The Real Reason Susan Rice Didn't Deserve to Be Secretary of State6 comments, 0 called-out Comment Now Follow Comments Following Comments Unfollow Comments  Comment Now Follow Comments Following Comments Unfollow Comments This article is by Gregory J. Wallance, a lawyer and human rights activist who is the author of America's Soul in the Balance: The Holocaust, FDR's State Department, and the Moral Disgrace of an American Aristocracy.  Susan Rice (AP Photo/Bebeto Matthews, File) Susan Rice's bid to become secretary of state was derailed because of the Republican uproar over her Sunday morning talk show statements about who was behind the September 11 attack on the U.S. mission in Libya. But although that may have been the causative event, it should not have forced her to withdraw her bid. After all, all she had done was recite the intelligence community consensus. Lost in the political commotion was a recent one-day news story about Ambassador Rice's handling of a pressing human rights issue in Africa. In the fall, Ambassador Rice delayed publication of a United Nations report denouncing Rwanda's support for a rebel group, known as M23, that has committed mass atrocities in the Democratic Republic of the Congo. She also intervened to water down a Security Council resolution that strongly condemned M23 for widespread rape, summary executions, and use of child soldiers in the Congo, where 3 million have died in a decade of violence. The official U.S. government explanation is that more confrontational diplomacy would have jeopardized delicate negotiations with Rwanda, Uganda, and the Congo. Unfortunately, her handling of M23 echoes a shameful event in American diplomatic history. In 1942, when career diplomats of the wartime State Department received a report from the U.S. legation in Switzerland of the Nazi plan to exterminate the Jewish population of Europe, the patrician diplomats suppressed the report because of, as one explained, "the impossibility of our being of any assistance." Then, after the information did get out, they watered down a proposed U.N. war crimes declaration to delete the crucial phrase that the extermination reports "leave no room for doubt." In 1943, as pressure mounted for rescue of Jews trapped in the Nazi extermination machinery, the diplomats instructed the U.S. legation to stop sending more reports of the exterminations, even though they knew that 6,000 Jews were being killed daily at a single location in Poland. Among their reasons: Rescue would have interfered with the war effort, and even if it succeeded, there was no place to put any large number of rescued Jews. The stain on American honor would have lasted for eternity but for the fact that young lawyers in the Treasury Department discovered what the State Department had done. These lawyers, all Christians and idealists, did not intellectualize or rationalize the State Department's conduct. They instantly internalized it. They understood deep down, because they possessed a moral core that had never developed in the diplomats of the State Department, how wrong this was, and they set out to stop it. Ultimately, they succeeded, in part by writing reports to their boss, the Jewish secretary of the treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., which he used to convince President Roosevelt that a scandal was about to explode under him. The Jewish rescue portfolio was yanked from the State Department and vested in a newly created agency, the War Refugee Board, which is credited with saving 200,000 Jews (the board found places to put them, and their rescue did not interfere with military operations). Which brings me back to Susan Rice. Of course any analogy between Ambassador Rice and those heartless wartime U.S. diplomats or between the Congo and Nazi Germany would be unjustified. But a contemporary senior American diplomat surely knew of the moral disgrace of the wartime U.S. diplomats during the Holocaust and, at minimum, should have been sensitive to not treading anywhere near their immoral footsteps. Even if Ambassador Rice missed the various works on the subject, including A Problem From Hell: America and the Age of Genocide, by Samantha Power, now a special assistant to President Obama and senior director for multilateral affairs and human rights at the National Security Council (come to think of it, where was she in all this?), it's safe to say that Rice ignored the consequences of recent callous American diplomacy with which she is undoubtedly familiar. In 1994 President Clinton failed to take effective measures to stop the genocidal massacres in Rwanda, and he now says, "I don't think we could have ended the violence, but I think we could have cut it down. And I regret it," The only regret I have about the withdrawal of Ambassador Rice's bid is that she may escape questioning about her handling of M23, which likely would have come up at some point in a confirmation hearing. Would she have conceded that her policy was insensitive to the moral implications of U.S. diplomats once again blocking reports of massacres and diluting U.N. condemnations of those massacres? Or would she have insisted that fine-tuned diplomatic requirements had trumped the moral issues? These questions raise issues vital to the American response to humanitarian crises, and now they will not be asked. That is the only loss to America from Susan Rice's failed bid to become secretary of state. |
Saturday, 15 December 2012
The Real Reason Susan Rice Didn't Deserve to Be Secretary of State
Obama urges solidarity as America mourns shooting victims
