Among the Scholars

Rhodes Scholars represent America's cream of the crop. From the presidency on down, they have held positions as Governors, Senators, Congressmen, head of armed forces and spy agencies, Supreme Court Justices, top athletes, actors, singers, writers, and brilliant scholars. Regardless of their party affiliation, Rhodes Scholars tend to be moderate and enlightened. With a well-documented history of misleading the Americans, one cannot imagine someone like President Bush or his vindictive neo-conservative amen corner of being Rhodes Scholars. They are not.

Although he was scheduled to come and speak, President Clinton (1968) did could not come because of his trip to Africa. Fellow Arkansasian, former Commander in Chief of NATO and last year's Democratic Party primary candidate, General Wesley Clark (1966), came and participated in a symposium entitled, "A New Era in Transatlantic Relations?" In person, General Clark turned out to be a man of rather modest physical stature. He lamented America's misadventure in Iraq. The General, who is credited with saving the Muslims of Kosovo, recalled how frustrating, yet, how vital it was to have a coalition of European nations backing his Kosovo mission. He contrasted that with the Bush administration's go-it-alone policy in Iraq and its disastrous aftermath. The General, who was also courted by the Republicans before he decided to be a Democrat, recounted how surprised he was to see the Republican gatherings so gung ho about attacking Iraq and how contemptuous they were of the dissent of traditional allies such as France and Germany.

The head of the CIA under President Carter, Stansfield Turner (1947), chaired a session on "The Role of Intelligence on National Security." I asked the Democratic Senator from Maryland, Paul Sarbanes (1954), privately what America should do in Iraq. He told me a story, the moral of which he summarised at the end: "I voted against the bill authorising President Bush to use force in Iraq. You should ask those who voted for it to answer your question."

The New York Times columnist Nicholas Kristof (1981) participated in two sessions, "Do We Have an Obligation to Undertake Humanitarian Intervention Abroad?" and "The Media and 21st Century Politics." I told Nicholas to tell Tom Friedman that Muslim Americans are furious with Friedman for his malicious statements about them. Nicholas said that he does not see Friedman that often because Friedman lives in the Washington, DC area, but will tell him what I said when he sees him. Anyone reading Nicholas Kristof will appreciate his humanity, as exemplified by his highlighting of the rape of Pakistani physician Dr. Shazia Khalid. Dr. Shazia was raped by a Pakistani Army Captain in Baluchistan, and instead of punishing the culprit, the government of General Musharraf drugged her, and threatened her and her relatives with death if she did not keep quiet, and finally expelled her to London. The humanity of Kristof (Rhodes Scholar) contrasts sharply with the anti-Muslim, anti-Arab hypocrisy of Tom Friedman (Marshall Scholar).

The qualifications for the Rhodes scholarship are changing. Academic excellence was and continues to be the top criterion. However, whereas excellence in extracurricular activities, as evidence by achievements in sports, used to be a major factor, "extracurricular activities" has now evolved into any activity besides academics, such as writing of a book, founding or editing magazines, proficiency in music, excellence in social service, and so on. Most Scholars these days are close to geniuses. I asked a Scholar sitting next to me at a joint session what he did and he said, he had done his D.Phil. in Economics from Oxford in three years, researched at Harvard, was a professor at Princeton, and now teaches at Yale! The writer encouraged a batch-mate of his, who was a long term mayor of Baltimore, to run for higher office. Another batch-mate of the writer, who works at Princeton's plasma physics lab, is on the short list to win the Nobel Prize!

Unfortunately, the writer had to listen to some bad news. During the plenary session, the Warden of the Rhodes House and former Vice Chancellor of Oxford, Sir Colin Lucas, announced that the lone Rhodes scholarship awarded annually to Bangladesh has been suspended for five years. This humiliating news devastated the writer. Apparently, Bangladeshi scholars have not been performing well at Oxford. Surely, there are exceptionally talented students in Bangladesh worthy of the Rhodes. Clearly, they are not being selected. Something must be done to correct it.