS4pAfhEbuxjNP-WXKxMB4Cp1pW_fy8fq7OetjQTenM7DombscKYTKTrtBQJZNIPnBV76yzTmHmZyuf5op7H2E-JNBlxyb86pqe_1sxmyWVFxRIaRO9PFjqYzCuFTDJ5wAsVxQVk-qcD_ov4UBE4f3A6LV9HRBNytvEdNzbJ9gXbfwIUA4lc-7553A0/s142/stranger%20in%20your%20own%20city.webp" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="142" data-original-width="104" height="142" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPqS4pAfhEbuxjNP-WXKxMB4Cp1pW_fy8fq7OetjQTenM7DombscKYTKTrtBQJZNIPnBV76yzTmHmZyuf5op7H2E-JNBlxyb86pqe_1sxmyWVFxRIaRO9PFjqYzCuFTDJ5wAsVxQVk-qcD_ov4UBE4f3A6LV9HRBNytvEdNzbJ9gXbfwIUA4lc-7553A0/w113-h142/stranger%20in%20your%20own%20city.webp" width="113" /></a></div></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">Abdul-Ahad states that the American provisional authority “represented
the worst combination of colonial hubris, toxic racist arrogance and criminal incompetence.”
(p. 56) Their simplistic belief that the only relevant division in Iraq was
between Sunni and Shia Muslims intensified religious divisions, especially
after the Americans substituted a regime of Shias for the former regime, which
they believed had been only Sunni. Abdul-Ahad describes how all over Iraq,
Sunnis and Shias who had previously lived together in peace now started separating
their neighbourhoods, fighting and killing each other.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Americans fired all “Ba’athist” civil servants, whom
they believed to be committed Sunni supported of Saddam Hussein. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>By doing so, the Americans ensured the
complete breakdown of civil administration, including education, hospitals, infrastructure,
etc.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet these “Ba’athist” civil
servants were often members of the Ba’ath party in name only, as that was the
only way to get a job under Saddam Hussain. Contrast this to the conquest of
Nazi Germany in 1945, when most civil servants, including leading and committed
Nazis, kept their jobs. Nothing good that had occurred under Saddam, including
land reform that gave land to peasants, remained after the Americans took over.
It was American marines, not Iraqis, who toppled the statue of Saddam (p. 43)</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">So many other military and political actors emerged after the
invasion that I cannot even begin to summarize them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Among them were tribal chieftains, terrorist Islamists,
and various people out to line their own pockets, sometimes even just small
groups of young men.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Iraq was one giant location
for looting, raping and pillaging. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Among the people Abdul-Ahad interviewed were leaders
of the various factions and militias that emerged after the Americans invaded.
He was able to interview people few if any outsiders could ever interview, and even
to embed himself with the troops of various factions. He survived a direct
American hit on a crowd of civilians in 2004, in which 13 were killed and 60
injured. (pp. 72-75). Everyone should read this detailed account of men and
boys bleeding, moaning and dying, all because the Americans were targeting one armored
vehicle to prevent insurgents from using it. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">My friend and colleague Abdullahi A. An-Naim is emeritus
professor of law at Emory University.<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvAg-9ld-ft4pFH5cLnGbd_OwvNlwNgEbfgSkngBjnckuliN7mTW9fNxqVezZAIGXBqCGki2y5k6dCNvl09gA9n4wDFqVgMFcPUpBE5lgLtfcqmfMIXjPM2hV3_qSYNXO956sAhGKebfLfJ35WkYnhW9_z4DU_MFH6nbBBg3YD5iPLjtfnRWKcZwydLWU/s130/annaim.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="130" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvAg-9ld-ft4pFH5cLnGbd_OwvNlwNgEbfgSkngBjnckuliN7mTW9fNxqVezZAIGXBqCGki2y5k6dCNvl09gA9n4wDFqVgMFcPUpBE5lgLtfcqmfMIXjPM2hV3_qSYNXO956sAhGKebfLfJ35WkYnhW9_z4DU_MFH6nbBBg3YD5iPLjtfnRWKcZwydLWU/s1600/annaim.jpg" width="130" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Abdullahi An-Naim</td></tr></tbody></table><br /> Originally from Sudan, he was a committed
supporter of international human rights when I met him over 40 years ago. Now,
he considers human rights and international humanitarian law to both be colonial
(see his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Decolonizing Human Rights</i>,
Cambridge University Press, 2021). </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">He especially opposed
humanitarian intervention, on the grounds that the intervening powers lack the time,
resources, local knowledge, language skills, and cultural competence to create
a rights-protective regime (or even a democratic one) even when they might wish
to. The American invasion of Iraq was not for humanitarian motives and the
United Nations did not support it. But An-Naim is right nevertheless: the
Americans didn’t have a clue what they were doing, and their invasion set the
country up for all the internecine, tribal, religious and terrorist wars that
followed. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-56903036774848813852023-07-20T09:41:00.000-07:002023-07-20T09:41:08.630-07:00<p><br /> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 20pt; line-height: 115%;">In
the Midst of Civilized Europe by Jeffrey Veidlinger: Book Note<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This past month (July 2023) I read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In the Midst of Civilized Europe: The
Pogroms of 1918-1921 and the Onset of the Holocaust </i></span></p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishKQjoT1Gtri_ZWVh0kOm9e8VT20IjX4H0rmKBOpKoHSZtJkv_7LTqBJAPXt0oxP_VJx7VHjLQZRi2tMlIx-iUCmRWs5D-7VfaP5zKr-nTXxi5hQsyZZ9vANmbdWfsCMWE-PcwnJBp5xXtNLt0V2xrPXhSoyztM2MkFieWCkuwJhvKra62dGZI_qNDQk/s130/veidlinger(1).jpg" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="130" data-original-width="130" height="130" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEishKQjoT1Gtri_ZWVh0kOm9e8VT20IjX4H0rmKBOpKoHSZtJkv_7LTqBJAPXt0oxP_VJx7VHjLQZRi2tMlIx-iUCmRWs5D-7VfaP5zKr-nTXxi5hQsyZZ9vANmbdWfsCMWE-PcwnJBp5xXtNLt0V2xrPXhSoyztM2MkFieWCkuwJhvKra62dGZI_qNDQk/s1600/veidlinger(1).jpg" width="130" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Jeffrey Veidlinger</td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">(HarperCollins 2021).
The title is ironic. Historian Jeffrey Veidlinger’s book is about the pogroms
of as many as 100,000 Jews in what is now Ukraine, during the many wars for
Ukraine’s territory in the period 1918-21. The reference to “civilized Europe”
is from an open letter, expressing concern about Ukraine’s Jews. The lead
signatory of the letter was the French author Anatole France.</span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In 1917, the Bolsheviks (Communists) under Vladimir
Lenin took power over former imperial Russia. They immediately made peace with
Germany. Ukrainian democrats and nationalists saw this as an opportunity to
claim their own independence from Russia. Various political actors then engaged
in struggle for control of the territory we now call Ukraine over the four
years Veidlinger covers. These included Ukrainian democrats, who never had much
control over any part of Ukraine, and Ukrainian nationalists supported by the
dreaded (by Jews) Cossack horsemen. They also included Polish invaders, German
invaders, White (anti-communist) Russian invaders, and Bolsheviks. Finally,
they included local warlords. Bolshevik Russia finally subdued or negotiated
with all these other actors, and incorporated Ukraine into the Soviet Union.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">With the exception of the Ukrainian democrats, who
tried to introduce rights for national minorities, including Jews, all these
groups were responsible for pogroms against Jews. While Bolshevik officials did
not have a policy of persecuting Jews, their underlings occasionally instituted
pogroms. The other groups enthusiastically conducted pogroms, often killing
every Jew in towns that they controlled, usually after raping the women and
girls first. Both those who instituted the pogroms and local townspeople and
peasants from surrounding villages cheerfully looted Jewish homes and other
properties. Veidlinger’s final estimate is about 100,000 Jews killed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">We know about these pogroms in great detail because
Jewish community leaders, both in Ukraine and abroad, encouraged survivors to
detail and document what they experienced and witnessed. We also know about
them through the records of commissions of inquiry into the various pogroms,
including many commissions held by the Bolshevik authorities in the 1920s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>While many records of the pogroms were later
lost, enough survived that Veidlinger was able to read them and in some
chapters, provide detailed and horrifying descriptions of local pogroms. He
appears to read both Russian and Yiddish (the latter the language of many
Eastern European Jews, now more or less a dead language).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The Bolsheviks who instituted commissions of inquiry were
the same authorities that instituted their own terror against opponents (real
and perceived) via their state institutions, including the Cheka secret police.
They were also the authorities who stole food from Ukraine in 1920-21, shipping
it to Russia proper while Ukrainians starved (as they did again during the
state-induced Holodomor famine in 1932-33, which I discuss in my 2016 book, </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">State Food Crimes</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">, pp. 22-27).</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Indeed, Veidlinger explains in his last chapter why so
many Ukrainians welcomed Nazi rule during WWII and why so many willingly
assisted the Nazis in their program to exterminate the Jews. Many Jewish people
had joined the Bolsheviks, including the Cheka, in the 1920s, as the Bolsheviks
were the only people who extended a modicum of protection to the Jews from the pogroms
instituted by almost all the other actors in the civil wars of 1918-21.
Ukrainian peasants whom the Bolsheviks had twice starved saw those Jews who
survived the earlier pogroms and did not emigrate as privileged people, simultaneously
capitalist and communist. In reality, both before and after 1918, most Jews
were small business-people or craftsmen, not rich bourgeois. Many ethnic Ukrainians,
moreover, had been persecuted by the Cheka, or had relatives who had been
persecuted. The Bolsheviks had also expropriated the property of many
Ukrainians. Thus, many blamed “Jewry,” write large, for the actions of some
individuals Jews who were Bolsheviks, even when most Bolsheviks were ethnic
Russians, not Jews. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This absolutely does not excuse Ukrainians who persecuted
Jews in 1918-1921, or who cooperated with Nazism in the 1940s to murder even
more Jews. Murderers are murderers and génocidaires are génocidaires. But if we
want to eradiate genocide, we need to understand the underlying political,
economic, social and ideological factors that cause it. This applies as much to
the extermination of the Jews in “civilized” Europe as to any genocide
elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ukraine became independent in 1991 after the break-up
of the Soviet Union. I remember being a member of a visiting delegation of
scholars to the Institute of State and Law at the Russian Academy of Sciences
in Moscow in 1990. In discussion, I said that I thought Ukraine would want its independence,
especially because of memories of the Holodomor. A member of the Russian side
said that she was an ethnic Ukrainian and Ukraine would always remain loyal to Russia.
Hah!<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ukraine had no history of being independent in the
modern sense of statehood prior to 1991. Before then, the territory now known
as Ukraine was divided up at various times among Russia, Poland, Lithuania, and
so on. But that does not validate Vladimir Putin’s argument that Ukraine is
Russian territory now. Once the international community recognizes as State as independent
and sovereign, that’s that. So, Israel has the right to exist as a state,
whatever one might think of its policies toward the Palestinians. So does Serbia,
forged in blood after committing terrible atrocities against other groups—especially
the Bosnians-during the break-up of Yugoslavia. So do South Sudan and Sudan
proper, both countries with terrible records of mass atrocities. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The history of Ukraine 1918-2021 put me in mind of politics
in Africa today, especially in eastern Congo. There too, for the last 30 years
various groups have been competing for control, including both ethnic Hutu and Tutsi.
There too, invading forces from foreign nations—Zimbabwe and Rwanda
especially—have committed mass atrocities. There too, local warlords have
sprung up and committed atrocities. “Civilizations” in both Europe and Africa
disintegrate easily, revealing mankind’s worst instincts for torture, death,
looting, and revenge.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="font-size: 12pt;"> </span></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-34653674483081599312023-07-03T11:20:00.003-07:002023-07-03T11:20:56.122-07:00Announcement: My Appointment to the Order of Canada<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgiuvgmMB9f6O5ByEAvQxfq1wc4jb_VHd9OWHUUptksL__LzK7xR5OZdeQrUI0I01dRhSthB_afzdFk_PHWIQXUXfuAszYdSTg_hw26SUzrAY1VtiF2fXIDW__SBfg65YfninrADapoS87vaqsbw7ibNtM-Ku9nE9b2e5lpqCNlQdJxW6PtGBSJseMh4/s3000/DSC_1123%20(002).jpg%20melanie%20number%202.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3000" data-original-width="2400" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhqgiuvgmMB9f6O5ByEAvQxfq1wc4jb_VHd9OWHUUptksL__LzK7xR5OZdeQrUI0I01dRhSthB_afzdFk_PHWIQXUXfuAszYdSTg_hw26SUzrAY1VtiF2fXIDW__SBfg65YfninrADapoS87vaqsbw7ibNtM-Ku9nE9b2e5lpqCNlQdJxW6PtGBSJseMh4/s320/DSC_1123%20(002).jpg%20melanie%20number%202.jpg" width="256" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="mso-outline-level: 1;">Order of Canada<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">On June 30, 2023, the office of the Governor-General of
Canada released the names of new Members of the Order of Canada. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I am one of them. I am not permitted to
know who nominated me or when, but my best guess is that I was nominated in the late 2010s by Wilfrid
Laurier University, where I held the Canada Research Chair in International
Human Rights from 2023 to 2016. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The Governor-General’s
office is just cleaning up the pandemic backlog now. The Order of Canada
is analogous to the UK’s system of Order of the British Empire. There will be an official investiture sometime in the future, but in the meantime I'm allowed to call myself a Member and wear the official insignia.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt; font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-weight: normal;">Here is the official citation and link to
the announcement: <o:p></o:p></span></strong></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-weight: normal;"><o:p> </o:p></span></strong><strong><span style="background: white; font-family: "Calibri",sans-serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, C.M.</span></strong></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="background-color: white; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Hamilton, Ontario</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;">
<span style="background: white;">For her extensive scholarly contributions and
steadfast commitment to the advancement of international human rights.</span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><a href="https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-appointments-to-the-order-of-canada-and-promotions-within-the-order-855460163.html" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://www.newswire.ca/news-releases/new-appointments-to-the-order-of-canada-and-promotions-within-the-order-855460163.html</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Also
for background, here is the link to my Wikipedia page:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span><a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoda_Howard-Hassmann" style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhoda_Howard-Hassmann</a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p>I also include my new formal image in this blog. The white button I am
wearing on my left shoulder signifies Order of Canada, the reddish one
signifies Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, an honor I’ve held since 1993.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><o:p></o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-46292844370604478502023-06-29T12:37:00.006-07:002023-06-29T12:53:07.456-07:00Irreversible Damage by Abigail Shrier: A Defense<p><br /></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In this blog I discuss Abigail Shrier’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Irreversible Damage: The Transgender Craze Seducing
Our Daughters</i> (Washington; D.C., Regnery Publishing, 2020). Many people
think you should not read this book: I think you should. <b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">A
Canadian Case<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In late April, 2023, Lane Tredger, the first
non-binary member of the legislature of Yukon Territory, Canada (population
44,000) complained to the library at Yukon’s capital city, Whitehorse
(population 28,000). They had noticed that the library had posted Abigail
Shrier’s book, <i>Irreversible Damage, </i>as a staff pick. This is a common procedure in Canadian libraries, where members
of staff advertise a book they consider particularly worthwhile.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Tredger argued that Schrier’s book was “blatantly
transphobic.” <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/irreversible-damage-whitehorse-library-pick-1.6826815">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/irreversible-damage-whitehorse-library-pick-1.6826815</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The library eventually decided that the book would
remain in the Whitehorse collection, but without the staff pick sticker, and
that it would be more rigorous in selecting staff picks. To its credit, the
director of the Yukon Public Libraries said that “Libraries aren’t the arbiters
of hate speech: that’s for the courts to decide.”. <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/whitehorse-library-book-irreversible-damage-decision-1.6882585#">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/north/whitehorse-library-book-irreversible-damage-decision-1.6882585#</a>:<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">What
Shrier Argued<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I wonder if Lane Tredger actually read Schrier’s book.
I have. Shrier does not claim that no one is genuinely trans: she interviewed
several adult trans people whose chosen trans identities she respected. She specifically
stated “I have nothing but respect for the transgender adults I’ve interviewed.
