Tuesday, September 5, 1989 / University Daily Kansan
Drug 'super state' rises as political force
The Associated Press
WASHINGTON—A troubling challenge facing President Bush as he gropees for ways to combat drug smuggling is the emergence of a drug "super state" in Latin America, an entity with many of the trappings of a nation state.
The drug "super state," a term once used by a Colombian attorney general shortly before he was murdered by drug traffickers last year, has a defense establishment, controls large swaths of territory, issues communiques, and even boasts what amounts to a "commerce department," which assiduously promotes the export of cocaine and other illicit drugs.
It also has what its defenders regard as a progressive political philosophy.
Diego Cordoba, a lawyer employed
by Colombian drug barons, contended in an interview with a Brazilian newspaper last year that drug trafficking has done more to alleviate poverty and hunger in Latin America than any government in the region.
"The money from the drug traffic has acted as a brake on the social and political deterioration of the country." Arango writes.
Region Another lawyer for the traffickers, Mario Arango, wrote in a best-selling book that the drug business has opened new opportunities for the underprivileged classes.
George Bush
According to U.S. government figures, as much as $1.7 billion in cocaine-generated revenues last year bolstered the economies of Peru and Bolivia, the two largest cocaine producers in the world. The figure for Colombia, the conduit for 80 percent of the cocaine consumed in the
United States and Europe, is estimated at $4 billion.
The super state boasts a formidable defense establishment. While the underfunded Colombian police have about 30 helicopters at their
disposal, one single trafficker, Jorge Luis Ochoa, reportedly has 50 aircraft and an arsenal of weapons.
The Colombian government requires months and sometimes years to acquire weaponry for its military. Meanwhile, the drug traffickers, unhindered by red tape, can get what they want in days or even hours.
Another characteristic of the drug lords' nation state is the ability to declare war. After Colombian President Virgilio Barco ordered a crackdown on the drug traffickers two weeks ago, confiscating millions of dollars worth of property and arresting 11,000 suspects, the cartel issued a statement asserting the existence of a state of "absolute and total war" with the government.
If the drug super state has a capital, it is, of course, Medellin, a city located about 150 miles northwest of Bogota, Medellin was described as the "central star" of a "sprawling, fluctuating constellation" by Douglas Payne, director of hemispheric studies for the pro-democracy research organization Freedom House.
The super state has numerous branch offices, including one in Panama where a key ally, Gen. Manuel Antonio Noriage, from time to time has welcomed Colombian drug kingpins needing a safe haven.
With the combined economic, political and military powers of a government, Payne says, the cartel is now powerful enough to asking and to be treated like one.
He asked: "Will Diego Cordoba some day be addressing the United Nations, offering proposals for cooperation in alleviating the social and economic problems of Latin America?
Tutu is arrested at protest
By Stacy Smith Kansan staff writer
When Christine Ramsey, Wichita senior, went running last spring, people stared.
"My Spanish family thought I was absolutely nuts for running, especially in short," said Ramsey, who spent her spring semester at the University of Seville.
People were shocked not only because she was running, but because she was a female running in shorts. She said she was a spectacle people were not used to, at least not in Spain.
University of Toronto
Ramsey was one of many KU
students who spent last semester
studying in a foreign country.
"It is a must for every college student," Ramssey said. "Even though I thought I was an unacultured, ill-taught good to live in another culture, I had an incredible experience."
The number of KU students studying abroad has increased more than 40 percent since last fall. And the number is expected to increase even more during the spring semester, said Mary Elizabeth Debicki, director of the study abroad program.
Last fall, 114 students were in the program, and this fall there are 200 people participating. Debicki said more than 500 KU students were expected to study abroad this year through the University program.
"We are just inundated with students," Debicki said. "This is wonderful in my opinion, but it's just the tin of the iceberg."
Forty-five countries offer semester and year-long programs, including Australia, the Soviet Union, Greece and Yugoslavia. Debicki said the average cost of studying abroad for one year is $6,000, which is cheaper out-of-state tuition at KU.
"You are going abroad as if you were a KU student," she said.
"There is financial aid available and most scholarships will apply."
Programs are available for undergraduates during their sophomore, junior and senior years and for graduate students, Debicki said.
The program requires that students have a minimum 2.5 GPA, proficiency in the language of their chosen country and approval from their department or professional school.
"There are really a lot of opportunities for any discipline. The program cuts across all schools," Debicki said. "We urge students to plan early so they don't take classes here that they can take overseas."
