The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has a wonderful, well-deserved reputation as one of the leading beacons in the world when it comes to advancing knowledge and enlightenment.
That said: Not all of their graduates go on to the kind of distinguished career the MIT community might hope for. Take Ali Akbar Salehi (please!), for example. The Iraq-born Salehi's current title is Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Islamic Republic of Iran (that's a Reuters pic of him on the right). But in 1977, MIT awarded him a doctorate. He also spent time at the International Centre for Theoretical Physics. So he must be a smart guy. And yet, this week while I was in New York covering the United Nations, I watched him embarrass himself with this statement to the equally embarrassing charade known as Durban III.
Canada, to its great credit, was the first country to boycott the UN-sponsored Durban process. Canada got the hint that it was all going to turn out rather badly when it learned that Durban II, the 2009 followup to the 2001 hatefest the UN sponsored in Durban, South Africa, would be led by those notorious human rights champions: Moammar Ghadhafi’s Libya, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s Iran and Fidel Castro’s Cuba (the conference chair, vice-chair, and rapporteur respectively). The U.S., the UK, France and others followed Canada's lead in abandoning the UN-sponsored Durban process. And even though Ahmadinejad, at Durban II, was applauded (!) by other UN member countries for condemning Israel for being “totally racist”, senior UN officials chose to criticize Canada (!) for not showing up to listen to such drivel rather than criticize Iran or those who applauded Iran.
And so we come to Durban III, held Thursday at the UN in New York. I was there and I watched this from Salehi: It's just three minutes long but here's the audio This is what hate sounds like, folks . And if you'd like read
Excerpt: “…Supporters of the racist Zionist regime (that would be Canada et al) boycotted this conference on the account that this might support those Palestinians who have been victims of such state racism in the occupied territories …
Salehi, incidentally, spoke in a UN meeting room minutes before his boss spoke to the UN General Assembly. Canada didn't even show up for this nuttiness and most Western diplomats walked out a few minutes into Ahmadinejad's rant. Watch for yourself by clicking here.