Columbia president Lee Bollinger tries to portray the university as an oasis of free speech that is tolerant of even dictators such as Meles Zenawi who repress their people.
However, a speech freedom group named Foundation for Individual Rights in Education (FIRE) has recently issued a red alert (see here) against Columbia University for a number free speech violations. In one case, the university suspended the hockey team for distributing “offensive” flyer:
After intense public criticism, Columbia University revoked its semester-long suspension of the Men’s Ice Hockey Club. Columbia suspended the club for the semester—effectively canceling the club’s entire season—for posting recruiting flyers containing language that some found offensive. FIRE, along with other groups and individuals both within and outside the university, vociferously opposed Columbia’s attack on free expression. Columbia’s Office of Athletics Communications issued a statement announcing a reduction in the club’s punishment. The club was allowed to engage in league play, but it remained suspended from its preseason and nonleague games. The club was also required to apologize for the flyer, attend “leadership training,” and remains on probation for one year. [read]
A tyrant such as Meles Zenawi of Ethiopia who jails, tortures and murders innocent people has more right in the eyes of President Bollinger than his own students when it comes to free speech!!
Washington Times associate editor J.P. Freire writes:
It’s all well and good that he [Meles] is an ally for the United States, but why should Columbia honor him with a speaking engagement?
Armin Rosen of Reason Magazine presents a powerful argument against Columbia University’s invitation to Ethiopia’s genocidal tyrant:
Whoever signed off on inviting Meles Zenawi to speak at Columbia University’s World Leaders Forum probably figured that the Ethiopian dictator’s obscurity would protect the school from any criticism. Let me be the first to prove that person wrong: Zenawi is like a watered-down Robert Mugabe meets a watered-down Omar al-Bashir; a strongman who has impoverished his own people in order to maintain his stranglehold on power, and who has exploited his country’s strategic significance in order to gain the backing of the United States. I suppose he could offer Columbians a hell of a seminar on dictatorial self-preservation—on how to install puppet governments in neighboring nations with the military and diplomatic blessing of the most powerful country on earth; on how to violently steal elections while provoking minimal global outcry; on how to run a country that’s 171st on the UN’s Human Development Index. One wonders, however, whether such a master class in the infliction of widespread human misery is really worth both the aggrandizement of one of the world’s worst tyrants—and the potential hit to Columbia’s reputation that could come as a result. Like what could possibly justify this? …
Rosen concludes with this:
There was just an election in Ethiopia. Zenawi’s party won 99% of the vote amidst widespread allegations of fraud. In the case of Zenawi’s speaking invitation, any expansion of our own understanding of free speech (which is a dubiously self-reflexive justification for free-speech, if you haven’t noticed) will come at the expense of the actual free speech of Ethiopia’s opposition, whose oppressor will soon be feted at one of the top universities on earth. The irony, of course, is that those whose free speech is curtailed on a daily basis likely understand that the concept is more than just an abstract exercise in achieving the “right temperament”—and that free speech is hardly protected by honoring those who have absolutely no respect for it.
The following letter was sent to Ethiopian Review today by Robert Hornsby, Director of Media Relations, Columbia University:
from: Robert Hornsby
to: Elias Kifle
The longstanding editorial policy of the World Leaders Forum website has been to provide only the basic factual information about the name of speakers, their bios, date of events and, if provided, the title of remarks. The background information that was posted by staff about the Forum involving the Prime Minister of Ethiopia was obtained from the government’s Mission and was not properly cited as such. We regret that error.
It is not the policy of the World Leaders Forum to take editorial positions of the type inadvertently suggested by this unattributed text and, as is the case with all guest speakers on Columbia’s campus, Prime Minister Zenawi’s invitation to speak at Columbia does not constitute endorsement of his views or his nation’s policies.
Prime Minister Zenawi’s remarks will be followed by an open question and answer period with students and members of our university community. Because we insist that such an open exchange be part of World Leaders Forum events, foreign leaders visiting the University often are confronted with probing questions that they may not face in their home countries. Providing such a forum for debate of controversial ideas and issues is central to the University’s free speech values, its educational mission, and its role as a global center of learning.
Robert Hornsby
Director of Media Relations
Office of Communications and Public Affairs
Columbia University in the City of New York
Rm. 402 Low Library, Mail code 4321
535 West 116th Street
New York, NY 10027
The TPLF-junta controlled Ethiopian News Agency (ENA) reported today that Ethiopian Airlines CEO Girma Wake has been replaced by Tewolde G. Mariam.
The news doesn’t indicate why Seyoum Mesfin, chairman of Ethiopian Airlines’ board, decided to replace Girma, who has been a successful CEO.
Up to now, Ethiopian Airlines has been one of the few major institutions in the country who has not been run by a Woyanne Tigrean. The ethnic apartheid regime will not rest until nothing left in the country that is not controlled by one party and one ethnic group.
Tewolde G. Mariam is a relative of Seyoum Mesfin and is said to be a hard core Woyanne who has been preparing himself take over Ethiopian Airlines by working under Girma Wake as chief operating officer.
A committee of Ethiopian in the Tri-State Area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) has issued a press release today calling for a “Grand Public Demonstration Against Dictator Meles Zenawi at Columbia University.”
Date/Time: Sep. 22, 2010, 3:00 PM
Place: Columbia University, Broadway and 116th Street, New York City
In the May 2010 election, Meles Zenawi stifled all voices of freedom and declared a sham 99.6% victory that further delegitimized his brutal regime.
Five years earlier, he had thwarted the democratic aspirations of the people of Ethiopia and ordered the brutal massacre of over 192 unarmed peaceful protesters.
Using famine, illiteracy, and ethnic division as potent weapons, he has condemned a whole generation of Ethiopians to perpetual poverty and suffering.
He has violently suppressed any threats to his despotic rule, and sent to prison opposition party leaders, including the courageous Birtukan Mideksa, journalists, and human rights activists on trumped-up charges.
In the name of bogus development, he has embezzled international aid money and the country’s meager resources; and used land, jobs, and educational opportunities as tools of subjugation.
Now, certain Columbia University professors, in blatant disregard of Zenawi’s crimes against humanity, have chosen to give the dictator a platform that he does not deserve. [read]
So, Ethiopians and friends of Ethiopia everywhere are urged to come and show their solidarity with the people of Ethiopia.
Sponsored By: Ethiopians in the NY/NJ/CT Tri-State Area
Contact: Tel 917-670-0248; E-mail [email protected]
Under the seasoned governmental leadership of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, now in his fourth term, and vision of the Tigrai Peoples Liberation Front (TPLF) and Ethiopian Peoples Revolutionary Democratic Front (EPRDF), Ethiopia has made and continues to make progresses in many areas including in education, transportation, health and energy. – Source
It’s unbelievable that such a description about one of the world’s most vicious, corrupt, incompetent tyrants is posted on a prestigious American university’s web site. Only a hired lobby firm such as DLP Piper can come up with such a lie. The truth is that under Meles Zenawi and his tribal TPLF junta, most Ethiopians not only live in abject poverty, they are also being brutalized and systematically starved.
This invitation is a cruel insult against Ethiopians who are being brutalized by the fascist dictator.
Columbia University may not know who Meles Zenawi really is, so this is a good opportunity for Ethiopians around the world to educate them.
Lee C. Bollinger, President, Columbia University
Phone: (212) 854-9970; Fax: (212) 854-9973
Email: [email protected]
University Programs and Events
Office of the President
Columbia University in the City of New York
202 Low Library, 535 West 116th Street, New York, NY 10027
