Saturday, June 09, 2007
Edinburgh University has humiliated itself
According to Information Minister Sikhanyiso Ndlovu of Zimbabwe: "Such actions by the university are indeed a humiliation to the university ... I say so because the university has taken unorthodox means of making decisions based on propaganda and hearsay ... university senate had been swayed by ill-informed students, and by pressure from Prime Minister Tony Blair's government."
He was speaking about the revoking of a degree to Mugabe due to the alleged massacre of 22,000 civilians in Matabeleland, ostensibly in an operation to quell banditry by rebels loyal to then opposition leader Joshua Nkomo.
Well, as I remember it, Mugabe's regime was at first considered a good idea, but then the World Bank and the IMF let Mugabe down. Zimbabwe was in a difficult economic state and it had really needed international support which it was far from getting. Whether the existing regime should have been supported is clearly another matter. But if on the one hand an honorary degree is given, presumably on the basis of track record, to an African leader in an area where the shelf life of such people is known to be short, it says very little in favour of those giving the award, or indeed the use of honorary degrees at that institution, to just take it away when there are difficulties and issues.
That is not to say, of course, as to what measures are necessary now. But after Idi Amin, such establishments should tread carefully.
IMO: If Edinburgh University had somehow stepped in effectively when Zimbabwe was on the skids, as it presumably would or should have been asked to do, then this matter of handing out and then revoking awards, which must be a humiliation to any University, would not have arisen.
IMO: It is like the Nelson Mugabe drug party pack advert joke, in a recent BBC comedy, writ large.
As Tokyo Sexwhale once said in a not altogether different context "This is a time for crying" (with respect to academic probity).
He was speaking about the revoking of a degree to Mugabe due to the alleged massacre of 22,000 civilians in Matabeleland, ostensibly in an operation to quell banditry by rebels loyal to then opposition leader Joshua Nkomo.
Well, as I remember it, Mugabe's regime was at first considered a good idea, but then the World Bank and the IMF let Mugabe down. Zimbabwe was in a difficult economic state and it had really needed international support which it was far from getting. Whether the existing regime should have been supported is clearly another matter. But if on the one hand an honorary degree is given, presumably on the basis of track record, to an African leader in an area where the shelf life of such people is known to be short, it says very little in favour of those giving the award, or indeed the use of honorary degrees at that institution, to just take it away when there are difficulties and issues.
That is not to say, of course, as to what measures are necessary now. But after Idi Amin, such establishments should tread carefully.
IMO: If Edinburgh University had somehow stepped in effectively when Zimbabwe was on the skids, as it presumably would or should have been asked to do, then this matter of handing out and then revoking awards, which must be a humiliation to any University, would not have arisen.
IMO: It is like the Nelson Mugabe drug party pack advert joke, in a recent BBC comedy, writ large.
As Tokyo Sexwhale once said in a not altogether different context "This is a time for crying" (with respect to academic probity).
# posted by uv : 9:11 PM
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