They were among the most sober, thoughtful, and decent people I have come to
know in the course of writing this book” (219).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">But Shrier is concerned that far too many young girls
believe that they are actually boys, and that far too many parents, teachers, medical
professionals, and other adults are willing to “affirm” these statements about
identity. Her book is full of stories of girls who thought they were boys. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In the 2010s, Shrier states, claims of adolescent
gender dysphoria increased by 1,000 per cent in the US (32). She is
particularly concerned with what she considers the “craze” of rapid-onset
gender dysphoria (ROGD), often found within girls’ friendship groups, several
members at a time of such groups identifying as trans (26). Shrier attributes
this craze in part to “transgender influencers” on social media. These
influencers, she asserts, coach girls to lie to doctors, inventing histories of
gender dysphoria while omitting details of their mental health history, to
convince doctors to immediately start gender transition treatments even though
ROGD might mask other mental health problems (34, 55).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Girls are
susceptible to this RODG craze, Shrier argues, because of several factors
affecting their sense of identity. These include the social isolation of
today’s adolescents, compounding the normal stresses of female puberty. Such
problems are also influenced, paradoxically, by the current narrowing of gender
roles, so that girls who “act like” boys begin to believe they actually are
boys (pp. 3-18). “Gender-nonconforming” females are seen as actually, or
somewhat, male, overturning the long-ago gains of the feminist movement that
defended women seen as unfeminine because of their interests in “male” pursuits
such as athletics or engineering (63). Notably, there does not appear to be a
reverse trend, in which unprecedentedly large numbers of boys suddenly claim
they are girls. Perhaps this is in part because being female is still lower
status than being male. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">In
general, Shrier believes that patients are often drawn to “symptom pools,” or
“culturally acceptable ways of manifesting distress that lead to recognized
diagnoses” (136). Thus, young girls who are distressed about several different
aspects of their lives might self-diagnose as in need of gender transition.
Such other aspects could include being sexually attracted to girls and women,
instead of boys or men; dressing or acting in ways not conforming to pervasive
gender stereotypes; or having interests not typical for young girls. Shrier
states that several young girls she interviewed told her that lesbians were
mocked for being girls who could not admit they were boys, “trans” identities
being higher status in high schools than “lesbian” identities (151). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Young
women who “failed” at being girls, according to Shrier, could transfer their
identity to being male, and as trans people, moreover, could enjoy the
“pleasure” of being “oppressed.” This particularly appealed to young white
girls who otherwise had to categorize themselves as members of the oppressor
class. Now they could “take cover” in being members of a victim group, women no
longer being considered oppressed (154-7).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shrier
is concerned about the effects on girls’ health of early transitioning. Future
infertility, she maintains, is one such problem. Others are a higher risk of
osteoporosis as bone density is suppressed, interference with brain
development, possible loss of sexual function, cancer, endometriosis, hysterectomies,
and even heart attacks (82-83, 165, 169-70).</span> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Gender surgeries, Shrier argues,
are experimental and lack proper oversight (142). Even binding one’s breasts
can have detrimental health consequences (47). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">At
least one medication, Lupron, prescribed to block puberty had not been approved
by the US Food and Drug Administration for that purpose at the time of writing,
yet it was commonly used <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(164). In general,
“The dangers [of trans medications and surgery] are legion. The safeguards
absent” (183). Yet gender reassignment clinics are multiplying in the US, in
part because insurance companies are obliged to pay for gender reassignment
treatment on the grounds that otherwise they would be discriminating. In 2007
there was only one gender-reassignment clinic, at the time Shrier wrote there
were over fifty (167). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shrier’s
allegation are backed up by the personal testimony of one transgender man, who
accumulated one million dollars in medical bills for treatment that left them with
several severe medical complications. Yet they could not sue their doctors as
there were no standards of care in transgender medicine to which the doctors
were obliged to adhere. ( (<a href="https://www.newsweek.com/we-need-balance-when-it-comes-gender-dysphoric-kids-i-would-know-opinion-1567277">https://www.newsweek.com/we-need-balance-when-it-comes-gender-dysphoric-kids-i-would-know-opinion-1567277</a><span class="MsoHyperlink">)</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Shrier argues that many health professionals who
presumably would not accept patients’ self-diagnosis in any other situation, be
it physical or mental health, are now convinced that they should accept and
affirm children’s self-diagnosis of gender identity (97-121). Yet, Shrier
asserts, several studies show that about seventy per cent of young children who
experience childhood gender dysphoria grow out of it, if they are not
encourages to socially transition (119). One study showed that 85 per cent of
children exhibiting gender dysphoria outgrew it (256, n. 11).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Shrier’s
book should not be censored.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Yet this is
what the American Booksellers’ Association essentially did in July 2021 when it
apologized for its “violence” in sending free copies of Shrier’s “anti-trans” book
to 750 member bookstore. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The apology
backfired, however, as publicity surrounding it resulted in an increase in the
book’s sales. <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/16/irreversible-damage-anti-trans-booksellers-association/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/lifestyle/2021/07/16/irreversible-damage-anti-trans-booksellers-association/</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Evaluate and
Disagree: Don’t Censor<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">People
who disagree with Shrier should first carefully read her book.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then they should address her evidence, as a
professional psychologist, Christopher Ferguson, did. He criticized Schrier for
not being sufficiently conversant with the scientific evidence that sex is not
determined only by X or Y chromosomes but instead resides in the hypothalmus,
and as such, “is largely immutable.” <a href="https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/checkpoints/202101/review-irreversible-damage-abigail-shrier">https://www.psychologytoday.com/ca/blog/checkpoints/202101/review-irreversible-damage-abigail-shrier</a>)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">Some
evidence is now emerging from countries other than the US that supports Shrier’s
point of view. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">In
Sweden, </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">there
was a 1,500 per cent increase between 2008 and 2018 in gender dysphoria among people
“born as girls” between 13 and 17 years old.</span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">. <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/22/ssweden-teenage-transgender-row-dysphoria-diagnoses-soar"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/22/ssweden-teenage-Transgender-row-dysphoria-diagnoses-soar</span></a></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the UK, 1,806
girls were referred for gender treatment in 2017/18, as compared to only 40 in
2009/10.<u><span style="color: blue; font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0.25pt; mso-themecolor: hyperlink;"><a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6172097/investigation-ordered-number-transitioning-referrals-increase-four-thousand-cent.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6172097/investigation-ordered-number-transitioning-referrals-increase-four-thousand-cent.html</a></span></u><span style="font-variant: small-caps; letter-spacing: 0.25pt;">. </span>As of August 2022,
a class action suit against the Tavistock Institute, the UK’s former center for
gender dysphoria treatment, was in preparation, claiming that children were
“rushed into taking life-altering puberty blockers without adequate
consideration or proper diagnosis.” </span><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/tavistock-gender-clinic-lawyers-latest-b2143006.html"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">https://www.independent.co.uk/news/health/tavistock-gender-clinic-lawyers-latest-b2143006.html</span></a></span>.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-fareast;">As
I said at the outset of this blog, I am very concerned by people who denounce
books and advocate their withdrawal from the public view, rather than taking
authors’ arguments seriously. Maybe Shrier has it all wrong. But maybe, as the evidence
from other countries suggests, she doesn’t. In any event, the thing to do is
read her book and make up your own mind.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-48245554013407966862023-06-22T08:51:00.000-07:002023-06-22T08:51:23.537-07:00Driving with Will: A Memoir of Will Coleman<p>Note; readers of my blog may not know that for many years I have published poetry in various local and Canadian outlets. Recently, I've taken up trying to write creative non-fiction. Below is my memoir of the distinguished Canadian political scientist, Will Coleman, who died on March 24, 2023. Will was my friend and colleague for over 40 years.</p>
<p align="center" class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; text-align: center;"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjq9oP9FCHJvVjJOCsYhuUS8rUfyeKZXYGgawa-5HuM8ande3Zjrvy_0FZsgB6yIS2wf9AmJ1dym3pmpMHDeak80dUwfGLqNzUditFbgVN4dMufLDua6yY8yLGUOtquIre17H88r7wq7aH5nSItoPY6o9QtNX5Su1AC5xlGXnLo69gE-Bmo8JkQoam7g58" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="332" data-original-width="500" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjq9oP9FCHJvVjJOCsYhuUS8rUfyeKZXYGgawa-5HuM8ande3Zjrvy_0FZsgB6yIS2wf9AmJ1dym3pmpMHDeak80dUwfGLqNzUditFbgVN4dMufLDua6yY8yLGUOtquIre17H88r7wq7aH5nSItoPY6o9QtNX5Su1AC5xlGXnLo69gE-Bmo8JkQoam7g58" width="320" /></a></div><o:p> <br /></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">My friend Will died on March 24. He’d been suffering from
advanced Alzheimer’s, but died of a stroke.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I have many memories of Will, starting in the late 1970s
when we were both young faculty members at McMaster University. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I left McMaster for Wilfrid Laurier University in Waterloo
in 2003. After Will joined the University of Waterloo a few years later, we
started commuting together when our schedules permitted. I would pick him up at
his house at 8:00 AM, by which time he’d already been up and working for three
hours. Normally a very quiet person, Will would start talking as soon as he got
into the car, telling me everything that had happened to him since we’d last
driven together. Or almost everything: I was completely unaware of a blossoming
friendship with a woman down the street, Suet-Ha Loo, until he told me a few days before the
event that they were getting married.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Will was extremely proud of his children and grandchildren.
He loved his Sunday mornings baby-sitting Quinn, the son of his own son Matthew. Will and Quinn would sit on a bench on
Aberdeen Avenue near where Quinn lived with his parents, and Quinn would shout “car,” or “truck” at every vehicle that
passed.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I also enjoyed hearing about Will's daughter Kaitlyn, who’d obtained a degree in Museum Studies, and her
interesting job helping to explore Toronto construction sites for historical
artifacts. Will always spoke with great admiration and affection for his
mother, whom he visited twice yearly in British Columbia until she died.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Will talked a lot about the various marathon races he
competed in. At one point he was particularly peeved by a competitor from
Niagara Falls who kept winning first place in their age category while Will
came second, in part because he (the competitor) was at the lower end of the
age range. Will thought this was scandalous. Once, the competitor was
disqualified so Will came first. The competitor was annoyed, but Will felt he
had won fairly.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">I used to tease Will about his annual trips to a Buddhist
retreat where he would be silent for a week or more at a time.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He was an extremely quiet person, so I
thought he should go to noisiness retreats instead.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He accepted my teasing graciously.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">After Will retired, I had lunch with him a few times.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>We spent one long summer’s afternoon on the
patio of Quatrefoil Restaurant in Dundas, with a couple of colleagues who’d
come from Waterloo to see us.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Will was
anxious to get home though, to feed his new wife’s cat.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The last time I saw him, I invited him to
lunch with me and my husband at our house.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>I’d gone to the local health food store on Locke Street, to buy some vegan
food for him; even as his disease progressed, he still diligently maintained
his vegan habits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>His eyes lit up when I
told him I’d bought some vegan chocolate chip cookies and he was welcome to
take the leftovers home.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Will was my friend: may his memory be a blessing.<o:p></o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-6392965871003977942023-06-05T10:31:00.001-07:002023-06-05T10:31:30.349-07:00Readable Books on Human Rights<p> The owners of a website called Shepherd: explore, discover, read," ask scholars to recommend readable books in their area of expertise in return for publicizing one of the scholar's own works. Today (June 5, 2023) they posted my five recommendations. The books I recommended were Arthur Koestler, <i>Darkness at Noon; </i>Fatima Mernissi, <i>Dreams of Trespass: Tales of a Harem Girlhood</i>; Barbara Demick,<i> Nothing to Envy: Ordinary Lives in North Korea</i>; Susan Brownmiller, <i>Against Our Will: Men, Women and Rape</i>; and Robert Conquest, <i>The Harvest of Sorrow: Soviet Collectivization and the Terror-Famine. </i>You can read why I chose these books here: </p><p><span style="color: #444444; font-family: "Verdana",sans-serif; font-size: 9.0pt;"><a href="https://can01.safelinks.protection.outlook.com/?url=https%3A%2F%2Fshepherd.com%2Fbest-books%2Freadable-stories-on-human-rights&data=05%7C01%7Chassmann%40wlu.ca%7Ce57ef2fdf4d545c7796908db65927b74%7Cb45a5125b29846bc8b89ea5a7343fde8%7C1%7C0%7C638215452034683731%7CUnknown%7CTWFpbGZsb3d8eyJWIjoiMC4wLjAwMDAiLCJQIjoiV2luMzIiLCJBTiI6Ik1haWwiLCJXVCI6Mn0%3D%7C3000%7C%7C%7C&sdata=plCWeuSosxa9Von50wRnbEbFeLDzXJ95Yg6DU0%2Be8n0%3D&reserved=0">https://shepherd.com/best-books/readable-stories-on-human-rights</a></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEha6oA_CaheXA1mLIbw0byhKHh82epykr3s_7hztbofILACWuh8ZcCA_bEUQ2QXSaxNxst7knSQTFs63oYpiQdn6Ef3Uv9UoP4iAyky-VC4Yh4_CQIaEYlJ6k_4ZuQApGZti6gMx-dl5hvWK7vf9iXNN3oNtz-vNW_pI7ulCh_PfkCFAvf7U2icPRwD" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="608" data-original-width="1200" height="162" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEha6oA_CaheXA1mLIbw0byhKHh82epykr3s_7hztbofILACWuh8ZcCA_bEUQ2QXSaxNxst7knSQTFs63oYpiQdn6Ef3Uv9UoP4iAyky-VC4Yh4_CQIaEYlJ6k_4ZuQApGZti6gMx-dl5hvWK7vf9iXNN3oNtz-vNW_pI7ulCh_PfkCFAvf7U2icPRwD" width="320" /></a></div><br /><o:p></o:p><p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-26540042671439270932023-05-02T12:37:00.000-07:002023-05-02T12:37:23.844-07:00Benign Professions, Malign Practitioners: Book Reviews<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Benign Professions,
Malign Practitioners<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This month I read two books about severe medical mal-practice,
both lent to me by Peter Rosenbaum, a specialist in pediatric cerebral palsy
here in Hamilton, where I live.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Peter grew up in Montreal and attend McGill University. The
first book is by a friend of his from that time, Harvey Weinstein (no, not the
movie mogul, another one).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Weinstein
published a book in 1988 (Toronto, James Lorimer and Company) called <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">A Father, A Son, and the CIA. </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Canadian readers of a certain age will
already guess what this is about; it’s about how the CIA provided funds to one
Dr Ewan Cameron, a psychiatrist at McGill, to conduct “patterning” experiments (a.k.a.
brainwashing) on patients. This occurred in the 1950s and 60s, and became a
national scandal when an NDP Member of Parliament revealed that his wife had
been one of the patients.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Weinstein’s description of his early childhood years is
straight out of a Mordechai Richler novel. His father had a dress factory that
was doing well, and the family lived in a wealthy part of English Montreal.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Then his father developed severe anxiety and was
referred to Cameron.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cameron’s “treatments”
included frequent electric shocks, playing recordings over and over again for
hours or days to comatose patients, and trying to reduce patient to the status
of infants, even without control of their bowels and bladders.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When Weinstein’s mother questioned the
treatments, she was told to go home and trust the doctors.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Needless to say, when Weinstein’s father was released, he
was ruined.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He could no longer work and
lost his business; the family had to sell their house and move into a small
apartment.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In 1988, legal cases against
McGill were still on-going.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">The other book Peter lent me was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Asperger’s Children: The Origins of Autism in Nazi Vienna</i>, by Edith
Sheffer, a historian. (W.W, Norton, 2018). If you or a family member have been
diagnosed with Asperger’s Syndrome, be aware that your diagnosis is named after
a genocidal Viennese doctor.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Asperger
was one of the doctors in Vienna who “selected” disabled children for murder by
the Nazis, in a regime that Sheffer calls “psychiatric genocide,” facilitated by
a “diagnosis regime” that decided who was worthy to live. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">These were children confined or referred to a specific children’s
“home” called Spiegelgrund, on the outskirts of Vienna, often for reasons such
as unruliness or low cognitive function (so Down’s Syndrome children could be
exterminated, as could runaways from abusive parents). Others had physical
disabilities. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The ostensible criterion
was whether a child could be integrated into the community or not. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>The reigning principle was “Gem<span style="mso-bidi-font-family: Calibri; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-latin;">ü</span>t”,
or community, which was seen as equivalent to membership in the Nazi Volk: no individualism
was permitted. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Incidentally, Asperger
was also a sexist: he protected some high-functioning boys with his “syndrome,”
claiming they could be useful to the community, while consigning high-functioning
girls to death. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">789 children were sent to their death from Spiegelgrund. Survivors
spoke of the horrible sadistic was they were treated by the doctors and nurses.
