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University Daily Kansan
Opinion
Tuesday, April 22,1986
Too soon to celebrate
Imagine walking along a busy street, dreaming about the day and casually minding your own business. Suddenly you are snatched aside by police officers, frisked and arrested — arrested not for committing a crime but for failing to carry your pass book, which is your identity in South Africa if you are black.
if you are black.
Hundreds of thousands of blacks in South Africa were arrested each year for failure to carry their pass books or failing to yield to restrictions that bar them from being in white urban and residential areas.
Recently, the South African government announced it would repeal those pass laws that restrict blacks from working and living in certain areas.
ing and living there. That announcement should be received with caution, for it has the power to deceive.
Prime Minister Pieter Botha, in announcing the
decree, said that a standard identity card would be issued to all races. Yet he failed to say that the passes would not contain racial information or restrictions.
His statement is simply a hollow statement thus far because it does not stipulate that blacks will be free to live and work where they please.
This change in the pass law, if it is indeed a step toward freedom for black South Africans, is only a small step in the long journey to end apartheid.
Until black South Africans are totally free to vote, live where they want, eat where they want — until they are considered as equals among their South African counterparts — they will continue to fight apartheid, the snake that has poisoned their land until it is destroyed.
Precious time lost
In matters of life or death, seconds can make all the difference. That is one of the reasons for the emergency telephone number 911, a simple number to remember, quick to call and it reaches all necessary emergency units.
People rely on the 911 number to assure quick response to all sorts of emergencies, and anyone working for that service has a serious responsibility to ensure that response.
Somehow, that responsibility was neglected or forgotten last week when a Kansas City dispatcher's computer malfunctioned. Call-takers either ignored or never received instructions to hand-deliver emergency messages to the dispatcher and continued typing the messages into the computer.
This simple failure may have cost a man's life. Seven calls came into 911 within two minutes after an automobile accident at Red Bridge. None of them were relayed to the dispatcher.
a police officer finally arriv-
Although Kenneth Griffith, who died the day after the accident, may not have lived even if the ambulance had arrived quicker, no one can know for sure.
Total dependence on a computer is never smart, but in this case blind reliance on a man-made machine delayed the response to a life-threatening emergency.
the people who take 911 calls and dispatch emergency vehicles shouldn't forget this tragedy without sober reflection on the importance of human communication and the disastrous effects of mistakes.
Closing the back door
If you can't take the heat, you shouldn't be allowed in the kitchen, especially when you take up space that could be used by a more diligent chef.
The University Council thinks so, too, and has passed a recommendation saying that KU students who are dismissed from a school for academic reasons can't take classes in that school for at least one semester.
The measure would prevent such students from denying space in crowded classes to others who are more studious.
Dismiss students have been able to re-enroll in their schools through a back door under the "OZ" status, which was originally created to allow people to further their educations without working toward degrees.
The 92 status should not be available to students who have repeatedly been unable to meet minimal standards. Most schools allow students to be on probation for several semesters before they are dismissed; the proposal targets those students who have been given many opportunities to perform.
Under the proposal, even students who were barred from classes in their own schools wouldn't necessarily have to leave the University altogether. Students who found a drive to continue their studies could apply for admission to another school.
The proposal wouldn't go in effect until the fall of 87. In the meantime, students who are sweating dismissal had better buckle down.
Leaders more shrewd than terrorist ranks
Listening to the rantings of people like Mommar Khadafy, the Ayatollah Khomeini. The impression that they're fierce and warlike.
in a way they are, of course. They've been responsible for much of the terrorism plaguing the world.
But despite their menacing hanner, they're really quite thoughtful and shrewd. If you notice, their hides remain intact.
As crazy as they can sound, they're not dummies. They don't strap brombs under their own coats, or get behind the wheel of a truck loaded with dynamite, or personally hijack planes or ships.
Like any smart executive, they've learned to delegate. They let somebody else do the risky jobs.
somebody else do the risky jobs. And that tells us something important about the leaders of the countries and organizations for the counterterrorism. They don't necessarily believe their own preachings.
They tell their devout followers that there is simply nothing better than dying while fighting against a ransomware attack on your self up while ramming a barracks, or
Mike Royko
Chicago Tribune
shooting up a plane, or bombing a cafe, guarantees a one-way, first-class ticket to eternal heavenly bliss.
