On Demand
Open Phones: Columbia and Ahmadinejad
Monday, September 24, 2007
Listeners tell us whether or not they think Columbia University should give a platform to President Ahmadinejad.
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Of course they should give a platform to him-- although the man's inflammatory comments about the Holocaust cannot be explained away, nor his country's silencing of the student movement and other forms of dissent, there's no reason he should be blackballed from public discourse. Most Americans would be hard pressed to actually point out any of Ahmadinejad's transgressions outside of the propaganda machine's depictions of him (i.e. NY Post's "Go to Hell" headline-?), as the media, the Israel lobby and the Bush neo-cons lube up the public to go to war with Iran.
If an international body held and tried Ahmadinejad for crimes against humanity, it would be forced to do the same to Bush and Cheney. That of course, cannot and will not happen.
Absolutely. It is clear that the Bush regime prefers inflexible silence and war to resolve its differences with countries that do not unconditionally acquiesce to its demands in lieu of dialog with these perceived foes.
If Bush refuses to pursue open, diplomatic dialog with Iran, the American people deserve to hear directly from one of Iran's leaders since our mass media faithfully toes the Bush line filtering out anything to the contrary.
Imagine if Saddam Hussein had had opportunities to tell his version of the WMD story at such public forums -- we very well may not be stuck in our current quagmire.
This is getting to a ridiculous level. There is certain special interest groups that wish that the only views heard are their own. That being the case it makes sense that these special interest groups wouldn't want the president of Iran to speak because if we demonize him it will be alot easier to go to war with Iran just like Iraq. Ahamdinejad's quote about destroying Israel was falsely translated and he's not denying that Jewish people didnt die in large numbers during WW2 but that their were large numbers of all groups that died and why should one group be pointed out. Not that I agree with this but people have the right to have a discourse in public and let people decide who is right and who is wrong
2 Things. And in no way am I defending this man or the Iranian government.
1. He is not the leader of the Iran. That job is the Supreme Leader. The fascist government in place in Iran is a direct result of a 1953 US coup that planted a puppet. Even if Iran has WMDS it is physically impossible to hit the continental US.
2. Ahmadinejad did not say "Israel must be wiped off the map"
The full quote translated directly to English:
"The Imam said this regime occupying Jerusalem must vanish from the page of time".
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article16218.htm
Where were these protesters the last time he was in town????
Let him talk...if a place like Columbia can't handle an outside view we should fold up the tents right now. I'm sure he won't be changing any made up minds. Go Red Sox
I would like to ask Ahmadinejad why so many Iranians emigrate to other countries, especially California, where there is a large Iranian immigrant
population. He is constantly criticizing our democratic way of life in the west, yet his people are leaving for another way of life.
Maybe they should ask President of Israel Olmert, why Israel BOMBED Syria LAST WEEK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
That is not even in the news or on this station.
Didn't Bush himself proclaim an anti-terrorism stance of "Bring it On?"
So.....bring it on!
My god this guy is pretty narrow view...no?
God bless America: we must protect our bill of rights and allow freedom of speech even to people with whom we disagree.
But like Bill Maher said, "Don't become so tolerant that we tolerate intolerance."
Hmmmm... can you imagine Bush appearing for a forum at a Foreign college? Could he even answer questions from an audience of people not controlled by his admin?
Like why is oil a big part of this war and never mentioned?
You're right Chad, he is not the actual leader of Iran, which is only occasionally pointed out in the mainstream media.
Also, while Ahmadinejad's government reeks of oppresive, anti-democratic totalitarianism (not sure whether to use word 'fascist' here), its also a fine example of something called "blowback". Even if we 'win' in Iraq (in the next decade?) , there will inevitably be a blowback revolutionary force there, just like Iran (1953- 1979). Puppet governments fall because they are exactly that: puppets.
So in twenty years, we willget to deal with 10 Ahmadinejads!
Watch the pendulum swing.
Of course he should not be allowed to speak.
He shouldn't even be allowed in this country.
Any world leader who publicly speaks out about the destruction of one of our allies should not be allowed to be apart of the UN nor should they be allowed to step foot on American soil.
Not only that he denies the holocaust happened and this unacceptable. Freedom of speech does not protect this point of view.
