The University of Johannesburg has formally cut its ties with Ben Gurion University, suspending an ongoing water purification program. It followed a petition signed by 400 South African academics calling for the University to end the 25-year-old relationship. "Israeli universities are an intimate part of the Israeli regime, by active choice," Nobel Prize Archbishop Tutu wrote. "While Palestinians are not able to access universities and schools, Israeli universities produce the research, technology, arguments and leaders for maintaining the occupation." He is only saying what Ben Gurion academics have been saying all the time. Only that the Israelis knew that it was false and had adopted that position only to show the world that they were in side of the "good" and against those "evil" Zionists.
It didnt help them.
We are hearing voices from BGU that they didnt really want to co-operate with Johanessburg, that the place is not what it was but has decayed to sheer chaos, and anyway, the South Africans are losing Israeli water technology while we are losing nothing.
13 comments:
Johannesburg is situated in an area known as the "Witwatersrand",or,in English, "the ridge of white water". Its sister University, the much better known "Wits" did indeed, and might still be a centre of excellence in mining engineering.
This is an irony, since all the groundwater there is now heavily contaminated with run-off from the mines, and in fact they are now desperately in need of good water technology.
But no, the powers that pee would rather be pure in heart; that is until they all get cholera or can no longer fill their swimming pools.
If I were you J, I would quietly check out the commercial opportunities.Chronic diarrhea has a wonderful purgative effect on moral fatuity.
Anon.
BGU is a funny place; of all the places to have an arch-leftist university, they had to choose Be'er Sheva? They're surrounded by the enemy!
Desmond Tutu never met a revolutionary he didn't like. He has nothing to say to his brother Mugabe, but about Israel, the Americans the environment he shoots his mouth off. Clerics like him are the bane of Christians.
Ivan
Self-hating Jews always have this problem. No matter how much they denounce their fellow Jews, to an anti-Semite they are just dirty Jews too. All their efforts to distance themselves from other Jews gains them nothing. This is just another version of pretending to be Scott when you are really Moishe. These people are pretending to be Che when they really are Chaim. But their fellow "revolutionaries" see only Chaim wearing the beard of a Jew.
I myself have this problem - there are a few time in life when I have tried to wear a dashing Indiana Jones type fedora (Harrison Ford is himself partly Jewish) and on me it makes me look like I am coming from a Litvish Yeshiva.
K
Imagine how would you feel in a Litvish Yeshiva looking like Indiana Jones...
Johannesburg University was formerly the Rand Afrikaans University (RAU). I cant believe that all the technical knowledge of generations has been lost. South African water technology was among the most advanced only a few years ago.
I don't know if the water engineering skills have been lost but at the end of the day, when the intellectual elite keep leaving for "overseas", nothing of value can be long sustained.
Thus the failure to control violent crime, and the burgeoning corruption, both of which cause talented people to leave, are in fact real crimes against humanity, except the humanity in this case is the future generations of all South Africans.
But hey, when you don't have a future orientation, who cares about that?
The "International Community", which would have realized this very well, and could have negotiated a resolution in SA (and Zim) which protected the physical security and property rights of white people, while still ending apartheid, are guilty of this crime.
For as long as the gold price is high, the SA Govt will always be able to buy in expertise to solve the problems which previously we could have dealt with ourselves.
But when the gold runs out, or the price tanks, unless they retain the high IQ, hard working middle class, SA will become progressively like Haiti.
So for the time being J, there will be huge opportunities there, for a good water engineer. All you have to do is incorporate in Singapore and no-one will care about where you really live.
Anon.
Opportunities are distractions.
But money is money.
And you can make a lot of money in SA.
Anon.
Tutu complains that Palestinians are not able to attend universities. Meanwhile, founding committee member of the Palestinian Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel (PACBI) is currently studying for a masters degree in philosophy at Tel Aviv University.
Hypocrisy 101.
That should say Omar Barghouti founding committee member ...
I teach in the academia and there are many Arab students and faculty. They are being pushed ahead and given preference. But these people are impervious to the truth.
Like a Pavlovian experiment, they more they are rewarded, the more they complain.
Anon.
I assume the reference is to salivating dogs.
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