Obama urges solidarity as America mourns shooting victimsRelated Video     1 of 6. U.S. President Barack Obama pauses while speaking about the shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, during a press briefing at the White House in Washington December 14, 2012. Credit: Reuters/Larry Downing WASHINGTON | WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama urged Americans on Saturday to join in solidarity as they mourn the victims of a shooting rampage at a Connecticut elementary school, saying the hearts of parents across the country were "heavy with hurt" for the lives lost. In his weekly radio and Internet speech, Obama also repeated a message he put forth on Friday, just hours after one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history, on the need to set aside politics and "take meaningful action to prevent more tragedies like this." But Obama went no further than that, and again stopped short of specifically calling for tighter gun-control laws. Twenty children were killed by a heavily armed gunman who opened fire at a school in Newtown, Connecticut, on Friday. He killed at least 26 people there before turning his gun on himself. "We grieve for the families of those we lost. And we keep in our prayers the parents of those who survived," Obama said. The shooting spree reignited a debate over gun-control in a country with a flourishing gun culture and a strong gun lobby, which has discouraged most politicians from any major efforts to address the easy availability of firearms. Obama mostly steered clear of the issue during his successful re-election campaign this year, and it remains unclear whether he might be willing to take a more assertive approach now that he has secured a second term. OBAMA URGED TO ACT New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who runs a coalition of mayors on gun policy, said on Friday the Democratic president should press ahead despite likely opposition from Republicans who control the U.S. House of Representatives. "We have heard all the rhetoric before. What we have not seen is leadership - not from the White House and not from Congress. That must end today," Bloomberg said in a statement. Ticking off some of the recent shooting incidents, Obama said in his Saturday address: "As a nation, we have endured far too many of these tragedies in the last few years." His response to previous high-profile shootings was to call for a national conversation on how to curb gun violence. "This weekend, Michelle and I are doing what I know every parent is doing - holding our children as close as we can and reminding them how much we love them," he said. "There are families in Connecticut who can't do that today. And they need all of us now," he said. "All of us can extend a hand to those in need - to remind them that we are there for them, that we are praying for them." The 20-year-old gunman, who law enforcement sources identified as Adam Lanza, opened fire on a classroom at Sandy Hook Elementary School, which serves children from ages 5 to 10. Authorities found 18 children and seven adults, including the gunman, dead at the school, and two children were pronounced dead later after being take to a hospital. "Most of those who died were just young children with their whole lives ahead of them. And every parent in America has a heart heavy with hurt," Obama said. Obama had to struggle to control his emotions during his televised statement on Friday in the White House briefing where his voice cracked and he wiped away tears. Partisan bickering in Washington, divided by a battle over a looming "fiscal cliff" of tax hikes and spending cuts, was put on hold amid mourning for the Connecticut dead. House Speaker John Boehner, the top Republican in Congress, said he had canceled the Republican weekly address for Saturday "so that President Obama can speak for the entire nation at this time of mourning." (Reporting By Matt Spetalnick; Editing by David Brunnstrom) |
[VIDEO] NASA releases 'world didn't end' video nine days early
NASA releases 'world didn't end' video nine days earlyNASA has released a video entitled 'Why the world didn't end yesterday' - before the date of the supposed 'Mayan apocalypse' on December 21. Yahoo! News – Thu, Dec 13, 2012
NASA has released a video entitled 'Why the world didn't end yesterday' - more than a week before the date of the supposed 'Mayan apocalypse' on December 21. "I think it's strange that NASA put this out "before" the date and not after, would be like they think something might happen so they better do it before the date instead of after," said one YouTube comment. NASA has an entire website devoted to debunking the so-called 'Mayan Apocalypse' - particularly claims that a 'rogue planet' wil collide with Earth. The space agency claims that scientists would have been tracking any such object for at least a decade, saying, "The story started with claims that Nibiru, a supposed planet discovered by the Sumerians, is headed toward Earth. "This catastrophe was initially predicted for May 2003, but when nothing happened the doomsday date was moved forward to December 2012 and linked to the end of one of the cycles in the ancient Mayan calendar at the winter solstice in 2012 -- hence the predicted doomsday date of December 21, 2012." "Nibiru and other stories about wayward planets are an Internet hoax. There is no factual basis for these claims. If Nibiru or Planet X were real and headed for an encounter with the Earth in 2012, astronomers would have been tracking it for at least the past decade, and it would be visible by now to the naked eye." |
Friday, 14 December 2012
Rwandan Youth and political commitment