Should we have given Hitler the opportunity to come and speak? Osama Bin Laden?
I say the line must be drawn!
Also Bush should be impeached and tried for crimes against humanity.
Wake up, people! Don't you realize that the Bush administration is trying to rustle up angry, belligerent feelings towards Iran so that they can prime us for a war?
What "ideas"? As far as I've seen, Ahmadinejad has only one or two "ideas" to be revolted by, and revulsion is a reaction, and not a justification for newspapers like the Daily News calling him "idiot" and saying "go to hell." I thought this was the land of free speech? Not free name-calling, not free childishness.
Is he really the equivalent of a rapist or child molester, as the recent caller compared him to? He's an objectionable person who says things I don't like. He's a person to watch very carefully, a person to listen to carefully, so as to anticipate and prevent any tragedies. He has not acted upon his big talk, and shows no signs of actually planning imminently to do so. There's a difference.
Isn't it better to talk and listen than to throw insults at people as if we were children in a schoolyard? We're supposed to be setting an example to the world.
Don't let the publicity rile you up into supporting a war against Iran. It's so obvious that's what's going on here. Can you imagine what that will be like? The war could go on forever, and all we'd be doing is making the wrong people rich.
Maybe Columbia is giving US a chance, not HIM.
Ahmadinejad never said that map thing.
That translation is wrong and the fact that this station repeats this and bangs the drum for war with Iran is INSANE.
There are 70 million people in that country do we really want a war with them? For what? Israel certainly wont be safer.
What a mess. I don't know if we should take him seriously. Columbia is the bad guy in my view these days with its eminent domain campaign so I mistrust the motive here - personally I think the guy is crazy like a fox and empowered whether or not we let him talk - I don't see it changing anything but we might get better info if there are students who can translate and blog what they take in without the ulterior motives that paid media has.
ps you can bet that this will be used in his press as well to suit his aims.
Gary,
As I understand it he HAS blatantly said the holocaust never happened. Please, direct me to some information that states otherwise
And I consider myself a big "L" liberal and a BIG "D" democrat and I think he should be allowed to speak. Don't make the wrong-headed assumption that it's only democrats who don't want him to speak.
I do however think there are limits like the guest who is speaking now is saying but in this instance...
I'm not even going to comment on your silly comment about your characterization about "Jews". I don't see every Jew out there protesting and would be willing to bet their opinions on whether he should be allowed to speak are all over the map!
Ahmadinejad should be welcomed at Columbia and allowed to place a wreath at WTC. We have much more to lose in preventing him from doing these things than anything he might say. Can his words really hurt us? Aren't we bigger and more self-assured of our beliefs and values than that?
The pickets should pay more attention to the leader of the most powerful nation in the world who won't attend any of the UN Global Warming meetings today.
For your guest to call the Iranian president a holocaust denier is a slur. He simply doubts the extent of the claimed genocide, particularly as it provides a basis for the creation of Israel.
Moshe,
I have news for you: It wasn't a "claimed" genocide...it was a genocide, plain and simple fact.
Speaking of the United Nations, Bush's arrival there tomorrow morning are prompting numerous planned protests:
http://www.wcw-nyc.blogspot.com/
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3371&printsafe=1
http://www.votermarch.org/UNProtest.htm
http://www.codeorange.us/
http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4316&Itemid=223
http://www.stopbushsept25.org/
the guest's suggestion that being up close and personal with major public figures doesn't make much difference makes me wonder if he's been up close and personal enough to appreciate the difference. in my limited experience the difference can be huge.
The reaction to Ahmadinejad speaking at a university is telling. This impulsive anger and the demand to isolate his views by censoring them from people who are willing to hear them is exactly what Bush wants. He wants a war with Iran, and like Iraq, the more ignorant the american people are the easier it will be to sell them a war.
Bush is a real War Criminal. He is directly responsible for 1 million Iraqi lives and 5000 American deaths in Iraq.
If you add all the people Sadaam, Osama and Ahmadinejad have killed or endorsed the killing of, it is not even close to that number.
Bush is worse without a shadow of a doubt. If it's wrong for Ahmadinejad to denounce Israel, it is wrong for Bush to be anti-Muslim.
Wait, I'm confused. Are we now saying that Iran had something to do with 9-11?? Why can't he go to Ground Zero?
