David, there are many, many investments Wesleyan could make that will help build the endowment AND a better world, and by “better world” I don’t mean a world with more-advanced technologies of death. Why not invest in green energy, or hybrid cars? Or micro-loans? Or even something neutral, like Google? Why is war the best investment we can make? Google would have made us a lot more money. Let’s be brainy for a moment: We can NOT invest in war and make just as much money as doing so. War kills people. Therefore, we should invest in something that is not war.
You told us proudly that the WSA spent hours contemplating the resolution for divestment; well, you shouldn’t have. When someone suggests divesting from death campaigns—Darfur, the Iraq War, whatever—it should come as a no-brainer. What would you have done if it was the 1980s, and we were talking about Apartheid divestment? Actually, the answer to that question might not be so clear-cut to you, Dave. I understand you have a Confederate flag in your room, which may make my Apartheid-as-bad example less convincing to you. I hope, though, that at some level deep down you can recognize that it is wrong to slaughter innocent human beings for political or economic ends.
Mr. Knappenberger, did you read the New York Times last Friday, the one with the story about Norway’s $300 billion oil wealth? As one of the largest investors in the world, the nation of Norway is taking a bold step by divesting from unethical companies. The first to suffer from their Scandinavian peace-wrath? Wesleyan darlings General Dynamics and Raytheon, for producing inhumane weapons such as cluster bombs. Each of these bombs break up into hundreds of smaller bomblets that descend on parachutes sending tens of thousands of pieces of sharp metal into any living thing within a several-city-block radius; many (Raytheon) cluster bombs fail to detonate and fall into fields and streets, exploding long after the war and killing unlucky but innocent passerby. God forbid, Mr Knappenberger, that Wesleyan follow the lead of Norway and countless other “socially conscious” investment portfolios by pulling capital from these lovely military innovations.
David, as a history major I’m sure you’ve noticed that America’s military might isn’t entirely benevolent. Didn’t you have any modern history classes about Iran, Guatemala, Vietnam, Chile, El Salvador, Nicaragua, or Panama? Even if you weren’t paying attention, don’t you have any moral qualms with today’s war, the one that sent Wesleyan’s General Dynamics shares up over 250%? Does it bother you that well over half a million Iraqi civilians have died, and over three thousand US soldiers as well? And where are the weapons of mass destruction, my friend? I’m surprised that in your history lessons you haven’t come across some mention of big business supporting US military aggression. Or maybe you are paying attention, and you just feel that the spoils of atrocity are a needed boost to our endowment. David, when I ask so provocatively why you go to school here, it’s because a Wesleyan history major should have some kind of historical memory.
I think what we have, then, is an ideological battle. I ask sarcastically why you come to this school because I’m implying that students who go to Wesleyan usually learn something about the world. Many of us become upset about America’s tendency to throw minorities into prison, or our post-9/11 inclination to say “fuck you” to the world. Some of us aren’t keen on absurdist US abstinence policies that keep AIDS medication and condoms out of Africa. A number of us don’t like the Bush administration’s refusal to do anything that is not ironic. More relevant to this Wespeak, I imply that students who go to this school understand why making cluster bombs and landmines is inherently wrong. I fully comprehend, Mr. Knappenberger, that there are excellent profits to be made out of arms making. But while Wesleyan adds some abstract amount to our half-billion-dollar cash heap, someone—somewhere in the Third World—is getting killed by the weapons we helped make.
Last year American weapons, in particular weapons made by Raytheon, were given to the Ethiopian army to invade Somalia, where hundreds of thousands have fled their homes, and thousands of civilians have died. The worst violence has occurred there since American soldiers disastrously went into Somalia in 1993 (using Raytheon and General Dynamics weapons, which were seized by rebel groups and have helped warlords terrorize Mogadishu ever since). So while you toil to continue investment in the makers of those weapons, I “whine ineffectually” by raising money to feed the desperate, starving refugees fleeing that conflict. I’m truly impressed, Mr. Knappenberger, that you can be conscious of all this, and then look at our investments and think: “14% annual return to investment! I sure am helping the world.”
Mr. Knappenberger—if that is your real name—you rant to me about effecting change, yet your proudest accomplishments in the WSA bring slightly higher levels of convenience to the most privileged people on earth. “Effecting change” in the world does NOT mean a weekly shuttle to New Haven. While I thank you for working hard to help us wallow in our own wastefulness, why didn’t you just give out maps for the fucking $1 CT Transit buses that run every hour to New Haven? Considering the billions of people engulfed in hopeless poverty, shielding Wesleyan students from working class public transit isn’t really “effecting change.”
This isn’t about whether America should withdrawl from Iraq now and let civil war occur, or whether we should delay the situation we created and let them have their civil war a bit later. This is about whether it’s right that Wesleyan make money off of the whole thing.
David, you’ve told me to get a haircut to be taken seriously. I won’t. I like my hair. I think it’s nice. Now I’m telling you that if you want to be taken seriously, you should take down the Confederate flag from your dorm room wall. After all, there’s some baggage associated with that whole slavery thing. Or are you going to defend that as well?
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