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Opinion
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Tuesday, September 12, 2000
For comments, contact Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924 or e-mail opinion@kansan.com
Perspective
Tibetan case galvanizes activists
China applied for World Bank funding in the spring of 1999 for what would become a controversial project. The Western China Poverty Reduction Project was a plan to relocate poor Chinese into Tibet. The initial plan included the resettlement of $8,000 people into the Mongolian and Tibetan Autonomous area. All seemed well for the Chinese government as the World Bank—a specialized United Nations organization that provides nearly $30 billion a year in loans to member nations for projects and structural reforms that attempt to alleviate poverty—had never denied funding for a project that met the Bank's requirements.
After the World Bank reviewed the project, Tibetan activists found many dangers in the plan and immediately began working against it.
Activists argued that the resettlement of almost 60,000 Chinese into the proposed area would double the area's population and further dilute the ethnic populations of both indigenous groups. Because of previous population transfers, the area's traditional populations have already become a minority in their own country. The proposed World Bank project would only worsen the problem. The unique Tibetan culture is under attack because
Kyle Browning guest columnist opinion@kansan.com
of this process of moving Chinese citizens and military personnel into Tibet.
Also, the Bank's Indigenous Peoples Policy requires that people affected by a project be consulted when the project in question affects indigenous peoples and ethnic minorities. Yet under Chinese government authority, there is no possibility for effective discussion. China's laws penalize those who oppose the will of the government and make it extremely difficult, if not dangerous, for citizens to express their real concerns about government-sponsored initiatives. However, all of the people interviewed in the "move-in area" expressed concern about the project's environmental impacts.
The irreversible environmental impacts were not seriously studied despite Bank policy requirements that a full Environmental Assessment be completed. The agricultural and irrigation development components of the project aimed to convert an arid desert ecosystem into intensive agricultural production, potentially causing desertification, pollution and adverse health affects from pesticides and fertilizers, groundwater depletion and pollution, and loss of traditional grasslands used by nomadic heders.
After more than a year of struggle against one of the richest and most powerful international organizations, this is a tremendous victory for Tibetan activists. Essentially, the international community has refused to legitimize and fund this process of destroying Tibetan culture and land. Hundreds of parlamentarians from many countries and tens of thousands of Tibetans and citizens raised their voices in opposition to this project and, in the process, helped Tibet and its future. Unfortunately, much more must be done in the struggle for human rights and freedom for Tibetans, but the power of the Tibetan movement is clear.
In addition, the Western China Poverty Reduction Project suggested that prison labor be introduced into the area. Clearly, environmental and human rights activists had good reason to be concerned about the dangerous consequences of this project.
Soon after the project came under the consideration of the World Bank, activists began flooding the Bank with letters, phone calls, e-mails and faxes. They demanded that the Bank take into consideration the adverse affects of the project and that the Bank follow its own rules when investigating the environmental impacts of the project.
Eventually, the Bank made a decision. It tentatively approved the project, but with the condition that a special Inspection Panel, never before used in the World Bank, be created to investigate the project further. After months of inquiry and pressure from Tibetan activists, the Inspection Panel reported its findings to the Bank. On July 7, China withdrew the Western China Poverty Reduction Project after a divided Board of Directors would not approve funding for the project.
Browning is an Overland Park senior in history and political science.
By the numbers
25. 000 Average number of words in the written vocabulary of a 6- to 14 year-old American child in 1945
Chance that a contestant who appeared on the show's British precursor ever won a million pounds
Source: www.harpers.org
Letters to the editor
Cats deserve more credit
I am a former Kansan staffer who has a bone to pick with Scott Kaiser's leash law column in the Sept. 1 issue of the Kansan.
This is not a personal attack. It is, however, an attack on his reasoning. I take particular exception to the line "Unlike the fickle feline, canines are man's most loyal animal companion." This is simply not true.
Cats played a major role in the elimination of the Black Plague that decimated the better portion of European civilization in the 16th and 17th centuries. (They ate the rats that carried the Plague.) Cats have been burned as the familiars of witches for many reasons, not the least of which is that many men feel ill at ease with an animal that they cannot command.
It is unfair to brand an entire species as fickle, and by extension somehow less worthy of life, just because the writer doesn't happen to like the species. I have owned several cats who seemed to view me as a two-legged tuna fish-can opener, but they all gave in the relationship as well.
T-Bone, my first cat, sat with me and panted with me and slept with me when no one else would during my labor with my son. She also slept with my son after he was born and helped him feel less alone in that huge crib. It just brothers me that Mr. Kaiser seems to think it necessary to use the pages of the Kansan to vent his personal distaste of cats. No animal, dogs inluded, should be allowed to "destroy" cats. We humans do that well enough by refusing to spay or neuter our pets.
