Page 4-Thursday, March 1, 1979-The Michigan Daily
420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, MI 48109
Eighty-Nine ears of Editorial Freedom.
Vol. LXXXIX, No. 126 News Phone: 764-0552
Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan
Mideast peace doubtful
New wave of suicides
sweeps the industrial West
.
L AST WEEK, AFTER Secretary of
State Cyrus Vance held talks at
Camp David with Egyptian Prime
Minister Mustafa Khalil and Israeli
Foreign Minister Moshe Dayan, there
was growing optimism that the three
parties could finally settle the
remaining obstacles to an Egyptian-
Israeli peace treaty. Sources in the
State Department privately predicted
that another summit meeting between
President Carter, Egyptian President
Anwar Sadat and Israeli Prime
Minister Menachem Begin was im-
minent.
But those hopes faded into despair
this week when Sadat, Carter and
Begin committed political blunders
which have hurt the chances for peace,
in the Middle East. These same three
leaders - who all performed brillian-
tly in the Camp David summit in Sep-
tember - must quickly put aside they
various political maneuvers, and
finally cooperate to sign a treaty.
The week's first disturbing news
came from Cairo when Sadat refused
to accept Carter's invitation to come to
Camp David fo'r another summit
meeting. The Egyptian leader did say,
however, he would return Khalil for
more talks, entrusting him with full
power to negotiate Egypt's stance in
the Arab-Israeli dispute.
While Sadat gave no reason for not
coming personally, -many American
and Israeli diplomats concluded that
he is no longer willing to make any
concessions and felt another summit
meeting might force him to do so. This
kind of pre-summit inflexibility
severely hinders the peace process.
Since no peace treaty has been signed
yet, it is fairly obvious that both sides
must still make some concessions. For
the Egyptian leader to refuse to par-
ticipate inanother summit and iron out
the remaining stumbling blocks in the
dispute shows a lack of total commit-
tment to the peace process.
By sending Khalil, Sadat was
clearly trying to avoid being politically
humiliated by a failure to achieve
progress at the summit. If he returned
to Camp David and came home empty-
handed, it would have deep domestic
implications on his hold to power. He
felt that Khalil could discuss the dif-
ficult areas but would be less
pressured by Carter to make any
crucial concessions.
Carter, who has already committed
a great deal of his administration's
energy to settling the dispute, should
have insisted that Sadat attend the
summit.
At this stage, when any more
stalemates may widen the gap beyond
repair, it's imperative that all three
leaders meet again. While Khalil is an
effective negotiator, Carter should
have made it clear to Sadat that a
summit meeting could only be produc-
tive if the three major leaders met
together.
By' sending Khalil, the number two
negotiator, Sadat was pinning Begin
into a corner. If Begin decided to at-
tend the summit, he would be more
likely than Khalil to be pressured into
making concessions. If he refused, it
would appear that the Israelis were
sabotaging the peace process.
The Israeli cabinet voted 14-2 not to
send a representative to meet with
Khalil and Carter. Instead, it agreed to
send Begin to meet with the U.S.
President privately.
Although sending Begin would cer-
tainly have put the Israelis in an un-
comfortable position, the cabinet
should still have' sent Dayan to keep
the peace process alive. A meeting
between Carter, Khalil and Dayan
would have been better than no
meeting at all.
If peace is ever to be achieved in the
Middle East, all three sides must be
willing to dispense with concerns over
political implications and agree on a
firm and lasting solution.
It is not a disease, but last
year it claimed the lives of some
5,000 young people in the U.S. and
thousands more throughout the
Western industrialized world.
It strikes females at a
dispropriationately greater rate
than males. It strikes principally
those without occupations, and
without-hopes of any occupation.
IT IS SUICIDE, and in today's
economically troubled world, it is
growing into an "epidemic of
youthful violent death," says Dr.
Richard Seiden, a suicidologist at
the University of California's
School of Public Health.
For every one of the 5,000
suicides among Americans aged
15 to 24 in 1977, another 20 young
people tried but failed. The num-
ber of successes today is three
times the figure for 20 years ago.
Of the 100,000 or more young
Americans who attempted
suicide in 1977, 90 per cent were
female.
FOLLOWING ACCIDENTS
and murders, suicides are now
the leading cause of death among
American youth.
The tragedy is repeated
throughout the developed world.
