Editorial: Peacemaker
STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Executive Editor: Paul Baumann Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editor: Daria Donnelly Production Editor: Tiina Aleman Senior Writer: Robert...
...For, "[o]nce they've established a 'moral obligation' to help others, they'll have made it 'moral' for government to take everything you own for 'the good of society.' That's a one-way ticket to tyranny...
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...Mandela hopes to avert that possible outcome while negotiating an end to the civil war that has devastated Burundi's economy and terrorized its 6 million people...
...Recently, the Tutsi government, accusing the general population of giving aid and protection to the rebels, has forced 350,000 Hutu into squalid, disease-infested camps...
...p. 36, Schwadron, Rothco...
...Second, it is now widely believed that early, forceful action by the UN, or the international community acting through some other venue, could have forestalled the Rwanda genocide...
...Mandela tried to appeal to the combatants' sense of honor in the face of such senseless killing: "When they [the outside world] hear this they say, 'Africans are still barbarians--no human beings could do what they are doing.'" Whether or not Mandela's intervention will bring about a negotiated settlement to the conflict is of course impossible to tell...
...The genocide was planned and carefully promoted by the Hutu government for months in advance...
...Ralston wishes to warn Americans against a gigantic fraud, a "hoax perpetrated by the media, charities, politicians, and academics...
...and monthly July and August, by Commonweal Foundation, 475 Riverside Drive, Rm...
...Building a public consensus for such intervention even to stop genocide--is not easy, and neither elected officials nor humanitarian agencies have done nearly enough to convince the public of the moral imperative justifying such action...
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...As the crisis intensified, Mandela inserted himself into the peace negotiations among Burundi's numerous warring factions...
...Dionne, Jr., Sidney Callahan, William Pfaff, Daniel Callahan, Jo McGowan Intern: Christopher Ruddy Staff: Sandra Smith, Elia M.C...
...The conflict has already claimed 200,000 lives and flooded neighboring countries with tens of thousands of refugees...
...To reach the "eager young minds" in the nation's colleges and high schools, the Institute runs yearly contests in which students write essays based on the novels, thereby grasping Rand's view of "man": "A heroic being, with his own happiness as the moral purpose of his life, with productive achievement as his noblest activity, and reason as his only absolute...
...other parts of the world, $99...
...p. 10, Sax, Rothco...
...The genocide that momentarily propelled Rwanda onto the front pages and TV news in 1994 is well known, if not well understood by those outside of Africa (see, "Never Again...
...Copyright 9 2000 Commonweal Foundation...
...Fresh from the peaceful transfer of power he presided over upon his retirement as president of South Africa last year, in January Mandela plunged into the even more intractable political turmoil that has gripped Central Africa for the better part of a decade...
...Since the battle for sanity and capitalism must be funded, recipients of the letter are asked to send the Institute a taxdeductible contribution of from $20 to $1,000, or "other ." Our friend is sending the " ." She, too, wishes to prevent charity frauds...
...In the meantime, the potential for mass slaughter remains a daily worry...
...p. 23, The Liturgical Press...
...The Church & Genocide in Rwanda," Commonweal, November 5, 1999...
...Real morality means pursuing your own happiness and interests...
...Humanitarian groups as well as the United States and other governments have strongly protested this action, fearing that such forced relocation could be the preamble to genocide...
...Rwanda's neighbor, Burundi, long wracked by violent conflict, now seems similarly poised on the precipice of some unimaginable horror...
...I grew up in Westport, Connecticut, which is now notorious for being a pretentious suburb--the average house sells for something like $800,00(Obut was a middle-class community forty years ago...
...As in Rwanda, unarmed civilians, including women and children, are the most common victims of the fighting...
...F. Scott Fitzgerald briefly lived there, and the geography of The Great Gatsby, with its expansive views of Long Island Sound, is said to be modeled on Westport...
...Why are you lagging behind...
...It's time to "stand up and fight back for our liberty...
...Please join the modern world," he scolded the representatives of the political groups...
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...The Institute bases its philosophy, called Objectivism, on the principles laid down in the works of the late novelist Ayn Rand, author of Anthem, The Fountainhead, and Atlas Shrugged...
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...The schools were good, my father's commute to New York tolerable, and the taxes low...
...And yet, "[I]f these guilt-mongers get their way, everything America stands for--independence, self-reliance, self-confidence--will go up in smoke...
...The takeover will presumably indude biblical studies...
...This is "a bold-faced lie...
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...As I grew up, my academic and literary interests Commonweal 6 February 11, 2000...
...6Charity fraud a l e r t ' [] A friend reports receiving a promotional letter that has given her a whole new outlook on promotional letters...
...Obviously these are hopeful signs...
...1, 1924, to current issues available through University Microfilm, 300 N. Zeeb Road, Ann Arbor, M148106 and on Microfiche from Bell & Howell, Wooster, OH 44691...
