Wednesday, March 15, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 3
Palden Gyatso, a Tibetan monk, talks about the torture he suffered while in a Chinese prison. He said prison guards would pour boiling water on the monks because they wanted them to say that Tibet was a part of China. Since his release in August 1992, Gyatso has traveled the world speaking about the conditions in Tibet. Photo by Selena Jabara/KANSAN
Tibet issue simple, monk says
Speaker spent 33 years tortured in Chinese jails
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
By Ryan Blethen
Palden Gyatso, a thin, 64-year-old Tibetan monk swathed in a crimson robe, calmly told a crowd of about 90 people how a Chinese prison guard jammed an electric baton in his mouth and shocked him.
This was just one of the tales of torture that Gyatso relayed to the crowd at Alderson Auditorium in the Kansas Union last night. Gyatso used a translator to tell his story.
Gyatso was at the University of Kansas to talk about his 38 years in Chinese prisons and how the people of Tibet were suffering under Chinese rule. He was brought to the University by Students for a Free Tibet.
There should be no debate about whether Tibet should be an independent country, Gyatso said.
China's occupation of Tibet, which began in 1949, was not legal, Gyatso said. On March 10, 1959, Gyatso and thousands of other Tibetans took to the streets of Lhasa to peacefully protest China's occupation. He was arrested, beginning a 33-year journey through Chinese prisons.
"The Tibet issue is a very simple one," he said.
nine-hour days paving fields, he said.
"We were used as oxen. Gavisso said.
The Chinese turned Tibetan monasteries into prisons, Gyatso said.
"They plastered the windows," he said,
"There was no mattress and no toilet."
In prison, the young were forced to work nine-hour days plowing fields. he said.
If prisoners were too old for the rigors of plowing and other back-breaking work, they were made to pick up human excrement. One prisoner with Gyatso was executed on the spot for refusing to pick up the excrement.
"Chinese people consider human excrement better than human life." Gvatso said.
would put thumb cuffs behind his back, string a rope between his back and the cuffs and hang him in the air.
Holding up what he called an electric baton, like the one used in his mouth, he said that the batons also were used to torture Tibetan nuns.
"They used this cattle prod inside the private part of the woman," he said.
Gyatso said that the atrocities that happened to him till were happening today to the people of Tibet, but that he harbored no hard feelings toward those who tortured him.
"I don't have any hatred to my tormentors," he said.
Sarah Shik, Overland Park junior, said she came to see Gatyso speak because the situation in Tibet should be something Americans thought about more.
"I don't think it's something we think about enough in Kansas." she said.
City honors outgoing official
"I think that every single person deserves to live how they want," she said.
By John Audlehelm
Jenny Griffiths, Overland Park sophomore, said she attended the speech because of her interest in human rights and the message that Gvatso delivered.
By John Audlehnel
writer kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Mike Tubbs, management assistant with the city and Lawrence graduate student, said Bremby was a good person and coworker.
Former mayors, city commissioners and city employees gathered before last night's City Commission meeting to say goodbye to assistant city manager Rod Bremb, who will start working for the University of Kansas in April.
Bremby quit his job with Lawrence to become associate director of the KU Work Group on Health Promotion and Community Development.
"He's expressing some enthusiasm about the challenges the new position offers," he said. "He had excellent interpersonal and people skills. For me, he was an excellent mentor."
"I'm very happy for Rud pursuing this," she said. "It's going to be a real boost for his
Tubbs said he hoped he would keep in touch with Bremby throughout their careers.
Bob Schulte, former city commissioner and mayor, said that although it meant a loss for the city, he was happy Bremby
would be able to change jobs without moving.
Emily Dahlem, former secretary to the city manager, said that although she had retired in September 1998, she and Bremby had kept in touch.
"It's a great opportunity for Rod," he said. "He's done a great job with the city, and I don't see why he wouldn't do the same with the University."
career, and he's going to do a superb job."
Bremby said that he was flattered by the reception's turnout and that it reflected an effective city organization. He started working for Lawrence in 1990.
In other action:
The commission took steps toward pushing out Lawrence's eastern boundary to make room for the new American Eagle Outfitters distribution center.
The proposal had three parts: amend the city's long-range growth plan, Horizon 2020; annex about 94 acres east of East Hills Business Park; and rezone those acres to industrial land.