Although Andrew Marino's column, "Masculinity not a disease to be cured," (Friday) began with a positive thought,
Culture trumps genetics in masculinity debate
Jennifer Roush December 1999 graduate in journalism
Marino quickly slipped into the mindset that indirectly endangers so many women.
It may be true that Christina Hoff Sommers, author of The War Against Boys, cites cross-cultural studies that have proven that boys are universally more bellicose. But it is certainly untrue that the culture in which they mature has nothing to do with how bellicose they become, as Marino asserts.
Differences in gender-role behavior are the result of a lifelong process of gender-role socialization. From birth, boys are taught how to be "men." They are teased for crying, playing with dolls, or for showing interest in cooking. On the other hand, they are praised for playing football, standing up for themselves against the schoolyard bully, and garnering attention from girls. Having strong interpersonal skills and being emotionally expressive are seen as feminine and are regarded as weaknesses in real men.
So let's associate masculinity with knocking people down on a field, punching out a schoolmate and getting lots of women. Then, explain to me that boys who are taught by our society to strive for "manliness" don't often turn into those very same hyper-aggressive men who are out there assaulting or raping women. And if it's not rape or assault, at the very least, excessive masculinity manifests itself as disrespect.
Marino also states that masculinity contributes much to the lives we live together. It is this very thought — men believing they are the only sex that can provide risk-taking, bravery, physical power and leadership in our world — that perpetuates this constant disrespect for women. It is our society, not our genetic makeup, that made us believe that these traits are traditionally masculine. These very same virtues are found in women, and wringing the manliness out of men and young boys will not remove these positive virtues from our world.
Brittaney Parbs St. Louis senior in journalism
Editorial
Budget cut parches Murphy
Murphy Hall renovation leaves students, faculty without water fountains.
Although the University of Kansas spent millions of dollars renovating Murphy Hall this summer, some necessary finishing touches were overlooked. Budget cuts eliminated water fountains from the proposal.
After determining the $10.5 million construction budget was too steep, the University cut the budget by $1 million. The cut forced plans from the original proposal, and now Murphy Hall students and faculty are without accessible drinking water in the addition.
While the addition includes new offices, additional practice and rehearsal rooms and a new color scheme, vocalists and instrumentalists who need to be hydrated to produce sound are without water.
In the past few weeks, when temperatures reached dangerous highs, students and professors in the new building had to walk up several flights of stairs towards the old part of the building to find water. If students wanted to have water with them in their classes, they either had to bring it themselves or buy a bottle from a machine. Moreover, during auditions or rehearsals, no water jugs or coolers and cups were provided by the department to help the students through the heat.
Despite the omission of water fountains, members of the department say that water fountains are in future building plans. However, the installation of fountains may require the removal of some of the new building's plumbing for pipe work or installation.
Plans for Murphy's renovation were in the works years before ground was broken and, with the amount of money spent on its renovation, something as critical as water fountains should not have been overlooked.
Students and faculty should appeal to the University to provide an alternate form of hydration in Murphy Hall until permanent water fountains are installed.
Ben Tatar for the editorial board
Ben Tatar
Free for all is the telephone public forum for the University Daily Kansan. Callers have 20 seconds to speak about any topic they wish. The Kansan reserves the right to edit submissions, and not all of them will be published. Slanderous statements will not be printed.
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if you're so tired of hearing about how the athletic department bungled the situation with the soccer player, then maybe you should blame the athletic department instead of the rape victim who they persuaded not to take legal recourse.
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People shouldn't boycott Flanigans because of the dress code. People should boycott Flanigans because it sucks.
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The Black Student Union should take the initiative to hold a formal protest at Flanigans on Thursday nights against their racist dress code with participants decked out in FUBU gear and cornrows.
KU should fire Roy Williams and hire Bob Knight as basketball coach because Knight is twice the coach Williams is. How many champions does Williams have? None! Knight has a bunch and he'll bring one over to KU.
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What's with all the signs around campus saying Free Tibet? China took Tibet over fair and square, just like we did with Hawaii. So if you want to free Tibet, take up arms and do it yourself. And if you don't want to do that, then stop whining.
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The pathetic Chiefs and their hapless offensive coordinator, Jimmy Ray, managed to again snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Fire Jimmy Ray now.
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I changed a flat tire in seven minutes today. Beat that.
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Bobby Knight is the complete antithesis of Roy Williams. The university set his kid up to test Bobby Knight. It's about time.
School should be canceled this week, 'cause I feel like I need to take it easy for a while.
The articles that have been written in the Kansan about Nader and a third party have been awesome. It's really helped me become less apathetic about politics.
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All letters and guest columns should be e-mailed to opinion@kansan.com or submitted to the Kansan newsroom, 111 Stauffer-Flint Hall. The Kansan reserves the right to edit, cut to length or reject all submissions. For any questions; call Ben Embry or Emily Hughey at 864-4924.
If you have general questions or comments, e-mail the page staff (opinion@kansan.com) or call 864-4924.
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