Preserved brains and body-parts of the murdered children were used for research
in Austria through the 1980s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Asperger
himself continued his career after WWII: he had protected himself by never officially
joining the Nazi party.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">While reading these two books I happened to also come across
an article about the pioneering educator, Maria Montessori, in the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">New York Review of Books</i>, (Kathryn
Hughes, “A Complicated Reformer”, NYRB March 9, 2023). At least I won’t have to
worry about her being a fascist, I thought. Nope. Montessori was a big fan of
Benito Mussolini. In fact she wrote, “my method [of education] can collaborate
with fascism so that it will… create a real mental hygiene that, when applied
to our race, can enhance its enormous powers’(p. 30).<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Another warning that members of the seemingly most benign
professions can have sinister motives.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-42495325775420068472023-04-13T09:33:00.000-07:002023-04-13T09:33:11.109-07:00State and Society in the Violation and Promotion of Human Rights<p> Recently I published a 5-page "interview" called "State and Society in the Promotion and Violation of Human Rights" in the International Affairs Forum, vol. 15, no.1 (2023) published by the Center for International relations in Washington, DC. You can find the full issue, including articles by my colleagues Bonny Ibhawoh, Mark Gibney, and Sonia Cardenas, here: my interview is the first article. </p><p>https://ia-forum.org/Files/RRFUWN.pdf/</p><p>In the interview, I answer questions about my research on state food crimes, citizenship laws, globalization. I also refute the suggestion that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a colonial document, and discuss how human rights can be protected in democratic states. Below is a Word copy of my interview.<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Interview with International Affairs
Forum, vol. 15, no. 1, January 2023</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">1.You’ve
discussed instances where state policies are the primary cause of human rights
violations. A type of government-promoted human rights violation is what
you’ve termed State Food Crimes. Would you explain what that means and
provide some examples (e.g., Korea, Venezuela)? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">State food crimes are crimes by states that
intentionally, recklessly, by incompetence or by indifference deprive their
citizens or others under their authority of food (Marcus, 2003). These four categories
are not discrete, however. Moreover, intention is hard to prove, as opposed to
recklessness, incompetence and indifference. Therefore, it is very difficult,
but not impossible, to prosecute an individual leader for intentionally
depriving their citizenry of food. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The four cases I discussed in State Food Crimes (2016)
were North Korea, Zimbabwe, Venezuela, and Israel in the West Bank and Gaza.
North Korean citizens were starving in the 1990s and 2000s as a result of both
intentional and reckless state policies. Malnutrition and some starvation
continue to the present day. This starvation was the result of deliberate state
policies that prohibited a national private market in food, prohibited
importation of food, wasted national resources on a nuclear weapons program,
and prohibited any free expression of people’s opinions and concerns. What I
call penal starvation also occurred in North Korea’s vast network of
concentration camps. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Intentional and reckless “nationalization” of white-owned
productive land in Zimbabwe from 2000 until President Mugabe’s resignation in
2017 resulted in under-production of food, as well as mass unemployment of
agricultural workers. This was compounded by the decisions to give formerly
productive white-owned farms to Mugabe’s relative and cronies. Indifference to
the suffering of the masses, prohibition of citizens’ rights to protest, and
manipulation of elections compounded the problem. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A similar scenario occurred in Venezuela. President Hugo
Chavez (1999-2013) instituted policies that President Nicolas Maduro (2013-present)
has intensified. Both leaders confiscated productive farms. They instituted and
maintained price controls that reduced the food supply, because producers who
could not charge the full cost of their production withdrew from the market. They
also plundered the earning and assets of the state-owned oil firm, in order to
import the food that Venezuela had previously been able to produce. Corruption
was rampant, the state manipulated the mass media and elections, and protestors
were arrested and sometimes tortured. By
2021, over five and a half million people had fled (United Nations High
Commission on Refugees </span><a href="https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=I5oiXh/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=I5oiXh/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">)<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The situation in the West Bank and Gaza was somewhat
different. There was no mass starvation, but Israeli policies such as
permitting Jewish settlers in the West Bank to acquire land previously owned by
Palestinian farmers reduced the food supply. This policy violated international
humanitarian law, which forbids transfers of population into conquered
territory. Israel also built a wall that cut off some Palestinian farmers from
their land. The International Court of Justice ruled this wall illegal, as part
of it was built in the West Bank itself, not in Israel proper. Israel also
imposed controls on how much food could cross the border from Israel to the
West Bank and Gaza. Periodic blockades by both Israel and Egypt (of Gaza)
worsened the situation. The result was high rates of malnutrition in the West
Bank and Gaza.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One thing that all these cases demonstrated is that civil
and political rights are key to the right to food. Freedom of speech, press and
assembly are necessary so that citizens can voice their concerns about the lack
of food. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">2.
Another instance of state action is manipulating citizenship policies and laws.
How widespread has this been and what have been/are the impacts?<o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some countries grant citizenship by virtue of <i>jus soli</i>; that is, by virtue of birth
within a country’s territories. Some are also relatively generous in granting citizenship
by naturalization. Others rely on <i>jus
sanguinis</i>, or the right of citizenship by “blood” or ancestry. This can
create problems, for example if you are born in a country that does not grant
citizenship by place of birth, but your parents are citizens of another country
that will not grant you citizenship unless you are actually born there. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">These rules disproportionately affect women and children.
For example, there are still some countries where women must give up their
original citizenship and take their husband’s citizenship, if it differs from
their own. Then if they divorce, they may be rendered stateless if they can no
longer retain their husband’s citizenship. This can also affect their children,<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">On the other hand, there is also “sticky citizenship.”
(Macklin, 2015) Under international law, no country may deprive an individual of
citizenship if it leaves that person stateless. However, there have been cases,
as in the UK, where the courts have decreed that mere eligibility for
citizenship elsewhere means the government can deprive an individual of
citizenship. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The United Nations High Commission for refugees NHCR
estimates that there are at least 10 million stateless people in the world, </span><a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/statelessness-around-the-world/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/statelessness-around-the-world/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">,
as a result of the kinds of policies I describe above. Sometimes, deprivation of citizenship is a
precursor to genocide, when states decide to deprive entire categories of
people of citizenship. In 1935 the Nazis deprived all German Jews of
citizenship; in 1982 Myanmar deprived the Muslim Rohingya community of
citizenship. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is also <i>de
facto</i> statelessness. In 2010 the Dominican Republic deprived residents of Haitian
descent of citizenship if their ancestors had arrived in the DR after 1929,
claiming they were still Haitian citizens. But many of these individuals had no
family in Haiti and no resources to live there (Belton, 2017). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In general, citizens of wealthy, developed democratic
countries have won the “birthright lottery” (Shachar, 2009). Although most
people in Canada and the US don’t realize it, their citizenship is their single
most valuable possession. Not only does it grant them the right to live in a
prosperous democracy, but it grants them the right to move relatively freely
around the rest of the world.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">3.Your
book, <em>Can Globalization Promote Human Rights?</em> analyzes the question
and provides positive and negative reflections to help answer it. Much
has happened concerning globalization since its publication in 2010. How
would you address the question presented by the title of the book now?</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In my book, I presented both positive and negative
scenarios for the interaction of globalization and human rights. Looking at the
economic side of globalization, I concluded that global free trade was good for
human rights, whereas policies of international financial institutions, and the
international financial network as a whole, appeared to have negative
repercussions for human rights. I also considered the question of absolute
incomes versus relative inequality and concluded that although inequality within
(but not between) states was widening, there was a considerable reduction worldwide
in absolute poverty since about 1980. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 2010, growth in what was then known as emerging
economies (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) seemed likely to reduce
poverty and inequality, but since then growth in these states has slowed down.
Inequality within states has contributed to severe social and political
problems (Hill, 2021) even though inequalities between states have lessened in
the last twenty years (Chancel et al., 2022, p. 11).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another problem is the re-emergence of protectionism.
Part of this is the result of claims by populist politicians that foreign
countries are “stealing” jobs, such as former President Trump’s accusations against
China, or indeed, President Biden’s hope to keep jobs in America for Americans.
Since February 2022, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has caused a new focus on
protectionism in countries whose economies are negatively affected by the war. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If I were rewriting this book today, I would devote
more space to the downsides of globalization, such as international criminal
networks, and (as a subset of such crime) the increased possibilities of
corrupt appropriation of state assets provided by the international financial
system. I would devote more space to global capacities for surveillance. And I
would write more on international migratory flows as a consequence of poverty,
wars, and climate change.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Finally, although I did include a chapter on the
resurgence of religion and nationalism, I would devote more attention to the
politics of resentment, especially resentment of “the West,” not only for its
economic and political strength but also for its promotion of what some states
or societies view as non-traditional, non-indigenous rights such as LGBTQ+
rights. Much of this resentment, however, is created by the political elites of
some states in order to stir up hostility to perceived “enemy” countries, such
as Russia’s obsession with LGBTQ+ rights as a way of distracting the population
from more serious problems such as poverty.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I stand by my analysis of the positive effect of
globalized social movements, such as the international feminist, Indigenous,
and environmental movements. I did not anticipate that social media would
result in globalized racist and proto-fascist social movements, however, nor
that it would result in the globalized capacity of foreign countries to
intervene in the domestic affairs of sovereign states. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Events since 2010 thus suggest that the beneficial
aspects of globalization have been outweighed by the detrimental aspects of
protectionism, nationalism, racism and homophobia, and authoritarianism. The
negative scenario I proposed in my book seems a better descriptor of the world
in 2023 than the positive scenario.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">4.
some people now argue that the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a
colonial document. How do you answer that charge? <o:p></o:p></span></i></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is now a common perception among members of the
cultural left. It is wrong.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The UDHR is the first of many human rights documents
produced by the United Nations. Representatives of 56 states took part in the
discussions that resulted in its texts. These included almost all the
independent states in Asia, the Middle East, and Africa; the Soviet Union and
its satellite countries; and all Latin American countries, as well as the
wealthy North Atlantic countries. For example, female representatives from
India and the Dominican Republic were influential in ensuring that women’s
equality rights were protected in the Declaration. The biggest geographical
block left out of these discussions was sub-Saharan Africa, which was almost
entirely under colonial rule until about 1960 (and some countries such as
Mozambique and Angola until 1975). Indigenous people were not represented at
these discussions as they did not—then as now --have their own states.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Canadian legal scholar, John Humphrey, wrote the
first draft of the Declaration after surveying the Constitutions of all
independent states. This is one reason why economic, social and cultural rights
such as the rights to health care, education, housing, food and an adequate
standard of living are included in the UDHR, as they were included in both Soviet
bloc and Latin American constitutions. The other is that these countries
insisted on inclusion of social and economic rights even when North Atlantic
countries resisted them (Morsink, 2022, Sikkink, 2017, pp. 55-93).<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The actual colonial powers (Britain, France, the
Netherlands, Spain and Portugal) opposed extension of human rights to all the
people of the world, wanting to put colonial subjects under a sort of
trusteeship instead. They were opposed by the Soviet Bloc and Latin America.
They also had to conceded that human rights were universal because of pressure
from anti-colonial actors from places such as sub-Saharan Africa (Burke, 2010).
<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Most of the substantial corpus of human rights Declarations
and Covenants (treaties) were written after almost all colonies had become independent.
These include the two general Covenants on Civil/Political and on Economic,
Social and Cultural Rights, dating from 1966 but coming into force in 1976
after enough countries had signed on. They also include the International
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (1969); the
Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women
(1981); the Convention against Torture and other Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
and Punishment (1987); the Convention on the Rights of the Child (1990); and the
Convention on the Rights of Persons with Disabilities (2008), and many other
documents. Almost every country in the world was involved in formulating these
documents, and almost every country in the world supports them, if often more
in principle than in fact. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thus it is simply untrue to say that either the 1948
Universal Declaration of Human Rights, or the entire elaborate international
human rights regime as it exists in 2023, is colonial.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">5.
Would you briefly discuss achieving human rights in a democratic state versus
the possibility of doing so in an undemocratic state? </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It is impossible to achieve the full range of human
rights in an undemocratic state. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">There is no non-democratic state that protects human
rights as rights. Any non-democratic state that claims it protects human rights
is confusing state benevolence with rights. Unless citizens can openly claim
their rights, criticize their governments, and if necessary overturn them in
elections for not protecting or fulfilling those rights, any positive “human
rights” aspects of their lives are a result of ephemeral state choice rather
than actual state duty. In this respect, the Universal Declaration of Human
Rights “fudges” in Article 21, 3, where it does not prescribe competitive
multi-party elections, instead merely stating the need for elections. This
opened the door to legitimize one-party states. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Aside from political democracy, there are other structural
requirements for a rights-protective state (Howard-Hassmann, 2018, pp. 49-71) One
is the existence of a regulated market economy based on private property. No
state that has abolished private property protects human rights. But private
property does not mean unregulated acquisition of property by any means
possible. By a regulated economy, I mean one in which monopolistic and oligopolistic
control of the economy is prohibited; in which excessively high profits and
incomes are taxed away by the state; in which safety and environmental regulations
are protected; in which all citizens have equal economic opportunity; and in
which labor rights are fully protected.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A rights protective state also requires a functioning
government and a competent state bureaucracy. Political order, protected by a
functioning government that controls its entire territory, is an underlying
condition for any democracy. A competent state bureaucracy requires that
personnel not only be educated but also be adequately paid, so that they do not
need to rely on corruption or bribes to support themselves and their families.
An independent judiciary is also a prerequisite for a rights-protective state,
but only if its personnel believe in and are willing to implement human rights,
even when the laws of the country undermine them. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This does not mean that citizens should wait until all
these structural prerequisites are in place before demanding their human
rights. Rather, rights evolve in a spiraling process, the various rights claims
and state responses interacting with one another. It is especially important to
note that civil and political rights and economic, social and cultural rights
are interdependent. It is difficult for people to be active citizens if they
are mired in poverty or subjected to chronic and debilitating poor health.
Citizens lacking education may not have the required tools to make informed
political decisions. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thus, the only type of state that is fully protective
of human rights is a social democracy. Social democracy is a variant of
liberalism that views the social provision of economic security as an inherent
part of respect for the individual. It is characterized by an activist state
that tries to provide basic social rights, protect citizens against market
forces, and reduce inequality, at the same time as it protects basic civil and
political rights, private property, and a market economy.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> Nevertheless, if
I had to choose one, and only one, human right, it would be the right to
freedom of expression. This means not only free speech and a free press, but
also the ability to criticize one’s rulers without fear of arrest, torture,
imprisonment, or execution. It also
means freedom of assembly, so that citizens can assemble without fear to
discuss or protest state policies. We see how important this right is when we
see how many journalists and activists are murdered by various states every
year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some critics argue that to focus on freedom of speech
is to focus on a political right at the expense of economic, social and
cultural rights that might be more relevant to people in the Global South. One
of the most basic economic rights is the right to food. But in both my earlier
(Howard, 1982; Howard, 1986) and my later work (Howard-Hassmann, 2016), I show
that without the right to freedom of expression, there is no right to food.
People can’t criticize policies that deprive them of food. The best they can do
is hope that their government is benevolent enough not to deprive them of their
own ability to cultivate their own food, and to distribute food when necessary.
Again, this shows the interaction and interdependence of all human rights, in
both developed and less-developed societies.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><b><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">References</span></b></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Belton,
Kristy A. (2017). <i>Statelessness in the
Caribbean: The Paradox of Belonging in a Postnational World, </i>Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Burke,
Roland. (2010) <i>Decolonization and the
Evolution of International Human Rights. </i>Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Chancel, Lucas, Thomas Piketty, Emmanuel Saez, and
Gabriel Zucman (2022) <i>World Inequality
Report 2022,</i><b> </b>World Inequality
Lab. </span><a href="https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2021/12/WorldInequalityReport2022_Full_Report.pdf/"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">https://wir2022.wid.world/www-site/uploads/2021/12/WorldInequalityReport2022_Full_Report.pdf/</span></a><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Hill, Fiona. (2021) <i>There is Nothing For You Here: Finding Opportunity in the Twenty-First
Century. </i>Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Howard, Rhoda E. (1983) "The `Full-Belly'
Thesis: Should Economic Rights take
Priority over Civil and Political Rights?
