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Wednesday; March 8, 1989 / University Daliv Kansan
Opinion
THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
U.S. must take hard stance against chlorofluorocarbons
This week, an international conference on chlorofluorocarbons, or CFCs, is taking place in London. Scientists and government officials are discussing how to eliminate the use of CFCs, man-made chemicals that destroy the ozone layer. The ozone layer protects life on Earth from the sun's harmful rays.
The United States' stance at the conference will probably determine the success of the worldwide initiative to protect the atmosphere. In strengthening the U.S.'s lax CFC policies, President Bush's administration can support countries that already have agreed to a complete phase-out of CFCs. The U.S. also can set an example for countries, such as the Soviet Union, that are making excuses not to end CFC production
Recent studies have shown that a worldwide phase-out of CFCs is necessary by the year 2000. CFCs are used in products such as spray cans, refrigerator coolants and fast-food packages.
Twelve European nations decided last week to phase out their entire CFC use by the end of the century. The couriers were trying to strengthen the Montreal Protocol, an international accord which was signed in 1987 by 36 nations, including the U.S. The protocol was intended to reduce CFC production by 50 percent by 1998.
Effects from ozone depletion already are being detected in increased accounts of skin cancer and crop and forest damage. Furthermore, a hole in the ozone layer above Antarctica, which is attributed largely to CFCs, has grown in the past few years.
Placing conditions on something that affects the entire world could seem selfish and hypocritical coming from a country that, Bush said, "attaches the highest priority to the international environment."
tional environment. British Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said Sunday that every country bears the consequences of ozone depletion, but countries that produce and use the compounds have a heavier responsibility than the others. The U.S. leads the world in CFC production.
production.
Because of that, the U.S. should make and enforce strict policies to end CPC use, regardless of alternatives. After all, if the U.S. wants all its resources and riches doesn't take a stand in impact on the environment, how can Third World countries be expected to? Many worry that U.S.-owned multi-national corporations would transfer production of CFCs to less restrictive nations. But the U.S. should be responsible for its stretching economic boundaries.
Bush voiced support for the European countries' new agreement, but unfortunately, that support was conditional. Bush said the U.S. would completely phase out CFCs only if substitutes were available.
If the Bush administration makes a hard-line and unconditional policy on anything, this should be it. Our policy on harmful synthetic chemicals should not consider local industry, but rather our health, the atmosphere and future generations.
Cindy Harger for the editorial board
Racism continues its reign after Black History Month
It seems now that National Black History Month is over, the United States can return to racism as usual.
From the Midwest to the South to the West Coast, racism reigned this weekend.
David Duke, the former grand wizard of the Ku Klux Klan who now holds a seat in the Louisiana Legislature, spoke to a gathering of right-wing extremists in Chicago.
He said that Jesse Jackson was a racist. Duke later posed with the vice chairman of the American Nazi Party.
As a protest against the movie "Mississippi Burning," 16 members of the KKK marched in Philadelphia, Miss., and shouted "White power for America."
In Napa, Calif., about 100 neo-Nazi skinheads held a white supremacist rally, which they bilied as "Aryan Woodstock."
Proving that racism is a long-standing problem that is not going away, an 88-year-old man described the young skinheads as wonderful people.
Maybe the incidents of the weekend represent a small percentage of U.S. citizens. But when even a few racists exist, it shows an insensitivity of the rest of the country.
Perhaps someday the United States can respect minority issues year-round instead of only in February.
Jill Jess for the editorial board
News staff
Julie Adam...Editor
Karen Boring...Managing editor
Jill Jess...News editor
Deb Gruver...Planning editor
James Farquhar...Editorial editor
Elaine Sung...Campus editor
Tom Stinson...Sports editor
Ewan Swatkowski...Photo editor
Dave Eames...Graphics editor
Noel Gerdes...Arts/Features editor
Tom Eblen...General manager, news adviser
Business staff
Debra Cole...Business manager
Pamela Noe...Retail sales manager
Kevin Martin...Campus sales manager
Scott Englert...National sales manager
Michelle Garland...Promotions manager
Brad Lenhart...Sales development manager
Linda Prod. Production manager
Debra Martin...Asst. production manager
Kim Coleman.
Crisp Creation...Co-op sales manager
Glasston Manager
Jeanne Hines...Sales and marketing specialist
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Greenberg's interpretation wrong
T to read Paul Greenberg's column on Cuba and Nicaragua is to go back in time and re-experience that dreadful period of journalistic malaise prevalent in the 1960s — an era riddled with anti-commu- nity propaganda.
Being a well-traveled student from Lima, Peru,
I understand a Latin American reality that is different from the interpretation of the typical U.S. citizen's — and different from Greenberg's.
So what's wrong with Paul Greenberg's March 1 column? Everything. And that is evident in his attitude and his selection of "facts" when writing on the two Latin American countries.
You see, Paul Greenberg, like that All-American hero Ollie North, thinks his views on the realities, injustices (he never mentions those aspects that are just) and political solutions regarding Cuba and Nicaragua are right. He discounts the views held by Cubans in Cuba and Nicaraguans in Nicaragua as wrong, or more likely irrelevant.
Here is a man who obviously doesn't have a clue about Latin American culture, its history and its complex current situation. Despite that, he gets on his journalistic podium and appoints himself expert on what is, is not, should and should not be in those countries. This condecing attitude implies that Latin Americans aren't capable of figuring out what's best for them and therefore have to humbly ask for advice — not to mention permission and approval — from Uncle Sam on how to run their countries I guess sovereignty and self-determination don't apply south of the border. Obviously this attitude doesn't sit well with many Latin Americans.