Iranians and Iranian-Americans died that day too.
I can't think of anyone on the planet who should not be presented in a forum to have their assumptions and ideas questions. Just because an individual may have outrageous and even hurtful ideas, those are exactly the kind of statements that should be discussed. not the head nodding 'conventional wisdom', which is by definition critically unquestioned.
United States military bases and allied bases: Israel, Turkey, Iraq, Kuwait, Afghanistan.
They all rather curiously circle one country.
Is Kissinger taking anti-aging drugs or something?
Even if Iran had an Nuclear Weapon, it is PHYSICALLY impossible for it to hit the United States.
IMPOSSIBLE. Meaning no threat to the USA.
According to Wikipedia (so...you know...) he said:
"They have invented a myth that Jews were massacred and place this above God, religions and the prophets. The West has given more significance to the myth of the genocide of the Jews, even more significant than God, religion, and the prophets, (it) deals very severely with those who deny this myth but does not do anything to those who deny God, religion, and the prophet. If you have burned the Jews, why don't you give a piece of Europe, the United States, Canada or Alaska to Israel? Our question is, if you have committed this huge crime, why should the innocent nation of Palestine pay for this crime? "
Terrorist link to Iran?
WMDs in Iran?
Humanitarian intervention in Iran?
Is this an episode of "I Love 2002" ??
Why does Michael Goodwin think he (the media) should be allowed to interview Ahmadinejad, while Columbia students and professors should not?
Why should academics who understand Iranian affairs thoroughly have to get their information about Ahmadinejad filtered through journalists most of whom don't even understand Farsi?
Let him speak and then speak back, plain and simple. Should we become like him...and George Bush, BTW?
I think this show accomplished a lot...
Just a quick thought, Columbia University's desire to entertain Hitler in a debate only proves what ill lengths it would go to in order to promote itself as some bastion of free speech. Are we all forgetting what happened when the Minuteman project leaders were there to speak and were basically physically attacked and not allowed to utter one word as the histrionic hyper liberal students that are such revelers in free speech for only those that they want to hear it from.
My god he may not be thruthful with his answers! Did anyone here President Bush the other day? let's wory about our own delusional leaders....
Goodwin's assessment that Ahmedinejad should be allowed to engage with journalists, and not with students and the greater community at Columbia, makes absolutely no sense; you'd rather give a leader with highly debatable policies and opinions the open forum of interacting with the media - who will merely report on what he is saying, without challenging him -instead of putting him in an environment where it is not scripted and stage managed, and people with fresh views can try to question him in ways he perhaps has not been BY the media??
Learn anything from what he says? Well you learn FROM HIM not the reporting media what he thinks and feels about Israel, the Holocaust, Atomic bomb making.... Let's have him tell it to us and then we decide just how severely to judge him.
Communists had nuclear weapons, and we had COLD war with them. Does anybody doubt if islamists have nuclear weapons, the war would by just cold?
if the ideas in the west are so superior to those of iran, what is it that we fear hearing?
RMC - Hmmmm sounds just like how Bush operates. He makes statements and the media reports them as news and fact.
We ALL cherry pick!
Correction-- We DID let the Minutemen speek last year-- which caused great controversy about 1st amendment rights etc. This year student groups together made the decision not to invite them...important distinction that your caller James did not mention.
You know this is silly.....this back and forth.
Ahmadinejad should be allowed to speak. But the protesters should also be allowed to speak as well! Why is it that some of the people who claim "free speech" for allowing Ahmadinejad act as if the protesters should go away or they shouldn't be out there,etc? Hypocritical! Free speech cuts BOTH ways!
Serge,
Well...it makes ME nervous due to the very different and irrational factor of religion being involved.
Not being judgmental, tolerance, and freedom of speech, that's why, among many other things, we are better than them. We can't sink as low as they are.
Ahmadinejad's appearance at Columbia will not tell us anything about him that we do not already know. He is not going to say, or learn anything new.
Instead, his appearance at Columbia reveals a lot of negatives about Columbia. The ivory tower seems to have no windows to the real world, where there really are evil people.
Hey can we come up with a shorter way to say Ahmadinejad 's name...I am getting tired of cutting and pasting...I say A-jad
How is denying the Holocaust the same as actually implementing one? Ahmadinejad may be a monster, but he's hardly Hitler.