Rwandan Youth and political commitmentDec 14th, 2012 | By Marie Umukunzi | Category: Top news On the 10th of November Alice Muhirwa, a young Rwandan lady, was awarded the annual prize of Jeunesse engagée (Committed Youth). This prize was given by the Canadian section of the International Network of Women for Democracy and Peace (RifDP) and is distributed to young people who, through their actions and commitment, have contributed greatly to peace and democracy. This year the theme was 'let us be masters of our own destiny' and it's within the annual activity around commitment that Alice Muhirwa was chosen for the prize.  Alice Muhirwa In an interview that Jambonews had with the winner, Muhirwa explained the reasons behind her commitment in Rwanda and talked about the current situation of democracy in Rwanda. Furthermore, she shared her views on the role of Rwandan youth in building future leaders and her hopes for Rwanda. 1. Who is Alice Muhirwa ? I am Alice Muhirwa, 31 years old, mother of two children, Rwandan and I am the national treasurer of FDU Inkingi. 2. You were awarded the prize for « Jeunesse engagée » by the International Network of women for Democracy and Peace in Canada. What does this represent? First of all I thank the International women Network, for its different activities that evolve around raising awareness for the role that the Rwandan people can play in the country's democratization process I can't say a lot on the prize, I took it as a motivation to young people, to get more involved in their country concerns; it represents for me a recognition of a certain level of courage expressed individually or collectively but which had impacted the community toward the "Democratization processes"; I prefer process because it is still ongoing, we still have a considerable to do list; to reach where we want to be. 3. You fight for the promotion of Rwandan women's rights and you are also committed in FDU INKINGI , the main opposition political party in Rwanda. Where does your spirit for commitment come from? It comes from my personal key values; I promote confidence, excellence, integrity and compassion: I believe that a woman has the same ability to excel in any situation, in the same way a man does, I stand for her empowerment, and I consider her role as an elite in a country that is in a transformational development process. Women's involvement level accelerates or inhibits the country development; MDGs and country goals will remain a utopia if women by themselves do not consider their role, their fully engagement to shift from the cultural mindset to a transformational mindset. It goes twined with my political motivation; I believe that a developed country is one that values the will of nationals, where the freedom of expression drives the nation's vision and leads to a common will and everyone is taking part in the progress. I value a political philosophy which stands for truth- equal opportunity- rule of law- freedom of expression and democracy. You can't say there is a rule of law, if there is no freedom of expression, if people are not free to exercise their right to vote, to association, demonstration, and reporting and criticise failures; and if justice has served for long as a tool to silence all divergent visions. 4. Is it easy for Rwandan youth to commit to politics? How will it become easier for young people if it has been difficult for their elders? The opposition has faced serious threats from long ago. Living in a country that does not fear to silence a president because he is turning to another political vision, imagine what it is able to do to a simple citizen motivated by the will of change… All we know is that, this cause is bigger than ourselves, we have a reason to raise our voice for political space openness, because we are convinced by other democratic countries' experiences that only inclusive dialogue and free political debate can direct a country's vision towards prosperity and success. Otherwise there will be repetitive conflicts between people; the feeling and expression of rejection will not end. 5. Faced with daily arrests of political opponents and journalists, are you considering stopping your political fight? We shall not stop this cause until we reach the goal, we need change and we are living it, no matter how hard it may be, we are engaged and we shall win it. This rally is a generational will, we have to take responsible actions in order to leave a good legacy to other generations; that none is super- powered, none has the right to oppress others, none is beyond the law; that we are all equal. We have witnessed countries where the will of the people has taken actions and initiated the change they wanted. Democracy has never been gifted, and will not remain a dream in people's minds. Democracy will bring?the change; they can't jail a whole nation. 6. Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch criticize Rwanda for its repressive policy against the opposition. How does this repression appear on a day-to-day basis? If a country can dispose several illegal detention places and several intelligence organs, we need to ask what these are for. They are there to intensify their activities against the opposition, such man hunting, intimidation, blackmails, detentions, tortures, party divisions and so on… Even in our political leader's trial the co-accused testified on this kind of illegal detention, interviews from intelligence department without any legal defense right. Such services are not only used against opposition parties only, they have been used to detain many low-class people who struggle to make their lives by mobile-businesses. 