Evidence from sub-Saharan Africa", <i>Human Rights Quarterly</i> 5, No. 4, pp. 467-490. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi;">Howard, Rhoda E. (1986) <i>Human Rights in Commonwealth Africa</i>, Rowman and Littlefield,
Totowa, N.J., 1986.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Howard-Hassmann,
Rhoda E. (2016) <i>State Food Crimes, </i>Cambridge,
UK: Cambridge University Press, 2016.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Howard-Hassmann,
Rhoda E. (2018) <i>In Defense of Universal
Human Rights.</i> Cambridge, UK: Polity Press.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Macklin,
Audrey. (2015) “Sticky Citizenship,” in Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann and Margaret
Walton-Roberts, eds. <i>The Human Rights to
Citizenship: A Slippery </i>Concept, Philadelphia; University of Pennsylvania
Press, pp. 223-39</span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Marcus, David. (2003) “Famine Crimes in International
Law,” <i>American Journal of International
Law,</i>97 (2), pp. 245-81.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Morsink, Johannes (2022) <i>Article by Article: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights for a New
Generation,</i> Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press, 2022.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Shachar, Ayelet. (2009) <i>The Birthright Lottery: Citizenship and Global Inequality</i>,
Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sikkink, Kathryn. (2017) <i>Evidence for Hope: Making Human Rights Work in the 21<sup>st</sup>
Century. </i>Princeton: Princeton University Press.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">United Nations High Commission on Refugees, Refugee
Data Finder, accessed December 15, 2022, </span><a href="https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=I5oiXh/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.unhcr.org/refugee-statistics/download/?url=I5oiXh/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">United Nations High Commission on Refugees,
Statelessness Around the World, accessed December 15, 2015. </span><a href="https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/statelessness-around-the-world/"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">https://www.unhcr.org/ibelong/statelessness-around-the-world/</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p>
</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"> </span></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p><p><br /></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-45571423292776388932022-07-14T10:20:00.002-07:002022-07-14T10:20:31.389-07:00Reparations for Belgian Colonialism in Africa<p> On July 8, 2022, I testified (via Zoom) before a Belgian parliamentary committee investigating the question of reparations to Congo, Rwanda and Burundi for the establishment of the Congo Free State (so-called) (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Congo_Free_State) and later colonialism in Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. I was asked to summarize my research on reparations to Africa and to make recommendations for reparations. Below is my verbatim testimony.</p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you for
inviting me. My presentation is drawn from research I conducted for my book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reparations to Africa</i>, published in 2008;
from related research on political apologies; and from my publications on reparations
to African Americans and Canadians. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">For <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Reparations
to Africa</i>, between 2002 and 2004 two research assistants and I interviewed
74 Africans in either English or French. Sixty-seven of the respondents lived permanently
in Africa in 26 countries. Three were members of the Group of Eminent Persons
appointed to investigate reparations by the Organization of Africa Unity in
1992; eight were ambassadors to the United States; twenty-two were academics;
and forty-one were human rights activists or policy makers. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">With the exception of the ambassadors, these
individuals demonstrated a general sense of humiliation, betrayal, exploitation
and abandonment by the West, covering the slave trade, colonialism, and even
the post-colonial era. They objected to violent colonial conquest; to the
division of their countries into competing ethnic groups; to the destruction of
their traditional systems of authority; and to the theft of land, mineral
resources, and other property. Colonialism was, to them, a system of organized
looting.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Moreover, colonialism was an injury to the spirit. As
one respondent from Central Africa said, “It hurts morally: it’s a moral
subordination.” A scholar from Burundi said, “colonialism was brutal and did
not recognize the value of the Other.” These quotations indicate the importance
to their human dignity of recognition and acknowledgement of Africans’ historic
and contemporary suffering. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Human dignity requires that all individuals have
access to the truth about their and their ancestors’ suffering. Although the
past cannot be undone, crimes (or what we would now call crimes) committed in
the past must be acknowledged. It is important to recognize that Africans today
live in conditions created in large part by the slave trade and colonialism.
Western states are responsible for their part in creating current African
underdevelopment, even if some Africans were and are also involved in causing it.
It is impossible to undo these historic harms, but some symbolic recompense
must be made. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">First among these symbolic procedures are <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">official apologies.</i> For a Congolese
activist we interviewed, it was imperative to recognize past events as wrong
“because if it was not wrong that means that it might happen again.” For a
South African lawyer, lack of apology meant that “black lives and black people
are not…as important as white lives and white people.” Our respondents thought
that acknowledgement of past harms and apologies for them could render
relations between Africa and the West more equitable, and might also contribute
to a psychological healing process both for offender and offended. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">It might be advisable for the Belgian government to
offer apologies for its colonial past separately to Congo, Rwanda, and Burundi.
Such apologies must be sincere, and must not be merely statements of regret. The
apologies should be drafted in consultation with the intended recipients and
should acknowledge and enumerate the vast list of harms imposed on the Congo
Free State and on Belgium’s African colonies. The apologies should be offered
in a ceremonial venue with appropriate audiences of dignitaries, members of the
diaspora, and individuals representing the people of the former colonies, as
well as officials of the three African countries. The apologies should be
widely publicized both in Belgium and its former colonies.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Normally, an apology should be offered by one head of
state to another. However, official apologies offered to contemporary African heads
of state might help to buttress illegitimate and authoritarian rule. Authoritarian
rulers can manipulate the politics of resentment to distract their citizens
from their own unjust, rights-abusive policies. Thus, another method of apology
might be necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Official apologies would have to be based upon the findings
of <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">a truth commission</i>. The long, written
report of the special commission charged with examining Congo Free State and
Belgium’s colonial past might be considered sufficient evidence of the truth
without the need for another commission. Both Belgian and African public
opinion might accept the finding of the special commission on Belgium’s
colonial past, knowing that both Belgian and African commissioners were
involved in its design and research, and agreed with the commission’s findings.
<span style="background: white; color: black;"><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The findings of this special commission would,
however, have to be summarized and simplified, perhaps with the assistance of
professional writers and journalists, before being publicized, using media
accessible to both Belgians and Africans. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nevertheless, even a combination of a truth commission
and apologies would probably not satisfy politicians, opinion leaders, and
ordinary citizens of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The Africans my research
assistants and I interviewed insisted that a verbal apology alone was unacceptable.
In their own cultures, apologies always had to be followed by some material
compensation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As a Tanzanian university
lecturer said, “I am not interested in a verbal apology. I am interested in the
economic apology.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Several different types of symbolic material reparations
could be offered, of which you are already aware. With regard to <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">archives</i>, I suggest that private
entities such as Belgian corporations be strongly encouraged, or if necessary
even compelled, to open up their own archives to researchers. I note that Union
Minière de Haut Katanga has not yet opened up all of its archives. I am the
author of a book on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Colonialism and
Underdevelopment in Ghana</i>, published in 1978, based on 15 months’ research
in Ghanaian and British archives. I encountered some resistance from holders of
private archives, even though my research period ended in 1938. Yet some of the
most important material I found was from the archives of Unilever, the
successor corporation to the United Africa Company.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Similar to corporations, it might be wise to strongly
encourage, if not compel, Roman Catholic entities to open their archives if
they have not already done so. In Canada today, there is much controversy
because the Catholic Church, which ran many of the residential “schools”,
so-called, in which Indigenous children were incarcerated, has refused to fully
open its archives to researchers. I note that Belgian Catholic entities have
already agreed to open up their archives to researchers investigating the
institutions in which Métis children kidnapped from Congo were held. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another symbolic reparative measure could be an annual
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">national day of remembrance, </i>during
which all government and non-government institutions, including churches,
corporations, schools and universities, would commemorate the colonial period
and those who suffered during it. This should not be a national holiday whose
significance citizens could simply ignore, but a designated day for ceremonies of
remembrance within all institutions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In this context, a <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">national
year of reflection</i> might also be useful. During this year, all Belgian
institutions and all government agencies could reflect on their role, if any,
in colonialism, and on how they could offer symbolic restitution to both members
of the diaspora and citizens of former colonies. Restitution could include
special employment and training schemes, targeted scholarships, or support for
research chairs within Africa on Belgian colonialism. Belgian universities and
corporations might also partner with African universities in long-term
collaborations to improve training in disciplines other than colonial history.
These disciplines could include medicine or engineering, on the principle that
colonialism contributed to Africa underdevelopment, which might be remedied in
part by such training.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Part of the national year of reflection might be a
year-long <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">project to educate citizens
about colonialism, and to commemorate those who resisted colonization and those
who suffered from it</i>. In 2007, the 200<sup>th</sup> anniversary of the
abolition of Britain’s slave trade, the British Heritage Lottery Fund paid for
280 projects in Britain and Africa supporting education about, and
memorialization of, both Britain’s participation in the transatlantic slave
trade and the movement to abolish it. Belgium could institute something similar.
Within Belgium, historic plaques could commemorate resisters to colonization, and
inform the public about colonizers. For example, markers could be put on all
public and even private buildings built or owned by King Leopold II or by
subsequent colonizers. Within Africa, Belgium could support museums, public
education projects, and the creation and maintenance of memorial spaces. Plaques
commemorating individuals who suffered from colonialism might be particularly
meaningful, like the Solpersteine in Germany commemorating victims of the
Holocaust. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One further note on symbolic reparations: All of these
ideas risk backlash from Belgians who might not agree that their country is
obliged to repair relations with its former colonies, especially since even
symbolic measures impose a cost on the public purse. Such backlash has occurred
in other Western countries. It might be wise in outreach projects and
educational curricula to distinguish carefully between guilt, shame, and
responsibility. In the United States, those who oppose teaching about the
history of American race relations in schools appear to think that such
teaching will make white children feel guilty about the past, or ashamed of
their skin color. Yet no one is guilty of anything except their own actions,
and no one should feel shame about their skin colour, which is something over
which one has no control. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some Belgians might complain that neither they
themselves nor their ancestors had anything to do with colonialism, so they
have no responsibility to repair past harms. One way to answer this concern is
to stress that just as individuals enjoy the benefits of citizenship, so they must
share in its responsibilities, regardless of how long they or their families
have lived in Belgium and regardless of the role—or lack thereof—that their
ancestors might have played in colonialism. All are responsible for their
countries’ policies and for trying to remedy past harms that their countries
committed.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Thank you for allowing me this opportunity to express
my views. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 14.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-38413163102975199512022-03-15T13:21:00.000-07:002022-03-15T13:21:13.029-07:00"Caste" by Isabel Wilkerson: Book Note<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Broadway; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;">“Caste” by Isabel Wilkerson (Book Note)<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7vzxcZANR3oTTKLVg5PPQJ2t6XOc8Eol4Hl_ksaiOP8IqtGbAeduxXo6E5LomselTqBZwT28SaI4bjAE-KqruMJ_OrMELKarmAccsIad0Fgl3utjTuQnkvYitwwsxSMn8QBlWVJMpMG474P_YhqgkhiEoiFgm0URr1Y_CVgP9QlG5s4xDEpNsRswk=s320" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="320" data-original-width="211" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEh7vzxcZANR3oTTKLVg5PPQJ2t6XOc8Eol4Hl_ksaiOP8IqtGbAeduxXo6E5LomselTqBZwT28SaI4bjAE-KqruMJ_OrMELKarmAccsIad0Fgl3utjTuQnkvYitwwsxSMn8QBlWVJMpMG474P_YhqgkhiEoiFgm0URr1Y_CVgP9QlG5s4xDEpNsRswk=w132-h200" width="132" /></a></div>Last week (March 2022) I read Isabel Wilkerson’s book,
<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents</i>
(Random House, 2020) <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Wilkerson is an
African-American journalist. <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caste</i>
compares race relations in the US with caste-based divisions in India and with
the Nazi creation of Jews as a subordinate caste. It is not a systematic,
scholarly comparison, rather a rumination that illuminates US race relations by
looking at caste in these two other societies. To make her point, throughout
the book Wilkerson refers to whites as “members of the dominant caste” and to
Blacks as “members of the subordinate caste.”<br /><br /><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: left;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2gPAbERtmSczVQZEPc04Yp8ST69lvC9Vdi5Q8HF7Ukct5kz5-dlUuai36g0Dlg-zryeuph6ARxV7NM7Kw0fbhF0Xg-7GJcioXqbH8XDwtAeP07mwav6Mjj-mUOXni7bh0ErQgXNwVkrjxsoMlFEas2FxKXlHLb-w32N7epeAvYYfoaYpmxF9ozo7g=s266" imageanchor="1" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="266" data-original-width="190" height="200" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEj2gPAbERtmSczVQZEPc04Yp8ST69lvC9Vdi5Q8HF7Ukct5kz5-dlUuai36g0Dlg-zryeuph6ARxV7NM7Kw0fbhF0Xg-7GJcioXqbH8XDwtAeP07mwav6Mjj-mUOXni7bh0ErQgXNwVkrjxsoMlFEas2FxKXlHLb-w32N7epeAvYYfoaYpmxF9ozo7g=w143-h200" width="143" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Isabel Wilkerson</td></tr></tbody></table><br /><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While some commentators on <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caste</i> whom I read in the media thought that Wilkerson’s use of the
terminology of caste was quite original, it wasn’t to me. In my 1995 book, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Human Rights and the Search for Community, </i>I
wrote<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>“In modern Western society
distinctions of caste have been rendered unclear and disreputable by the
ideologies of equality and individual autonomy. Nevertheless, stratificatory
practices based on unacknowledged notions of honor and shame persist” (p. 135).
I then went on to argue that to be either Black or female was to be considered shameful.
I drew heavily on Orlando Patterson’s 1982 book, S<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">lavery and Social Death</i>, in attempting this analysis; he spoke of
timocracy, honor-based social gradations which accorded more honor to whites
than Blacks. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">While perhaps three people read my book, many thousands
more have read Wilkerson’s, and rightly so. She has a way with words,
referring, for example, to Southern agricultural plantations as forced labor
camps (p. 47), to enslaved Africans as hostages (p. 43), and to lynching as
ritual killings (p. 41). She also tells us that the image of the plump black
Mammie, as portrayed by Hattie McDaniel in the 1939 movie, <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Gone with the Wind</i>, was a fiction. Most if not all enslaved African
women would have been very thin, because they were all malnourished, a
deliberate choice of their owners (p. 138). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In India, Wilkerson tells us, some upper-caste teachers
refuse to grade the papers of Dalit students, because they would actually have
to touch the same paper as the students. A Dalit immigrant to the US tells Wilkerson
of an upper-caste female office-worker who refused to pour her own water from a
jug sitting near her desk, rather walking down the hall to get a Dalit to pour
it for her (p. 176). In sociological terms, this is status anxiety.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Status anxiety is also the reason that police often
stop and arrest Black people in fancy cars. Members of the lowest caste—in the
US, Nazi Germany, and India—are “not permitted to bear the symbols of success and
status reserved for the upper caste” (p. 160). The boundaries of caste must be
very carefully monitored (p.216). So we can’t acknowledge, for example, that in
Boston in 1721, the dominant caste minister, Cotton Mather, got the idea of
inoculation for smallpox from an African slave named Onesimus (p. 231). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span><a name="_Hlk98167740"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wilkerson has conducted
very serious research but presents it in a very readable way. She especially
notes the ways that privileged people bear themselves and assume that they will
be listened to. At conferences about caste in India where all participants are
supposed to be opposed to caste distinctions, she can nevertheless recognize
which people come from the upper castes (the priestly Brahmin caste in particular)
and which from the lower or out-caste (Dalits; literally meaning “broken
people” [p. 26]). The former talk over the latter, or tell them what they
should think.</span></a></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk98167740;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wilkerson
intersperses her text with anecdotes from her own life as a member of the
subordinate (African American) caste. She recounts an instance where she is in
a restaurant with a member of the dominant (white) caste and the waiter ostentatiously
ignores them, serving an entire meal to a table of dominant-caste people before
he gets around to even giving them their bread. Her dominant-caste friend
eventually stands up and accuses the waiter of racism in a loud voice that
everyone in the restaurant can hear: Wilkerson herself would never have done
such a thing (pp. 265-69). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk98167740;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Turning
to contemporary politics, Wilkerson argues that to understand the 2016
election, we must understand that lower-class whites are willing to sacrifice
their short-term economic welfare to preserve their long-term caste status (p.
324). <o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<span style="mso-bookmark: _Hlk98167740;"></span>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wilkerson includes two interesting sections on Nazism
in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Caste</i>. In her chapter on monuments
and memorials, she points out that Germany is not infested with statues of
Hitler and his cronies, as the US South is infested with statues of Robert E.
Lee and his cronies. Presumably, there were such statues in Germany until the
end of WWII, but they were taken down. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Wilkerson also discusses the archived minutes of a
meeting in 1934 at which senior Nazis discussed a report on US racial laws that
they hoped to use in drafting their own racial laws. One senior Nazi is
horrified by the “one drop” rule in some US states, by which one drop of “Negro”
blood is enough to render you a permanent member of the subordinate caste.
