Opinion
Kansan
Published daily since 1912
Ann Premer, Editor
Gerry Doyle, Managing editor
Angie Kuhn, Managing editor
Tom Eblen, General manager, news adviser
Jamie Holman, Business manager
Sara Cropper, Retail sales manager
Dan Simon, Sales and marketing adviser
Justin Knupp, Technology coordinator
Tuesday, April 6, 1999
Editorials
Student senators moving forward with anti-sweatshop apparel bill
The Student Rights committee is proposing a bill to Student Senate on Wednesday that would ask the administration to prohibit factories deemed "sweatshops" to manufacture collegiate apparel.
Because collegiate apparel is a lucrative business, passing this legislation would be a step in the right direction to voice disdain with the proliferation of sweatshops.
The American Council on Education, of which the University of Kansas and the Board of Regents are members, resolved to ask colleges and universities to halt the use of sweatshops to manufacture collegiate apparel.
The Council said that reputable factories should be inspected by outside
Senators proposing bill to forbid sweatshop corporations from selling collegiate apparel.
monitors to ensure that the civil rights of workers were protected. These rights include a safe and sanitary environment, no child labor, the end to a requirement that would force employees to work more than 48 hours per week or 12 hours per day, and allowing freedom of association and collective bargaining.
Seventeen other universities already have passed similar legislation, including schools such as Harvard, Princeton, Rutgers and Tufts universities. The University should
prove that it is of the same caliber and stand behind the bill as well. The board strongly encourages Student Senate to pass this legislation and asks the University administration to carry through with its objectives.
While combating sweatshops at the university level is certainly a commendable action, the enthusiasm should not stop with the passing of this bill. Senators, students and faculty behind the legislation also should apply the same standards when shopping outside of a university setting.
Hopefully the awareness raised through this legislation will spread outside the University and to shoppers at corporate chain stores in Lawrence and elsewhere.
Erinn R. Barcomb for the editorial board
Milosevic's promise should be tested
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic offered NATO a deal March 30 that the United States and its allies quickly rejected. It wasn't the offer NATO had in mind when it decided to start air attacks in Serbia.
NATO should reconsider. This probably is the best offer it will get for a long while. In fact, it is the only possible way in sight to end the current conflict.
Milosevic said he would curb the ethnic cleansing under way in Kosovo and resume peace talks with Albanian separatists if NATO stopped the air attacks first.
NATO refused, instead wanting Milosevic to move his troops out of Kosovo and to agree to sign the peace deal before NATO would stop
Without objective, NATO needs to find end to air war.
the raids. NATO continues to step up its bombing efforts as more planes are shipped into the region almost daily.
Unfortunately, with the exception of Milosevic's offer, no end is in sight to the conflict. Rather, further escalation continues.
NATO has no definite military objective in Kosovo and therefore no definite point at which it can say it has accomplished its mission and end the war. A long war that could cost American lives and has showed no signs of halting the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo is in no one's interest.
That is precisely what will happen if NATO does not accept Milosevic's compromise. Milosevic has vowed to fight to the very end if his terms are not accepted.
Though it may not be what the United States was hoping for, Milosevic's proposal is a starting point. The United States needs to find a way out of the war without going back on its promise to resolve the Kosovo crisis.
Can Milosevic be trusted to keep his word? No one knows. But if he didn't, NATO always could resume the attacks. And if he did, a needless war could be prevented.
war could be prevented.
We should trust him for now. It may not be the ideal option, but it's the best one we have.
Nathan Willis for the editorial board
Kansan staff
Ryan Koerner ... Editorial
Jeremy Doherty ... Associate editorial
Aaron Marvin ... News
Laura Roddy ... News
Melissa Ngo ... News
Aaron Knopf ... Online
Erin Thompson ... Sports
Marc Sheforgen ... Associate sports
Chris Fickett ... Campus
Sarah Hale ... Campus
T.R. Miller ... Features
Steph Brewer ... Associate features
Augustus Anthony Piazza ... Photo
Chris Dye ... Design, graphics
Carl Kaminski ... Wire
Carolyn Mollett ... Special sections
Laura Veazey ... News clerk
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Matt Lopez . . Special sections
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Micah Kaffitz . Regional
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Tyler Cook . Marketing
Shannon Curran . PR/Intern manager
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Broaden your mind: Today's quote
"Everyone thinks of changing the world; no one thinks of changing himself."
