Wednesday, October 4, 2000
The University Daily Kansan
Section A · Page 7
Volunteers spend vacations serving
By Debra Steele
Special to the Kansan
Derek Helms, DeSmet, S.D., senior, didn't spend last spring break lounging on sunny, sandy beaches. Instead, he spent his time volunteering in a homeless shelter in Alamosa, Colo.
With nine other KU students, Helms participated in the Alternative Spring Break program at the La Puente Home. The students cooked for people staying at the home as well as for people in the community. They also built a new floor in a coffee shop attached to the shelter.
Last year, 120 KU students opted not to hit the beach or the slopes and instead volunteered their time to
Alternative Breaks.
The eight-year-old program sets students up to volunteer for weekend, winter or spring breaks.
This is the first year students can receive one hour of credit for the winter break program.
Jessica Risley, Alternative Breaks director, said students had responded well to the program.
La Puente Home doesn't just give people a place to stay; it helps them get back on their feet by providing services to help them find jobs and low-cost housing.
"Last spring break, we actually had to turn people away," she said. "One hundred and sixty people applied. We could only take 120."
ALTERNATIVE BREAKS
Information session at 7 p.m.
Tuesday, Oct. 10, at the English
Room in the Kansas Union.
more release applications due at 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 20
Volunteer applications due at 5 p.m. Friday, Nov. 10.
Projects include conservation, education, hunger and homeless, health and wellness, environment and cultural diversity. Sites are spread across the country, with the most popular destinations being New York City and Washington D.C. There also are sites in the Southwest and Florida.
Alternative Breaks receives funds from Student Senate, the School of Education, the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, Student Affairs, Coca-Cola and through the group's own fundraising.
Helms was so impressed by his experience last year that he wants to be a site leader this spring break.
"We want students to get hands-on experience." she said.
Jennie Gottschalk, director of Alternative Winter Breaks, said the goal of Alternative Breaks was service learning.
"It's just nice to know I spent my spring break doing something worth- while," he said.
— Edited by Kathryn Moore
Canada mourns former prime minister
The Associated Press
MONTREAL — Thousands of Canadians wept and applauded at former Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau's funeral yesterday as his son remembered his father's love of country, told the nation to carry on his work and then buried his tearstained face in the flag draping his father's coffin.
"The woods are lovely, dark and deep. He has kept his promises, and earned his sleep," Justin Trudeau said, near tears as he paraphrased the American poet Robert Frost to
close his eulogy. "Je'taime (I love you) Papa."
inside and outside Montreal's ornate Notre-Dame Basilica, dignitaries including Jimmy Carter and Fidel Castro and thousands of ordinary Canadians gathered to pay their respects to Trudeau, the dashing former prime minister who boosted a nation's pride with his charisma, his willingness to buck the United States and his dedication to Canadian unity. Five days of nationwide mourning culminated at the two-hour state funeral. Solemn prayers mixed easily with
tears and applause from the 2,700 mourners inside during the service, conducted in French and English.
Justin, Trudeau's eldest son and a Vancouver teacher, delivered the final eulogy in a voice eerily like his father's and cracking with emotion. He spoke movingly of his father's abiding love of his country and family and of his admonition never to speak harsh words about any individual.
"This simple tolerance and (recognition of) the real and profound dimensions of each human being, regardless of beliefs, origins, or val
ues — that's what he expected of his children and that's what he expected of our country." Justin said.
Justin and his younger brother, Sacha, both wore red roses, their father's trademark.
Trudeau, who died last Thursday of prostate cancer at age 80, served as prime minister from 1968 to 1984 with a short interruption.
Justin Trudeau challenged Canadians to keep his father's dream of a united, tolerant, bilingual and multicultural nation alive, saying: "It's all up to us, all of us now."
Bangladesh, India battle devastating floods
The Associated Press
CALCUTTA, India — Air force helicopters in Bangladesh rushed yesterday to flood-ravaged villages to try to lift marooned villages clinging to trees to safety.
Thousands of people are stuck on the rooftops of their submerged houses or clinging to trees, waiting to be evacuated to safer areas, officials said. Air force helicopters in Bangladesh joined army and navy boats to deliver relief goods and rescue marooned villagers.
Nearly 400,000 people have taken shelter in emergency relief
camps set up on mud embankments or highways, they said.
In Satkhira town, thousands of residents on Monday piled sand bags to prevent floodwaters from gushing through cracks that developed along a 3-mile mud embankment, the Bengali-language daily Janakantha reported.
Some people attacked the car of a district administrator near Satkhira town for delay in providing relief and failing to protect them from looters, the newspaper said.
The fresh rains blocked efforts by relief workers to reach many
remote villages that have been inaccessible for the last two weeks. In some areas, the rain washed out the relief distribution networks.
