tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post5502642466785318170..comments2024-03-29T05:33:43.878-04:00Comments on Murder is Everywhere: The University of the WitwatersrandOvidia Yuhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05749549092493567689noreply@blogger.comBlogger4125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-36700552497729336672017-05-23T11:34:29.626-04:002017-05-23T11:34:29.626-04:00CoolCoolAnonymoushttps://www.blogger.com/profile/16945480422986632992noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-24393142216403974342010-05-08T05:16:15.008-04:002010-05-08T05:16:15.008-04:00I’m moved deeply by Michael’s brief history of Wit...I’m moved deeply by Michael’s brief history of Wits. By upholding the principles of academic and personal freedom, Wits led the way in a country racked by transgressions. As the major university in Johannesburg, it was important that Wits played an exemplary role in upholding academic freedom and minimising disruption of learning through those difficult and volatile Apartheid years. And as Wits academics, we faced daily the difficulties Michael describes. Common purpose and determination gave us all the strength to keep working through angry chanting and toi-toing in our corridors and classrooms, police encircling and invading our campus, and helicopters circling our buildings...<br /><br />Wits is a lively open place now, thanks to those leaders of vision, Michael among them. And having helped lead Wits through those difficult years, it is to his credit that a “retired” Michael has returned to give more service there - as both a dedicated teacher and top level research grant winner.<br /><br />I too will always be a Witsie...<br /><br />But my choice has been different. The simple fact is that I have daughters whom I want to be safe in the street and in their homes. That’s a tall ask for Johannesburg. Our friends and their homes in Jhb attacked by burglars with machine guns, this (cowardly?) third generation African felt driven out. I left for the safety of another country.<br /> <br />But I visit often. <br /><br />Alan Paton’s great novel, “Cry, the Beloved Country” , was published by Scribners in New York, and Jonathan Cape in London on the eve of the darkest architecture of Apartheid. Its strong cries of social protest were penned while he was head of the Diepkloof Penitentiary for delinquent African boys. It’s a compelling read... an argument for grace and forgiveness as the only way to peace and forgiveness. Mandela and Tutu were not alone in that. <br /><br />The themes and title haunt my soul daily, as does my homesickness for the Beloved Country. And my soul cries out still for grace and forgiveness still.<br /> <br />But every bone in my body aches for the time when the South African system has the strength and resources to find and bring before the Law criminals who prey on the innocent. <br /><br />I know Wits fights for that.Patnoreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-47741273130049997432010-05-06T20:35:55.710-04:002010-05-06T20:35:55.710-04:00It is interesting that students, trying to maintai...It is interesting that students, trying to maintain the principles they are developing as they mature,are so often the victims of the violent overreaction of those opposing their point of view. <br /><br />One of the iconic images of the Vietnam War is a picture of a girl kneeling next to the body of a young man who had just been shot by the Ohio National Guard. There had been demonstrations at Kent State University in Ohio for a few days. On April 30,1970, Nixon had announced that the US invasion of Cambodia. On Monday, May 4, a large demonstration of over 5000 students protested the invasion. The Ohio National Guard was called in to break up the demonstration. They fired tear gas but the wind was blowing in the wrong direction so it had no effect. Although no one was ever identified as having given the order, the guard then began firing on the protesters, killing four and wounding nine. <br /><br />The incident sparked riots, demonstrations and marches at colleges all over the United States. Five days after the shooting, 100,000 people arrived in Washington, DC to protest the killings at Kent State.<br /><br />The young woman in the picture was actually a 14 year-old runaway from Florida. The picture was taken by a photojournalism student, John Filo. He was awarded a Pulitzer Prize. He has worked for the Associated Press and Newsweek and is now employed by CBS.<br /><br />It is hard to believe that it happened 40 years ago this week. I was just out of college so missed the demonstrations but there were few campuses that didn't have some sort of memorial or protest over students, armed with rocks and empty tear-gas canisters, being shot at by well-armed military units. It seems rock-throwing young people are still fair game in some parts of the world.<br /><br />Bethbethhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/17405199782450351160noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-1990338437877873686.post-45594888742016655362010-05-06T18:29:22.846-04:002010-05-06T18:29:22.846-04:00I, too, am a Witsie - received my B.Sc. there in 1...I, too, am a Witsie - received my B.Sc. there in 1970 in Statistics.<br /><br />StanAnonymousnoreply@blogger.com