And as far as a body count, I'm sure Bush has contributed to the pile much more than his Middle Eastern counterpart.
For once and for all, for both (all?) sides of the political spectrum, it is one of the tenets of our society and democratic traditions, history, and law, to allow for free speech!
In the past, liberals have long paid lip service to free speech and open mindedness, but repeatedly shouted down representatives of conservative viewpoints (Dr. Jeanne Kirkpatrick comes prominently to mind.)
The point of whether opponents of the President of Iran have scholarship on their side is besides the point. Let Ahmadinejad make his case and let his case stand or fall on the merits. We must trust our own citizens to believe or to see through his arugments.
In the past, academia has NOT lived up to it's mission and assertion of the free exchange of ideas. It is mind boggling how closed minded students and professors can be, all while claiming the high ground.
Free speech is an entirely useless notion if it only applies to what we already believe.
The truth is, 99% of us do not recognize our own narrow filtering of information. Recent research (as discussed recently on Brian Lehrer's show.)
In other words, can we PLEASE FINALLY have one consistent standard for all speakers: allow ALL speakers to actually speak (and not be shouted down or heckled during their speech, because that is not really allowing their speech.)
Wow -- let's see a list of who has been welcomed at Columbia over the past few years, and who has not been invited or not permitted to speak once invited. Free speech???? Get real!
To the caller who thinks Columbia picks and chooses how they exercise freedom of speech in a way that conforms with some sort of idealology - he implies that not allowing ROTC on campus and allowing certain controversial speakers supports an idealology - last year the founder of the Minutemen spoke in a similar forum. How does that fit in with his theory??
Trevor,
I agree....I think the comparison is not apt. I WOULD have a problem with allowing a Hitler on (or the leader of Darfur, as Brian once made the point he would even have on his show) because of the very difference you just stated.
There has been a lot of talk about about the hypocrisy of Columbia. The reason he is allowed to talk is because he is the head of state. If he was some quack who said the holocaust did not exist he would not be allowed to talk to anyone, but because he got himself appointed the head of state he gets special treatment it is just the way the world works some people are "more" special then others.
I think THE IRANIAN PRESIDET ICTATOR should speak at COlumbia and other small forums so that some few at least get to hear him off themedia, without the interpretation and editing and huckstering of our news messnegers.
The augments against Ahmadinejad speaking at Columbia is a reflection of the major danger of the Bush administration. We only speak and listen to our friends. We refuse to have a discourse with those seen as our enemies.
Iran, the former Soviet Union, China, South Korea, etc control their people by controlling the ideas to which they are exposed.
Lest we forget, we are the United States, where we do not fear ideas that are different or even disagreeable. It's not unpatriotic to share unpopular ideas, instead it is the most American of tradition.
Many of his ideas will look like the ignorant propaganda that they are, but buried deep inside, or even in what he doesn't say, may be the nugget of truth that we need to forge common ground and avoid another unwinnable war.
(1) Do I approve of Columbia's inviting Ahmedinejad to speak?
Answer: Of course.
(2) What line of questioning would I want to pursue?
Answer: I'd ask Ahmedinejad to unpack his "wipe Israel off the map"-remark. Is it meant to imply "wipe Jews off the map"? Is it meant to apply only to Israel as currently constituted?--i.e., as a Jewish national state? Would Israel (and Israelis) be okay with him, provided Israel were non-denominational, so to speak?
It is the right of the university to pick who they want to speak. Whether or not they are boneheads is up to the people in the audience to decide (i do not care for the lunitic myself). But to rebut the comments about military recruiters and ROTC. Columbia probably lets different law firms and corporations recruit on their campus why not the military, it is another job opportunity. why pick and chose. I am sure there are some well decorated veteran alumni from Columbia
Maybe Ahmadinejad should post his thoughts on Youtube. "Web 2.0" is apparently more pro-free speech than speaking at a university according to Brian, and at any rate more people will probably see it.
Chad
please explain how an entire country and people can be "vanished from the page of time" without any kind of anhiliation? Perhaps the expression "wiped off the face of the map" doesn't sound half bad in Persian, maybe giving the image of lightly dusting a fly away...or maybe it doesn't exist in the same way and those words were the senitmental equivilant.
