Page 4--Friday, November 10, 1978,-The Michigan Daily
Starving in a world of plent
Vol.I
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Eighty-Nine Years of Editorial Freedom
LXXXIX, No. 56 News Phone: 764-055:
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Committee Concerned with Hunger
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A students' union
TN A TIGHTLY-worded, 44-page
1 draft report on the MichiganUnion
released last week, four University
administrators affirmed for the
Regents' information what every
student who has ever thought about
that building already knows - the
Union is not now run for students.
We see two outstanding problems in
the Union: The bus terminal
atmosphere in the brick structure at
the foot of South University, and the
difficulty students face in trying to get
space' and services from the Union
management. Unfortunately, the
authors of the "Sturgis
Report"-named for committee,
Chairman William Sturgis from the
Financial Affairs office - would only
attribute these obvious short-comings
to student leaders.
What matters, however, is that the
stuffy atmosphere and
;unaccommodating Union management
,fare implicitly noted in the
x recommendation of the Sturgis
Committee.
: IN five areas of
qinterest-organization and
governance, use of space, food service
goperations, the hotel, and long range
-fbinancing - the report found problems
:in the current system and
recommended some long overdue
Qchanges.
We note happily that student leaders
,who worked on this project for more
:than a year have shown it is possible to
:improve student life through
administrative channels. Although the
committee failed to address directly
-the aforementioned problems, it has,
4,nonetheless, taken a ,key first step
;towardthe student aspect of the Union.
' The group asks the Regents to give
Radministrative control of the Union to
dthe Office of Student Services, to run
more student programs, to revamp the
;food service and provide students with
;good, reasonably priced food, and
perhaps to close down the alumni-
Y oriented hotel operations and give the
,University Club over to new
:;management.
The committee was divided on the
;need for converting the hotel rooms
into much-needed dorm -space, and
revamping the University Club to draw
; more students. However, the figures
::listed in the report show that both
:*operations are losing money, and this
:acknowledgement should lead to the
kinds of changes students want and
need. ,
But while we applaud the work of the
students and the committee, there is no
reason to ask the Regents to approve
the half-way student management
structure being suggested.
Currently, four voting students and
an ex-officio student Union president
are out-numbered by the combiuned
faculty-alumni representation, a six-
member faction.
Since the building is to service
student needs, we would like to see the
present system maintained with the
difference that students make up the
majority, instead of the minority, on
the ten-member Union Board.
Moreover, since it is to be a student
center, only students should be allowed
to vote on the controlling bonds.
Clearly, faculty and alumni should
be allowed to formally voice their
concerns; their interest in the Union is
understandable and their advice would
be welcome. Student control, of course,
means virtual control over the Union' s
finances. Under the Sturgis plan, the
Office of Student Services (OSS) under
University Vice-President Henry
Johnson would administer the Union.
But instead of giving control
to a University vice-president
'students should completely operate the
one building on campus they should be
able to call their own. Students could
always enlist the aid of a'full-time.
professional manager in order to keep
the Union's operation smooth and
contiguous.
Students have shown they can handle
this kind of responsibility. The
University Cellar Book Store is run by
a board consisting of six students,
three faculty members, one
administrator, and a full-time
manager. The University Activities
Center is controlled byra nine-member
board including six students, two
administrators, and one faculty
member.
Both of those operations are
competitive and well run with large
budgets to balance. There is no reason
to doubt the ability of students to
efficiently operate the Union.
If students were allowed to control
the Union, it might become a true
center for student activities; where
friends meet, students can read
newspapers or do some light studying
between classes, or just get away from
dorms and apartments.
While we are dieting, people
are starving.
Annually, over 450 million
people are victims of
malnutrition. Over 100,000 people
(the size of a typical football
crowd in Michigan stadium) go
blind as a result of vitamin
deficiencies every year. Many
more suffer from impaired
mental and physical
development due to the ravages
of hunger.
The affluent one-third of the
world community can no longer
afford to continue to exist with
the illusion of permanent pleny.
In a shrinking world of finite
resources, we have all become
dependent upon one another,
whether we choose to recognize it
or not.
Is hunger inevitable? We often
hear that hunger is the fault of
the hungry, caused by ignorance,
overpopulation and shortage of
arable land in Third World
Nations. Our foreign aid is based
upon these anachronisms,
whereby America is pictured as
"the big spoon" dishing out grain
from our breadbasket to the few
fortunate unfortunates.
Developed nations proffer advice
to the Underdevloped Nations
(UDC's) concerning birth control
and offer technical advice in
order to modernize the
"primitives." Yet, while we
assuage our consciences with our
philanthropy, how can we expect
our aid to do any good when we
believe that hunger is inevitable?
Hunger is not inevitable. In
1977, there was enough grain
produced worldwide to fulfill
every individual's daily caloric
intake requirement. But this food
did not reach the hungry! We in
the developed nations are
contributing to world hunger in a
number of ways: For example,
the United States imports
peanuts, a high protein food,
from India for use as cattle feed,
while the people in India are
malnourished. Cattle have.
become protein compressors
rather than protein producers,
because they use up more protein
than they provide and thereby
waste grain that could be used
directly to feed humans. .