West Germany's suicide rate has
almost doubled in the last ten
years: 1,468 West Germans bet-
ween 10 and 25 killed themselves in
1976. France's suicide rate is
steadily growing. In Japan, a
recent survey showed that one of
four students periodically con-
templates suicide. Some 900
Japanese under 19 killed them-
selves in 1978, an increase of 15
per cent over 1977.
While there are many causes of
suicide, more and more experts
are singling out the economy as a
primary factor in the recent
wave. A combination of rising
expectations and shrinking,
career opportunitiessis squeezing
the young from all social strata
into a dark and fearful corner.
For many, the only visible way
out is by the end of a rope, a bottle
of pills or a leap from a window.
"JOBLESSNESS is no bargain
at any age," says Seiden. "But its
effect on young people is most
severe. It has a great deal of
meajpng in terms of your iden-
tity. It is one of the ways society
expresses its values."
And while the tragedy spreads,
the future looks grim. Em-
ployment prospects for those on
the bottom of the ladder, urban
ghetto youth, are bleak at best, at
worst non-existent. Even the ar-
my, in the past the employer of
last resort, is turning down
record numbers of applicants,
from 35-45 per cent, according to
one recent estimate. If you can't
pass the tests, Uncle Sam doesn't
want you any more.
And for college graduates, the
situation is far from promising;.
and it's changing for the worse.
The U.S. Labor Department's
Occupational Outlook Handbook
sees millions of college graduates
forced to take blue-collar jobs as
craftsmen, technicians and
mechanics by 1985, when more
than 10 million new holders of
B.A. and B.S. degrees will com-
pete for only 8 million openings in
jobs traditionally filled by college
graduates.
DR. MARV MILLER, a con-
sultant in suicidology who
teaches at the University of
California, Irvine, links
depression among young people
with the pressures of the job
market: "There is a whole
generation of disillusioned young
people who are coming out of
college all dressed up with no
place to go because, in many
cities, the economy cannot
provide the specialized jobs they
are trained for."
In Western Europe as well,
where access to universities has
been broadened from the middle
and upper classes to include
sizable numbers of working class
students, university degrees have
failed to become passports to
economic success. In fact, notes a
report issued by the Geneva-
based International Labor
Organization, "A , university
degree is fast becoming a ticket
to nowhere." The report, issued
in 1978, warned that "under-em-
ployment, job dissatisfaction and
long periods of unemployment
now await too many university
gradautes."
The ILO put the total number of
unemployed under 25 years of
age in 24 industrialized nations at
By Eve Pell
7 million in 1977. The study
showed that while those under 25
made up only 22 per cent of the
work force, they comprised 40
per cent of the unemployed, "vir-
tually a nation." And an
Organization of Economic
Cooperation and Development
(OECD) report published the
same year grimly predicted a
"longer-term imbalance between
the growingdemand forem-
ployment and the absorptive
capacity of the economy." An
' earlier OECD study projected
higher rates of inflation and
unemployment for Western
economies from 1975 to 1985,
along with lower rates of
economic growth than any since
the end of World War II.
DR. LUF OTTO, a Swedish
suicidologist, warned the 9th In-
ternational Conference on
Suicide Prevention in Helsinki in
1977 that mass unemployment
could cause an increasing num-
ber of young people to take their
lives. He called the mass unem-
ployment among youth today
"extremely dangerous."
Dr. Seymour Perlin, professor
of psychiatry at George
Washington University Medical
School, links the rising suicide
rate among young people to the
decreasing opportunities availble
to them. He thinks society in the
U.S. is growing more like
Japan's, where there has long
been intense competition for en-
try into good schools and a high
suicide rate among the young. In
Japan, he says, "the student who
doesn't get on the ladder at a cer-
tain point, won't." He believes
that young people here are saying
by their suicides either "There's
no way on" or "I'm falling off"
the ladder.
Some evidence indicates that
the suicide rate for those under 19
is about the same in the U.S. as in
Japan, even though the
educational pressure in this coun-
try is not nearly so intense.
UNFORTUNATELY, prospec-
ts for improvements in the job
market in the advanced nations
are not good. Peter Melvyn, a
researcher for the ILO, says that
about 800,000 jobs Were lost and
not replaced in West Germany
alone between 1973 and 1976; for
every 10 jobs that disappeared,
he said, only 8 new ones were
created. And young people, who
are inexperienced, are less likely
to be hired.