...columnist portraits, Elaine Mills...
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...p. 8, Engleman, Rothco...
...Commonweal 5 February 11, 2000 Many of the Hutu rebel fighters have become mere bandits and are no longer under the control of any political authority...
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...In retrospect, signs of the impending calamity are easily recognized...
...12, 30, Valerry...
...Peter DeVries, the novelist and New Yorker writer, set a number of his stories in barely disguised versions of the town...
...http://www.commonwealmagazine.org C @ M M @ M W E A L H jnllallm~rA~rAv~ m ~ BBTA~r~rD.] Peacemaker W ill Nelson Mandela ever stop astounding and humbling the world by the force of his moral vision and the transformative authority of his personal courage and conviction...
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...My family moved there in 1956 into a small three-bedroom split-level (my father paid $19,000 for it) in one of the town's new developments...
...The UN has frankly admitted its manifold failures in this regard...
...This suggests that ways can be found to avert the worst of such killings...
...3, 26, Ross, Rothco...
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...You'll know you're a victim if anybody has ever tried to "get your money by making you feel guilty about the plight of others," or if you've been "forced to pay taxes to fund government welfare programs...
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...It's accompanied by a questionnaire bearing the same title as this piece...
...The letter is from Richard E. Ralston, managing director of the Ayn Rand Institute...
...OUR MAN IN WESTPORT Finding Michael Williams's grave othing in our lives is preordained, yet in looking back at the decisions one makes and the surprising places those decisions take you, the guiding hand of something more than rational choice and circumstance seems at work...
...405, New York, NY 10115...
...His apparent strategy is to promote an African-mediated cease fire while looking to the international community for humanitarian aid and constructive diplomatic and economic pressure...
...The hoax is based on "the phony idea that you have a moral duty to serve others...
...Johns Advertising Manager: Ruth E. Taylor Publisher Emeritus: Edward S. Skillin Commonweal, [ISSN 0010-3330] A Review of Public Affairs, Religion, Literature, and the Arts, is published biweekly except Christmas/New Year's...
...p. 31, Baloo, Rothco...
...p. 34, The Ollie Atkins Collection...
...Not soon, we hope...
...In Burundi, however, the power relationship is reversed, and it is the civilian Hutu population that is most threatened...
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...Why do you allow yourselves to be regarded as leaders without talent, leaders without a vision...
...First, observers on the ground should be able to keep track of the government's more malign initiatives and thus alert the world...
...He did not mince words in addressing government officials and representatives of the rebel forces assembled in Tanzania...
...STAFF Editor: Margaret O'Brien Steinfels Executive Editor: Paul Baumann Managing Editor: Patrick Jordan Associate Editor: Daria Donnelly Production Editor: Tiina Aleman Senior Writer: Robert G. Hoyt Editorial Assistant: Maurice Timothy Reidy Copy Editor: Susanne Washburn Business Manager: Gregory Wilpert Poetry: Rosemary Deen Screen: Richard Alleva Stage: Celia Wren Columnists: John Garvey, E.J...
...You get the picture...
...the Sermon on the Mount may be replaced by Ayn Rand insights that will surprise you, such as: "The world is perishing from an orgy of self-sacrificing...
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...It would appear to be a near impossible task--but then, Mandela has pulled off miracles in the past...
...He plans to return to the peace table in Tanzania this month, bringing with him the weight of a galvanized and concerted international community, including possibly President Bill Clinton...
...As in Rwanda, the fighting in Burundi pits the ethnic minority Tutsi against the majority Hutu...
...But if the tragic lessons of Rwanda and Bosnia continue to be learned, and if Mandela's leadership and enormous prestige can be put to good use, history need not repeat itself in Burundi...
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...In reality, "you don't owe your life to anyone...
...Lessons drawn from Rwanda tell us that the genocide was not the result of any spontaneous uprising or longstanding and intractable ethnic hatreds...
...What was missing at the time, of course, was the political will to act, and the United States was among the most derelict, as President Clinton himself has admitted...
...Paul Newman and his wife Joanne Woodward are long-time residents...
...You have reached a stage where none of you is completely right and none is completely wrong," he said, urging the parties to compromise...
...Nor did he excuse Africans from full culpability for the horrors convulsing the region...
...p. 24, Starke/ 9 Rothco...
...But to what extent either side will be willing to disarm, or the Tutsi government be willing to share power, is far from certain...
...Illustrations: Cover design: Christopher Young, cover photo: Carol T. Powers...
...Mandela is not naive about the difficulties...
...Display advertising correspondence should be sent to Ruth E. Taylor, 11 Graffam Rd., So...
...Since taking power by force in 1993, the Tutsi-led government and army have been fighting various Hutu insurgencies...
...3, 20, Phil Bray...
Vol. 127 • February 2000 • No. 3
