The British Council is co-ordinating a series of lectures to commemorate its 75th anniversary (entitled 75 years of Cultural Relations) and Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Tutu will deliver the inaugural address on February 19,2009. The lecture series, named Talking without Borders, is aimed at providing a bird’s eye-view of the most pressing needs in today’s global village.
Quite interestingly, Desmond Tutu has written a superlative article for the BBC, in a moving piece titled Viewpoint: A Word of Caution for Obama. Refreshingly analytical, the article aims to debunk the myth of ‘anti-Americanism’, emphasizing on the tectonic shifts in perceptions during the nascent stages of the Obama regime. The article, cogently articulated in style and substance, may be viewed here.
Because the Bush years have been disastrous for other parts of the world in many ways, Obama’s victory dramatises the self-correcting mechanism that epitomises American democracy. Elsewhere, oppressors, tyrants and their lapdogs can say what they like and, for the most part, they stay put.
But ordinary citizens living in undemocratic societies are not fools; they may not always agree with US foreign policy, but they can see and register the difference between the United States – where people can kick an unpopular political party out – and their own countries………
………….And here I want to end with what seems so utterly obvious about what we learned from our particular situation in South Africa. Peace does not come from the barrel of a gun but is achieved when cultural differences are respected and the fundamental rights of all are recognised and upheld.
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I too will be looking forward to the post.