7. What kind of problems are militants and sympathizers of opposition faced with? They are being hunted, intimated; fired form jobs, threatened, forced to exile ,shouted ,imprisoned for long sentences, and even behead. 8. Can Rwandan students speak freely about politics on campuses? If the national parliament is not free to express the will of the people how can colleges and the youth on campus exercise that right? Unless you pay a visit to their  washing rooms and social platforms on the internet where they can breathe under pseudonyms.9. As the FDU treasurer, you are used to meeting Victoire Ingabire ; how did she receive the 8-years jail sentence? How is she coping since the announcement of the sentence? Is she in good spirits? She is a very inspiring and strong lady; she has kept her strength and still has the same courage as the one she had while landing at Kigali airport 2010! This trial was masqueraded to withdraw her from the political scene; she is innocent. That conviction alone is enough to sustain the strength. 10. Do you think that Rwandan people really want change and that they are ready for it? Of course they do; We came in to respond to their will, we want to end that spirit of fear, the silence of the mind. People need to express themselves, to get involved in decision-making, to get informed about their rights and have the space to inquire who it may concern. Recently, there have been evaluations of different managing boards; a number of huge amounts of money was found mismanaged or just missing, but still there's no justice done, and this is going to be paid for by Rwandans through taxes. Of course people want change, they want accountable and credible leaders managing the country's assets, the country's international relations, and involving people in leading their own country. 11. On October 19th 2012, President Paul Kagame told Rwandan young people to « be the leaders of today and masters of their fate ». Does the current political system allow Rwandan young people to be masters of their political fate and the leaders of political change? Of course not. This lack of freedom of expression and the closed political space justifies that impossibility; the only way to work here is to embrace the ideas from the created channels and these channels are well monitored by RPF, if there were independent platforms that would be promising. Rwanda has molded its political form from Singapore type-where democracy matters less: The Lee kua yew Principle "Development first". This is when there is a team of people who assume that they think best for a million people without any assessment on what this people need the most! It is good to have a set vision, but it is also important to make citizens conscious of where they have to go and why they have to go there; then creating an environment which will enable them to reach where you want them to go. That is the role of a transformational leadership; you don't lead people in a blind corridor and hope for a lasting success. That is why some countries have failed to reach their visions, or even fail to maintain the leap or immediately change direction after succession. Normally a country's vision should be unchangeable by round of presidency, but here in Africa every presidency brings in its own setup, and finally it's a mix- up. At the end of decades we find ourselves rotating on the same ground. I think the country's vision should be integrated and highlighted as a chapter in the national constitution law. The country's vision should be precise, indivisible and unchangeable because it has been voted for by citizens themselves. The Parliament must shape the mandate of the executive leaders based on the vision. It should not be the opposite. Here the executive leadership is also the one shaping the vision, defining and evaluating mandates. Leadership is beyond a physical exercise where you can easily auto-evaluate. Good leadership highly values each detail of citizen's will. 12. Is there anything else you would want to tell Rwandan youth abroad ? I thank those who are already engaged, who are living the kind of change they want to see. I encourage those who are still hesitating to discover what they are best at, and use it to lift up others to get more involved. We are a dynamic strength, with different talents, we are responsible of what is happening right now, and we shall be endorsed of its legacy; let our actions embrace our mind for a successful democratic legacy. Suddenly we are reminded of 'lettre à la justice' in which the French writer Emile Zola addresses the youth: 'Oh, youth, youth! I beg you, think of the great task that awaits you. You are the future's working force, you will lay the foundation for the next century, in which we have deep faith, you will solve the problems of truth and fairness raised by the ending century.' Marie Umukunzi Jambonews.net |
Keeping the peace: Life in Rwanda post genocide - Mail & Guardian Mobile
Keeping the peace: Life in Rwanda post genocide
During her recent visit to Rwanda, Cara Meintjes spent time with young citizens who are still grappling with the legacy of the 1994 genocide.
Rwandan President Paul Kagame. (AFP)
Any urbanite, even a Capetonian, will reach for their camera at the sight of the landscape of Rwanda, known as the land of a thousand hills. Standing in the busy centre of a rural town, a shopper can look up and out to enjoy the surrounding sloping patchwork of green crops and red, freshly hoed earth. Glance at the hills and along the footpaths you will see villagers, carrying bags of grass on their heads for their cows, or bundles of sweet potato cuttings for a new field.