How to submit letters and guest columns
Letters: Should be double-spaced typed and fewer than 200 words. Letters must include the author's signature, name, address and telephone number plus class and home-town if a University student. Faculty or staff must identify their positions.
-Tolstoy
Guest columns: Should be double-
spaced typed with fewer than 700 words. The
writer must be willing to be photographed for
the column to run.
All letters and guest columns should be submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Staufer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions.
For any questions, call Ryan Koerner or Jerome Doherty at 864-4924.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
Hunger, homeless focus of Into the Streets Week
Perspective
Count to four. Every four seconds somewhere in the world someone dies from starvation, most of them being homeless. On average, every four seconds you take a
breath, that is fifteen breaths a minute, 900 breaths per hour, and 21,600 breaths in a day, or 21,600 hunger-related deaths.
Some might think that this astonishing statistic means little here in America, the richest country in the world in terms of food per person. But if one also realizes that 39 million Americans are below the poverty line and struggle to feed themselves every day, the situation becomes slightly more real.
Corey Snyder
Guest columnis
sightly more read.
And when one takes into account that the city of Lawrence has an estimated 200 hundred homeless people and even more in need of frequent social services, the reality of the problem should hit even harder.
Homelessness is not an illness that needs to be eradicated, but it is a terrible symptom of a disease that can be prevented. As with any other social issue, there is not one " cure-all" answer to homelessness. President Clinton proved that when he restructured the welfare system. While that motivated some to improve their lives, it also has pulled the rug out from under those needy individuals who cannot help themselves. In the last five years, there has been a 40 percent increase in poverty of children younger than 18, and the number of these children who are homeless has doubled.
A homeless person is just like you and me. I realized the problem is a lot bigger than just the few individuals I met as I walked the streets. To sum up my experience in a few short sentences would do the Pluge little justice because I can easily say that it changed my life.
What can students do to help?
eyes. Nine KU students and I traveled to Kansas City and Wichita and voluntarily lived on the street for 48 hours relying totally on the social services available to the homeless. It made me aware of the many tragedies and many people who suffered.
Well, many students already have been working to understand the problem. Last November the Center for Community Outreach co-sponored Hunger and Homelessness Awareness month, which consisted of a variety of events One in particular — Urban Plunge — opened my eyes.
In that same spirit of compassion, students are coming together again to help the homeless. This week is Into the Streets Week. It is an opportunity for those who truly care to alleviate the suffering of those who are hungry and homeless in Lawrence. Two of the dozen activities planned for the week will focus on hunger and homelessness.
and homelessness.
I encourage you all to be proactive and attend the Empty Bowls Soup Luncheon today from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. in front of Stauffer-Flint Hall and the Homeless Sleep Out on April 9 from 8 p.m. to 7 a.m. at Burcham Park. Both events will benefit local food pantries and social services. For more information, please call CCO at 864-4073 or write me at csnyder@eagle.co.ukans.edu.
Snyder is a Topeka sophomore in pre-physical therapy and the co-coordinator of Concerned, Aware and Active Students.
Women need protection from worldwide abuses
An affidavit taken from the Department of Justice's 1995 investigation into sexual abuse in Arizona prisons illustrates the impact of human rights abuses
extent and amount of hin which take place against women in United States prisons.
Kyle Browning
Guest columnist
The affidavit describes an officer entering a shower area and forcing a female inmate to have sexual intercourse. In exchange for not receiving disciplinary write-ups, the prisoner also was forced to perform oral sex at least five times on an officer.