Another Nazi wants to know if people can’t have the benefit of the doubt if
they are half-Jewish and half “Aryan,” and be allowed to enjoy some Aryan
privilege. Such would have been impossible for a person of mixed racial
background in the US South, indeed even now anywhere in the US. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This book is well worth reading: very insightful,
making one (at least me) think again about things one thinks one has known for many
decades.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman",serif; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-77678002057920447182022-03-07T11:41:00.002-08:002022-03-07T11:41:42.582-08:00Ideacide: Left_Wing Censorship in Canada<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal">Below is the text of an editorial I published in The Hamilton Spectator, February 12, <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", "serif";">2022, p. 17 “Ideacide: Left-wing
Censorship a Danger “, February 12, p. A17. The link below is still operative as of today, March 7, 2022.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif";"><a href="https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2022/02/11/ideacide-left-wing-censorship-a-danger.html">https://www.thespec.com/opinion/contributors/2022/02/11/ideacide-left-wing-censorship-a-danger.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><br /></b></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">Ideacide: the Dangers
of Left-wing Censorship in Canada<o:p></o:p></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">For the second time, Henry Giroux (Nov. 11, 2021; February
7, 2022) has argued in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Spectator</i>
that US Republican attempts to ban from schools books that refer to slavery or
racism constitute <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>an extremely dangerous
trend. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I agree with him: I am very
worried that the US will soon become a fascist state. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Sadly, however, although Republicans are the chief threat to
freedom of thought and speech in the US, there is also another trend coming
from the cultural left, in both the US and Canada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is ideacide, attempts to censor ideas put
forward by people on the political right, or even people defending traditional
liberal ideas.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Tomas Hudlicky, a distinguished professor of chemistry at
Brock University, has been bullied and shunned for opposing equity efforts
based on group membership, rather than equality of individual opportunity.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>He has been vilified as an “old white
male.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In fact, he was a refugee from Communist
persecution in (then) Czechoslovakia. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2019, a Coptic Christian immigrant from Egypt was
expelled from the University of Manitoba medical school because of his pro-life
and anti gun-control views. In August 2021 a judge ruled that the university
had violated his Charter rights to freedom of expression.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I disagree very strongly with this student’s
views, but it’s a dangerous precedent to expel someone from a public university
for holding views that many Canadians share. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In May 2021, Professor Rima Azar of Mount Allison University
was suspended and banned from campus for blog posts that questioned the
existence of systemic racism in Canada and called the Black Lives Matter
movement<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>“radical.” She said that she
had immigrated to Canada because it protected freedom of expression.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In September 2020, Ottawa University suspended Verushka Lieutenant-Duval,
a (white) francophone adjunct professor of linguistics. She had used the full
“N-word” when explaining how minority groups sometimes “re-appropriate” slurs for
their own ends, for example in the Netflix movie <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">May Rainey’s Black Bottom</i>. There was absolutely no racist intent in
her stating the full word. Yet although she was later reinstated, she experience
harassment and threats of violence on social media. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">This last case made headlines in Quebec, resulting in a
government commission to examine academic freedom and responsibilities.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of the witnesses were anglophone professors
from Ontario, testifying anonymously because they were afraid of repercussions
from their universities if they testified openly.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In January, the Waterloo school board shut down teacher
Carolyn Burjoski because she was concerned that books for children about gender
transition<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>made it seem too easy and
“cool’ to transition. Many people, not only Burjoski, are concerned about the
serious medical effects of gender transitioning. Yet she was told that her
comments violated the Ontario human rights code.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>They did not. The human rights code prohibits
discriminatory acts, but does not prohibit any speech.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">None of the views expressed by the individuals I’ve
mentioned is outside the range of permissible expression in Canada.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Equality of opportunity for individuals is
still Canadian and Ontario law, despite exceptions for special programs for
under-represented groups. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Not every use
of the “N-word” is racist. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Canadians are
not forbidden to question whether systemic racism exists.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor are they forbidden to oppose abortion or
gun-control<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>laws.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Instead of permitting these individuals to
express their views, their cowardly university and school board administrators
capitulated to popular opinion advocating censorship.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Ideacide is a gift from the cultural left to the much more
powerful political right.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Censorship and
condemnation of anyone who proposes ideas that vary from the cultural left’s
approved views make it much easier for the political right in turn to censor
material that is important for scholars, students, and the public to discuss.
This hasn’t happened in Canada yet, but we should certainly worry that it might.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann lives in Hamilton. From 2003 to
2016, she held the Canada Research Chair in International Human Rights at
Wilfrid Laurier University.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-20483237040857696522022-03-03T10:40:00.000-08:002022-03-03T10:40:06.091-08:00Sould the US Offer reparations to Africa for the transatlantic Slave Trade?<p>Here is the link to an article I've published on US reparations to Africa for the slave trade. Open access until May 24, 2022, I think. Also below the link is the abstract. </p><p class="MsoEndnoteText"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">2022.
“Should the USA Offer Reparations to Africa for the Transatlantic Slave Trade?”<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">, Society</i>, Vol. 59, 2022.</span> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"><a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-022-00682-3#Sec4">https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s12115-022-00682-3#Sec4</a><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Abstract<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This article begins with background information on
the international social movement for reparations for the transatlantic slave
trade. I then propose that the USA ought to offer reparations, including participation
in and financing of a truth commission on the slave trade; apology for the
harms caused by the trade; and symbolic financial assistance to establish
monuments to the slave trade, museums exhibits, and educational programs. The
article concludes with a discussion of whether the USA would have the political
will to offer reparations to Africa<o:p></o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-33889401142924938002021-08-23T09:50:00.000-07:002021-08-23T09:50:28.225-07:00The Last Girl,by Nadia Murad: Book Note<p> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Broadway; font-size: 20.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Last Girl by Nadia Murad: Book Note<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A couple of weeks ago (July 2021) I read <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My
Fight against the Islamic State<table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="float: right;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJsN0Aw9Y916Sl5s2rPgXTkieINmrA23fZJOF7OLPxpucUi1jtOXHCQphxi5XSCw4QFTRe5AgLYmMqW_ocxrGq0Mp0hKLhpHesZaovarqEkgS8Y4RNtU41Vec8WjN8fZzXah4k-Yv6go/s300/download.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgWJsN0Aw9Y916Sl5s2rPgXTkieINmrA23fZJOF7OLPxpucUi1jtOXHCQphxi5XSCw4QFTRe5AgLYmMqW_ocxrGq0Mp0hKLhpHesZaovarqEkgS8Y4RNtU41Vec8WjN8fZzXah4k-Yv6go/w288-h168/download.jpg" width="288" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Nadia Murad </td></tr></tbody></table></i> (New York: Tim Duggan Books, 2017).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nadia Murad is a Yazidi, a member of a small religious
group of about one million members in Northwest Iraq, bordering on what is now
(unofficially) Kurdistan.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>As readers might
remember, the world because aware of this minority religious group in 2014,
when ISIS conquered this region of Iraq. ISIS did not consider the Yazidi to be
“People of the Book “(Jews and Christians) rather, it considered the Yazidi to
be heretics, whom it was free to murder and enslave.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Thus, before the world had a chance to even
know who the Yazidi were, ISIS began a genocide, killing all military-age men
and boys and kidnapping marriageable girls and women, along with small children
whom it could indoctrinate into it fundamentalist Islamist belief system. ISIS
claimed that because they were heretics, Yazidi women could be used as sex
slaves<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nadia grew up in a very large extended family in a
village called Kocho. Yazidi speak Kurdish, and practice a religion which sees
to combine elements of pre-Abrahamic Zoroastrianism with elements of Abrahamic
religions, Nearby there were other villages inhabited by Sunni Muslims or by Christians.
Despite this religious segregation of residential arrangements, everyone interacted
at periodic markets, and her family’s doctor was a Sunni. Nadia’s father had
abandoned her mother and his eleven children with her, to live with his younger
second wife and their four children. Nadia had some education and worked hard
on the family farm as well, Despite this relatively hard life, she describes
her family and village with much love and nostalgia.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At 19, Nadia was one of the young women ISIS
kidnapped. She was taken to Mosul where she was sold in a sex slave market. Her
buyer was a high-status ISIS commanded who took her to a notary where she was
forced to convert to Islam.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This
apparently gave him license to rape her. When she tried to escape his clutches,
he ordered six of his guards to rape her as well, then sold her to someone
else. Eventually, after about three months, she managed to escape when her most
recent buyer left the door to his house open. She threw herself on the mercy of
complete strangers, a Sunni Muslim family, who at great risk to themselves
decided to help her escape by sending one of their adult sons to escort her to
Kurdistan, pretending she was his wife. Her oldest brother, who was already in
Kurdistan, helped arrange her escape using a network of Yazidi activists and
paid smugglers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Unfortunately, factionalism among the Kurds resulted
in information about Nadia and her rescuer – pseudonymously named Nasser- being
circulated quite widely, endangering him. At the time of writing her book,
Nadia still did not know if his family had been found out and punished for
assisting her.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">ISIS knew that the Yazidis prized the virginity of
unmarried girls and women, thus they especially enjoyed defiling these virgins.
To their credit, according to Murad, the surviving Yazidi elders got together
and decided that girls and women who escaped ISIS would be welcomed back into
the Yazidi community, as they obviously had neither converted to Islam nor
engaged in sexual activities of their own free will.</span> However, it seems
that despite this, a fairly large percentage of former sex slaves felt rejected
by their communities when they returned. <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1140">https://bmcmedicine.biomedcentral.com/articles/10.1186/s12916-018-1140</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As I write this book note, the Taliban have
conquered all of Afghanistan. There are now reports that they have begun to
kidnap young girls to become their “wives”: that is, their sex slaves. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9891953/A-mothers-eyes-gouged-young-girls-kidnapped-sex-slaves-SHUKRIA-BARAKZAI.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-9891953/A-mothers-eyes-gouged-young-girls-kidnapped-sex-slaves-SHUKRIA-BARAKZAI.html</a>
Nadia Murad herself won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2018, and is now the <span style="background: white; color: #212529; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;">UN </span><span style="background: white; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://www.unodc.org/unodc/en/frontpage/2016/September/human-trafficking-survivor-nadia-murad-named-unodc-goodwill-ambassador.html"><span style="color: windowtext; text-decoration: none; text-underline: none;">Goodwill
Ambassador</span></a><span style="color: #212529;"> for the Dignity of Survivors
of Human Trafficking.</span></span></span> <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Meantime, as of 2018 Nadia’s rescuer, whose real
name is Jabar, was living in poverty as a refugee in Germany, separated from
his wife and two children still in Iraq. ISIS had come knocking on his door the
day after he returned from taking Nadia to Kurdistan. He escaped by jumping out
a window and joined the long trek of Middle Eastern refugees seeking sanctuary
in Europe. His family managed to convince ISIS that he had acted alone. But
despite his heroism, Jabar was just one of many refugees in Germany. <span style="background: white; color: #212529; mso-bidi-font-weight: bold;"><a href="https://time.com/longform/nadia-murad-isis-refugee-omar-jabar/">https://time.com/longform/nadia-murad-isis-refugee-omar-jabar/</a><o:p></o:p></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-15163061556183206252021-08-12T13:33:00.000-07:002021-08-12T13:33:29.564-07:00Sex-Based Privacy<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sex-Based
Privacy<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">When I was a visiting scholar in the Netherlands for
six months in 2000, I met a middle-aged “autochtonous” Dutch woman who told me
how upset she’d been when she was obliged to share a hospital room with a man. When
she asked if a Dutch Muslim woman would have had to share with a man, she was
told no, as that would violate her culture. But as she told me, it was her
culture too. It’s mine as well. Like probably every other culture in the world,
“Western” culture allows women and men separate spaces for intimate physical
acts. It also doesn’t expect unrelated men and women to share bedrooms in
hospitals or other such venues. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A couple of years ago, my husband and I were on</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjna7jf8RZCjJjEixHolMXuGjqpDJbqhovvOrZp-mREHeUfSklM1HfAH_DQuhZmZwMQqT_s07jvdlKucK5qinl9Kl9fNtFYKNUyRyh3fN6R1psuNwMgz5e35hiz_pKWmq0WLt_6S60zHk/s300/download+%252816%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="168" data-original-width="300" height="168" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjna7jf8RZCjJjEixHolMXuGjqpDJbqhovvOrZp-mREHeUfSklM1HfAH_DQuhZmZwMQqT_s07jvdlKucK5qinl9Kl9fNtFYKNUyRyh3fN6R1psuNwMgz5e35hiz_pKWmq0WLt_6S60zHk/s0/download+%252816%2529.jpg" width="300" /></a></div>the
third floor of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto looking for a men’s
bathroom. We came across two bathrooms with three stalls each, with only
partial doors, the norm in Canada for segregated one-sex bathrooms. Both were
labelled “all gender.” My husband, a very shy man in his 70s, didn’t know what
to do, so I told him to go into the one on the right and I would guard it for
him. <o:p></o:p><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A couple of minutes later, two young Middle-Eastern
looking men arrived, looked at the signs, and seemed confused. I told them
where my husband was, so they went into the same bathroom. Then a family arrived:
grandma, dad and baby in stroller. Grandma looked at the signs and decided to
go downstairs to the first floor, where bathrooms were labelled “men” and ”women.”
Then a grandmother and mother in hijab arrived, also with baby in tow. Grandma
wanted to use the bathroom, but looked upset at the signage. I suggested to her
daughter that her mother go into the empty bathroom on the left, and that she
go in with her stroller to guard her mother from men who might enter. They did
that. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Transgendered people want to use the bathroom of
their chosen gender. This wouldn’t be much of a problem if bathrooms were
clearly labelled male or female, and transgender people could use the one they
identify with.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It would be even less of
a problem if bathrooms were single-stall and had full-length doors that could
be locked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But what the Royal Ontario
Museum did is the wrong way to go about accommodating transgender people,
forcing everyone to risk using bathrooms with people of other genders. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Some people dismiss the “bathroom question” as a
silly side-issue. But it isn’t. Bathrooms exist for the purposes of urination,
defecation, and –<span class="msoDel"><del cite="mailto:Changes%20since%200" datetime="2020-01-13T14:52"> </del></span>for women of child-bearing
age—menstruation. These are functions that both men and women usually perform
privately or, if not completely privately, only with members of the same
biological sex in the same location. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Consider, for example, campaigns to build separate latrines
for schoolgirls in countries like India, so that the girls do not have to quit
school in shame when they start menstruating. Consider, also, that refugee
camps maintain separate latrine facilities for men and women. It is considered undignified
and shameful to urinate, defecate and attend to menstrual cleanliness in the
presence of members of the opposite biological sex. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The presumably Middle Eastern men and the presumably
Muslim woman who followed my husband into the bathrooms at the ROM might have
asserted that their culture prohibited them from entering mixed-“gender”
bathrooms. In Canada at the moment, much attention is paid to preserving the
culture of minority groups. But white Canadians of European ancestry also have
cultural values that prescribe privacy for both men and women with regard to
urination, defecation, and menstruation. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Must cultures if not all cultures, in most parts of
the world, separate men and women for dignity’s sake. In some cultures, there
are public baths. Men and women usually go to separate public baths. It would
undignified and shameful for either men or women to be naked in these baths in
the presence of people of the opposite biological sex. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Ideally, in the longer term, this problem can be
solved by new ways of building infrastructure. Many newer restaurants, for
example, have fully enclosed single-unit toilets, which anyone of whatever sex
or gender may use. Perhaps also, women’s shelters could build separate units
for transgender women whose biological sex does not conform to their gender
identity. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But women and girls should still be entitled both to
physical safety and to dignified privacy. So should men and boys. And no one
should be vilified for pointing out that while there should be accommodation
for people whose social gender and biological sex do not coincide, some
consideration should be also given to people whose sex and gender do coincide.
Many if not most of those people feel uncomfortable—if not unsafe—conducting
their intimate private business in the presence of those whose sex they do not
share.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-87051879496518465542021-07-14T11:56:00.001-07:002021-07-14T11:56:32.769-07:00The trans debate: "Less Yelling, More Conversation"<p> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal">The Trans Debate: “Less Yelling: More Conversation”<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Recently I met a very wise woman, a life-long advocate for
freedom of speech and the mother of a Trans child.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Her slogan for getting past seemingly
irreconcilable positions on Trans people was “less yelling: more
conversation.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She also though we should
stop tossing around words like “Transphobia” when the real problem is often
lack of understanding of what it means to be a Trans person, or to feel that
one is in the wrong body.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">You can obtain some understanding of what it feels like to
be in the wrong body by reading <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Love
Lives Here,</i> a recent memoir by Amanda Jette Knox.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/love-lives-here-a-story-of-thriving-in-a-transgender-family_amanda-jette-knox">https://www.thriftbooks.com/w/love-lives-here-a-story-of-thriving-in-a-Transgender-family_amanda-jette-knox</a>.
