Saturday, July 26, 2008

Mugabe and MSU

Michigan State University is considering revoking the honorary degree they gave to dictator Robert Mugabe. He is currently committing genocide in Zimbabwe, as well as destroying the currency through hyperinflation. Revoking his degree has been a cause of some conservative students at MSU for a while.

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Will MSU revoke Mugabe's degree?

When Zimbabwe's President Robert Mugabe arrived at Capital City Airport in the fall of 1990, he was greeted by a crowd of flag-waving well-wishers.

He had come to speak at Michigan State University and to receive an honorary Doctor of Laws degree.

As that degree was conferred, former MSU President John DiBiaggio said of Mugabe, "He is a man who stands here on this stage before us, but he is also a man, I can tell you, who stands with us."

It's likely that none of MSU's leaders would speak those words today.

A one-time liberation leader, Mugabe is widely viewed as a tyrant, his country locked in the grip of skyrocketing inflation, a man-made famine, an economy on the brink of collapse.

And MSU officials are now considering whether the university should strip Mugabe of the degree it once bestowed.

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