On a short visit to Rwanda this November, I was struck by the beauty and apparent tranquility of a country that only 18 years ago experienced a massive genocide. More than 500 000 Tutsis were systematically murdered by Hutus, but hundreds of thousands of others, including moderate Hutus, also died and over two thirds of Rwandans of all ethnicities were displaced. In short, it was an utterly devastating period in the country's history. But order has been restored, sites of the massacre were cleaned up (with some turned into monuments), and most survivors and refugees have been resettled. Today it seems that Rwandans are simply living their lives. During my visit, I tried to immerse myself in their culture by staying with local families. From this I concluded that young Rwandans concern themselves with their social lives, family relationships, church and education, and in the rural areas, balancing subsistence agriculture and formal employment.
As a South African, I naturally identified with Rwanda's history of ethnic strife and was keen to observe how it is being dealt with today. However, I found that if you ask Rwandans about ethnicity they might pretend to misunderstand you the first time. Ask them about the genocide and they might point dismissively to a monument, or give you a short, evasive answer. Only sporadically, more frequently in the capital Kigali, you may come across someone who looks around cautiously before answering that things are not as tranquil as they seem. There are complexities about living in Rwanda in 2012.
One day, Eugene (25) confided in me about his struggle for education. His Tutsi school friends who lost family in the genocide are all pursuing their tertiary education on government bursaries, but he, a Hutu, finds his way barred at every turn with administrative difficulties. He considers this deliberate, though unofficial, ethnic discrimination. His family members also died during the genocide, but their deaths are not acknowledged like those of Tutsis, nor does he receive support in overcoming the losses and disruption that his family experienced. He feels overlooked as he struggles to get by.
Government's heavy hand
Later I spoke to Grace (23), a university student. She agrees that Hutus are discriminated against while she, a Tutsi, is favoured by the government. "But that's only right," she shrugged. "We Tutsis suffered for a long time." "Is there justice in Rwanda then?" I asked. I was curious to know whether those benefiting from the current government are wholly supportive of it. She began to nod, but then she frowned. "No. Not for the opposition parties." She explained that people like Victoire Ingabire, an opposition politician whose recent conviction on charges of genocide denial made headlines around the world, are unjustly prosecuted by the government. According to the Grace, Ingabire had said nothing untrue and had certainly not denied the genocide.
She also mentioned the Democratic Green Party of Rwanda, which has been prevented from registering as a political party and whose vice-president was found beheaded in the run-up to the 2010 elections. They were no threat to stability or peace, she said.
"Are there many young people who agree that the government is repressing legitimate political participation?" I asked her.
She hesitated. "Maybe, but we can't talk about it. If I criticise the government, I would certainly lose my bursary. We have no voice."
We finished our conversation before heading back onto the streets, where armed soldiers stand guard and surveillance cameras are common.
The picture is, however, not as simple as a repressive government and a suffering people. Under the current government (which ended the genocide and took over the country in 1994), Rwanda has made tremendous strides in development. The brief impressions I collected during my stay confirmed this. Stroll around Ruhango, Runda, Gitarama or just about any village in Rwanda and you are likely to come across an adequately stocked, functional health centre – a component of the decentralised, universal health system that has pushed life expectancy up by eight years since 2000. Education institutions, which were almost non-existent after the genocide, have proliferated. Given the advances in infrastructure and investment in the country, a young person who speaks good English and manages to obtain a post-graduate degree has a chance of finding a good job. Development analysts praise the government's strong leadership, vision and accountability mechanisms for this progress.
In terms of their personal lives, things are stable and getting better for most citizens. The Rwandans I met – even those who feel they are being discriminated against – say that above all, they want peace for Rwanda. Those in government circles can possibly debate the status quo a bit more, but ordinary youngsters lack public forums where they can develop the capacity to grapple with their confusion and discontent. So they suppress it in their desire to promote unity. A young woman told me that Hutus desire more acknowledgement of the losses they suffered during and after the genocide, but then she concluded: "I wish we could all just forget these ethnicities and these negative emotions. That is how we will keep the peace. But it is difficult."
Plenty of photographs later, my fellow South Africans and I left Rwanda with many contrasting impressions, and you know what we did? We debated them. Freely. I came to appreciate anew my freedom to get involved inbuilding peace. We can talk about, explore and affirm our many histories. We can criticise our leaders where they fail; and get involved in lobbying for injustices to be addressed. Indeed, it is becoming clear to many that the critical involvement of ordinary South Africans in public life is a matter of national survival. This is in stark contrast to my impressions of young Rwandans, who seem inclined to believe that peace is only possible if they keep silent and just hope things work out. I find myself hoping for signs that this is not true, and that they exert their full potential in rebuilding their country.
Cara Meintjes lives in Cape Town and has an MA in political science from Stellenbosch University. She has a keen interest in how Africans deal with the past.
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