The last two proposals passed on a 4-1 vote on first reading, which means they must be passed once again on second reading and at a later date to become law.
The commission sent the first item back to the planning commission, which must finalize a recommendation about the amount of land to be annexed.
Old church now serves as apartments
Continued from page 1A
"I don't know if the spirituality has a play," Waters said. "But I think it is a beautiful old building."
George Waters, owner of George Waters Management, Inc. and manager of the property, agreed and said the structure was the key selling point.
Hart said she and Meazle knew it was a church when they moved into the place, but that the history of the building was not a motivating factor.
"There's a lot of different things we like about it." Hart said. "The fact it was a church certainly didn't have a negative impact."
Jennings began the more than $70,000 renovation project in about 1978, and according to the Lawrence city directory, it was first occupied in 1985.
The building, which was built in 1863, served as a United Presbyterian church from its inception until 1920, when the denomination was dissolved, said Dave Seal, coowner of the building.
Dick Pierson, pastor at West Side Presbyterian Church, 1024 Kasold Drive, said the ultra-conservative United wing of the Presbyterian church split away.
"They became Presbyterian USA, and United no longer exists," he said.
From there, according to the city direc.
tories, the building was used by Curtis and Preisach Contractors until 1929-30 when it was home to the Immanuel Lutheran Church. Because no property records were kept in Lawrence from 1931 through 1960, the activity in the building during that time is unknown. However, from at least 1961 until the time of its renovation, the building served as the Lawrence Bible Chapel.
Although it is fascinating, Seal said the building's history created problems when it came to finding tenants.
"It creates too much interest when there is a vacancy," Seal said. "People don't necessarily want to live there, they just want to see it."
Heavy drinking on campuses rising, study shows
The Associated Press
BOSTON — Binge drinkers on college campuses are likely to be white, live in a fraternity and have a history of binge drinking in high school. And the percentage of frequent bingers is on the rise, according to a study released yesterday by the Harvard School of Public Health.
The survey, conducted last year, was based on responses to written questionnaires from 14,000 students at 119 colleges around the country. The survey, sponsored by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, was published in the March issue of the Journal of American College Health. The margin of error was plus or minus 1 percent.
The study found the population of frequent binge drinkers rose last year to 22.7 percent of the student population, up from 19.8 percent in 1983 and 20.9 percent in 1997.
The percentage of students going on binges stayed roughly the same through the 1990s, but American campuses grew more
Binge drinker was defined as a man who drank at least five drinks in a row, or a woman who drank four, at least once in the two weeks prior to the survey. A frequent binge drinker had binged three or more times in the two weeks.
polarized between students whose binges are severe and students who don't touch alcohol.
"To make the situation harder for college administrators, most of these students do not feel they have a problem, and the large majority consider
While the study found binge drinkers have increased risks of missing class, falling behind in schoolwork, getting in trouble or getting hurt, it also found that such drinkers created "secondhand effects" on campus.
"I don't see a problem with it (binge drinking)" said Meredith Petrin, a 20-year-old Harvard junior. "It's a good release and it's fun."
themselves moderate drinkers," said Henry Wechsler, a social psychologist and Harvard researcher who led the study.
themselves moderate
College students part of group susceptible to schizophrenia
By Warisa Chulindra
By Warisa Chulindrc
writer@kansan.com
Kansan staff writer
Every day, Betty Visser hears a voice in her head that tells to her, "Cut your身体 and die."
She sees demons in her apartment, and when she sees people, they look angry and have faces as white as flour.
Visser, a 47-year-old Lawrence resident, has paranoid schizophrenia.
In the early 1980s, Visser was an art history graduate student at the University of Kansas. But she had to withdraw.
"I loved it, but I just couldn't focus," she said. She speaks to psychology classes at the University about her illness, which commonly begin in college-aged people.
The National Institute of Mental Health reports that one in 100 people in the United States has schizophrenia. More than 2 million Americans battle the illness each year.
Schizophrenia commonly occurs between the ages of 18 and 32, said Rue Cromwell, distinguished professor of clinical psychology. He said the early onsets of schizophrenia occurred in early adulthood from ages 16 to 18.
Visser began having hallucinations and hearing voices when she was an 18-year-old sophomore at the University of Denver.