Women, like men, are the victims of genocide, torture and serious violations of
numanitarian law. But women are many times discriminated against because they are women
use unintended actions." "Despite their long struggle for human rights, women continue to suffer from second-class status both in their own countries and at the United Nations," says Amnesty International. "The U.N. sometimes uses sexist human rights language and does not consistently include gender perspective in human rights reporting and gender expertise in field visits and operations."
in theory, women never have been excluded from the United Nation's concept of human rights. The 1945 U.N. Charter recognizes the equal rights of men and women, and this principle has been maintained in the United National's formulations of human rights ever since. However, several factors have prevented women from enjoying the promises made to them.
The concept of human rights assumes that all humanity shares a common experience and common needs. It therefore excludes women's needs for specific rights, or the specific application of human rights, to take account of women's biological differences, and the discrimination they may face in society.
It is estimated that more than 80 percent of war casualties are now civilians — many of them women. The overwhelming majority of refugees and displaced people are women and children. There is little "common experience" between an armed male soldier and the millions of women who have been massacred, wounded, or raped in Afghanistan, Colombia, Congo, Rwanda, Turkey and elsewhere in recent years.
The history of international treaties that some progress has been made in recognizing the full range of women's rights. The most recent of these treaties, adopted in 1979 hv the
U. N. General Assembly, is the Convention of the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), which addresses a wide range of issues specifically affecting women.
In October of 1998, Amnesty International began its year-long campaign focusing on human rights abuses in the United States. A portion of this campaign is aimed at ending human rights abuses against women — particularly prison abuses — and ratifying international human rights treaties in the United States, such as CEDAW. Some of the violations that are routinely reported to happen in U.S. prisons and that are seen as forms of cruel, inhuman, and degrading treatment by Amnesty International include:
Browning is a Overland Park sophomore in political science and is the president of the KU/Lawrence chapter of Amnesty International.
This document also is important because it allows women, who have been discriminated against or abused, to battle for their rights in court with this convention as a legal basis for their struggle. Despite the achievements of the U.S. women's movement, the United States continually violates some of the rights protected in these treaties, and the United States is unfortunately one of only a handful of countries that have not ratified CEDAW.
**Shackling of pregnant prisoners in transport, during labor or in delivery. Many women are fully shackled with giving birth, despite the fact that there is an armed guard present-**
Are not human rights violations against women is endless. Many women are targeted because they are political activists, community organizers, or persist in demanding their rights or those of their relatives. Others are targeted because they are seen as vulnerable; young women who can easily be sexually abused or humiliated, pregnant women fearful for their unborn babies, frightened mothers who will do anything to protect their children and refugee women who are isolated and vulnerable in unfamiliar surroundings.
Receive a magnifier.
■ Abusive or inappropriate use of restraints (i.e. restraint chairs or four-point shackles to a cot) and stun technology.
Medical neglect, including denial of care or inappropriate care, leading to medical emergencies as hysterectomies, permanent injury or death. For example, prisoner Sherri Chapman reported lumps in her breasts and a family history of breast cancer in 1985 and did not receive a diagnosis until nine years later.
Music reviews ignore local scene
Feedback
I was incredibly thrilled to read Matt Cox's review of the new Ultimate Fakebook CD. It's so nice to notice that he's finally gotten a little breadth to his musical oeuvre and is starting to branch away from the constant barrage of CD and show reviews of bands that receive airplay on the
---
Lazer (Is he getting a kickback from the station, by the way?) Or has he just forgotten that we have a station here on campus that might like to get some notice once in a while?).
It's especially nice to notice that the Kansan has discovered local music this year. I had started to worry, with not a single review of a local concert, save the KJHK Can Jazz show, all semester long. I know it's not that hard to get
people to review shows. I work for an online magazine, and among the three of us that work there, we manage to get five or six shows a month reviewed. I assume that the Kansan, with its larger staff, wouldn't have any problem getting out to at least one a month. Oh well, it's a nice start anyway.
Nick Spacek Lansing sophomore