Carlos
Wehner
Guest columnist
The "facts" Greenberg used to back up his contentions反映 his ignorance on the matter.
Greenberg said "Civil right and the secret" in *invasive*. "Garbage* I kept last summer on my own in
Havana, I talked freely and openly with students, husbands, housekeepers, factory workers, professors and government employees. In each conversation the individual felt free to tell me anything, to talk on any subject I desired or to approve or disapprove on specific government actions — and never, never was there talk of or behavior suggesting surveillance measure. I purchased him a Cuba to the time I left Havana for Paris, I never once had to undergo any sort of restrictive measures; I could go anywhere, talk to anyone and as I pleased without anyone looking over my shoulder.
A persistent, anti-government activist in Cuba gets a variable jail sentence, or if he is lucky, a one-way ticket to Western Europe. In the majority of Latin American countries, he is tortured, killed and his body dumped in the countryside. I wonder why Greenberg doesn't blemme other Latin American countries. Amnesty International has monitored nations, such as Argentina, which from 1973 to 1979 had 8,000 political deaths; Chile, which from 1973 to 1977 had 1,500 disappearances; Peru, which from 1982 to 1988 had 3,200 political deaths; El Salvador, which from 1979 to 1981 had 30,000 political deaths; and Guatemala, which from 1966 to 1978 had 20,000 political deaths. Maybe it's all right because those countries don't have a communist government. According to Amnesty International, Cuba has the lowest incidence of human rights abuses of
any Latin American country.
"tmemble the great things Fidel Castro's regime was going to do for Cuba?" Greenberg said. But he left his own question unanswered. Let's see, several Cuban professors said their country had a 97 percent literacy rate, because they were forced to graduate high school. Cuba also has the best health-care system in Latin America, its universities are free and it doesn't have the abject poverty or the upper class extremes found in the rest of Latin America.
Its centralized government is inefficient, like the others found in Latin-America. Cuban citizens can choose only officials from one inefficient, moderately corrupt party. The rest of Latin America, except Chile and Paraguay, can choose officials from two, three or four inefficient, corrupt parties. Cubans can't become millionaires — other Latin Americans can if they regularly pay off the right politicians and refrain from criticizing the government. The Cuban government financially supports students, artists, writers, even rock-and-roll bands — not so in the other Latin countries. Cubans have restricted access to luxury goods, unlike other Latin Americans. Only Cuban artists, government officials and their families can travel abroad. Outside Cuba anyone can travel abroad if he has the money.
The point is that in this diverse world in which we live, there are no purely 'good' or 'bad' governments. Every country and its people have different advantages, disadvantages and each has a unique character. Because political beliefs are a reflection of a culture's character — and characters vary from country to country — there is no absolute truth regarding political ideology
Carlos Wehner is a Lima, Peru, graduate student.
K A N S A N
MAILBOX
Condoms necessary
The distribution of condoms on campus is an encore, not a repeat performance.
In response to the March 6 editorial "Handing out condoms just a waste of money," I agree that students should be intelligent enough to know how to avoid AIDS, however, that intelligence is a result of education in conjunction with appropriate behavior. Believing we also would assume that people are educated enough to avoid sexually transmitted diseases.
Unfortunately, this is not the case, as evidenced by the number of chlamydia cases treated at Watkins Memorial Health Center annually (between 2,700 and 2,800).
Therefore, it is imperative that information concerning ways to reduce risks of contracting STDs, and AIDS in particular, be readily available. The Student Senate AIDs Task Force collaborates with Watkins' health care professionals and the University Task Force
on AIDS. Both groups encourage and solicit our help in disseminating AIDS information.
The use of condoms, excluding abstinence, is the most effective means of protecting oneself. Therefore, in response to the Kanan's charge that condoms are just a "gimmick," I must inform you that their inclusion in our program is integral as an educational tool.
The AIDS Task Force delivered extensively on the impact of distributing condoms this year. As a task force, we agreed that this measure was an extremely effective means of both generating and facilitating distribution of condoms, informational, which focused on condoms, justifies our belief that the distribution of condoms will bring AIDS back to center stage.
Rebecca Newburn
Chairman, Student Senate
AIDS Task Force
In defense of KJHK
As a new member of the KJHK team, I had heard some chatter about Tiiu McGuire's complaints about our station, but my knowledge was limited to KJHK's point of view. Although I wasn't on staff while McGuire was, I find reason to stand in KJHK's defense
McGuire's main complaint with our station, as Candy Niemann's article put it, was that "she had not received enough educational guidance while she worked there." I understand that McGuire attended the THMA 188 lecture, which provided basic information about radio for first-semester students. In addition to that, knowledgeable resourceful people are always asking answer questions; starters and teachers have only to motivate them to seek out those resources. One learns at KJH by doing, not by being spooned.
I played no part in the hiring process this semester, and I had not heard a single thing (until our article) about any blackists or unfair employment unfair hiring policies. I do know, however, that the KJHK Board has proven itself to be an equal opportunity employer; I invite you to come to our next public meeting (March 29) to see for yourself.
(March 28) I wholeheartedly agree with Mike Kautsch, dean of journalism, who "defended the board's right to deny jobs to people who caused trouble." Without that right, KJHK cannot hire a staff that will act as a team, and a tremendous team effort is required to keep KJHK running smoothly.
BLOOM COUNTY
Carrie L. Richardson KJHK staff member
by Berke Breathed