Dianne,
Because it doesn't. Conservatives love to say stupid things like "liberals say they allow free speech but then they don't blah blah blah" When conservatives are always trying to control free speech. They just ignore facts to illustrate their points. The caller who said recruitment (about the ROTC) was the difference was spot on (and the opposing caller was reverted to the intellectual equivalent of hominah,hominah,hominah in response). The caller was just trying to paint Columbia with the stereo-typical "Oh they're just a liberal institution" brush. Facts don't matter as long as he can try and criticize them on that basis.
Everyone is so interested in hearing Ahmadinejad answer their questions about the bomb, Israel and the holocaust....
But what about answering his questions??
Underneath the bogus controversy drummed up by our pathetic press corp and AIPAC, were two vital questions posed by Ahmadinejad last year, and i still haven't found anyone willing to answer them.
Here they are (and i'm mostly paraphrasing these):
1. Why, since the holocaust occurred in Europe, should White European Jews be able to "create" a racist settler colony in the Palestine? The arabs didn't commit this crime.
2. To whom do the third world countries that have been wronged by a member of the UN Security Council voice their grievances?
can someone tell me why it is the job of a university to invite nutcases? i thought people paid money to get an education, so their job, therefore would be, what, teachers? what is this business about grandstanding with pr events and invited guests? would you want tuition dollars to go toward this? will there be t shirts sold?
in a samll, personal forum such as Columbia U auditorium, some few, at least, get to hear teh President of a country we have been asked to fear and get ready to fight, face to face, off of the media, without the interpretations, editings and combative emotions of our news messengers, the media
I think a robust discussion will do this world good. Because these Arab leaders always tell the truth. Therefore, even if you ask them do they purify uranium, they respond truthfully. If it's for electricity, they tell you. So their honest, we see the precedent of that, for sure. I think robust debate will stop guys like this from harming their neighbors and the U.S. So I believe debate is immensely useful.
Lisa,
Oh I don't know...I think debate IS an integral part of a college education.
Kyrel : Couldn't you ask Bush the same question?
And yet, American companies continue investing in China and its appalling human rights record as well, and China finances the (present-day, not fifty years ago) genocide in Darfur.
My question for Ahmedinejad is: Will you invite Columbia or other Westerners to your universities to express any point of view?
I think a lot of the excitement for students and supporters of Columbia is a
reflection of the "Did It" mentality of New Yorkers. I think many just want to say
they were there or a part of it. They don't really care about the people
who suffer because of this "Monster's" policies. It's sad.
SURE, LISA SMYTHE, I CAN tell you what you need to know. IT Is of us to have your seriously powerful "nutcase" seen in human proportions by those who will have to deal wiht him in the near future. Otherwise and now, as things stand, we allow the huckstering media and the nutcases in our hoods to tell us how to think about him. we don't get a chance to make up our own mind. we are told what to think by the loundest alrmists.
THis forum also gets him off the electronic dias and onto the ground, grounded, so to speak. take advantage of this opportunity. Parlay is not battle
I enjoy seeing the Iran debate break down into an Israel/Palestine debate on both sides, because both know exactly what this is about: Zionist/Israel lobby hijacking public discourse and foreign policy into jingoistic nuclear warfare.
And for those who cry "Antisemite!" like its in your shoulder holster, I know plenty of Jews that disagree greatly with the state of Israel and its actions against Arabs.
What news are you people reading where Ahmadinejad is a murdering monster and you don't view Bush and his old Reaganite buddies the same way? This is absurd!
Ohh Amy!!!! How exciting for us!!!!! Ooooohhh!!!! I can't wait for him to speak!!!!!! We are so progressive!!!!!!!!!
If Ahmadinejad is beyond the pale, what do we say of an American president and vice president who routinely threaten non-nuclear nations with nuclear destruction? Who deny basic science? Who base policy on personal revelation and the apocalyptic destiny of the world?
Has any news organization ever asked Mr. Bush, as 60 minutes asked Ahmadinejad, why he has never given a straight or factually correct answer?
Talk about double standard....
A serious question to President Ahmadinejad:
What would be your message you may have for Iranian/American Dual Nationals who may still want to travel to Iran?
