'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.' Rest in peace.
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Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
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Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#52There is a suburb of Cape Town called Bishopscourt. It is high up on the hill, near the botanical garden, and filled with Anglophone old money, trees and mansions. (1) It gets it's name of course from the "official residence of the Archbishop of Cape Town" (Anglican / Church of England). It was of course a "whites only" area under Apartheid until 1991 (2). Black people there could be assumed to be house or garden ser…
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Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#53There is a suburb of Cape Town called Bishopscourt. It is high up on the hill, near the botanical garden, and filled with Anglophone old money, trees and mansions. (1) It gets it's name of course from the "official residence of the Archbishop of Cape Town" (Anglican / Church of England). It was of course a "whites only" area under Apartheid until 1991 (2). Black people there could be assumed to be house or garden ser…
An inspiration. The best way to challenge insanity is to simply ignore it and move forward without consideration. You can't debate apartheid because it's farcical to begin with. The terminology even - exemption - makes our brains feel fuzzy, confused. What is this "exemption"? I'll just do my thing, thanks. We could all learn something from this.
“You can’t reason someone out of an opinion they didn’t reason themselves into.”
Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#54Earlier quoted context omitted.
It’s civil disobedience. I’m not sure of how SA works , but in the U.S civil disobedience was regularly used to challenge laws during the 20th century. Going into white only areas and living there, forcing de segregation was one such technique.
I get there was a bit of cheek about it, just on the scale of civil disobedience in the country I didn't think "living in a big mansion in the richest neighborhood" would register much of a blip but maybe I'm wrong.
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Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#55Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#56There's a certain irony that many people who celebrate the life of Desmond Tutu and his fight against apartheid continue to ignore that he said Israel does the same thing and should be subject to boycott. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/29/comment
I dont think anyone is ignoring it, its a Heated topic and actually quite an issue in South African politics now ( https://english.alaraby.co.uk/news/protests-greet-miss-south... ) Wikipedia has a page where the general issues are enumerated https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Israel_and_the_apartheid_analo... . Historically scrutiny originally fueled because Israel is seen as a supporter of the apartheid system even after…
It's still ignored by a lot of people who do not hesitate to argue apartheid is bad, yet can't stomach the comparison. Tutu's willingness to call Israeli government policy apartheid, alongside other prominent apartheid fighters, like e.g. Arthur Goldreich, matters greatly in legitimising resistence against those policies. Even so every new person or organisation deciding to come out and saying this is still met with fierce resistance.
Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
> woodruffw - ...all of which appear to be benign diplomatic cables or press releases. Can you state more explicitly what you're trying to imply? Not implying anything? Can you explain why you think that? Do you think that about every fact that you are presented?
Perhaps it's overly cynical, but "X name has Y hits on Wikileaks" reads to me as an oblique claim of wrongdoing by X. Famously, that particular tactic was used during the last American presidential election, with the "Y hits" including silly things like birthday emails and recipes. If you just meant "here are some potentially interesting documents that have Desmond Tutu's name in them," then it's not clear what linki…
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Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#58Earlier quoted context omitted.
Perhaps it's overly cynical, but "X name has Y hits on Wikileaks" reads to me as an oblique claim of wrongdoing by X. Famously, that particular tactic was used during the last American presidential election, with the "Y hits" including silly things like birthday emails and recipes. If you just meant "here are some potentially interesting documents that have Desmond Tutu's name in them," then it's not clear what linki…
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Apart from demonstrating that your comment is (nearly) a copy-paste of a tweet, what are you attempting to show by linking this?
Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#59'If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.' Rest in peace.
Remember that aphorisms like that don't only apply to your side.
Every time you say something like that, imagine that someone whose sense of injustice is opposite to yours is using it. Maybe they think that abortion is literal murder. Maybe it's the 1950s and they think some poor black guy has raped a white girl (because how would she ever consent?) Maybe they're a Russian living in Ukraine and they think the Ukrainian government is oppressing the Russians and the only way to stop this is by helping Russian troops take over.
I want people to say "No, I do not have to bomb that abortion clinic. No, I do not have to join that lynch mob. No, I do not have to overthrow the government." If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you haven't chosen the side of the oppressor. Rather, if you're neutral in situations of injustice, it means that you have figured out that humility can be a virtue.
Re: Desmond Tutu, anti-apartheid icon, dies at 90
#60There's a certain irony that many people who celebrate the life of Desmond Tutu and his fight against apartheid continue to ignore that he said Israel does the same thing and should be subject to boycott. https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/apr/29/comment
Desmond Tutu was critical of Israeli government policy in the treatment of Palestinian people and even earlier when Israel maintained friendly relations with the apartheid regime in South Africa. This is also the same man who criticised Arab nations for refusing to recognise Israel as a sovereign state, sympathised with the historical atrocities committed against Jewish people and condemned violence from both parties in the Israeli-Palestinian conflicts.
There is no irony in celebrating the life of a man who universally condemned oppression and called for a peaceful resolution to one of the most complex conflicts of modern times.