Columbia Political Review | October
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REVIEW I | Issue VIII COLUMBIA | Volume POLITICAL A COLUMBIA 2008 POLITICAL UNION PUBLICATION October “Violence Against Our Intellect” Why the 2007 Hunger Strike Still Matters By Catherine Chong Columbia Political Review | October INSIDE: Street Art at the Bronx Museum | Crypto-fascism | Presidenting Rwanda | Student Poll on ROTC oct 08 cprstaff Editor-in-Chief Design Editors Karen Leung Sarah Cohler Charles E. T. Roberts Publisher Sajaa Ahmed Ideas Editors Kabita Parajuli Managing Editors David Zhou Sara Doskow Sara Vogel Outreach Editors Devon Galloway Managing Editor Maisha Rashid of Special Projects Tiffany Tang Eric Lukas Head Copy Editor Senior Editors Annie Ma Ayla Bonfiglio Michael Brener Campus Editors Catherine Chong Erin Conway Ian Crone Kati Fossett Jamie Kessler Sophia Merkin Ben Small Poll Analyst Art Editor Nicolas Alvear Stacy Chu Business Managers Deputy Art Editor Alex Frouman Taimur T. Malik Max Mogensen 2 Columbia Political Review | cpreview.org [ the contents ] Four ____________________________ Sixteen ______________________ Twenty Two ______________________ Strategic Alliances “Violence Against Our Nothing Super Rwanda’s president and his Intellect” Caped crusaders and American Western dream team crypto-fascism in Alan Moore’s Why the 2007 hunger strike Watchmen Ayla Bonfiglio still matters Billy Goldstein Catherine Chong Six _____________________________ Eight _________________________ Insuring the Dream Fourteen _____________________ More Manet Than Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, and a national ethos Higher Education and Grandmaster Flash Michael Tannenbaum Street Art, Street Life at the the Highest Office Bronx Museum of Art The future of student life via Richard Prins Twenty Five ______________________ John and Barack Enough is Enough Adam Aisen, Erin Conway, Miguel Thirteen _________________________ Lavalle, Nina Pedrad “A More Interesting One boy’s murder mobilizes Mexico Question” Cover ___________________________ Karen Woodin New Core at Center for the (A)Political Student Study of Ethnicity and Race Twelve __________________________ Ink Drawing Interview with Professors Mae Ngai and Claudio Lomnitz Without the Right Stacy Chu International students at the Phyllis Ma fringe of American politics Sarah Khan Twenty Six ____________________ Student Poll: Politics of Recruitment Poll Analysis by Nicolas Alvear Graphic Design by Sarah Cohler Columbia Political Review | October Strategic Alliances Rwanda’s President and his Western dream team Ayla Bonfiglio he roads in Kigali are from demands that he stand trial for geno- done with Google’s Larry Page, who provided perfectly paved. The car cide crimes he may have committed as lead- the country with free web-based software— rides are conspicuously er of the Rwandan Patriotic Front (RPF). Look- but also to individuals with the potential to smooth, and the taxi-mo- ing at these two stances with a critical eye, become the next generation of leaders. torcyclists wear green hel- one needs to consider Kagame as an engineer Stepping back to the February head- T mets and carry extras for of strategic events. The most recent was the line-maker that first drew my attention to passengers. In East Afri- president’s participation in the Compton Lec- Kagame’s strategic networking: former Brit- ca, this is not the norm. ture at the Massachusetts Institute of Tech- ish Prime Minister Tony Blair voluntarily be- During my conversations with university stu- nology (MIT) in September 2007. came advisor to the East African leader. At a dents in Rwanda’s capital city, one explana- Dr. Susan Hockfield, MIT President, in- press conference in Kigali, Mr. Blair explained tion emerged for these superficial signs of de- troduced him graciously as a man “working that his involvement with Rwanda is a result velopment: President Paul Kagame. to transform Rwanda from a poor country of the strides the country has made in “over- Western notables consider Kagame, ap- trapped in subsistence farming to a thriv- coming trauma” since the genocide, a state- pointed temporarily in 2000 and then elected ing, modern, knowledge-based economy with ment that reveals his investment in Kagame’s in 2003 as the first Tutsi to hold the post, part trading partners around the world.” President narrative of progress. Mr. Blair has said that of a new wave of African politicians bringing Kagame spoke to a packed auditorium on the he in- tends to foster Rwandan devel- Western ideals of progress to their countries. importance of information technology for the opment by using his interna- For his part, President Kagame has built an advancement of Rwandese society, then en- tional status to facilitate advisory network of Western stars—including treated his audience to become active foreign aid and private Bill Gates, Bill Clinton, Joe Ritchie, and Tony in his country’s development. investment. Blair—over the