Knox is both the mother and the wife of Trans women. Her daughter came out as
female at the age of 11 and was able to transition relatively easily as she had
not yet gone through all the stages of male puberty. Knox’s wife came out as
female as an adult after 20 years of marriage as a man. Knox stood by both her
daughter and her (now) wife, and seems to have kept her family intact and happy, as this image shows.<o:p></o:p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYguAGn6jqsEGNyY5MTC15XSwdV7t-bGRDrsFse-QQO5yinGBBjYIRSJWVZ2lD6OXSCk_VCAD5LITtr5uU4uLMXCK_tAb0Ov1uX7H5HhSMsJKdny3UapYzWBqvZ2xn1LzNxRqL_UoTADY/s271/download+%252815%2529.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="186" data-original-width="271" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiYguAGn6jqsEGNyY5MTC15XSwdV7t-bGRDrsFse-QQO5yinGBBjYIRSJWVZ2lD6OXSCk_VCAD5LITtr5uU4uLMXCK_tAb0Ov1uX7H5HhSMsJKdny3UapYzWBqvZ2xn1LzNxRqL_UoTADY/s0/download+%252815%2529.jpg" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">It is often difficult to understand people whose life
experience in matters of sexuality or gender identity is so different from your
own. 25 years ago I interviewed 78 civic leaders in
Hamilton, Ontario about gay and lesbian rights (no one was talking about Trans
rights at the time). 44 of them<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>volunteered
that knowing someone who was gay had influenced their attitudes to favour gay
rights. I wrote that up as an article called “The Gay Cousin: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Learning to Accept Gay Rights.” <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11991563/">https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11991563/</a>
Similarly, when you know someone who is Trans, or read about their lives, it
helps you empathize with them.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">T</b>hat said, I
don’t think any good can come of the current tendency to label women who worry
about “fake” Trans people entering women’s “safe” spaces as TERFs (Trans-Exclusive
Radical Feminists}. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>I think Trans people
should enjoy all their human rights, as do most of the so-called TERFs, such as
the novelist J.K. Rowling. <a href="https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/">https://www.jkrowling.com/opinions/j-k-rowling-writes-about-her-reasons-for-speaking-out-on-sex-and-gender-issues/</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In 2017 Canada’s Parliament passed “An Act to Amend the Canadian
Human Rights Act and the Criminal Code.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>This Act added “gender identity or expression” to prohibited grounds of
discrimination.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/c-16/royal-assent">https://www.parl.ca/DocumentViewer/en/42-1/bill/c-16/royal-assent</a><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Canada’s Ministry of Justice issued an explanation of what
gender identity means: “Gender identity is each person’s internal and
individual experience of gender.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It defined
gender expression as “the way in which people publicly present their gender…through
such aspects as dress, hair, make-up, body language, and voice.” <a href="https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/pl/identity-identite/about-apropos.html">https://www.justice.gc.ca/eng/csj-sjc/pl/identity-identite/about-apropos.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Some Canadians seem to think that this definition means that
an individual can simply state that they are of one or another gender, and that
others must therefore accept them as such. For example, an ostensible male can
walk into a woman’s shelter and state that they are a woman, and they would be
entitled to a bed <a href="https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/kristi-hanna-human-rights-complaint-transgender-woman-toronto-shelter">https://nationalpost.com/news/canada/kristi-hanna-human-rights-complaint-transgender-woman-toronto-shelter</a>
Or, a person <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>imprisoned for rape can simply
state that they are a woman, and they must be moved to a women’s prison <a href="https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-without-exemptions-to-protect-women-in-prison-gender-identity-laws-are-unconstitutional">https://nationalpost.com/opinion/barbara-kay-without-exemptions-to-protect-women-in-prison-gender-identity-laws-are-unconstitutional</a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">
This does not mean that genuine transgender people should not be moved, as
happened in 2017 to a convicted murderer in British Columbia. </span><a href="https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/07/22/transgender-inmate-wins-right-to-move-to-federal-prison-for-women-in-bc.html"><span style="color: blue;">https://www.thestar.com/news/canada/2017/07/22/transgender-inmate-wins-right-to-move-to-federal-prison-for-women-in-bc.html</span></a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Transgender women in men’s prisons risk being attacked. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">If an individual can simply say they are a woman and then
legally have to be treated as one, without any further evidence such as having
lived as a woman, then Canada’s law is a bad one. A government that claims to
be concerned about violence against women should know that some male predators
will take every advantage they possibly can to gain access to vulnerable women.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Saying this does not make me a “TERF.” It makes me a person
who is simultaneously aware that Trans people deserve all their human rights,
and that predatory men will take advantage of a practice that permits them into
women’s spaces. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">Similarly, female scholars who worry about a social-media
inspired movement to persuade young people, especially young women, that they
are actually Trans are not TERFs. They are people who can simultaneously
protect Trans people’s rights and worry that vulnerable young adolescents may
ask for life-changing, irreversible surgery that they may not need. <o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In Sweden, there was a 1,500 per cent increase between 2008
and 2018 in gender dysphoria among people “born as girls” between 13 and 17
years of age. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><a href="https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/22/ssweden-teenage-transgender-row-dysphoria-diagnoses-soar">https://www.theguardian.com/society/2020/feb/22/ssweden-teenage-Transgender-row-dysphoria-diagnoses-soar</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>In the UK, 1,806 girls were referred for
gender treatment in 2017/18, as compared to only 40 in 2009/10. <a href="https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6172097/Investigation-ordered-number-transitioning-referrals-increase-four-thousand-cent.html">https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-6172097/Investigation-ordered-number-Transitioning-referrals-increase-four-thousand-cent.html</a>.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some of this increase may be because
genuinely Trans children now had better access to information and
assistance.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But the steep rise also
suggests that some of them might have been influenced by social media or by
groups of friends.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Some girls may simply
have noticed that life is easier if you are male. A Finnish study found that 75
per cent of adolescents who wanted sex-reassignment surgery actually had other
psychiatric problems. <a href="https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/06/12/continental-europe-enters-the-gender-wars">https://www.economist.com/europe/2021/06/12/continental-europe-enters-the-gender-wars</a>
<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">There has already been one legal case in the UK in which an
adult woman sued the Tavistock institute for removing her breasts when she was
16 and thought she was Transgender: as an adult, she decided she was simply a
lesbian woman. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>She won her case. <a href="https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/12/01/the-judgment-in-keira-bells-case-upsets-trans-groups">https://www.economist.com/britain/2020/12/01/the-judgment-in-keira-bells-case-upsets-Trans-groups</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">None of this suggests that children who identify as Trans
should not be taken seriously. It does suggest that there are many questions that
should be asked.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>People who ask these
questions should not be considered Transphobic. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nor should feminists who worry about “trans
imposters” be considered TERFS.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>It is
possible to simultaneously defend the rights of Trans people and worry about
poor medical practices, false or misleading information on the Internet, and
social movements that persuade vulnerable young people that they are Trans when
they may well be suffering from problems other than gender dysphoria, such as
being bullied for being gay or lesbian.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal">In all these cases, more speech is better than less. And
civil discourse is better than yelling and calling each other names. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Sometimes human rights do clash. It is better
to discuss the clashes civilly, trying to come to a reasonable resolution or compromise,
than to pretend that one or the other side is simply composed of ideologues or
bigots.<o:p></o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-57129109085659620172021-04-12T10:51:00.000-07:002021-04-12T10:51:24.364-07:00World Human Rights Today<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">World Human Rights
Today<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Last week (April 9, 2021) a reporter in Pakistan named Hammad
Sarfraz contacted me about an article he was writing about Amnesty
International’s latest world report. He
sent me some questions via email, which I answered. In the end, he did not use any quotes from me
in his article,</span> <span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"><a href="https://tribune.com.pk/story/2293985/amnesty-paints-a-grim-picture-of-the-world">https://tribune.com.pk/story/2293985/amnesty-paints-a-grim-picture-of-the-world</a>.
So I have decided to post my answers, as below.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">What is your
assessment of the current state of human rights around the world? </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">I am very worried about the current state of human rights,
especially because of the rise of the authoritarian political right, indeed
even of fascism. Donald Trump, his family and the Republican Party are still a
real threat to American democracy. Their fascistic policies are based on racism
against Blacks, Hispanics, and Muslims, as well as on privileges for the
extremely rich.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Similarly, I am very worried about China’s move back from authoritarian
dictatorship to full-blown totalitarianism, using modern means of information
technology to try to control the entire Chinese population. And I worry about Putin’s
dictatorship in Russia, Modi’s anti-Muslim Hindu nationalism, and leaders such
as Bolsanaro in Brazil, Duterte in the Philippines, Orban in Hungary and
Netanyahu in Israel.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Aside from these threats to people’s civil, political and economic
human rights, there are also the long-term threats of nuclear war and global climate
change, violating the rights to peace and to a healthy environment, both
emerging “collective” human rights.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0in;"> Were human rights ever
universally guaranteed or were they only meant to be for the rich / developed
countries?</span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This question sets up a false opposition.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Human rights have never been universally
guaranteed in practice; they are universal in principle. While it is true that
some rich, developed countries were influential in formulating the United
Nations’ Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, so were several independent
non-Western countries such as India and Iran.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">
</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">The only groups that had no influence were colonized sub-Saharan Africa
and indigenous peoples.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Since then, all
members of the UN have had a say in formulating new documents such as the 1990
Convention on the Rights of the Child</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">People who don’t live in developed, wealthy societies need human
rights even more that people who do.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Ask
yourself, which human rights could Pakistanis do without? The right not to be
arbitrarily executed? The right to free speech? The right to adequate food and
housing?</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt; padding: 0in;">Perhaps some Pakistanis would prefer to get rid of freedom of
religion, as it protects the rights of Christians in Pakistan. But the principle of freedom of religion also
applies to </span><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;">Muslims in China, India and
Myanmar: should it be abolished because these are not wealthy western
countries? Should Muslims in the US have
the right to freedom of religion, while Muslims in these three countries don’t?</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> An increasing number
of advocacy groups are cautioning us about the growing abuses and violations of
basic rights. Are we moving toward a post human rights world? </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">I doubt very much that we are moving to a post-human rights
world.</span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">People will always want the types
of freedoms, protections and material security that the international human rights
laws and norms provide in law and principle.</span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">
</span><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">We will all have to fight vigorously, though, against the political
authoritarianism and fascism that are currently emerging in various countries.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> What are the main
challenges for global human rights norms ? </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">There are so many that I cannot even begin to enumerate them.
The biggest challenge is always corrupt, self-interested elites that control
states, wherever they are. The other challenge is unbridled capitalism which
ignores the dangers of climate change, inequality, and continued
discrimination. Racism, genocide, patriarchy and homophobia are always constant
challenges.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> Countries that
appear to be important in Washington’s grand scheme can get away with human
rights violations. Saudi Arabia got away with the murder of Jamal Khashoggi and
India is currently getting away with its oppressive policies in Kashmir. These
are two examples of how Washington conveniently turns a blind eye to violations
— when needed. What are the consequences of Washington’s selective approach
toward human rights? </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This question should apply not only to Washington but to all
great powers. In the Western world, aside from some small countries such as
Norway, human rights are always a left-over after states take into
consideration their strategic needs, political alliances, trade, and general
economic interests. Other very powerful countries such as China and Russia
don’t even bother with human rights. For example, China is busy exploiting
Africa without any concern for human rights.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> What is your
assessment of the pandemic’s impact on global human rights? </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">In Canada, where I live, the pandemic has exposed severe cracks
in our system of state health care, as well as cracks in our welfare system. Elsewhere,
presumably, it is much worse. Modi’s decision to simply close down India and
force migrants workers to return home without adequate (if any) protections
against the Covid virus has probably resulted in many tens of thousands of
deaths that will never be reported.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span><i><span style="border: 1pt none windowtext; font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt; padding: 0in;"> What would it take to reverse
the deteriorating human rights situation in the world? </span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></span></i><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">Continued, constant pressure by civil society groups upon the
elites that control governments and the international economy.</span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">This is why civil and political rights are so
important, so that civil society and the general citizenry, can exercise their
rights to freedom of speech, freedom of the press, and the right to vote and participate
in government. When governments can throw civil society actors in jail with impunity,
or torture or execute them, then there is very little possibility of change.
Note that for all his racist, fascistic tendencies, Trump was unable to stifle
freedom of speech and the press in the US; nor, despite stacking the Supreme
Court and other levels of the judiciary with his own appointees, has he
completely undermined the independence of the judiciary.</span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="border: none windowtext 1.0pt; color: black; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-border-alt: none windowtext 0in; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman"; padding: 0in;"><o:p> </o:p></span><span style="font-family: "Segoe UI", sans-serif; font-size: 11.5pt;">If I could pick only one human right, I would say freedom of
speech. Some people might rather say, the right to food. But without freedom of
speech, citizens cannot even be guaranteed the right to eat: witness countries
such as North Korea, Zimbabwe, and Venezuela whose governments have committee
state food crimes, destroying their own economics.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="background: white; line-height: normal; margin-bottom: .0001pt; margin-bottom: 0in; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="color: #201f1e; font-family: "Segoe UI","sans-serif"; font-size: 11.5pt; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><o:p> </o:p></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-19194036656935932612021-02-04T10:22:00.014-08:002021-02-09T12:34:07.804-08:00Indigenizing the University: Book Note<p><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">This week I read the proofs of a book edited by Frances
Widdowson, entitled </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Indigenizing the
University: Diverse Perspectives</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> (Winnipeg: Frontier Centre for Public
Policy, 2021 forthcoming)</span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">.</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> I read it
at Dr. Widdowson’s request, with a view to possible providing an endorsement. Here
is the endorsement:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">“This book is a fine introduction to debates about the
indigenization of universities. Although Widdowson herself opposes many aspects
of indigenization, she lets her authors speak for themselves. The second
section is particularly interesting, discussing whether indigenous science
exists. Authors investigate physics, biology, psychology, economics, and
political science.”<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Frances Widdowson is<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span>a professor in the department of economics, justice and policy studies
at Mount Royal University. As I noted in the endorsement, she is a very strong opponent
of indigenizing Canadian universities, so some readers might think I should not
have endorsed this book. However, I learned a lot from it. I had expected the
various contributions to be polemical, but they were not. Whatever one might
think of Widdowson’s views and the views of other contributors, they are backed
up by an impressive amount of research. If I wanted to pursue this debate, I would
find a huge bibliography in Widdowson’s and others’ articles.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The first section of the book contains two useful historical
chapters. Rodney A. Clifton, a professor emeritus at the faculty of education
at the University of Manitoba, and Masha V. Krylova situate the history of indigenization
of Canadian universities within the broader context of Canadianization of those
same universities. The late Alan Cairns of the University of Waterloo contributed
a chapter on the history of aboriginal research. He is particularly scathing
about the 1990s’ Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples. He asserts that it was
driven by an ideological agenda that privileged the situation of Aboriginal (as
they were then called) people living in bands on reserves, while ignoring
people living in urban areas, those who were intermarried, and those who had
Aboriginal ancestry but did not identify themselves as Aboriginal (p. 63). He
also noted that some Aboriginal women testified in camera at the Commission
because they were afraid of retaliation at home if they spoke about abuse on reserves
(p.60).<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Other chapters in this section address several other
concerns. Widdowson argues that Indigenization might result in the lowering of
academic standards. Tom Flanagan, a professor emeritus in the department of
political science at the University of Calgary, provides an addendum to
Widdowson’s chapter, considering the unintended detrimental consequences – in his
view-- of affirmative action programs on the United States. David Newhouse of
the department of indigenous studies at Trent University argues strongly for
the right to speak what he calls indigenous truths.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Kerryn Pholi, a sometime Aboriginal civil
servant is Australia, is a strong critic of what she called the “Aboriginal
industry” in that country.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The second section of the book, “Indigenizing
Academic Disciplines,” debates whether there is one universal science with universal
standards, or whether there is such a thing as “Indigenous science” which
should be considered by Canadian universities as on equal footing with what its
advocates call “Western” science.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The late F. David Peat was a physicist in his early
life. He argues that debates among physicists show that there are various “physics.”
Similarly, he argues, Blackfoot and other Indigenous worldviews can be
considered as independent concepts of physics. James Trefil, a professor of physics
at George Mason University, replies “teach it if you must, but don’t call it science.”
He points out that Peat argues by analogy, that debates among physicists do not
mean that there are different sciences of physics.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">This exchange is followed by a debate between Root
Gorelick, a professor in the department of biology at Carleton University, and Massimo
Pigliucci, a philosopher of science at City University of New York. Gorelick argued
strongly for an Indigenous biology. He also advocates including spiritual and
indeed poetic elements in that science. Gorelick is particularly concerned that
traditional indigenous environmental knowledge be acknowledged as scientific. Pigliucci
agrees that Traditional Ecological Knowledge (TEK) should be taken seriously by
scientists. However, such knowledge must be verified by standard scientific methods.