Meg Rhodus, Kansas City, Kan., senior, was the first KU student to be accepted to study in Malta, a small island in the Mediterranean. Rhodus, a political science major, spent her spring semester at the University of Malta.
The Associated Press
JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — Police used tear gas, bullets and batons to break up anti-election rallies yesterday and arrested Archbishop Desmond Tutu and the Rev. Allan Boesak when they objected to an armored truck blockading the entrance to a church.
"They have gone berserk," Tuta said after being held by police in Cape Town for 90 minutes. "They are clearly no longer in charge and they are aware of it. I want to say to the world that the terrorists in South Africa are the South African government."
Acting President F.W. de Klerk said in his final campaign speech that white domination must end, but in a way that does not lead to whites being dominated. Before de Klerk spoke at a rally in the Johannesburg City Hall, 125 Blacks marched there to present a petition telling him that Wednesday's parliamentary elections symbolize apartheid to the Black majority who cannot vote. The marchers dispersed peacefully after giving their petition to a police major.
In Durban, police fired tear gas and guns to disperse an anti-election rally of 2,500 students at the multiracial University of Natal, causing a stumped in which 10 people were hurt. Police fired tear gas at 500
students holding a banned rally at the Indian University of Durban-Westville. Officers arrested 26 students at the two gatherings.
Cape Town police jammed an armored truck against the door of the Central Mission Methodist Church where people had gathered for a rally opposing the election. Some people were trapped inside the church and witnesses said police beat people trying to go to the church.
Tutu, the Black Anglican Archbishop of Cape Town; Boesak, the mixed-race president of the World Alliance of Reformed Churches, and five other clergymen were arrested when they refused to go away from the church.
Journalists were arrested for covering the confrontation and were
"I was refusing to disperse," Tutu said at a midnight news conference. He said he found it unbelievable that a police vehicle could be used to block the door of a church and he had demanded that it be removed.
He also said he would hold a reconsecration service today at St. George's Anglican Cathedral because, he said, police had desecrated it when they entered it yesterday evening. About 20 policemen had entered the cathedral, where Tutu officiates, ordered it closed, barred people from entering to attend a choir concert and temporarily kept
the cathedral dean outside.
"This country claims to be Christian, yet they stopped the dean of the cathedral from access to his cathedral church. Everywhere in the world the church has been recognized as a place of sanctuary, even by the craziest of dictators," said Tutu, who demanded an apology from Law and Order Minister Adriania Vok.
Both Boesak and Tutu were freed after being held briefly. Police said Boesak had been detained for taking part in an illegal gathering but they made no comment about Tutu.
More than 30 police with dogs and batons blocked the Johannesburg procession 300 yards from the City Hall entrance and ordered the crowd to disperse. The protesters, holding their placards, sat down in the street while Cyril Ramaphaho, leader of the National Union of Mineworkers, South Africa's largest union, asked to present the petition to de Klerk.
"Our people for over a month now have actually been showing in various ways how these elections are irrelevant," Ramaphosa said, referring to daily protests, rallies marches or acts of defiance against apartheid laws. He said millions of Blacks today and tomorrow will protest in what is expected to be a general strike.
KU seeks best tests for skills
By Kate Lee Kansan staff writer
During the 1987-88 school year, changes were made in basic curriculum requirements at the University of Kansas.
During the Spring 1989 semester, testing began of students who came to the University before the changes were made. The tests were given to evaluate students' basic skills levels.
But Susan Twomby, project director of the new curriculum evaluation project, said she did not believe enough students were tested. She said testing of students who enrolled after the changes were made could be put off until another group of students, who enrolled before the changes, could be tested.
"We need to decide what is the best test, the best way to give the test." Twombly said. "Basicly, we want to know if the new curriculum is making a difference."
James Carothers, associate dean of liberal arts and sciences, said the primary concern in changing the curriculum was to give a broader and more thorough coverage of methods of basic academic study.
One of the changes requires that freshmen enroll immediately in English and math and continue taking the courses until they are successfully completed.
"It used to be those courses could be put off." Carothers said.
Because the basic courses could be put off, students were able to take upper level courses without having basic skills. Carothers said.
The general education courses are now in three categories: humanities, natural sciences and social sciences. Students must take three classes from each of the three categories.
A change also was made to require a course relating to a non-Western culture. Carothers said that this was done so students would receive exposure to cultures other than their own.
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