This obviously appeals to the religiously devout but ignorant people they recruit, because they've had to learn that someone is trying to go on risky or suicidal missions.
If buteral bliss is the payoff for getting oneself known to bits, I have to wonder why the terrorist leaders want to a dose of bliss to attend to a dose of bliss for themselves?
After the hijacked Italian ship was finally free, the veteran leader of that terrorist group went to greet lengths to sneak out of Europe out of it. He clearly is in no hurry to get together for happy hour Allab.
Khadifa, we're told, is one of the world's most movable leaders, changing headquarters about twice a day in order to avoid becoming a sitting target and getting prematurely
blissful.
So it is with the rest of them. Arafat looked warried like the time he showed up at the United Nations wearing ammunition. But when we last the time he snuck into Irsr he to blow up a bus? And nobody ever knows where in Iran the crazy Aatollah is doing his brooding
I thought about their knack for self-survival and bliss-avoidance when the word came that Khaduf's infant a nested daughter was killed during the attack.
To run on Lava.
To use a word favored by diplomats, the child's death was unfortunate. But it is a harsh reality that children die in the conflicts created by adults.
spPA people like Khadab, the death of children is one of the penalties that his enemies must pay for being his enemies.
Only recently, a terrorist bomb went off on a commercial airliner and one of the innocent passengers sucked through the hole was a baby. Children die when terrorist explosives flatten restaurants and whee buses or airline terminals are survealed with terrorist bullets.
So, at the risk of sounding cold
Chicago Tribune
hearted, I have to say that if any child had to die in this conflict, it might as well have been one who was a member of Khadafy's own family.
Even for someone like Khadady, who deals in death, those other deaths can be distant, impersonal and remote. I'm sure he doesn't know the names of the people killed or the killed in disasters or the names of those killed in the Rome airport. Or the names of those killed in all the other terrorist attacks.
And I'm sure he has given little thought to the grief felt by the families of each one of the people killed by his terrorists.
No, being a mover and shaker,
Khadiya looks at the big picture.
A death here, a death there,
the same people, the same scheme,
the flow of history. Names don't matter.
Now he finally knows a dead child's name. And he knows something about the grief that others have felt.
In one way, though, Khadfly is still fortunate. At least he can say that his dead child has gone to the eternal bliss that he has promised to so many
But I wonder if he'll say it with as much conviction.
Price of U.S. attack may be too steep
The nasty thing about aggression is that it works both ways. The United States may have sent a direct message to Libya's Moammar Khadab by the weight of its F-118 bombers last week, but he still will also make good on his promise to bring terrorists to U.S. streets.
Personally, I find this revelation unnerving.
At the risk of appearing insensitive, I must say that terrorism: before the U.S. bombing seemed to be an abstract thing. Terrorist events carried weight to be sure, but compared with the loss of life due to violence in space and because of the increase of violence on television shows and movies, a bombing in Paris or Rome seemed as far away as those locations.
I certainly don't mean to lessen the loss of life, U.S. citizens or otherwise, as a result of these attacks, or diminish the seriousness of worldwide terrorism. My point is that we are conditioned against taking it personally, as it happens in the United States instead of Western Europe or the Middle East where the attacks actually happen. Unless, of course, this kind
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None of the comments surfacing after the attack, either foreign or domestic, give credence to the possibility that this will stop Khadafy from using terrorism for political aims. In fact, the White House does not even cite it as an objective. They've used former President Lyndon Johnson's explanation about Vietnam — the need to 'raise the price of aggression' by dropping bombs against U.S. enemies.
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In fact, the European logic is difficult to fathom. Since the Munich Olympics, Europe has been a world stage for international terror. The countries have suffered loss of life, loss of property and now a drastic loss of U.S. tourism that will affect their economies, but the leaders there still remain uncommitted to an effective international policy.
Staff columnist
directive interpersonal interaction.
If this is a turn-the-check attitude.
SUNING Now it's only a matter of time until this escalation reaches our shores. To me this loss of security is a terrific high price to pay for an air attack on Libya.
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Jennifer Roblez
Staff columnist
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I would add that force does not need to be part of that collective solution to make it effective.