Dr. Seiden of UC's School of
Public Health, criticizes "the
move in this country to make
things more cost-effective and
less labor-intensive." He points
to the Bay Area Rapid Transit
system, which was designed to be
operated with no employees on
the trains or in the stations.
"It's a sp'ace age nightmare,"
he complains. "There's no one to
sell you tickets or to make
change.uTo get intora restroom
you have to talk into a remote
control televised screen.
"BUT PART OF the capitalist
system is to maximize profits,"
he continues, "and one of theun-
fortunate consequences is that in
a matter between profit and
people, people come in second."
In addition to the rise in young
suicides,' Seiden notes, is a sur-
prising, even steeper rise in the
number of young homicide vic-
tims. He considers the job
market a major factor, though
not the only one, in these tragic
deaths.
What the experts -are saying
from statistics, others speak
from bitter experience.
"Blacks folks, there's no need
for you any more," a black
woman wailed to acrowd mour-
ning, the 913 people who died in
Jonestown, Guyana. "There's
machines can take your place!"
No one appears to have an-
swers. Few have found rewar-'
ding jobs through all the gover-
nment subsidies for training
workers and public works em-
ployment in Western Europe and
in the U.S. The tide of-youthful
self-destruction continues despite
a widespread network of suicide
prevention center.
Says Dr. Seiden, "The way you
deal with suicide is to change the
world, to change society, so
people feel that life is worth
living and they have purpose and
a place."
'* * *
Eve Pet! writes for the
Pacific News Service.
Letters
House should oust Diggs
Peace essential in
Vietnam
NOW THAT U.S. Rep. Charles
Diggs (D-Mich.), Chas once more
spurred controversy in the House of
Representatives by* voting while his
appeal is pending, it appears that his
colleagues may do what they should
have done last fall: expel him.
The Detroit legislator, convicted last
October of payroll padding and mail
fraud, voted earlier this week for the
first time in Congress' new session and
has told Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-
Georgia) that he intends to exercise all
his rights as a congressman.
Though convicted felons are not
perrmitted to serve in the legislature,
this law is not applicable to Diggs
because he hasn't yet exhausted the
appellate process. Several of his peers,
however, are calling for his expulsion,
which is permitted if passed by a two-
thirds majority.
Diggs deserves to be booted from his
office. Though he has been given a
three-year sentence for his crimes, he
probably won't begin serving for
several years even if he eventually
loses his appeal.
While Diggs was re-elected by a lan-
dslide a month following his convic-
tion, the policy he will be formulating
in Congress will affect those outside of
his district.
Many legislators have indicated that
they would tolerate Diggs' presence in
the lawmaking body if he simply didn't
vote. But this would only be a violation
of the principles upon which our
legislative system is based - that of
fair representation. What type of
representation is this for Diggs'
district? Though he was certainly "the
people's choice" last November,
Diggs' constituency didn't know their
congressman wouldn't have a vote.
Diggsdistrict deservesa fair voice
in Congress, and it is apparent that its
present representative is unfit to serve
at his post. Hopefully, the House will
expel Diggs immediately and call for a
replacement to give his district
responsible representation.
debt Nitchigan Oafgid
EDITORIAL STAFF
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To the Daily:
Lately I've been reflecting
upon the current events hap-
pening in Vietnam, Cambodia,
Rhodesia, and other countries on
this planet Earth where war is
taking place.
I am angry! I am outraged! For
what is going on is killing. What is
going on is murder. People who
once had dreams and who once
were an integral part of family
life now lie dead in the jungles.
Their families, moving from one
village to another, are numb with
fear and helplessness.
Daily we read reports of dif-
ferent countries participating in
the destruction of each other. We
see it on television and hear it on
the radio. Have we as individuals
become immune to the world's
cry of pain?
Only when we break down the
statistics informing us of how
many people were killed in battle
will be become shocked and
realize that these statistics of
death are the breakdown of
humanity itself. For families are
individually affected beyond
imagination. What war does to an
individual's psychic is appalling.
Let us stop looking at war as a
statistic. Let us stop being im-
mune to the ugliness of war and
what it does.