past few years, all toward mov- Moreover, he empha- To sustain the ing the country into international prominence. sized the country’s econom- This high-profile development ic advancement strategy begs examination: Can after gaining ad- we take Kagame’s tactics at mittance to the face value? Did not Western East African De- leaders have similar rela- velopment Bank tionships with Mobutu and launching a of Zaire when he first stock exchange assumed power? last January, Based on my Kagame also re- o b s e r v a t i o n s ceives counsel in Kigali and from acclaimed t h r o u g h o u t commodities and neighboring options trader Uganda, there Joe Ritchie and appear to be former president two distinct per- Bill Clinton. In spectives that the public health one could take on sector, President Kagame’s policies. Kagame partners with Bill The first is that the Gates and Harvard professor Paul president, genuinely de- Farmer, a leading specialist on public health voted to a massive de- potential in impoverished settings, to improve Rwan- velopment overhaul of his of a relationship dans’ healthcare access. The addition of Mr. country, is exploiting the in- HY Kim between his coun- Blair to the advising team is not extraordinary, ternational resources ripened try and the univer- but one action taken among many to engage by the post-genocide environment. Or, sity. In this way, Western leaders in strategic development. Kagame’s extensive network of influential he not only reached out to leaders in the sci- Thus it was no surprise when, during my vis- Western leaders is meant to divert attention ence and technology community—as he has it to Kigali, President Bush told reporters that Columbia Political Review | cpreview.org he considered President Kagame part of the oped map.” To this end, some hold that the Kagame has described the militias as a dan- “new generation of progressive African lead- president’s actions are attempts to focus ger to Rwanda. In the course of her field re- ers,” and later called him “a man of action” Western attention away from his controver- search, Barnard political science professor who can “get things done.” sial tenure in the RPF. Severine Autesserre found that numerous UN One should consider Blair’s advisory role A Rwandese friend explained to me that officials, soldiers, and other individuals living in light of Rwanda’s post-genocide develop- former General Kagame may well be guilty of and working in Rwanda do not see the Rwan- ment schemes and Kagame’s efforts to put “revenge killings” (or simply, “mass killings”). dese Hutu militias as a threat. She explains Rwanda on the map with the Western world. Moreover, there is controversy over whether that the rumor of danger could be “a pretext Ugandan political writer Andrew Mwenda he should be tried in court over claims that for [various elements of the Rwandese elite] poses a particularly poignant question when he ordered the assassination of former Pres- to remain in Congo,” to extract mineral re- he asks, “How can a small, poverty-strick- ident Habyarimana in 1994. Kagame said in sources and protect the Congolese of Rwan- “It is still too early to tell whether he is ‘walking the walk,’ but I did encounter aspects of Rwandan ‘development’ that throw doubt on the authenticity of his initiatives.” en country somewhere in the middle of Afri- a 2004 BBC interview that he was willing to dese descent. ca, having no rich minerals and almost of no stand trial for this second accusation, but in The two perspectives on Rwanda’s strate- strategic value in global politics, attract the 2007, he opposed the idea on the BBC pro- gic development contrast starkly. Leaders in attention of such an international states- gram HARDtalk. For over a year, French judge the West either hail Kagame as an innova- man as Blair?” Glancing at the news Rwan- Jean-Louis Bruguière has been compiling a tive force or as another dictator attempting da made in the month of March, the an- 70-page dossier on Kagame to implicate him to evade accountability. While the unbalanced swer seems clear: the president’s political in the murder that is said to have triggered development of Rwanda may suggest that and economic strategic positioning. the genocide. When the file was mentioned President Kagame seeks to deceive, the ev- The question now becomes: How is Pres- in an interview, the president answered, “It idence is far from concrete. Moreover, while ident Kagame’s dense network of allianc- is 70 pages of trash, of nothing, and I assure his selection of famous Westerners as infor- es improving the country? As Tony Blair ob- you that.” He has vehemently criticized the mal advisors do focus international attention served about Rwanda’s development, “The merits of the case and its sources because on his development schemes, this is in no vision is one thing and to make it happen of France’s alleged involvement in the geno- way conclusive about the president’s under- is another.” The president receives advice cide.