The trouble is, if I believe President Reagan, I also believe Khadifa. Both have proven to be true to their word. That's what scares me.
The issue of terrorism, then, is more visible than ever. In raising the price of terror, President Reagan opened the doors to a new future that challenges Khadafy to strike back vengefully.
I'm sure Khadhafy will find a way to rise to the occasion unless he is soundly restricted by economic difficulties, internal dissent or an unfiled international policy that actively interferes with his missions.
is unforeseen.
President Reagan has a chance to do this during the economic summit meeting planned in Tokyo next month. The collective solution he is calling for must become reality.
tragedy strikes our family or loved ones.
If a more viable solution than bombs is not found, I know the price of terror will be paid with more American lives and, I would wager, with death on American soil.
Let's face it. Places such as Libya or Sudan are not as close to reality as Strong Hall or Allen Field House.
POSTMASTER
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This division within the ranks of NATO cannot continue. The United States needs to put more diplomatic pressure on the European Union and Germany, to convince them that a dooming stance is unacceptable.
As it is, he has a psychological edge in knowing that the Europeans are reluctant to side with the one country he hates the most.
there isn't a lot of charity in it.
Perhaps if the European nations had been more willing to pursue other measures besides force against Libya, the United States would not have had to resort to torture to get the release of even the appearance of unity might have been enough to make Khadiyah think twice about more terrorist acts.
Another reason to justify my new found feeling of paranoia is the attitude being taken by our so-called allies. While I cann't candon the U.S. bombing, I can't accept the peanut ban. I can't accept the threat for Britain. European leaders are acting profanely hostile to our attempts to curtail world terror.
Sewer cleaner recipe takes the cake
I have seen a lot of cookbooks in my time but a recipe published by a data base "bulletin" that has just crossed my desk takes the cake, i.e. and*
Two tablespoons of freeze-dried bacteria, 40 gallons of water, a half-gallon of dog food, and 100 milliliters of "acelerator food."
it's a "sewer cleaner" recipe and includes some rather bizarre ingredients in the following proportions:
As to why the bacteria, water and dog food are measured in either tablespoons or gallons and the bacteria-acelerator food in much amounts, I cannot say. Frequently, a way you feed an accelerator
when I was a lad, I used to have a pet accelerator, but it ran away before I could feed it.
before the lesson.
All I can tell you for sure is that a milliliter is one-thousandth of a liter, which amounts to 1.0567 liquid
Dick West
United Press International
Bear in mind, however, that the recipe calls for 100 milliliters. I assume you already have a pretty big bag and now buy a gallon and a tablepoon are.
quarts. It is therefore equal to .034 fluid ounces.
tablespoons here You may even have a few tablespoons and gallon buckets around the house somewhere.
The bacteria "eat" the grease, see,
and pretty soon the sewer starts flowing
freely again, just like a real one.
Anyway, let the mixture "cook" for 24 hours, at what temperature the recipe doesn't say, while the bacteria multiply. Then pump it down a sewer where there is a grease problem.
Confused, non-technological lay people probably not even know what a superconducting super cooler is. If so, I'm about to enlighten you.
According to the aforementioned coalition, "The SSC is a 20-trillion-electron-volt synchrotron."
See? You could have guessed as
There is no doubt, however, that the "Coalition for Superconducting Super Collider" is high-tech at its finest.
The bulletin doesn't say whether the $30 includes dog food. Nor do I know whether sewer cleaning comes under the heading of high technology
I don't know what it costs to whip up a batch of the stuff, but "The Product Informational Network Bulletin" says the city of Newark, Del., which is not to be confused with Newark, N.J. spends about $300 a year on the bacteria product.
much. Or at least you could if you had been reading an article on "tech speak" in Discover magazine.
Discover tells us that scientists fluent in the language "have made vast improvements reflecting our knowledge of matter, energy, life and earth."
Tech speak, the periodical insists, is more than "a post-colloquial discourse module processor for user status enhancement." It is also, among other things, semantically different from the philophrastic technocratic sociollect" and "a self-referential metadatael."
That much, and more, is made clear in a "randomly accessible instantaneous read-out, batch-processed, pigment-saturated, laminous-cullouse, hard-copy, cutoff matrix."
Now aren't you glad you asked?
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