Tristen Taylor (Contrary to Authority) has published a series of correspondence on the banning of Desmond Tutu from St Thomas University including his own letter to the university:

Tutu’s Inquisition

To: DEHENNES@stthomas.edu, DJDEASE@stthomas.edu, MCDIENHART@stthomas.edu, SLALEXANDER@stthomas.edu, LCHALVERSON@stthomas.edu, ARCALLAGHAN@stthomas.edu, webmaster@stthomas.edu, gradcath@stthomas.edu, mgmt_center@stthomas.edu, CCIGIELSKI@stthomas.edu, RMHALL@stthomas.edu, VCTHOUIN@stthomas.edu, NHZINGALE@stthomas.edu

Date: 8th Oct. 2007

Dear Sirs,

I have to object in the strongest terms possible to Archbishop Tutu being refused permission to speak at your institution. Having, as a South African activist, worked with the Archbishop’s office for many years I can only hold the highest regard for his work both in South Africa and outside.

In particular, his efforts to eradicate the scourge of Southern Debt have been an inspiration for Africans across the continent. Despite serious illness, he has consistently stood up for moral truths and against exploitation.

In denying him access to speak, you are denying all Africans a voice. Perhaps the voice of the poor and dispossessed, made so by your country’s policies, is too uncomfortable for you to hear. It is your actions, on a daily basis through your government and your methods of consumption, that repress us. By not allowing Tutu to speak, you are hiding from the uncomfortable truth that the collective North is actively engaged in economic warfare against the South. You should be ashamed.

Or is it, perhaps, that you didn’t receive the notice that the Inquisition ended in 1834?

All the best,

Tristen Taylor
Former Jubilee South Africa Apartheid Debt Campaign Coordinator
Johannesburg, South Africa

Desmond Tutu
South Africa

“I am Jewish, and stifling debate and dissent [and] criticism of Israel is a disservice to all Jews, the state of Israel and the American people,” [Marv Davidov] said.
[source]

Mr Davidov was referring to the decision by St Thomas University in Minnesota not to invite Desmond Tutu. The reason the school gave was that Bishop Tutu “compares Jews in Israel to Hitler [and] in another section he questions Jewish faithfulness to God. (1)”

It is indeed a pity that those who made the decision to bar him from speaking at the school feel Israel cannot be criticised, or that people’s faith cannot be questioned.

A professor at the university who was pushing for the invitation to be accepted by the school has been “removed as director [of] the university’s justice and peace studies program. (2)” Someone was very strongly against inviting Tutu to the school, which says that Tutu “has been critical of Israel and Israeli policy regarding the Palestinians, so we talked with people in the Jewish community and they said they believed it would be hurtful to the Jewish community, because of things he’s said. (3)”

Please visit The Jewish Voice for Peace (4) and join the campaign to write to St Thomas’s president, Father Dease, about the injustice of this act, and demand the reinstatement of Professor Toffolo as head of the university’s justice and peace studies program.

The Jewish Voice for Peace further says that “the rumor of Tutu’s alleged ‘anti-Semitism’ is based entirely on a propaganda campaign waged by the extremist group, the Zionist Organization of America. Though he is outspoken in his criticism of Israel’s occupation regime, sometimes even bellicose, Tutu has never displayed anything other than deep concern for all peoples and his sympathy for Palestinians suffering under the yoke of occupation.”

See Tutu’s CV (5)

–”When it comes to teaching inner-city minorities, you don’t need books and you don’t need rules… All you need is a nice white lady.”

I can’t stop laughing! Thank you Mad TV!

This video of a Miss Teen USA pageant contestant is all over the Internet but most of the attention has focused on Miss South Carolina’s weird and stupid response to the question of why she thinks a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a map and how she believes it’s because “some people out there in our nation don’t have maps.” That’s funny enough, and watching this nervous, but idiotic young white American stumble with and yet validate the question (apparently she’s one of the 20% of Americans who can’t identify the US on a map!), it’s even more hilarious how she somehow implicates South Africa (and Iraq and Asian countries) in her attempt to answer the question.

“Some people out there in our nation don’t have maps and because our education like such as in South Africa and the Iraq everywhere like such as…Our education over here in the US should help the US, or South Africa or should help Iraq and the Asian countries…”

The Iraq?

Apparently, our education over here has failed this young woman, but isn’t fascinating how she truly believes, with all 26 of her brain cells, that she is somehow in the capacity to help those she believes are less fortunate. This is how American nationalism and hegemony works; she can’t even identify the US on a map or even coherently answer a question about how Americans are geographically challenged, and yet somehow we (she) can help others because we think we are superior.

This is a perfect example of why I am a self-hating American.