Posted on 11/20/2005 2:05:35 PM PST by gradgirl
I am a graduate student at an unnamed public university in the western US. I recently encountered yet another example of how liberals are corrupting the institutional space where we are supposedly producing 'knowledge' by promoting lies disguised as facts. Specifics: We watched a film (produced 2000) called 'Lumumba' about the Congalese Prime Minister who was killed in 1961. Afterwards, a student (and it is worth noting that she is from another French-speaking African nation) gave a presentation about Patrice Lumumba in which she stated that his death had been ordered by President Eisenhower through the CIA. Upon hearing this 'fact', I was immediately doubtful as to its underlying truth. The professor then chimed in that this was not the only case in which the US had ordered leaders of newly emerging democracies to be killed as similar things had occurred in Latin America.
I have a number of problems with what happened the other day. And I would also like to ask the Free Republic members for any information they have about the truth of Lumumba and his death. My first problem: I suspect these are lies. I spoke with someone who informed me that Lumumba was not only communist, but dictator-like and NOT popular at all with his people (as depicted in the film.) Second, if an African nation were on its way to being successful, this is exactly what a US President would WANT. The reason given in the class for the US killing Lumumba was that we were afraid of the threat the Congo would pose to our world dominance!!! Third, I looked around at the class (composed of undergrads as well as grads) and in particular at one young undergrad. She is not particularly academic and I suspect she will just accept what she heard in class without any further investigation. And she probably represents the average student.
On another level, I wanted to raise a topic for discussion: the liberal bias in academia and what to do about it. My first impulse upon leaving class was to drop everything and get as far away as possible from this institutionalized lying. I am fed up with it! But another side of me wants to root out this corruption from academia (if that's even possible) and I feel that the only way one can do this is to stay within the system and work that way. What do people think?
One final note: If I had been armed with facts and challenged what people were saying about Lumumba, I would have been ripped apart not only by the students, but by the professor. Further, I would come off as racist because people would have asked how I could know better than someone FROM a nearby African nation (i.e. the presenter). This is of course another issue -- playing the race card (or something similar) to prevent challenges to the espoused facts and to cast the challenger into a direly negative light.
My heart goes out to you, gradgirl. Been there, done that, bought the T-shirt. But you mustn't suffer in vain!
You may want to arm yourself with the following- just some gentle suggestions.
You might go to www.frontpagemag.org which is David Horowitz' site, and see his
Academic Bill of Rights and
Students for Academic Freedom (under the left-hand column entitled, "Campus Watch") and
Academic Freedom Abuse Center (where he asks people to help document the abuse).
Also, there is a clear, concise explantion of Leftists taking over American Academe in a terrifc new book by Jack Cashill, "Hoodwinked: How Intellectual Hucksters Have Hijacked American Culture". Another great book is Horowitz', "Unholy Alliance: Radical Islam and the American Left". These two books let us know what we're dealing with on campus and in the Old Media and parts of the Entertainment industry. And Horowitz is getting favorable results for "abused" students like yourself.
This experience should point out to you the extremes of worth and lack of worth to the degree you are working for with honest effort.
First, the degree will get you hired. An working in your chosen field is where you will make a difference, not here.
Secondly, learning the tripe that is part of that degree's pedigree will cause you to properly evaluate the content of that degree education and therefore you will prudently begin to actually educate yourself post-graduation.
My opinion? The Belgians did it. Why? The almighty buck.
There's a tiny history of Lamumba at Wikipedia, and the events cited should be easily researched. This article claims that, whoever really shot him, the Belgians and the UN were responsible for guarding him; apparently, after Lamumba escaped from imprisonment, the UN declared they were no longer responsible for his safety. Sounds about right. So, see http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Lumumba .
In any event, the late, large, liberal Pres Lyndon Johnson would have
been in office when Lamumba was killed.
Johnson took office in '63, after Kennedy's assassination.
The US has not opposed democracy in Latin America. The US has, however, opposed control of Latin American countries by dictators supported by the USSR and other anti-democratic nations. Same goes for nations in Africa.
One way the Dhimmicrats and other single party state advocates try to spin things, is to "teach children how to read" by using commie texts for the little tykes. "We were only teaching them how to read for the first time, and the wealthy landowners / imperialists / CIA naturally tried to stop us."
"Johnson took office in '63, after Kennedy's assassination."
Of course, you are right. Sorry. I was thinking Lamumba died in '64, but he was shot in '61, when Kennedy was filled with viggah. I'm not implying, btw, that Kennedy was responsible.
Welcome to FR.
I do not know much about Lumumba. I do believe there have been CIA assassinations of inconvenient people in the past. However, that has been illegal for some years (His Slickness's administration dithered about what to do about Bin Laden for precisely this reason) and the professor should have known this.
AFA being called racist, the response to that is they are themselves racist by assuming that only certain people can discuss the issue (e.g. being from a country in Africa). This referencing of ethnicity as a source of authoritative criticism is similar to what people like the left and Jack Murtha do in criticizing the war. "If you haven't served then you have no right to have an opinion about this," which is of course, BS.
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