Naming and Shaming

My friend Sanjana Hattotuwa, a Sri Lankan who has been at the forefront of using ICT for peacebuilding and transformative conflict resolution, has developed a number of technology channels for what he calls "naming and shaming." Basically, if actors in a conflict are engaging in behavior that is destructive or improper, one function that conflict professionals can serve is to name the offending actors, and name the behavior in order to bring shame. One hopes that such naming and shaming would result in altered behavior, but if not, at least the behavior would be exposed and would have to be conducted in the open.

I've been thinking about naming and shaming for the past couple of weeks. The first thing that got me thinking was the public and semi-public falling out that the U.S. government and the government of Israel have had over new construction in East Jerusalem and the Palestinian Authority. For far too long it has been absolutely taboo to mention the detrimental effect on hopes for peace that actions of the Israeli government have had, so it is heartening that this U.S. administration has taken even baby steps in the direction of naming and shaming Israel's actions. We've been willing for a long time to rightly name and shame the Palestinians for corrupt government, internecine fighting, etc., so it's about time for some balance in our public statements. Whether naming and shaming will move the process along to some resolution is questionable - the issues are ridiculously complex - but it's a step.

The other thing that has prompted my thinking about shame is the behavior of the Tea Party activists and their cheerleaders. It is one thing to protest loudly, but quite another to engage in invective, particularly racist and homophobic invective, and to physically threaten and attack those with whom one disagrees. Shame on the ones who name-call and threaten, and shame on the Republican "leaders" who egg them on. For a good take on this from a black journalist, see Courtland Milloy's article in the Washington Post earlier this week: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/03/23/AR2010032304018.html