Z Taraneh, Dual National
New York, NY
David "Lion" you think it's the job of a University to INVITE nutcases to speak? I thought it's role was to give classes and sell degrees.
My argument is not that the Iranian President should not be allowed to speak at Columbia. My argument is that he should not be allowed to speak at the UN and that Iran’s UN delegation to the UN be refused. Why? The UN bylaws explicitly declares that no member state is allowed to incite genocide or the destruction of another member state. By repeatedly calling for the destruction of the Jewish state and for its state-sponsored “death to America” demonstrations, Iran is clearly outside the bounds of legitimate, civilized discourse.
I would ask: Since our mainstream news media here in America is no
longer 'fair and balanced' and cannot be trusted to tell us the truth
about almost any given country and it's leaders, do you, Mr.
President, have a favorite internet blog here in the US that you
would be willing to be interviewed with (time and again) so that we
can continue to learn more about you, the country of Iran, and your
policies for the future?
I would ask him how he feels about the US government stealing the oil in Iraq. Is he afraid of US invasion to cripple his country?
The important thing to remember here is how profitable Iran will be to foreign investment once it inevitably falls to free market capitalism, as all nations must.
Don't you guys want multinationals to operate safely in Iran? Lowering the political risk liability really cuts down on the overhead y'know ;)
While we all think of questions for the president of Iran, what is the elephant in the room is the fact that our own president, George Bush, would never allow himself to be questioned in a similar forum. So, as everyone asked about human rights and anti-semitism, and whatever else is being asked, Bush would never be questioned about a war that has displaced and impoverished a large portion of the Iraqi people, nor about the widening of the income gap in our own country.
(I also happen to be Jewish).
Thank goodness Columbia is showing at least the minimal moral courage of inviting Ahmadinejad to speak and debate, but how craven of university officials to corrupt the stage by demonizing A. to start, thereby trying to prevent students from listening to him with an open mind.
Boy so much anger and passion shown for or against someone being allowed to speak at a forum.
There is never a debate over countries in Americas, Asia, Africa and Europe, they fought bloody battles to get the lands they occupy now.
So there is a bloody battle being fought in the middle east over land and everything is fair in Love and War has been said before.
So why not just accept that eventually things will settle once there is a winner. After all winning is all that matters.
Watching the first partof WAR on PBS last night the current situation we have seems like it has not changed an iota.
Why do u think the United States sees itself as the arbiters of good and evil in the world? If you do what I say you are good, if you do not you are evil.
Clearly Ahmadinejad is an anti-semite; I'm saying people who oppose Israel's policies are painted unfairly as anti-semites.
Question for President Ahmadinejad:
All the world's great leaders have flaws, what is yours, and what is your solution?
Dear John Planetary,
"...these Arab leaders always tell the truth..."
You need to know that Iranians are not Arabs. They are Persians.
Thank you alan!
Bush's arrival at the UN is prompting numerous planned protests:
http://www.wcw-nyc.blogspot.com/
http://www.unitedforpeace.org/article.php?id=3371&printsafe=1
http://www.votermarch.org/UNProtest.htm
http://www.codeorange.us/
http://www.worldcantwait.net/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=4316&Itemid=223
http://www.stopbushsept25.org/
Mr. President,
If you were in the position of the President of the United States, what would be your proposed policy towards the Middle East given the current situation in Iraq?
What is his favorite dish?
Do you feel threatened by the US troops to your east in Afghanistan, west in Iraqi, and the US Fleet to your south in the Persian Gulf?
Ahmadinejad should of course be allowed to speak at Columbia if invited by the university. If we believe in free speech, he and the university have the right to so proceed.
I do have a highly negative impression of the man - ignorant but politically shrewd. Like any politician he will answer questions with a prescripted response which is then translated, accurately or not. There are other Iranian leaders I would frankly rather hear from.
As for visiting ground zero, I think he should have asked to do it in tribute to any Iranians who may have died there. That would be harder to turn down. It's a publicity stunt and I view it as such and would turn down the request.
Does he read Playboy magazine?
Question for President Ahmadinejad:
Do you consider what is going on in Darfur a genocide and would you be willing to supply an attack helicopter to the UN forces as stated as needed by the commander of those forces?
