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| Bus Crash Kills 17 in Poland A small bus carrying farm workers crashed head-on with a truck in central Poland, killing all but one of the 18 people on board. online.wsj.com |
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Jesuitical reasoning in Georgetown | Hugh O'Shaughnessy Why has the Jesuit university in Georgetown honoured the former president of Colombia?The 31,000 members of the Society of Jesus (also known at the Company of Jesus in Spanish) make up a formidable, driven organisation. They underline their sense of discipline and commitment so it is not surprising that a group of them electrified the church in 1989 when six of them were murdered by US-trained troops at the university their order ran in San Salvador. The Salvadorean military r茅gime could not stand their criticism of its actions.It is a remarkable fact therefore that at a very vehement argument has just blown up among them. Father Javier Giraldo, a teacher in the Jesuit university in Bogot谩 who is probably the finest political intellect in Colombia, fired off a sharp letter last month about the decision of his Jesuit brethren at Georgetown University in Washington. It expressed great concern at their decision to appoint 脕lvaro Uribe, the outgoing President of Colombia, a "Distinguished Scholar in the Practice of Global Leadership" at their establishment. The move has provoked widespread protest inside and outside the university.Yet anyone with even the most superficial knowledge of Latin America knows that the files of Amnesty International bulge to breaking point with evidence of atrocities committed in ex-president Uribe's time (Father Giraldo himself has been targeted for elimination by right-wing terrorists).he former leader has for years been widely detested as the principal client of the US and its efforts to recover some of its former political and military influence in the region.In his letter Father Giraldo recalled how Uribe had founded and protected paramilitary groups in his native province of Antioquia who "murdered and 'disappeared' thousands of people and displaced multitudes, committing many other atrocities." During Uribe's time in the presidency, says the writer, the Colombian Congress and government offices were filled with criminals and drug traffickers while the judiciary was so manipulated by him that "it ended up destroying the moral conscience of the country."Father Giraldo continued, "the corrupt machinations he used to obtain his re-election as President in 2006 were sordid in the extreme". During his term in office the army and its allies in the death squads produced 14,000 extra-judicial killings. Colombia, which routinely escapes Western countries' criticism, is demonstrably a hell-hole compared to the President Hugo Ch谩vez's Venezuela, the subject of a Western-supported coup d'茅tat in 2002 and an orchestrated denigration from Washington and some European capitals.Here it must be said that, despite its Jesuit connections, Georgetown University, President Uribe's new base, is well-known as a safe haven for establishment figures of the extreme right. In the early 1960s, for instance, Jeane Kirkpatrick, later the US permanent representative at the UN, taught politics there before she went on to try and cleanse her Democratic Party from what she called "its anti-war, anti-growth and anti-business activists" and to promote an ultra-nationalist lobby group known as the Project of the New American Century. During the Falklands War she wanted her country to do nothing to upset General Galtieri, the savage dictator and wholesale torturer of Argentina, who invaded the islands. She has made no secret of her support of the illegal invasion of Iraq and her desire for a US attack on Iran.Georgetown's former students include President Bill Clinton; General Alexander Haig, President Reagan's US Secretary of State and George Tenet, a CIA director.A few years ago the university faced a hunger strike by those outraged at the miserable wages it paid to its most lowly workers.One can wonder how the university can flaunt its Christian and Jesuit roots while employing teachers who promote militarism and despise those who oppose war. It is not surprising that after surveying the appointment of Uribe at Georgetown the Colombian priest ends his letter, "Where are the ethics of the Company of Jesus?"ReligionChristianityCatholicismColombiaHugh O'Shaughnessyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Volcano locals try to return home Villagers in Indonesia are trying to return to their homes on the slopes of a volatile volcano, despite eruptions that have killed at least 28 people. bbc.co.uk |
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