"Things were coming unglued," she said. "It seemed like all the teachers were speaking Greek, and everyone but me could understand them."
Visser said she went on a special diet to purify herself. She only ate foods that were white, such as vanilla ice cream and yogurt.
"It's a cruel illness because it hits you just as you're becoming an adult," she said. "Just as you're getting your feet on the ground, you get struck down."
She eventually got a bachelor's degree in fine arts at the University of Iowa. She married and moved to New York City with her husband.
That's when both her husband and a friend told Visser she had changed and was acting differently. She went to a psychiatrist.
She stopped talking to people because she thought they could read her mind. Visser thought her thoughts were being flashed across her forehead.
She moved into her own apartment because she wanted to be alone. She was hospitalized in 1975 after she cut her wrists, and physicians diagnosed her illness as paranoid schizophrenia.
She went to Emporia State University and earned her master's degree in library science. Visser then worked at a library in Kansas City for a few years before she was hospitalized again.
After living in different homes and nursing homes, Visser moved to Lawrence permanently 1h 1989. She lives in her own apartment and lives off social security disability income. Her
SYMPTOMS OF SCHIZOPHRENIA
Initial symptoms may occur gradually; Mild feelings of tension
- inability to sleep or concentrate
Loss of interest in school work or friends
As the illness becomes worse, these symptoms may appear:
- Delusions: People may have false ideas, such as thinking someone is spying on them or thinking they are someone famous.
■ Hallucinations: People may hear imaginary voices that give commands or comments. It is less common for people to think they see, feel or taste something that does not exist.
Disordered speech or thinking: People may move from one topic to another, but not make sense. They may make up their own words or sounds.
Causes of Schizophrenia
Genetics: A person may inherit a tendency to develop the disease.
Chemistry: A chemical imbalance when the brain is very sensitive or produces too much of the brain chemical dopamine
- Complications during pregnancy or birth:
  Developing a viral infection or improper nutrition during pregnancy or improper nutrition during pregnancy may cause an increased risk.
Different types of Schizophrenia
**Paranoid schizophrenia:** The person acts extremely suspicious and persecuted.
Disorganized schizophrenia: The person is often coherent but does not have delusions.
*Given nonetheless, the person does not have defenses.*
*Catatonic schizophrenia: The person is with drawn, mute, negative and has unusual postures.*
- Residual schizophrenia: The person does not have delusions or hallucinations but does not have an interest in life.
Source: National Mental Health Association
mother, Virginia also lives in Lawrence.
Visser said she depended on nine medications including anti-psychotics and antidepressants to make it through the day.
"As much as I hate the medication, my doctor told me I'd be institutionalized for the rest of my life if I didn't have it," she said.
But, she said, sometimes the medication didn't help and she was hospitalized a few times each year.
Schizophrenia is caused by structural problems in the brain and chemical imbalances, David Holmes, professor of psychology, said.
He said 60 percent of people with schizophrenia were seriously depressed. Depression was sometimes mistaken for the early stages of schizophrenia, he said.
Visser said there was no relief.
"It won't leave you alone," she said. "It's like I'm wrapped up in bandages. I'm controlled by my illness."
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Have A Safe Spring Break
You're rechilling on the beach, enjoying the warm sand, a cool breeze, the amazing ocean...it doesn't get any better than this...unless...you and your friends go to that shop down the street and get tattoos??!
FACT
A few years ago, several young women contracted HIV when they received tattoos in South Padre, 'exas while on Spring Break.
If a new tattoo is in the stars for you during Spring Break, please reduce your risk by...
AND TATTOO SAFELY!
ENJOY YOUR SPRING BREAK
Sponsored by the Emily Taylor Women's Resource Center
2021 National Women's Education Week
www.women.edu/wedweek
Information Taken from Columbia University's Library
Do you (the tattoo artist):
Here are some questions to ask to gauge your safety:
1. thoroughly wash your hands with antibacterial solution immediately before and after each tattoo application.
2. wear latex gloves the tattooing procedure?
3. place nice cover materials and equipment (i.e. each reach pad or needle, a scab, dated and sealed, and automotive sterilized), and set up and open them in front of the client?
5. have an IPA-regulated vehicle on site?
6. sanitize your working space with an EPA-approved
7. wash hands before entering the building.
7. properly dispose of contaminated materials?