City Council has agreed to divest its holdings in any companies that do business with Sudan’s government, Rachana Dixit writes in the Progress. The city doesn’t think that any of its $87M in investments are going to be affected, but it does set a policy for staff going forward. Sudan is a seriously bad situation, with the government having killed hundreds of thousands of their own citizens in the past few years. Most states in the nation now have policies similar to Charlottesville’s, as do nineteen other cities.
News and meta-news about Charlottesville, VA, since 2001.
Sideblog
Police announced this afternoon that their investigation into what was initially believed to be a fatal fire on Rugby Avenue is now a homicide investigation. #
The Virginia Supreme Court has denied George Huguely’s appeal. His second-degree murder conviction will stand, WRIC reports. #
In a carefully worded story, and not citing specific sources, WTVR reports that forensic evidence belonging to Jesse Matthew Jr., the main suspect in the disappearance of Hannah Graham, matches forensic evidence collected during the investigation of Morgan Harrington’s 2009 murder. #
In the wake of Hannah Graham’s disappearance, and the evidence that came from private security footage, city officials are revisiting the question of installing security cameras on the downtown mall. #
Both Charlottesville Registrar Sheri Iachetta and former Electoral Board member Stephanie Commander have turned themselves in to the police on
foursix and four felony counts of embezzlement, respectively. #Ten years ago, the National Institutes of Health budget doubled and schools like the University of Virginia built massive new research facilities. A decade later, those buildings remain largely underutilized. NPR visits UVA in this story on the effect of federal binge and spurge spending in the sciences. #
In 2012, Council approved a new student housing complex on West Main—now some council members are questioning whether what they were shown matches what was built. #
The Architectural Review Board has approved a bike-themed mural on West Market, below the McGuffey Art Center, although at least one member expressed concerns that it might look like the bicyclists were riding away from Charlottesville’s downtown. #
City Police Chief Tim Longo is meeting with city leaders to work on protocols regarding the use of military surplus police weapons in Charlottesville. #
A 100-year-old Colonnades resident received military honors for her service in the WWII Women’s Army Corps #
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Might make us feel good, but I doubt if any Sudanese person, citizen or official, gives a rip if C-ville “writes them off.” I doubt if there are many (if any) people in Sudan who even know of C-ville. It is obvious, by the report, that there is hardly a chance that C-ville has any investments in companies involved in Sudan.
The Sudanese citizens are not the targets of this measure. The Sudanese officials are. It is much larger than C-ville “writ[ing] them off.” Yes, if one city decides to divest from an area it will not have an impact. The impact is made when many divest and Sudanese divestment is a growing movement. Foreign investment is vital and this shows the government that there will be no foreign investment in their country. You might argue that they dont/wont care and that might be true. But I can guarantee they would love to have foreign capital flowing into their economy.
The biggest problem Putin will face on his Georgia issue will be similar in nature. It is the fact that his actions speak to a fear of lawlessness from the government which will slow down investment.
And Sudan has much less to work with than Russia.
Yeah, and let’s not forget that Charlottesville is the center of the universe and everybody watches and cares what it does.
Just because a particular action won’t have an earth-shattering effect, that doesn’t necessarily mean that we shouldn’t DO it. At the very least, it’s a matter of principle.
Besides what else would you suggest? Should Charlottesville invade Sudan on a peacekeeping mission?
Tiny- you may not be able to change the world but you can change your little part of it…
Folks, Sudan doesn’t care about Charlottesville. They get their investment money from China who is buying their oil and other mineral rights.
Money for Oil is real, but its the Chinese who are behind it.
Divestment campaigns are based on a fundamental misunderstanding of how equity markets work.
Its not changing Sudan’s financial situation. Once a stock issue has been made, the corporation doesn’t care whether you sell it, burn it, or anything else, because they’ve already got all the money they’re ever going to get from that stock. So they don’t care.
We can’t divest unless we sell it to somebody. And if we burn the stock, that just helps the corporation, because it reduces the amount of stock outstanding, so that can’t be right. If we sell it to somebody, we have just gotten rid of our guilt in order to impose guilt on somebody else.