TOWARDS A GREATER TOMORROW ...

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To be a witness at an historical event is a privilege. I was there when it happened. After I arrived in Madurai on 17 July 2009, every Wednesday became a day of expectation and disappointment waiting for the verdict of the High Court. Finally it arrived and how! Fantastic! Victory on all counts! I gave a talk on 25 August, inaugurating the PG Zoology and Immunology and Microbiology Association for the year 2009. It felt like celebrating the birth of a child. There were joyous faces around and there were crackers going off, but there were also a few sore faces probably regretting to have chosen the losing side like those expecting a baby and getting an aborted foetus instead.

It is important to remember that one should be graceful in victory. It is like a boxing match; when you win you shake hands with your opponent who was trying to murder you a minute ago. Remember that the pain from blows received is common to both. If Nelson Mandela could forgive the South African White despite all atrocities committed in his homeland, so could you. NM was no Gandhi, he did not show his other cheek and NM’s supporters shed blood not only their own, but their enemies’ as well. There was a Robben Island, but there was no retribution when the victory arrived. If that could happen in SA, so could it in AC. Try and put back American College where it only originally belonged and build a great institution it once was. It will take time to recover from the trauma, but it would happen if faster energies are directed towards positive goals. Throw away the thoughts of revenge unless the individuals involved are criminals who have to be prosecuted in a court of law for criminal offences against people and property. Be more Christian than the Christians who tried to hurt you. A student or a faculty who supported the other side believing in their cause is not a criminal. So embrace them, rehabilitate them and integrate them into your community. I do not even see the need to vote and give an opinion on who the more serious criminal was. What are we going to achieve by it?

When I come back to American College, the next year, I would like to see my beloved college on solid tracks heading towards a greater glory. Would it be too much to ask for a “cleaner” college, both physically and ethically?


Professor Reginald Victor
Director, Centre for Environmental Studies and Research (CESAR)
Sultan Qaboos University, PO Box 36, PC 123
Sultanate of Oman