[2739] in Discussion of MIT-community interests
Re: [Mit-talk] Gathering Undergraduate Opinion on Divestment from
daemon@ATHENA.MIT.EDU (Catherine A Moroski)
Wed Oct 25 10:13:44 2006
Date: Wed, 25 Oct 2006 10:12:52 -0400
From: Catherine A Moroski <moroski@mit.edu>
To: mit-talk@mit.edu
In-Reply-To: <453DC60B.9090301@mit.edu>
Errors-To: mit-talk-bounces@mit.edu
I fully support divestment from foreign companies that do business in
the Sudan.
The lack of response to the Darfur crisis brings back memories of
Rwanda. Let's do the right thing and make a stand against this.
Quoting Andrew Lukmann <lukymann@MIT.EDU>:
> Fellow Undergrads,
>
> -Please give feedback by this Wednesday at Noon to ua-president@mit.edu-
>
> Later this week, the Advisory Committee to the Corporation on
> Shareholder Responsibility (ACSR) will once again meet to discuss the
> topic of divestment from foreign companies doing business in the
> Sudan in light of the Darfur Crisis. Though MIT's holdings in
> pertinent companies are small, the committee is charged with
> recommending to the Executive Committee of the Corporation relevant
> actions (if any), possibly including divestment, active or passive
> engagement or total disengagement. Over the past few months, the
> committee has investigated prior divestment campaigns at MIT and the
> current efforts by other universities across the country to divest.
>
> The situation in the Darfur has been identified by the European
> Union, the U.S. State Department and the United States Congress as
> genocide. Major media sources report that at least 200,000 people
> have been killed and in excess of 2.5 million displaced since early
> 2003. A UN Commission reported that "government forces and militias
> conducted indiscriminate attacks, including killing of civilians,
> torture, enforced disappearances, destruction of villages, rape and
> other forms of sexual violence, pillaging and forced displacement,
> throughout Darfur." It also found that "most attacks were
> deliberately and indiscriminately directed against civilians."
>
> Though there are obviously issues of precedent to consider when
> moving to divest holdings, it is my opinion that there are certainly
> moral absolutes that have the potential to transcend these concerns.
> I want to represent the full breadth of student opinions on this
> issue, so please reply to me (ua-president@mit.edu) or write to
> mit-talk@mit.edu to provide feedback. If you have any particularly
> important testimony to present (personal experience, detailed
> information) I can likely get you invited to a committee meeting as
> well.
>
> Please submit your feedback by Wednesday at noon. Though this likely
> will not be the last opportunity to provide feedback on this issue,
> the more information I have going into this next meeting, the better.
>
> For information from the NY Times on the Sudan, visit:
> http://topics.nytimes.com/top/news/international/countriesandterritories/sudan/index.html
>
> Yours as always,
> Andrew Lukmann
> UA President
>
--
Steeplechase: "Run, turn left, if anything gets in your way, jump over it.
REPEAT AS NECESSARY."
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