"The rains are a real setback for relief and rescue efforts." Krishnendu Roy, a relief worker said.
In signs of fraying patience, residents in one isolated village in Bangladesh attacked the car of an administrator because of delays in providing relief, a newspaper said.
Other villagers attacked four policemen who tried to prevent them from cutting a hole in a dike
to divert the waters away from their village.
As flood waters receded from some of the hardest-hit areas, relief workers found more bodies.
"The death toll is rising and the devastation is of enormous magnitude," West Bengal state's chief minister, Jyoti Basu, said in an appeal for help. The appeal appeared in Calcutta newspapers.
Since Sept. 18, floods have killed more than 1,000, swept away millions of homes and left 20 million people marooned or homeless in India and neighboring Bangladesh. The death toll in Bangladesh has climbed past 50.
Israeli-Palestinian cease-fire unravels
The Associated Press
JERUSALEM — Palestinian gunmen battled Israeli soldiers yesterday at isolated army posts in the West Bank and Gaza Strip that have degenerated into virtual free-fire zones, as both sides defied a cease-fire call on the eve of a U.S. attempt to salvage peace-making.
Yesterday's death toll of five was the lowest since the fighting began last week. In addition, 206 people were injured, according to the Palestinians. Overall, 56 people have died and at least 1,300 have been wounded, the vast majority Palestinian.
"The results have been very painful." Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak said, adding that he had called on Israel's security forces "to make a supreme effort to prevent further casualties."
Barak also was battling for political survival at home, trying to appease Arab legislators who are threatening to topple his government about the harsh crackdown on riots in Israel's Arab towns. The internal rebellion, the worst since Israel's founding 52 years ago, has blocked highways and closed schools, paralyzing large parts of northern Israel.
Barak and Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat head to Paris on today in hopes that Secretary of State Madeleine Albright can help end the fighting and revive peace talks.
With the Israeli blasting away with heavy weapons, such as rockets launched from helicopters, and with the Palestinians routinely firing automatic rifles, the intensity of the fighting sometimes resembles a war and has surpassed levels seen during the 1987-93 Palestinian uprising and three days of firefights in 1996.
"I have been dealing with such riots since 1987 and ... there has never been anything on this level
— not when it comes to clashes and certainly not when it comes to the use of weapons," said Yisrael Yitzhak, commander of
Israel's paramilitary border police in the West Bank.
the nearest clashes yesterday were again in the chaotic West Bank and Gaza Strip, where a hastily arranged cease-fire quickly unraveled at a pair of chronic trouble spots.
Palestinian television broadcast an appeal in Hebrew to Israeli soldiers not to open fire, and a senior Palestinian official said an international inquiry into Israel's actions would be a condition of reviving the peace talks.
"We think that the Israeli crimes committed against our people attacked the heart of the peace process," said Nabil Abourdeneh, a top aide to Arafat. But Barak's office said he "totally rejected the call for an international investigation."
At one point late yesterday, the Paris talks were almost called off, after Palestinian negotiator Nabil Shaath reportedly said Arafat had no intention of meeting with Barak in Paris. Barak informed the Americans that in this case, he would not go to Paris, the prime minister's office said.
The prime minister only relented after he was informed by U.S. mediators that Arafat was ready to see Barak, the statement said. Arafat spokesman Nabil Aburdenneh has said that for now the Palestinian leader only planned to meet separately with Albright, but that a three-way session — Arafat-Barak-Albright — was possible.
"The cease-fire does not mean anything to us," said Anwar Takakh, joining stone-throwers in Bethelem. "It is between Arafat and Barak."
Without the backing of 10 Arab lawmakers in parliament, Barak's government could collapse, leading to new elections.
Meanwhile, the Israeli army said a 12-year-old boy killed at Netzarim on Saturday was apparently hit by Israel gunfire. The death, caught on camera, shocked viewers around the world.
New this Fall Brown Bag Classics
The KU. School of Fine Arts and Kansas Union present
Make your lunch a classic. Join the Music & Dance Department for free, noon-time performances. Just bring your lunch because drinks are on the Kansas Union.
Time 12:30 pm to 1 pm
Location Alderson Auditorium,
fourth floor, Kansas Union
October 4 Jazz Ensemble I
October 11 Pianist Darcie Prilliman
October 25 Saxophonist Vince Gnojek
October 18 Women's Chorale
November 8 KU Saxophone Quartet I
December 6 Horn Ensemble
November 15 Tuba & Euphonium Consort
November 29 Trumpet Ensemble
November 1 Cellist Ed Laut & Pianist Toni-Marie Montgomerv
School of Fin
Piano courtesy of Vaccaro's Piano and Organ of Overland Park
Univ
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