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Darfur's Direct Bearing
Submitted by Kevin Murray on Tue, 02/06/2007 - 8:01pm.
By what moral standard can it be said that the deaths of over 300,000 people have no "direct bearing" on you, me, or the University of Chicago? We know where that logic leads.
The same day that Chicago made its unfortunate decison, Calvert, a prominent family of socially responsible mutual funds, announced a partnership with the Sudan Divestment Task Force and the Save Darfur Movement to assist the growing campaign for Sudan divestment.
"Divestment helped isolate apartheid South Africa, and we believe that divestment can intensify the pressure on the government of Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur.
Mr. Freeman's remark suggests that he believes that genocide in Darfur has a direct bearing on his institution and its sense of social responsibility. Some of the country's elite institutions of higher learning could learn from Calvert.
Just yesterday, UUSC urged activists around the country to contact their representatives and ask them to support legislation by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) to promote and protect appropriate Sudan Divestment initiatives. If your moral compass suggests that the genocide in Darfur has a direct bearing on us all, why not find out if your representative is supporting this legislation?
Darfur calls.
A number of very important institutional investors are listening. They've heeded the call of the Sudan Divestment Campaign to pursue a "targeted divestment strategy" vis-à-vis companies that are doing well, but not good, in Sudan.
Yes, divestment is a serious action for an institution, but Darfur is a serious situation. Companies developing Sudan's oil resources or building up its telecommunications systems in ways that strengthen the Bashir regime and directly benefit its leaders are aiding and abetting a genocide.
The University of Chicago apparently has a different idea. The university's trustees have decided not to divest that part of their $5 billion endowment invested in companies doing business in Sudan. Instead, they've decided to spend $200,000 to study the situation. No one can say that the university isn't doing anything, right? Nice number . . . $200,000 amounts to less than a dollar for each person who has died in Darfur since the genocide began in 2003.
“The Board [of Trustees] determined that it would not change its investment policy or its longstanding practice of not taking explicit positions on social and political issues that do not have a direct bearing on the University.”
-- U. of Chicago President Robert Zimmer
By what moral standard can it be said that the deaths of over 300,000 people have no "direct bearing" on you, me, or the University of Chicago? We know where that logic leads.
The same day that Chicago made its unfortunate decison, Calvert, a prominent family of socially responsible mutual funds, announced a partnership with the Sudan Divestment Task Force and the Save Darfur Movement to assist the growing campaign for Sudan divestment.
"Divestment helped isolate apartheid South Africa, and we believe that divestment can intensify the pressure on the government of Sudan to stop the killing in Darfur.
-- Bennett Freeman, Calvert's senior VP of social research and policy
Mr. Freeman's remark suggests that he believes that genocide in Darfur has a direct bearing on his institution and its sense of social responsibility. Some of the country's elite institutions of higher learning could learn from Calvert.
Just yesterday, UUSC urged activists around the country to contact their representatives and ask them to support legislation by Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) to promote and protect appropriate Sudan Divestment initiatives. If your moral compass suggests that the genocide in Darfur has a direct bearing on us all, why not find out if your representative is supporting this legislation?