We the children of the
developed nations consume 60
per cent of the world's food
resources while we comprise only
6 per cent of the world's
population. Yet we proffer advice
to the citizens of the Third World
to control the numbers of their
children. In fact if there were a
more equitable distribution of
resources, it is likely that the
birthrate in the UDC's would
naturally decline. It has been
shown that when a people have a
sense of personal familial and
societal security they will
voluntarily reduce the size of
their families. In addition, the
poor of the UDC's have many
children in part because they
know that there is little liklihood
that any child born will live to the
age of five due to malnutrition
and disease.
Technical experts from the
developed nations have
encouraged Third World nations
to concentrate their ' food
production efforts on a handful of
highly marketable export coops.
Of the 40 countries cited as
experiencing the most severe
food shortages, 36 of them export
cash crops to developed nations.
This trend has been exacerbated
by the relocation of multinational
agribusiness to the Third World
in search of cheap labor and land.
On the home front, relocation of
these agribusinesses causes
economic hardship to American
farmers and laborers. In the
UDC's, cash cropping causes
their economies to be very
vulnerable to natural disasters
(floods, droughts) and to the
fluctuations in world market
prices. While these nations give
up their valuable land for the ,
cultivation of cash crops like
coffee, sugar and tobacco, their
own people starve.
The legacy of handouts from
the developed nations to the
UDC's and the expansion of
agribusinesses perpetuates
starvation from one generation to
the ne'xt. These superficial
palliative measures cloud the
real problem which is the
inequitable distribution of
resources. Technical advice and
food aid programs are only
temporary measures which must
be supplemented by a more long
term approach.
There is a saying in Sri Lanka,
"Change the person, change the
villge, change the world." As
individuals we can begin to
change our behaviour and
attitudes which inadvertantly
contribute to world hunger. What
steps can we take?
First, as individuals and as a
nation, we should begin to
question our consumption
patterns. The illusion of
permanent plenty has allowed 40
per cent of Americans to be
classified as obese, while the top
three killer diseases in the United
States today (cancer, stroke and
cardiovascular diseases) are
related to life style excesses. We
must begin to change our daily
living habits to preserve our own
health as well as to maintain the
stock of resources for the rest of
the world as well as for the
generations to come.
We should become
knowledgeable about the myths
surrounding the inevitability of
hunger. Hunger is not inevitable.
It is aggravated and perpetuated
by the inequitable distribution of
resources. We should begin to
question the motivations behind
our foreign aid policies which
perpetuate hunger and
dependancy of the UDC's.
Instead of encouraging UDC's to
grow cash crops for export to the
developed nations we should
encourage these nations and their
leaders to use their valuable land
to grow food for their own
malnourished people. A new
yardstick of agricultural success
should be developed both in th
United States and abro.a
whereby a country's agricultIur
success will be measured by it
nutritional output per ac'rc
rather than the abstract notion c
Gross National Product.
Oxfam America, a non-profi
.organization concerned, wit.
world hunger offers a differen
model of foreign aid that, i
worthy of our attention. Oxfan
America, supported solely b:
individual contributions channel
money to locally initiatedl selh
help projects in Underdevelope
nations. One resource that' i
rarely mentioned when w
consider the assets of a nation a
its people!, Oxfam bases its ai
upon the development
leadership potential in" th
community in order to foster Ion
term local self-sufficiency
Oxfam provides a Region
Technical Advisor to the project
it funds to provide guidance to th
local people when necessai
However- the force of th
development impetus come
from within the community.
Members of the Ann Arbo
community have joined togethe
as the Committee Concerned wit
Hunger, in order to address .th
issue of the appropriat
responses to the problem
hunger. In concert with simila
groups across the nation, we wi
be presenting a week of film
lectures and discussions' t
explore the myths of ' th
inevitability of hunger, fro
November 12-16. The culminatio
of these educational efforts wi
be a Fast for World Hunger o
Thursday, November 16. On thi
day individuals will.. b
encouraged to forego food i
order to donate their food mone
for the day to Oxfam Amierica
This money will be used t
support self-help developme
projects throughout the Thir
World. Please join us by fiastin
on the 16th of November and b
participating in the week o
educational activities.
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On Islam can topple Shah
The Organization of Iranian Moslem Students
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The Regents' reelection
M ICHIGAN VOTERS re-elected.
two Democrats to the University
Board of Regents Tuesday. This
newspaper endorsed neither of the
candidates bacause of their inaction on
several issues that have concerned the
student community in the last two
years. We hope that Paul Brown and
James Waters will reconsider their
stand on these issues now that they
have been re-elected.
The major issue Regent Brown and
Regent Waters should reconsider is the
status of University investments .in
kmerican corporations propping up the
apartheid regime in South Africa. Both
men voted against University
:ivestment in March but during this
year's campaign both said they could
not make a firm decision on how they
will vote when the same issue
reappears next year. We are happy to
hear' the two men seem to be
reconsidering their opinion on the
.ssue.
