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Wednesday, October 14, 1987 / University Daily Kansan
Nation/World
Costa Rican leader wins peace prize
The Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Costa Rica — President Oscar Arias Sanchez said yesterday he never expected to win a Nobel Peace Prize but hoped it would help move other Central American leaders to the goal of peace in the troubled region
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias Sanchez
Linking his personal triumph to a practical goal was typical of the 45-year-old leader, whom a close associate had observed as an irresistible man when he has an idea."
Arias Sanchez has pursued his peace plan since being swned in May 8, 1986, as president of Costa Rica, a small nation with no army. At a summit Aug. 7 in Guatemala City, he got the presidents of El Salvador, Guatemala, Honduras and Nicaragua to approve his peace plan by refusing to let them break for a meal until they reached agreement.
“This is the happiest day of my life.” Arias Sanchez told reporters yesterday on his return from a long weekend with his family at a seaside resort, where he celebrated the birthday of his wife, Margarita. “I never dreamed of this.”
An aide woke Arias Sanchez at the resort before dawn with the news that he had won the coveted prize for his efforts to end guerrilla wars in Nicaragua, El Salvador and Guatemala, and to bring greater democracy to Central America.
from the president's daughter Silvia,
11, when she told reporters, "I am a
souff of my daddy. He is the first
Costa Rican to get a Nobel Peace
Prize. He could not believe it when
he called him this morning to tell him."
A special acknowledgment came
Arias Sanchez told a crowd of Cabinet members and other well-wishers at the airport, "I interpret the prize as a tribute to my country, a recognition of the way we are in Costa Rica, of our way of thinking.
"I am going to offer this prize to our people." Arias Sanchez said. "I may establish a foundation or something, but this will be shared by the people of Rica." The award is worth, 2,175,000. Swedish kronor about $340,000.
At a news conference later, he said,
"Now, more than ever, the eyes of
the world are upon us" in Central
America "We cannot and must not
fall."
Even political foes, who criticized Arias Sanchez for devoting more time to foreign affairs than to domestic issues, were at the airport to
praise him.
praise him.
Congratulations came from President Reagan, who had said initially that the Arias Sanchez peace plan was fatally flawed. Reagan said it favored the leftist Sandinistas, who ruled Nicaragua, over the U.S.-supported Contra rebels fighting them.
House speaker Jim Wright, a Texas Democrat who seeks a compromise with Reagan to delay an administration request for $270 million in
new U.S. aid to the Contras, also sent congratulations.
Soon after his inauguration, Arias Sanchez picked up where the Contadora Group — Mexico, Venezuela, Colombia and Panama — had stalled in trying to achieve peace in Central America. The Guatemala City meeting was his third attempt to get the other presidents to sign the accord.
Nobel Prize winner criticizes Japanese
The Associated Press
TOKYO — When the seventh Japanese ever to win a Nobel Prize learned of his award, he was at his home near Boston.
Some scientists said that may explain why the Nobel has often eluded Japan.
Although Japanese research standards are high, the academic system inhibits the initiative needed to make true breakthroughs. Sometimes the only escape is overseas, say Japanese critics, among them Monday prizewinner Susumu Tonegawa.
"I could not have done the work I am doing now had I stayed in a Japanese university," Tonegawa told the newspaper Asahi Shimun after winning the Nobel Prize in medicine.
In the United States, he said, "I wasn't tied down ... and could freely display originality. In Japanese universities, because one has to do work tantamount to assistance work to professors, one cannot work as an independent scientist. And often one will gradually lose enthusiasm."
The comments were nothing new for Tonegawa, who said in May that his countrymen should consider changing their thinking process in the field of science by trying to reason in English.
Yesterday three major Japanese newspapers published Tonegawa's critical comments. They underscored a long-standing debate in Japan on whether the nation encourages innovation, or merely excels at applying the discoveries of others.
Tonegawa, 48, who has been at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology since 1981 and worked in Switzerland before that, was recognized for discovering how the body makes antibodies to fight disease.
Kenichi Fukui, the last Japanese to win a Nobel, for chemistry in 1981, said he didn't think Japanese scientists needed to go overseas to win the prize.
But they must have time to do their own work, he said.
