Re: Iranian President
I don’t see much of that openness on this thread, just see might = right, we the US are the hegemons and screw the rest.
I agree with you on letting him speak, but if you review the NY Times article below, you can clearly see the sad display. If he needs to be called out for incorrect views, it should have been done afterwards. If you have attended even one academic/diplomatic invited presentation, you know that the veneer of respectability and decorum are maintained. As for “congratulating himself and his University” Bollinger clearly shows his true “educated” colors and the reason why Columbia is in the second tier of the Ivy League.
Come on now, its not like the man didn’t give enough ammo during his tirades for his critics to call him out afterwards. My point is that if you don’t want to hear him out, don’t invite him. If you invite him, then let the man speak before being critical. I thought that this was common sense.
http://www.nytimes.com/2007/09/25/world/middleeast/25iran.html?hp
Lee C. Bollinger, the president of Columbia, under intense attack for the invitation — one protester outside the campus auditorium where Mr. Ahmadinejad spoke passed out fliers that said, “Bollinger, too bad bin Laden is not available” — ** opened the event with a 10-minute verbal assault.
He said, “Mr. President, you exhibit all the signs of a petty and cruel dictator,” adding, “You are either brazenly provocative or astonishingly uneducated.”
The Iranian president, who was seated 10 feet away from him on the stage, wore a frozen smile. ** The anti-Ahmadinejad portion of the audience, which looked to be about 70 percent of it, cheered and chortled.
**
Mr. Bollinger praised himself and Columbia for showing they believed in freedom of speech by inviting the Iranian president, then continued his attack. He said it was “well documented” that Iran was a state sponsor of terrorism, accused Iran of fighting a proxy war against the United States in Iraq and questioned why Iran has refused “to adhere to the international standards” of disclosure for its nuclear program. “I doubt,” Mr. Bollinger concluded, “that you will have the intellectual courage to answer these questions.”** Mr. Ahmadinejad did not directly answer the questions, but he did address them. Before doing so though, he said pointedly:**“In Iran, tradition requires when you invite a person to be a speaker, we actually respect our students enough to allow them to make their own judgment, and don’t think it’s necessary before the speech is even given to come in with a series of complaints to provide vaccination to the students and faculty.”
He added, to some cheers, “Nonetheless, I shall not begin by being affected by this unfriendly treatment.”
It remains unclear whether Columbia’s leaders were able to mollify critics through their critical treatment of Mr. Ahmadinejad. But they made some headway: the American Israel Public Affairs Committee sent out an e-mail message shortly after the speech with the subject line, “A Must Read: Columbia University President’s Intro of Iran’s Ahmadinejad today.”
Inside was a transcript of Mr. Bollinger’s introduction.
**