The university investment portfolio
runs contrary to everything this
[Jniversity stands for. A university
hat claims to teach the truth and raise
he moral consciousness of its students
should not hypocritically bloody its
employes students, not employes.
Regent Waters and Regent Brown
should move to drop the University's
lawsuit against the union. Regent
Waters, a former shop steward, should
have a far more sensitive attitude
toward organized labor on this
campus.
These two Regents should also seek
substantive student involvement in the
selection of the next University
President. The original proposal by the
Regents provided for mere token
representation of student concerns.
The Michigan student Assembly wisely
sensed the back seat status designated
for the student community by the
Regents' proposal and withdrew from
the process. It is not too late for a new
proposal from the Regents that would
take the student concerns into account.
If Regent Waters and Regent Brown
reevaluated their positions on these
important issued as well as their role
as University Regents, they have the
potential of becoming regents worthy
of their Tuesday re-election.
Recently, political developments in Iran
have taken an unprecedented rapid pace.
General opposition to the Shah's U.S.-backed
regime has evolved into a nationwide militant
struggle by Moslems - over 95 per cent of
Iran's 36 'million people. Moslem's popular
struggle entered its new phase after the
bloody massacre in Qum (center of Islamic
theological schools), on Jan. 9, 1978. It has
since spread all across Iran, including even
small towns and villages, and gained
momentum to the point that it has effectively
shaken the Shah's dictatorial apparatus.
The Shah's sole response to such a
challenge has been bloodshed and
intensificationsof repression in different
forms. The regime has also unleashed an
intensive campaign of distortion against the
Islamic movement and Moslem leaders. The
U.S. mass media, which is content with
faithful reproduction of the Shah's official
propaganda, has played an important role in
misrepresenting the truly revolutionary
nature of our people's Islamic movement and
its human ideals.
While the Islamic movement in Iran is
struggling for independence, freedom, and
the establishment of an Islamic government
based on social justice and equality, it is
depicted as "anti-modernization, anti-
women, backward, fanatic, feudalist,
fundamentalist. .. " Instead, the Shah and
his corrupt and unpopular regime are haile
as "promoter(s) of modernization, progress
and democracy."
Such labels are used against the Islamic
movement because it is heading for a unique
Here are some facts about the movement:
" The main slogans in the demonstrations
show the Islamic nature of the movement. To
name some: "Independence, Freedom,
Islamic government;" "Down with the
Shah;" "Long Live Khomeini;" "We want
the establishment of an Islamic government
led by Khomeini;"
" There has been massive reactionary
propaganda against the Islamic movement
by claiming Islam is against women's
freedom. To clear the position of the
movement, it is enough to quote from
Ayatollah Khomeini that: "As forwomen,
Islam has never been against their freedom.
It is, to the contrary, opposed to the idea of
woman-as-object and it gives her back her
dignity. A woman is a man's equal; she and
he are both free to choose their lives and their
occupations. But the Shah's regime is trying
to prevent women from becoming free by
pplinging them into immorality. It is against
this that Islam rears up. This regime has
destroyed the freedom of women as of men.
Women as well as men swell the population of
Iranian prisoners, and this is where freedom
is threatened. We want to free them from the
corruption menacing them."
The sizable participation of Moslem women
(In Islamic veil) is a clear and strong rebuff
to the Shah's propaganda and those who
accuse Islam and Moslems of harboring
"anti-women" tendencies. Moslem women
joined their militant brothers to prove to the
whole world that they are deeply aware of
their revolutionary ideology and are ready to
fight for its cause.
majority of the people are lacking their basic
foodstuffs and shelter, the Shah's regime is
spending billions of dollars of the people',
money to buy arms to safeguard the interes
of U.S. monopolies. This is the reason thai
attacks on cinemas take place.
e It is true that in the popular
demonstrations, ,Moslems have burned
gambling houses, liquor stores.. . because
these are the centers of social corruptions.
" Destruction of government buildings,
Zionist and imperialist property by the
people, shows the movement's anti-regime,
anti-Zionist, and anti-imperialist nature.
SOn the contrary to some reactionary
propaganda, the Islamic government that the
Iranian people are fighting for, does not have
any similarity, whatsoever.
With the reactionary regime in Saudi
Arabia or any other of the so-called Islamic
states. All of these governments are hiding
their true natures behind the mask of Islam.
While their people are oppressed, they are
selling thier countries' wealth to their
imperialist masters. The Saudi government is
as Islamic as the Shah's regime is.
"Our people have realized that there is no
way to fight such a well-equipped regime with
bare hands. They have realized that the only
way to overthrow the brutal regime of the
Shah and to cut the foreign domination hands
off Iran is through the long-term armed
struggle.
In view of the above, the Orgainzation o
Iranian Moslem Students has recently
received factual film which has beer
l 1Jiir MIgbt~jn