Also, aspects of TEK that derive from spiritual beliefs must be discarded. In
and of itself, TEK is not science. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">Following these debates on physic and biology,
Stephen B. Perrott,<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>professor of
psychology at Mount Saint Vincent University, assesses whether the discipline
of psychology should be indigenized. He accepts the need for more Indigenous psychologists
and more sensitivity to Indigenous clients, but does not agree that the
discipline itself should abandon its scientific roots.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Ambrose Leung of the department of economics,
justice and policy studies at Mont Royal University politely replies to a claim
by Carol Anne Hilton, a First Nations business entrepreneur, that there should
be an “indigenomics.” He shows how each of Hilton’s arguments about omissions
of indigenous concerns (such as environmental impacts of development projects)
is already addressed within the discipline of economics. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The final chapter in this section is by Widdowson herself,
assessing indigenous content syllabus materials and political science. Among
her many arguments against indigenization, she introduces the concept of “neotribal
rentierism” (p. 277). Rentierism is the ability to extract benefits without
actually making any productive contribution to the economy, as for example
European landlords did when they extracted rents from peasants and serfs. Widdowson
argues that Indigenous leaders are now extracting “rents” from the federal
government. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">I think that Widdowson may be right that some
Indigenous leaders do engage in this type of behavior, but I believe her
criticism is too strong. I agree with Indigenous advocates that colonialism has
stripped them of much of their capacity to be economically self-sustaining,
from land theft to denial of civil and political rights to under-education and
abuse in residential schools. In any case, even if colonialism hadn’t occurred,
the Canadian government is responsible to ensure the human rights of all its
citizens. This includes economic human rights such as the rights to housing,
education, and health care. Despite their assertions of Indigenous sovereignty,
Indigenous peoples are still citizens of the Canadian state, whether living on
or off-reserves. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">The debate in section 2 of <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Indigenizing
the University </i>about Indigenous versus “Western” science<i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"> </i>is resonant of the debate on whether
universal human rights are really universal or whether they are in fact “Western.”
To a significant extent, both the human rights and the Indigenous science debates
rest on the fallacy of origins. This fallacy is the belief that ideas are
applicable only to the people or social categories who generated them. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">In my own work, including <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">In Defense of Universal Human Rights </i><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(2018), I have argued that while the concept
of human rights may have originated in the West, from its earliest legal origins
at the United Nations in 1948 non-Western countries bought into the concept,
which they elaborated over the next seven decades. Moreover, all people
everywhere are entitled in principle to such human rights. Similarly, even if
concepts of scientific rigour such as falsifiability and secularism originated
in the European Enlightenment, they have now spread far beyond the Euro-American
world. Scientists in China and India use the same standards as scientists in
North America and Europe. Scientific findings apply to all people everywhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">For example, I have yet to hear of any Indigenous
people arguing that the various Covid-19 vaccines currently being imported into
Canada are unusable by Indigenous people because they are “Western” in origin. Indeed,
the fallacy of origins argument does not seem to be used for medical or
technical developments, although tragically, some years ago in Ontario two sets
of Indigenous parents tried to cure their young daughters of leukemia using “indigenous”
treatments. After one of the children died, the other mother returned her
daughter to “Western” medical treatment. <a href="https://rhodahassmann.blogspot.com/2014/11/aboriginal-cultural-rights-versus.html">https://rhodahassmann.blogspot.com/2014/11/aboriginal-cultural-rights-versus.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">One final note: Widdowson tried very hard to find
indigenous contributors for this volume. At least one Indigenous person
declined, not wanting to debate with her at all. This is a shame, as she
included all the chapters without her own commentary. As a matter of principle,
moreover, Widdowson <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>identified her
contributors only by their professional designations, not by their identity, Indigenous
or otherwise. Root Gorelick identified himself as non-Indigenous, while Kerryn
Pholi identified herself as an Australian Aboriginal. Others did not
self-identify, so one is left to judge their arguments purely by their
scientific validity, not by their identity, which is what Widdowson apparently
wanted.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal">Extra note (February 9, 2021): Just after I posted this blog, I heard reports of Canadian Indigenous people who were very hesitant to have Covid-19 vaccinations. This hesitancy stems from a long history of justifiable mistrust of white people in authority, including those in the medical profession. But as far as I know, the mistrust is not because Covid-19 vaccinations are thought to be "Western" as opposed to Indigenous medicine. </p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-25915196980020016242021-01-20T13:32:00.000-08:002021-01-20T13:32:14.443-08:00Provisionally Yours and The Last Million: Book Notes<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Recently I read </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Provisionally
Yours</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> by Antanas Sileika (Windsor, Ontario: Biblioasis, 2019).</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><i style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Provisionally
Yours</i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> is a novel set in in Lithuania just after World War I.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Actually, it’s a bit of a stretch to say it
is set in Lithuania, as the country as such was still in a very “provisional”
state at the time. Previously part of the Russian Empire, it benefitted from
the post-war sentiment to let different ethnic groups form new nations. This
was part of a general trend toward the idea of “self-determination,” when the
Czarist, Austro-Hungarian, and Ottoman Empires had all been destroyed.</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">.Sileika, a Canadian of Lithuanian descent, portrays
a world of ethno-castes. By that I mean ethnic groups arranged in a caste-like
hierarchy. Until very recently, the (Czarist) Russian Empire was Lithuania’s
overlord, but landowners tended to be Polish. Peasants were Lithuanian, and
Jews were urban businessmen and professionals. Now ethnic Lithuanians are in
charge and are trying to establish an ethnically-homogenous Lithuanian state. The
protagonist of the novel, Justas Adamonis, has just returned from service in
the Russian army, and is now charged with setting up a counter-intelligence service
in Lithuania.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">I learned a lot from this novel about early 20<sup>th</sup>-century
Lithuania. It also made me think about the problems of new states more
generally. In an Afterword, Sileika informs the reader that he based the novel
on real political events that occurred in Lithuania at the time. One of
Adamonis’ assignments is to track down a ring of officials who are smuggling cocaine
into the new Soviet Union. This reminds me of the problem of narco-states in
the less developed world today. It also reminds me of the difficulties of
establishing--and paying—an efficient administrative class in an
ethnically-disparate society. At another point, an ethnically Russian general
who led the Lithuanian army in its war of independence is assassinated. There
are still many such cases, in which members of ethnic minorities who attempt to
serve the new “nation”-state are marginalized or even assassinated by the
ethnic group in power. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Jews don’t figure in <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Provisionally Yours<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">; </b></i>they
are just “there,” irrelevant to the formation of this new nation-state. Unfortunately,
they are very much “there” in historian David Nasaw’s <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">The Last Million: Europe’s Displaced Persons from World War to Cold War
</i>(New York, Penguin Press, 2020). <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">One tends to think that the last million displaced
persons would have been almost entirely Jewish, but such was far from the case.
Most of the Jewish survivors were people who had fled from Poland to the Soviet
Union during the war. After the war, Stalin permitted them to return to Poland,
but they did so only to discover that there was still fierce anti-Semitism in
that country. Indeed, some Jews were given letters giving them three days to get
out, or else. The last pogrom occurred in the city of Kielce in 1946, after the
war’s end. About 200-250,000 Polish Jews who had survived the war in the Soviet
Union ended up in the American zone of occupation in Germany, awaiting
permission to migrate elsewhere.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Other members of the last million were refugees from
various countries taken over by the Soviet Union. Among these were “Balts,” people
from Estonia, Lithuania and Latvia who fled into Germany after the war and were
able to make their way to the American zone of occupation.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">By this point, very few Jews were left in the Baltic
states. Indeed, many Balts co-operated with the Nazis in murdering their Jewish
co-nationals. Among the last million were known members of the Nazi Waffen-SS, identifiable
by the blood-type tattoos under their left armpits.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Nevertheless, both Britain and the United
States considered Baltic men, often tall, blond, and blue-eyed, to be superior
immigrants. They were “clean” as opposed to the “dirty” Jewish survivors. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>At one point
miners in the UK went on strike when they discovered that they were working
with immigrants against whom they’d so recently fought. British authorities
told the Baltic miners not to take their shirts off in the mines, so the
British miners would not notice their SS tattoos.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Lutheran and Catholic establishments in the US
pressured their post-war government to admit Balts (Lutherans) and Poles and Ukrainians
(Catholics) in equal numbers to Jewish immigrants, if not more. And President
Truman pressured the British to open up then Palestine to Jewish immigration so
that the US would not have to admit the Jews. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If you are a reader who enjoys historical novels, I
highly recommend <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Provisionally Yours</i>,
to give you a sense of a place about which, like me, you might not know
anything at all.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>And if you like reading
history, Nasaw is a Pulitzer-Prize winner who knows how to tell a compelling,
if discouraging, story. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Broadway;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Broadway;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-22529107896679504292020-12-16T12:31:00.005-08:002020-12-16T12:31:57.454-08:00Seven Fallen Feathers and Beautiful Scars: Two Books about Indigenous Canadians<p> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">In the last couple of weeks I’ve read two books
about Indigenous Canadians.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Seven
Fallen Feathers: Racism, Death and Hard Truths in a Northern City </span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">by
Tanya Talaga<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>(house of Anansi Press,
2017) investigates the deaths of seven Indigenous teenagers in Thunder Bay,
Ontario since 2000. All were registered in a local high school established and
managed by Indigenous individuals, especially for teenagers whose own reserves
were too small and underfunded to support their own high school. The children,
as young as 14, boarded with adults in the community and were obliged to obey a
curfew, so that if they went missing, the community and the police could
quickly mobilize to search for them. The community usually mobilized before the
police did and searched much more thoroughly. <o:p></o:p></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUESzpi1vy_3rnA8U58JX1Ck7CNCWHHQmgRhiOz7l0Bm8Z1pVICT_lpMUuEIeTFERigLcY_pY2nYB59g6vw8uh92vnL7mw5ye_7VgA3CELKaWDIho81VRLlzDzsI3Tw6S07XooVKm-EI/s218/91yaKAlAnVL._AC_UY218_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="218" data-original-width="141" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEihUESzpi1vy_3rnA8U58JX1Ck7CNCWHHQmgRhiOz7l0Bm8Z1pVICT_lpMUuEIeTFERigLcY_pY2nYB59g6vw8uh92vnL7mw5ye_7VgA3CELKaWDIho81VRLlzDzsI3Tw6S07XooVKm-EI/s0/91yaKAlAnVL._AC_UY218_.jpg" /></a></div><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Sadly, many of these children, disoriented and
feeling isolated from their families, spent their evenings drinking and using
drugs. <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Three (I think) of these teenagers died by drowning
near a popular drinking spot. In all cases the police concluded it was death by
accident, assuming thee children had fallen into the river while drunk. Yet parents
could not understand how children brought up near water would drown. And the brother
of one drowning victim almost drowned himself, but recovered consciousness and
swam to shore. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This makes me wonder if there is not a serial killer
on the loose in Thunder Bay, preying on Indigenous teenagers.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Talaga’s accusations of police neglect of these
deaths is not without substance. A review of the Thunder Bay Police Force conducted
in 2018 found that “TBPS investigators failed on an unacceptably high number of
occasions to treat or protect the deceased and his or her family equally and
without discrimination because the deceased was Indigenous…Officers repeatedly
relied on generalized notions about how Indigenous people likely came to their
deaths and acted, or refrained from acting, based on those biases. …[S]ystemic
racism exists in TBPS at an institutional level. <a href="http://oiprd.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/OIPRD-BrokenTrust-Final-Accessible-E.pdf">http://oiprd.on.ca/wp-content/uploads/OIPRD-BrokenTrust-Final-Accessible-E.pdf</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Aside from the problem of inadequate (at best)
policing, the causes of these tragic deaths are largely systemic. They stem
from both the legacy of colonialism, and neglect by the federal agencies that
are supposedly charged with the welfare of Indigenous people living on
reserves. Schools are underfunded compared to schools funded by the provinces.