TH EFORUM also give The Iranian President achance to experience the real people of USA. not just our political professionals.
I do think that Ahmadinejad's presence at Columbia is strangely positive. I am as interested (or less) in his political and social viewpoints as I would be in hearing a KKK leader's opinions; However, his imminent presence at Columbia creates a massive intellectual disturbance in the city, if not the country, and invites discussion, debate, and passion, which is a fantastically positive thing and certainly the point at a university such as Columbia. I am a Columbia alum who greatly appreciates Columbia's unique placement in one of our greatest urban areas. It would be a shame if Columbia sat on her hands and discouraged this opportunity for debate.
GIVE iranian presidet a chance to see real AMericans not the usual professional Politicians and paid Media talking heads
QUESTION ONE:
What are your current plans to continue COOPERATION with Latin America? How is this collaboration helping both regions of the world?
SECOND QUESTION:
If major (western) nations have already fulfilled their right to develop other forms of energy (nuclear) sources, what do emerging developing nations need to do to attain energy independence (excluding nuclear sources)?
Question for President Ahmadinejad:
1. Do you believe the root cause of hatred for America lies in the Israeli/Palestinion War?
A. What percentage of Americans do you believe understand what happened in 1948?
How Israel, on the mandate of the US and the United Nations, displaced 1,400,000 Palestinians, many at the barrell of a gun, placing them in concentration...I mean "refugee" camps.....for SIXTY YEARS without any resolution?
b. Why is there no media coverage of these events in the United States? especially when soo much media attention is placed on suicide bombers??? noone explains WHY someone might feel desperate enough to commit such an act??? there must be a REASON???
c. Do you think Americans, specifically in the South and Mid-West, have any clue what
the words terrrorist and freedom fighter really means???
2. How would Texans feel if the Mexicans came and took half there state, placed their families in camps, and slowly continued to take more of their land????
THIS GOES TO THE HEART OF WHAT YOU THINK THE MODERN UNIVERSITY IS OR ISN'T? IS columbia AND FOREMOST AN ACADEMIC INSTITUTION OR AN ENTRPRENURIAL INSTITUTION? DOES IT GROW REVENUES IN THE NAME OF AN ENDOWMENTS OR DISTRIBUTE REVENUES TO STUDENTS AND CITY? WHAT DOES SIT DO WITH THE TAX BENEFITS IT RECEIVES? DOES IT RECEIVE CONTRACTS OR(donations) FROM GOVERNMENTS OR CORPORATIONS? IS IN ESSENCE, COLUMBIA UNIVERISTY A SAVVY COMMERCIAL ENTERPRISE WITH REAL ESTATE AND CAPITAL PORT- FOLIOS IS ITS MISSION TO GATHER CONTRACTS AND CLIENTS LIKE ANY "PRIVATE' CORPORATION DO ITS DEPARTMENTS AND PROFESSORS SEEK PROFIT MAXIMIMIZING OPPORTUNITIES? DO THEY SEEK CLIENTS OR SERVE STUDENTS USING AN ACADEMIC POSTURE? WE KNOW THE HARVARD ECONOMICS AND POLITICAL SCIENCE DEPARTMENTS FOUND PERSONAL PROFIT MAKING OPPORTUNITIES UNDER THE YELTZIN ERA-SO CALLED SHOCK THERAPY SCHEMES.Isn't time to examine how academic institutions serve the country or the community given the tax benefits, government and private contracts they receive? The Iranian "visitor" should be touching off a deeper debate other than the rights of Columbia University. I attended Columbia University during 1965- 1968.
Many of the comments above try to obfuscate the issue.
This is not an issue of free speech.
Ahmajinedad can go to Times Square and spout whatever he wants. this is about being proactively given a platform to the religously fanatic & messianic head of a racist regime which abuses human rights and cause millions to suffer.
Many of those who are whining about "free speech" don't seem to care a whit about free speech. If so, they would protest the utter destruction of free speech in Iran and other Muslim countries, let alone the public hangings & stonings of children & women.
Iran is the single largest exectuioner of children in the world.
In the end, many of the comments above are simply about how some people hate Bush more than they hate Ahmajinedad. wish they would be more honest :>
http://columbiaracistspeaker.blogspot.com/
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