What can we do about this ugly
thing called war? We can write
protest letters to our President,
to our senators, and
congressmembers. We can talk
with our friends about the hurting
of war and urge them to voice
their anger and rage. We can join
disarmament groups and groups
that support the ending of
hostilities in the world. We can
join peace corps. We can choose
life. For even these small steps
can make a difference on the
journey to peace. For the journey
ETS
To the Daily:
I commend the Daily for
publishing Ralph Nader's expose
of the Educational Testing Ser-
vice (ETS) and offer a footnote to
his article. While I was a
graduate student at Princeton
University in the mid-1970'shNew
York magazine published a
similar article by Nader on ETS.
Like the Daily's article, New
York's summarized the (then
preliminary) findings of a full-
length investigation of ETS. And
like the Daily's article, this one
severely criticized ETS for the
extravagance of its operations as
well as for the unreliability of its
tests. Those in Princeton who
subscribed to New York urged
non-subscribers in the com-
munity to buy copies of that issue
at any one of the several local
newsstands which ordinarily sold
the magazine.When, however,
non-subscribers sought copies
they discovered that all copies
had already been purchased,
something which had never oc-
curred before despite Princeton's
proximity to New York City.
The mystery was solved,
however, the next week, when, by
coincidence, the University spon-
sored a conference for gradaute
students considering alternatives
to academic careers. A represen-
tative of ETS discussed the op-
portunities offered by his
organization, not least good
salaries and comfortable
working conditions. At the con-
clusion of his talk I questioned
him about the disappearance of
the recent issue of New York. He
readily replied that ETS had pur-
chased all issues on local
newsstands and had done so to
prevent the (further) circulation
of Nader's "lies." When I then
asked him why, if Nader's
growing employee salaries and
plush offices is inexcusable-and
when done in the name of non-
profit "public service"-im-
moral. Perhaps the publication of
Allan Nairn's complete report
will make the victims of ETS' ex-
ploitation aware of their own
plight. Only then can we obtain
some unambiguous answers to
the questions Nader raises-the
kind of answers too rarely found'
on ETS test.
-Howard P. Segal
Assistant Professor
of Humanities
Markley Council
To the Daily:
As a voting member of Markley
Council, I object to the editorial
in Wednesday's (Feb. 21) Daily
condemning Markley Council's
appropriation of $50.00 to be con-
tributed to the Detroit Edison
Shareholder Initiative. The Daily
claims that "the contribution of
dorm council money for a pur-
pose as purely political as this
one is improper." While the issue
of halting construction of the
Fermi II nuclear reactor is to
some extent political, there are
other aspects involved, among
them the health and safety of
thousands of people. The Daily's
expression, "purely political," in
addition to being vague and am-
bigious, misrepresents the
situation.
The Daily also misunderstands
the manner in which Markley
Council operates. The Daily
states that "Membership is
gained by attendance at' the
meetings, but many residents
who cannot vote yet, or don't at-
tend might feel strongly about
seeing their money given to cer-
tain organizations." Actually, all
Markley residents are members
of the Council, and may come to
6. ,, - . - - - .,, 4 ..
Graffiti
To the Daily:
A -column devoted to the dis-
semination of graffiti seems like a
preposterous idea, granted, but
the Daily deserves praise for
"Nuke The Whales," by Roger
Pensman. So far the samples
Pensman has offered have been
only middle-high quality, but it is ,
his infectiously likable prose ,
which makes "Nuke" the single
best regular feature of your
paper. He writes with a good
natured cynicism and self-
effacement which is singular on
a college paper, and his wry ob-
servations strike me as somehow
more representative of the
student body than the often
righteous editorials which the
Daily offers.
What more can be said but
"Nuke 'em, Roger?"
-Elizabeth Powell
To the Editor: Vietnam
The following is an open letter
to President Carter sent by a
group concerned citizens in Ann
Arbor.
Dear President Carter,
As a group of citizens concer-
ned about safeguarding peace in
Vietnam, we are disturbed by the
possibility of United states com-
plicity in connection with the
recent Chinese invasion of Viet- .
nam. Because we realize the
great impact that U.S. foreign
policy has on international
relations, and because we believe
that the American people are for
peace in Vietnam, we demand the
following of you in order to
establish a safe and peaceful at-
mosphere for the Vietnamese
people:
1., Demand an immediate un-
conditional withdrawal of
Chinese troops from Vietnam;
2. Reject the theory that any
-.