As a result, as Talaga explains, the children moving to Thunder Bay to complete
high school often all ill-prepared. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Also, living conditions on Northern reserves are
often abysmal. A disproportionately high percentage of Indigenous peoples
suffer from malnutrition, partly because of the high costs of food in northern
communities (despite government subsidies) and partly because they have lost their
traditional hunting skills. Many reserves do not even have clean drinking
water.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Government promises to rectify
these problems often remain that; empty promises.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The second book I read was <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Beautiful Scars: Steeltown Secrets, Mohawk Skywalkers and the Road Home
</i>by Tom Wilson (Doubleday Canada, 2017). Wilson is an internationally known,
Hamilton-based musician and songwriter. Not being at all conversant with contemporary
music, I knew nothing about him and did not even know that he had lived in the
block behind me for many years until someone pointed him out to me at our local
gym. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjlPoswtrYQBs2xUYNNg20MHGAtBuLwwPbScGXbm6g7jkY2rR5joFoMeanS3mGtm-w6pOhbyUYGAFG7h3B5ERiGkBHW5gHSzfflAzewYNoNPEvywQMdhtVont3yJFdY5oGGWJCFL1_Z5M/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="120" data-original-width="80" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhjlPoswtrYQBs2xUYNNg20MHGAtBuLwwPbScGXbm6g7jkY2rR5joFoMeanS3mGtm-w6pOhbyUYGAFG7h3B5ERiGkBHW5gHSzfflAzewYNoNPEvywQMdhtVont3yJFdY5oGGWJCFL1_Z5M/" width="160" /></a></div><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><br /></span></p>Born in 1959, Wilson was raised in poverty in
working-class Hamilton by older parents, Bunny and George. George was blinded
in World War II and ran a candy and cigarette stand in Hamilton’s main post
office for many years. Tom’s parents were absurdly strict, forcing him, for
example, to go to bed at 5:00 PM on summer nights when all the other
neighbourhood children were out playing. He sometimes visited the Kahnawake
Mohawk Reserve near Montreal (the site of the 1990 Oka crisis</span> <span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/oka-crisis">https://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.ca/en/article/oka-crisis</a>
), but was told it was because one of his aunts had married a Mohawk man. Gifts
such as beaded moccasins occasionally arrived for him when he was a child. <o:p></o:p></span><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Remarkably, despite his dark coloring and taunts of “Indian,
Indian” from his schoolmates; and despite once hearing his mother tell a doctor
that she had never given birth, Wilson did not put two and two together until
he was in his 50s.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Like many musicians,
much of his life was dedicated to sex, drugs, and drinking. Having chatted with
him at the gym and having read his book, I have some inkling of how much he
suffered during those years. Fortunately, he had married and his love for his children
gave him something to hold on to, even when his wife threw him out and he was sleeping
in his car in the parking lot of the church just down the block from me.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Tom’s adoptive mother, of Irish and French-Canadian
heritage herself, did not want him to know that he was Mohawk. When he occasionally
asked about his origins, Bunny said she would take her secret with her to the
grave, and she did. I won’t reveal precisely how Tom found out that he is
actually Mohawk, but only after Bunny’s death did he discover his actual
parentage and his Mohawk roots. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This is such a sad story. Why would a woman who
raised a son as late as the 1960s and 70s fear to tell him he was “Indian”?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Did Bunny have racist views about Indigenous
people, or did she think she was protecting Tom against racists by not
revealing his roots to him. In any event, she denied him the pride that he now
has in his Mohawk identity and in the many Mohawk men who worked as “skywalkers”
(construction workers in high rise buildings) in New York and elsewhere. <o:p></o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-70487643467851363482020-12-07T09:22:00.000-08:002020-12-07T09:22:04.311-08:00Free Speech and Liberal Education: Book Review<p> <br /></p><p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Free
Speech and Liberal Education</span></i><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">, by Donald Alexander
Downs: Book Review.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">In 2011, a young Jewish student at York University
in Toronto filed a complaint of anti-Semitism against her professor. She had
heard him say in class that “Jews should be sterilized.”<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>This sounds horrendous, but it seems the
student had been asleep for most of the class. The professor, himself Jewish,
was discussing what might or might not be considered a legitimate point of view
in a university classroom. What he had actually said was something like, “For
example, the statement that ‘Jews should be sterilized’ is not a legitimate
opinion.” Even after this was explained, however, the student continued to
argue that it was anti-Semitic to even mention such a statement. As I wrote to
the <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Canadian Jewish News</i> at the time,
this appeared to mean that professors should teach their students fairy tales,
rather than teach them truthfully about history.<a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_edn1" name="_ednref1" style="mso-endnote-id: edn1;" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="mso-special-character: footnote;"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></span></a><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><o:p></o:p></b></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">This seems to be the problem with the new stress in many
North American campuses on “trigger warnings.” These warnings are meant to
protect st<b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;">u</b>dents from encountering
facts or analyses that might upset them. On the other hand, such analyses and
facts might teach students quite a bit about the evils than men and women do.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Donald Alexander Downs, a legal philosopher retired
from University of Wisconsin-Madison, addresses this problem and others in his <i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;">Free Speech and Liberal Education: A. Plea
for Intellectual Diversity and Tolerance </i>((Washington, D.C.: <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Cato Institute, 2020) Downs is not an
alarmist, and does not oppose all new “identity politics” trends on university
campuses. He acknowledges, for example, the beneficial role that feminism has
played in opening up new academic questions. (pp. 164-5) He presents examples
of academic excesses but does not dwell on them.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKryFTWCld1nxCD2zQRU5uN5Tbg_lgOBt5QqTxJmMBGExNLm6dbMB8dP3DwuzuzzcXgTy1OeFjAD55Puc6iDSXn92WRKxOWTj5sAccn6Q9gZFMimXp0tI0JLeujk4wq4xz503WuYhF8_Y/s218/71j2CmuP65L._AC_UY218_.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="218" data-original-width="119" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgKryFTWCld1nxCD2zQRU5uN5Tbg_lgOBt5QqTxJmMBGExNLm6dbMB8dP3DwuzuzzcXgTy1OeFjAD55Puc6iDSXn92WRKxOWTj5sAccn6Q9gZFMimXp0tI0JLeujk4wq4xz503WuYhF8_Y/s0/71j2CmuP65L._AC_UY218_.jpg" /></a></div><br /><p></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman", serif; font-size: 12pt;">Downs is not a free-speech absolutist: he refers
frequently to US Supreme Court decisions on the limits of free speech. He also
carefully differentiates between academic freedom and freedom of speech. The
former is subject to standards of scholarly rigour. Professors should not be
permitted to say whatever they want in a classroom: academic freedom has
“competence-based limits” and requires “commitment to intellectual standards of
proof, evidence and reason.” (pp.8, 58)</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Freedom of speech, by contrast, is not subject to
standards of scholarly rigour. Everyone on campus, whether faculty member, administrator,
staff member or student, should enjoy the right to say whatever he or she wants
outside of the strictures of academic discourse. Downs rightly condemns the Orwellian
approach of Rhodes College, which in 2008 instructed students to report insensitive
statements made by their fellow students in private conversation. (p.70) He is
worried about the bureaucratic and administrative apparatuses that police
freedom of speech, even going so far as to refer to the “surveillance
university.” (p. 11) This surveillance extends well beyond American legal
limits on freedom of speech, to include in some cases, as at the University of Oregon,
policing of “insensitivity” and “lack of awareness.” (p. 87) Citing de Tocqueville,
Downs calls these measures “soft despotism.” (p. 22) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Downs opposes the “heckler’s veto,” now used against
people considered right-wing or insensitive to identity politics, yet in
earlier decades used against left-wing speakers. (p.72) Such a veto was attempted
in Toronto in 2019, when feminist Meghan Murphy opposed certain transgender rights
on the grounds that they might interfere with women’s rights.<a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_edn2" name="_ednref2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Even
Mayor John Tory opposed the principled stance of Vickery Bowles, Toronto’s
chief librarian, who permitted Murphy to speak at the Palmerston Library.<a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_edn3" name="_ednref3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a></span>
<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Downs agrees with the British sociologist, Frank
Furedi, about the dangers of “therapy culture” on US campuses.<a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_edn4" name="_ednref4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Young
people, says Downs, are infantilized, protected from any ideas that might be
perceived to upset—and therefore “harm”—them. Instead, Downs and Furedi
believe, young people should be exposed to ideas with which they might at first
disagree and trained to debate them. Young people should develop strength of
mind to accompany their strength of body. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Downs also believes it is unfortunate that some
universities now assume that “social justice” and “human rights” are opposing
terms. “Progressive” universities pursuing a social justice mission focus on
inequality. At the same time, they downplay the classic liberal values such as
freedom of speech, and expand their bureaucratic and administrative governance
over their individual members. (p.6) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Yet as Downs asserts, “Social justice without
liberal rights is oxymoronic.”(p. 7) In this he is correct. Just as “social
justice warriors” do, so also human rights advocates want everyone to be
treated equally, whether with regard to civil and political rights such as the right
to vote, or to economic, social and cultural rights such as to health care,
education, or housing. In polities that restrict freedom speech and freedom of
academic inquiry, social justice goals are unlikely to be realized. Take, for
instance, the rights to adequate nutrition and to be free from starvation,
protected by Article 11 of the 1976 International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights. When citizens are tortured or murdered as punishments for
speaking out against their governments, they are unable to let their
governments know when they are starving, as in China’s Great Leap Forward
(1958-62) or in North Korea or Venezuela today.<a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_edn5" name="_ednref5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-size: 12pt; line-height: 115%;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Despite the continuing need for freedom of speech on
US campuses as elsewhere, Downs shows that recent surveys of student opinion reveal
a disturbing trend to prioritize sensitivity over freedom of speech. (pp.
125-48) This does not mean that Downs opposes attempts to be sensitive to students’
emotional needs, for example by creating “safe spaces” on campus. Students have
the right to form “self-referential groups,” he argues, especially when they
feel besieged by the larger society. (p. 88) On US campuses today, such groups
may well include Black and transgendered students. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">At the end of his book, Downs presents some guidance
to readers on how to overcome politicized bullying of faculty members and students.
He grounds his advice in his own twenty-year experience as a member of the University
of Wisconsin’s Committee for Academic Freedom and Rights. Most of his suggestions
are moderate, and take carefully into account the legitimate grievances of
marginalized students, without ceding grounds of academic freedom or freedom of
speech. Unfortunately, however, he does not present details of the cases he
helped resolve, presumably because of privacy reasons.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Down’s most important contention is as relevant to
Canada as to the US, even though both Canada’s hate speech laws and its
approaches to diversity differ from those in the US. The university, he argues,
should be a shared intellectual <i>polis</i>,
in which students should be just as much participants as their professors. (p.
111) In this shared <i>polis, </i>not only
the rights of speakers but also the rights of listeners should be protected:
students and others have the right to listen to unpopular ideas. (p. 245, n.11)
Exercise of the right to freedom of speech promotes intellectual courage among
students, an important part of what it means to be a citizen, a participant in
public debate. Citizens should be capable not only of intellectual conviction,
but of civic doubt and an appropriate degree of distrust of government.
(pp.176-81) <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">A university is not only a training-ground for
future employment: it is, or ought to be, a training ground for active
life-long participation in the public realm. For this to occur, both academic
freedom and freedom of speech are absolutely necessary.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<div><!--[if !supportEndnotes]--><br clear="all" />
<hr align="left" size="1" width="33%" />
<!--[endif]-->
<div id="edn1">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_ednref1" name="_edn1" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[1]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> Rhoda
E. Howard-Hassmann, “’Offended’ by reality”, <i>Canadian Jewish News, </i>November 24, 2011, p. 8.<i><o:p></o:p></i></p>
</div>
<div id="edn2">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_ednref2" name="_edn2" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[2]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/megan-murphy-toronto-library-protest-1.5339909"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/megan-murphy-toronto-library-protest-1.5339909</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn3">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_ednref3" name="_edn3" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[3]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-public-library-tory-speaker-transphobia-1.5324218"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/toronto/toronto-public-library-tory-speaker-transphobia-1.5324218</span></a><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;"> </span> <a href="https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5324424/i-m-not-going-to-reconsider-toronto-s-top-librarian-refuses-to-bar-speaker-critical-of-transgender-rights-1.5324431"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt;">https://www.cbc.ca/radio/asithappens/as-it-happens-thursday-edition-1.5324424/i-m-not-going-to-reconsider-toronto-s-top-librarian-refuses-to-bar-speaker-critical-of-transgender-rights-1.5324431</span></a><o:p></o:p></p>
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<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_ednref4" name="_edn4" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[4]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Frank Furedi, <i>What’s Happened to the
University?</i>, New York: Routledge, 2016.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
<div id="edn5">
<p class="MsoEndnoteText"><a href="file:///C:/Users/RHODA%20HASSMANN/Dropbox/blogs/downs%20review%20free%20speech%20dec%207%202020.docx#_ednref5" name="_edn5" title=""><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><!--[if !supportFootnotes]--><span class="MsoEndnoteReference"><span style="font-family: "Calibri","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-ascii-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-bidi-font-family: "Times New Roman"; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-bidi-theme-font: minor-bidi; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin; mso-hansi-theme-font: minor-latin;">[5]</span></span><!--[endif]--></span></a>
Rhoda E. Howard-Hassmann, <i>State Food
Crimes,</i> New York: Cambridge University Press, 2016.<o:p></o:p></p>
</div>
</div>
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</div>
</div>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6700283514603333187.post-30611230510072950692020-10-26T12:50:00.000-07:002020-10-26T12:50:08.975-07:00Reparations to Africa<p> </p><p class="MsoNormal"><b style="mso-bidi-font-weight: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Reparations
to Africa<o:p></o:p></span></b></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">The Black Lives Matter movement includes calls for
reparations to African-Americans for enslavement. Many people ask whether reparations
should also be paid to the continent of Africa for the slave trade. <a href="https://theconversation.com/why-reparations-to-african-americans-are-necessary-how-to-start-now-119581">https://theconversation.com/why-reparations-to-african-americans-are-necessary-how-to-start-now-119581</a>,
</span><u><span lang="EN-GB" style="color: blue; font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><a href="https://qz.com/africa/1915182/what-reparations-are-owed-to-africa/">https://qz.com/africa/1915182/what-reparations-are-owed-to-africa/</a></span></u><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">The last time there was much discussion of reparations
to Africa was during the UN World Conference on Racism, held in Durban, South
Africa in 2001. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.un.org/WCAR/durban.pdf"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.un.org/WCAR/durban.pdf</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Unfortunately, that conference was
overshadowed by the 9/11 attacks on the US only a few days after it ended. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Types of
reparations<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">A United Nations document discusses the different
aspect of reparations. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/remedyandreparation.aspx"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/remedyandreparation.aspx#</span></a></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"> One aspect is
apology for harms committed in the past. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">Several Western countries have expressed regret for
their participation in the slave trade. For example, at the Durban Conference a
Dutch government minister expressed “deep remorse” for the slave trade and
enslavement. </span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><a href="https://www.un.org/press/en/2001/rd942.doc.htm"><span lang="EN-GB" style="mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">https://www.un.org/press/en/2001/rd942.doc.htm</span></a></span><span class="MsoHyperlink"><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";">. </span></span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%; mso-ansi-language: EN-GB; mso-fareast-font-family: "Times New Roman";"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>But these countries usually avoid direct
apologies that might entail legal liability.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Another aspect of reparations is removal of
offensive monuments. In Bristol, England in June 2020, activists tore down a
monument to a “founder” of that city, Edward Colston. Colston had been a
prominent slave-trader <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-52954994">https://www.bbc.com/news/av/uk-52954994</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Western museums that own precious African artifacts are
facing calls to return them to Africa. Some activists would like the British
Museum to return the Benin Bronzes to Nigeria. su<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/arts/design/benin-bronzes.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2020/01/23/arts/design/benin-bronzes.html</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Other museums present Africans and African societies
in ways that that may be racist. Belgium’s Africa Museum has been accused of
this. <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/arts/design/africa-museum-belgium.html">https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/08/arts/design/africa-museum-belgium.html</a><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Teaching the history of the trans-Atlantic slave
trade could be part of the reparative process. Both within Africa and in former
slave-trading countries, people need to learn this history.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">But the slave trade was not limited to the
trans-Atlantic trade.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Arabs also took
slaves from Africa. Historian Paul Lovejoy estimates that about 14 million
people were taken from Africa in the trans-Atlantic slave trade, and about 10
million in the Arab trade. <a href="https://books.google.ca/books/about/Transformations_in_Slavery.html?id=iWUXNEM-62QC&redir_esc=y">https://books.google.ca/books/about/Transformations_in_Slavery.html?id=iWUXNEM-62QC&redir_esc=y</a>
An accurate history would<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>have to
include the Arab trade.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nor could history teachers ignore slave-trading by
Africans. The Nigerian writer Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani was shocked to learn that
her great-grandfather was a slave trader, selling slaves to Cuba and Brazil after
the trade was abolished by the US and Great Britain. When her great-grandfather
died, six slaves were buried alive with him. <a href="https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-great-grandfather-the-nigerian-slave-trader">https://www.newyorker.com/culture/personal-history/my-great-grandfather-the-nigerian-slave-trader</a><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Financial
Reparations<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Often we think of reparations as financial. One
problem is which former slave trading and slave-holding nations might owe financial
reparations to Africa. Approximately a quarter million enslaved Africans
disembarked in the US between 1626 and 1875. 5.1 million disembarked in Brazil
between 1401 and 1875. <a href="https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates">https://www.slavevoyages.org/assessment/estimates</a>
Does Brazil, a middle-income country, owe financial reparations to Africa? <span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Similarly, do Arab countries and African slave-traders
owe reparations for their part in the slave trade? The distinguished
philosopher Anthony Appiah is of mixed Ashanti (Ghanaian) and British ancestry.
Both his British and Ashanti ancestors traded in slaves. <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/PS8VM45VbjnCB7dVP5BN62/episode-transcript-episode-86-akan-drum#:~:text=Anthony%20Appiah%2C%20who%20teaches%20at,trade%2C%20or%20some%">https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/articles/PS8VM45VbjnCB7dVP5BN62/episode-transcript-episode-86-akan-drum#:~:text=Anthony%20Appiah%2C%20who%20teaches%20at,trade%2C%20or%20some%</a>
Do the Ashanti owe reparations to other ethnic groups within Ghana from whom
they took slaves?<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">If only rich Western countries are responsible to
pay financial reparations, to what entity should they pay them?<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Perhaps each Western county should try to
determine the countries where the bulk of its slaves originated (e.g. Ghana,
Nigeria, Senegal or Angola). They could then compensate those countries. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Nevertheless, Westerners might ask why they should
pay reparations to Africa. The trans-Atlantic slave trade ended in the mid-19<sup>th</sup>
century. Some scholars and activists argue that Western countries should pay
reparations because without the slave trade, Africa would be much more
developed today. <a href="https://www.amazon.ca/Europe-Underdeveloped-Africa-Walter-Rodney/dp/0882580965">https://www.amazon.ca/Europe-Underdeveloped-Africa-Walter-Rodney/dp/0882580965</a>.
<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>On the other hand, Africa might simply have
remained a continent of agriculturalists and nomadic herders, with some groups growing
rich from internal slavery. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Most of sub-Saharan Africa was colonized in the late
19<sup>th</sup> century, but most African countries have been independent for
between 45 and 60 years. Many of their governments have been extremely abusive.
Many African political leaders have suppressed democracy, exploited their own
citizens, and engaged in massive corruption. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Critics could argue that Africa’s continued
underdevelopment is a consequence of these leaders’ actions. <o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Critics could also argue that Western countries have
already compensated for the slave trade via foreign aid. Much foreign aid was
misused or stolen by corrupt governments. Whether reparations or aid, the same
problems of mismanagement, lack of transparency, and corruption emerge. There
is no guarantee that financial reparations for the slave trade would reach the
people most in need of it.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><i style="mso-bidi-font-style: normal;"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Distributive
Justice<o:p></o:p></span></i></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Rather than sorting out who is responsible for
Africa’s underdevelopment since the slave-trading days, perhaps we should focus
on distributive justice rather than reparative.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;">
</span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">Distributive justice does not mean re-distribution, taking
money from rich nations or individuals and distributing it to poor. It means
that the goods everyone needs everywhere in the world—food, housing, health
care, education, and social security—should be distributed to them in an equitable
way.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>These are international-recognized
human rights, protected by the 1976 International Covenant on Economic, Social
and Cultural Rights. <a href="https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx">https://www.ohchr.org/en/professionalinterest/pages/cescr.aspx</a>
<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;">As the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights
argues, everyone is entitled to an international order in which all their human
rights are protected. <a href="https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/">https://www.un.org/en/universal-declaration-human-rights/</a>
Whether or not a Western country engaged in the slave trade, it should to try
to ensure that Africans enjoy their human rights. Whether or not an African is
a descendant of a slave owner, she should try to help ensure her co-nationals’
human rights. And all African governments are responsible to protect the human
rights of all their citizens.<o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span><o:p></o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman","serif"; font-size: 12.0pt; line-height: 115%;"><o:p> </o:p></span></p>Rhoda Hassmannhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/00932875160356470917noreply@blogger.com0