"It is desirable to improve Japanese research systems so that young Japanese scientists can do their best at a young age, independent from their seniors," said Fukui, who has spent six months abroad.
Under the rigid, hierarchical system at Japanese universities, young scientists rarely work alone. Usually bound to one university for their entire careers, scientists spend long years waiting to begin their own research.
No schools out for summer
Los Angeles district to hold classes all year
The Associated Press
LOS ANGELES — The Los Angeles Board of Education voted 4-3 Monday to put all elementary, junior and senior high schools on year-round schedules beginning in July 1989.
Some critics said the plan would disrupt family life and cause parents to pull their children out of the district.
But one prophet said the change would bring the district out of the 19th century.
'Educators simply cannot justify three months away from formal instruction in this day and age', said Charles Ballinger of the National Association for Year-Round Educ-
Under the plan, the students in the Los Angeles Unified School district would attend classes for two months, have 20 days off and then return for another two months. About 25 percent of the district is already on year-
round schedules.
Ballinger said that three-month summer vacations were on the way out.
"The traditional school calendar was never designed for education in the first place. It was designed for extra hands on the farms for harvest," Ballinger said.
"In fact, many feel we are actually harming students by the long break in summer," he said. "Students forget."
Board member Roberta Weintraub, a critic of the plan, said many parents didn't want a year-round system.
"There will be a massive pulloff of anyone who can afford it, massive middle-class flight," she said. "The program makes no sense, because enrollment is way down."
There are 592,000 students enrolled in the district, Weintraub said. An enrollment projection of 604,000 was made for this semester
Alumni clown around at 20th reunion
The Associated Press
VENICE, Fla. — It wasn't typical as 20-year college reunions go, but it was a distinguished gathering nonetheless: 300 professionals who once shared a penchant for prattals, size-40 shoes and bright-colored hokers.
Nathaniel Litt, class of '69, was one who came back to the lot yesterday for the Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey's Clown College reunion in this sleepy Gulf Coast resort, which serves as winter quarters for the circus.
"When you put on your mask, you can do anything you want. 'You're free, nobody knows who you are or how that you are going to do.'" (Harris) You can be an away and joined thecircumberships 18 years ago.
The three-day laugh-in was attended by the godfather of funnymod, 84-year-old Lou Jacobs, a performer for 63 years and the
oldest living professional clown. He teaches apprentices at the college and can still contort his 6-foot frame into a tiny car.
With the old-timers were new grads and those who moved into other fields when they quit clowning around.
They came to the hilarious homecoming, featuring various zany events like a dunk tank and hot-dog eating contest, to cheer on their team in a floppy footsteps and in reminisce backstage.
Kenneth Feld, owner and producer of the 118-year-old circus, called the reunion turnout "overwhelming."
Clown College is a 10-week course to teach arts and skills of clowning to an average class of 50 yearly, half of them go on the road with the Greatest Show on Earth.
"We teach them how to fall down, juggle and put on makeup, but in an applicant we look for sensitivity — where we can pull out
the inner self. They can be very shy out of makeup, but extroverts with it," Feld said.
"But it's more than that. Our graduates go out into all walks of life." he said.
Litt sided he had made a 16-year career as an architect working for Frank Lloyd Wright's firm on such projects as the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
"All my life, I wanted to be a clown. I had never done it." he said.
He applied to Clown College and was in the second grading class in 1969. The following year, he was on the cover of Life and he eventually spent six years on the road.
His wife, Margot, a costume designer for Broadway, decided to let him get it out of his system.
"I had a 3-year-old and a 5-year-old at home. I didn't need another 5-year-old," she said.
Are your classes being cut? Are your professors leaving K.U.？ Are you tired of the budget problems at K.U.？
H. E.R.O. Higher Education Rescue Operation FORUM TONIGHT
7 p.m.
Alderson Auditorium
Topic: Margin of Excellence / Open Admission
- Tom Rawsaw Director of Budget and Fiscal Affairs
- Vice Chancellor Del Brinkman
- Vice Chancellor David Ambler
- Senator Wint Winter
- Representative John Solbach
- Representative Jessie Branson
Show Your Support for KU Basketball!
12:01 a.m., Oct. 15, 1987
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