Interpreting genocide
Gerald Caplan remarkably defends Rwandan President Paul Kagame's indefensible arrest of his leading political opponent, Victoire Ingabire - and Peter Erlinder, the American lawyer representing her - on specious grounds of genocide denial. ( The Law Society Of Upper Canada And Genocide Denial In Rwanda - online, June 11).
Ms. Ingabire, an ethnic Hutu, explicitly acknowledges the 1994 genocide against Tutsis. Her complaint is that Mr. Kagame denies and prevents discussion of his troops killing tens of thousands of innocent Hutu before, during and after the genocide. Mr. Kagame has now arrested Mr. Erlinder for arguing that the genocide was not premeditated.
But it is Mr. Erlander's job to make that argument as a defence counsel at the International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda. His argument has prevailed at the court, which has acquitted everyone accused of pre-planned "conspiracy to genocide," issuing convictions only for crimes committed after the assassination of Rwanda's Hutu president.
Rwanda today is a dictatorship run by a tiny elite of the Tutsi minority that suppresses the Hutu majority and denies past violence against Hutu civilians. The only hope for peace is power-sharing with the Hutu and acknowledgment by both sides of their past crimes - precisely what Ms. Ingabire advocates.
If Mr. Caplan truly wants to promote peace in Rwanda, rather than the myth that past violence was one-sided, he should support the rights of Ms. Ingabire and her lawyer.
Alan J. Kuperman, LBJ School of Public Affairs, University of Texas at Austin, Austin, Texas
It's a woman's world (Or is it?)
Margaret Wente wonders what will happen to all those underemployed males after advances by women in the workplace ( The New Heavyweights Of The Workplace - June 12).
This is situation is nothing new, and has always been resolved by the use of expendable males for war. History shows the fate of these men: war for the legions, for the Union, for the Reich, for the Empire, on Terror.
Men will continue to do what they have always done best: kill each other. In a strange way, war is man's salvation.
Robin Reid, St. John's
............
If women decided they don't want to be journalists or lawyers any more we could probably find enough capable men to fill the void. However, careers requiring more sophistication, talent, strength or endurance would be a little more difficult to fill.
Women out-earn, out-work and outperform men, except in: professional sports, the military, medicine, entertainment, aerospace, music, politics, chess, invention, etc ...
Sam Kocsis, Calgary
............
Margaret Wente is living proof that women are doing better in the modern post-industrial world than men - she is the most interesting writer at The Globe. And I am saying this as the spouse who is doing the household chores and the cooking.
Gerry Kellermann, Kingston, Ont.
............
Margaret Wente's view from the summit always energizes the lowly among us.
One could easily get lost in her fable of the superiority of women over men and the death of men as we know them. An old tale oft told.
Most of Ms. Wente's circle are über-wives in high powered jobs - public affairs, law and banking. They live high off the hog. Their underemployed husbands pale by comparison, who have the kind of jobs that most women have.
Although the sons of striking nickel workers disappoint Ms. Wente by not going off to university to become metallurgical engineers, their sisters are apparently doing just fine. They outperform in school, get their BAs, yet become dental hygienists, bank clerks, office managers and nurses.
Déjà vu! As a young woman these were my job opportunities 65 years ago. Not to be a banker, but to be a bank clerk. In short, we were not high-powered breadwinners but decent hard-working folk. Sadly, this stereotype is alive and well.
Meri Chatterton, Vancouver
The human in humanities
John Allemang's article and accompanying interview with acclaimed philosopher Martha Nussbaum on the importance of the humanities should be required reading ( Critical Thinking - Focus & Books, June 12).
In making her case for increasing our exposure to the humanities she almost invariably points to the need for us to learn more about topics that are covered in a single course: introductory psychology, which resides within the social sciences, not the humanities.
I've spent the majority of my time as a psychology professor attempting to do what Dr. Nussbaum advocates: enhancing students' understanding of human interactions; empathy development; critical and creative thinking skills; individual and group decision-making errors, biases and illusions; sexual and racial differences; and the scientific method.
I've spent much of my remaining time feeling envious about all the physical science and, yes, even humanities, courses offered in our high schools. Want a high school psychology course? Too bad, if you live outside of B.C. or Ontario.
Ted Wright, St. Francis Xavier University, Antigonish, N.S.
............
There is much to admire in Martha Nussbaum's work, both here and elsewhere, but she does the humanities a disservice in two ways: First, by making the reductive argument that great ideas can be distilled into an elixir called "critical thinking." Poetry, philosophy, art, and history are about majesty of language and character as much as any point they are trying to make.
Second, there is the redundant modifier, "critical," governing thinking. Whatever happened to just "thinking?" That's more than enough.
Adam de Pencier, Toronto
............
The front page of this week's Focus section is rich in irony. The humanities, once dominant faculties at postsecondary institutions, have steadily lost influence to the natural and applied sciences, and the dismal sciences represented in business schools. That's where politicians and captains of industry, today's largest sources of university funding, dispense the bulk of their largesse.
The interview with Martha Nussbaum shares the page with an image of jihad propaganda from Pakistan (Brand Jihad - Focus & Books, June 12). Science and technology cannot help us with how to deal with militant Islam (nor sectarian strife in the Middle East or recurring humanitarian crises in Africa).
Boudewyn van Oort, Victoria
Modest G20 protest proposals
The absence of protesters at the G20 summit in Toronto would be an embarrassment for the authorities plus free a lot of money for progressive initiatives, suggests Clive Doucet ( Letters To The Editor, June 12). But it won't work. Those who build a fake lake can also make fake protesters. It was done at Montebello, Quebec, a few years ago when the Sûreté du Québec provincial police tried to join the protesters, until they were discovered by their SQ-issue police boots.
Hanns F. Skoutajan, Ottawa
............
Clive Doucet misplaces the burden of responsibility in his plea for protesters to hold back on their protests because "it isn't worth a billion of our tax dollars." It wasn't the protesters who planned to spend many times more for security than organizers of previous summits.
Joel MacDonald, Saskatoon
............
Torontonians: For three crucial days this June, the eyes of the entire world will be upon us. For the sake of Canada's image on the international stage, do not give in to your anger at the billion dollars being spent to shut down the city for our important guests.
Please, turn the other cheek instead - and moon the arrogant bastards as they roll into town.
Patricia Chartier, Toronto
Psychiatric cold cases
My congratulations to involuntarily detained psychiatric patient Paul Conway, lawyer Marlys Edwardh and Madam Justice Rosalie Abella for making legal history and striking a blow for justice and human rights ( Administrative Tribunals Can Apply Charter Rights, Supreme Court Rules - June 12).
For psychiatric prisoners ("involuntary patients"), this means they don't have to go to court and pay exorbitant legal costs to get their legitimate complaints of psychiatric abuse - forced drugging, electroshock, community treatment orders, involuntary committal, wrongful or arbitrary incarceration - heard and decided as Charter rights violations before provincial review boards and human rights tribunals. For a change, some justice may no longer be delayed or denied.
Don Weitz, Toronto
Stop me if you've heard this one
At last I get to know Moira Dann, the evil genius behind the many heart-breaking rejections of the brilliant essays I have sent to Facts and Arguments over the years ( Life Lessons From The Back Page - Life, June 11). Any writer knows that we live and die by the whim of various editors, in her case fully eight years.
Perhaps I should not complain, as I have seen one article printed, about the day I told patient Mrs. X and her husband that she had colon cancer. If the current editor would like to know the prequel and sequel, always relevant in the practice of medicine, it will be sent to Facts & Arguments shortly.
Dr. David Rapoport, Toronto