V r £f n Daily Eighty-three years of editorial freedom Edited and managed by students at the University of Michigan 420 Maynard St., Ann Arbor, Mi. 48104 News Phone: 764-0552 THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 7, 1974 The blame really lies 0*O A5 THE DISCONCERTING awareness of energy shortages rudely settles over this land of plenty, scapegoat-mania has come to be an unprecedented na- tional pasttime. Like the schoolboy who desperately de- nies his own guilt and tries to distribute it when scolded, the American consumer has come to dismiss his own casual role in the energy crisis. He prefers, in one magical twist of mind, to finger the oil industry not mere- ly as the hapless misfits responsible for the present situation, but as the sole, di- abolical perpetrators of all our energy woes. Certainly the oil companies played no small role in the past year's dour turn of events. As the Now generation's answer to Benedict Arnold, the energy magnates have done a yeoman's job of protecting America's capital. They have colluded, contrived, combin- ed, and conspired; they continue to do so even while muckrackers like Nader and Anderson get more and more data on their collectice foibles. Vigilant consum- er watchdogs have bucked the odds in bringing the profiteering of oil interests into the public's myopic view. Industry is once again trying to sell us Editorial Staff DANIEL BIDDLE Editor in Chief JUDY RUSKIN and REBECCA WARNER Managing Editors SUE STEPHENSON gng..E.d..............Feature Editor MARNIE HEYN .................... Editorial Director CINDY HILL ...................... Executive Editor KENNETH FINK ......................... Arts Editor TONY. SCHWARTZ ................... Sunday Edto MARTIN PORTER..................Sunday Editor STAFF WRITERS: Prakash Aswani, Gordon Atcheson, Laura Berman, Dan Blugerman, Howard Brick, Bonnie Carnes, Charles Coleman, Barb Cornell, Jeff Day, Della DiPietro, Mike Duweck, Ted Evan- off, Matt Gerson, William Heenan, Steve Hersch, Jack Krost, Andrea Lilly, Mary Long, Jean Love, Jeff Luxenberg, Josephine Marcotty, Beth Nissen, Cheryl Pilate, Ann Rauma, Saa Rimer, . Jim Schuster, Bob Seidenstein, Stephen Selbst, Chip Sinclair, Jeff Sorensen, David Stoll, Paul Ter- willger. "DAILY WEATHER BUREAU: William Marino and Den- nis Dismachek (forecasters) Business Staff RLL BLACKFORD Business Manager RAY CATALINO ............... Operations manager SHERRY CASTLE .............Advertising Manager SANDY FIENBERG............... Finance Manager DAVE BURLESON .................... Sales Manager DEPT. MGRS.: Steve LeMire, Jane Dunning, Paula Schwach ASSOC. MGRS.: Joan Ades, Chantal Bancilhon, Linda Ross, Mark Sancrainte. S u a n n e Tiberlo, Kevin Trimmer ASST. MGRS.: Marlene Katz, Bill Nealon STAFF: Sue DeSmet, Laurie Gross, Debbie Nov es, Carol Petok, Mimi Bar-on SALESPEOPLE: W e n d s Pos, Tom Kettinger, Eric Phillips"Pe t er Anders, R o be rt Fischer, Paula Schwach, Jack Mazzara, John Anderson DAILY WEATHER BUREAU: William Marino and Dennis Dismachek (forecasters) Photography Staff THOMAS GOTTLIEB Chief Photographer KEN FINK.................... Staff Photographer STUART HOLLANDER............Staff Photographer KAREN KASMAUSKI............ Staff Photographer DAVID MARGOLICK.............Staff Photographer ALLISON RUTTAN...............Staff Photographer JOHN UPTON ..................... Staff Photographer down the river, but throttling their schemes will not by itself solve our ener- gy dilemma. Corporate greed and abuse of the consumer are not the only crux of the problem. Rather, they are symp- tomatic of a larger current of self-seek- ingness that reigns as the American Way. Past disregard for energy conservation by all Americans has come back to haunt us. It is in the area of responsible con- sumption that the ultimate answers to our power maladies lies. We can't afford the luxury of the "when in doubt, punt" philosophy of problem-solving when dealing with so crucial an issue as energy. AMERICA SHOULD MAKE a serious ef- fort at more efficient power con- sumption and consumer education be- fore rushing blindly into further pillage of nature's limited energy resources or forced dependence on fission power. Society wastes so much of its energy. While we still have a choice, why not trim the excess and so cut down on en- ergy intake, especially when the retriev- able supply is so rapidly dwindling? A little less who-dunnit-ism and a lit- tle more introspection at the personal level would improve our odds of keeping humanity viable. We can't keep playing these mind games forever. Register ANN ARBOR RESIDENTS have three weeks to register to vote in order to be eligible to go to the polls in. the city's April elections. Registration will continue daily at the City Clerk's office in City Hall on Huron through March 1. Listings of special registration sites will be published in The Daily andthe Ann Arbor News. If you are unable to register at City Hall during business hours, watch for these special listings, or call the Clerk's office for more informa- tion. Announcements about registration are usually received with the best of good will and intentions, but rarely are they followed up on. If you've been concerned at all about housing policies, landlords, leases, or even if you still dream about legalization of marijuana, this is the time to vote about it. In April, referenda dealing with rent control and marijuana legalization will be on the ballot. So please, don't just think or talk about registering. Remem- ber that familiar dictum: Do It! TODAY'S STAFF: News: Prakash Aswani, Dan Biddle, Della DiPietro, Cheryl Pilate, Sue Stephenson Africa By TED HARTZELL FOR A DROWSY Sunday morning, t h e picture was a little discomfiting. In the upper left corner of The New York Times sat an emaciated woman, legs and arms held to herself tightly, one hand half-hiding her face. The headline: "Monsoon Shift Called Threat To World Food." Picture and story depicted the death by starvation and disease of thousands of Af- ricans. It warned of the imminent death of millions more. Opposite, the photograph of a concerned, well-fed Gerald Ford on a public-speaking stint, trying to disentangle himself from Watergate. What was unexpected was that the drought story had been given such a prominent slot on the front page. One usually discovers such subjects sandwiched between features somewhere past page one or two, past the "important" news. That is, if reported at all. What was not surprising was that, of course, it held only a second-place status behind the Gerry Ford story. Implicitly I was being told that the Washington palace intrigues, the unfolding of an already at- tenuated tale, should be of more concern than a threat to millions. THE STORY ruffled my complacence. I had headed vague sketchings of a drought in sub-Sahara Africa. But why hadn't this hit me before? Had the accounts been so small, the timing so sporadic, to escape at- tention? Here was the brutal confirmation of what little information had touched me. Here, too, was hunger multiplied by the millions fin- ally receiving, it seemed, a fraction of the attention it had been crying for for five years. ture. United Nations' figures point sharply to how the drough has undercut the very basis for life. In countries whose economies al- most totally center around agriculture and livestock, grain output has dropped 1.5 million metric tons, thirty per cent of the livestock has died. The human toll, at-the individual level, is much more grisly. Mothers sacrifice food rations - and the babies the rations were intended for - to save their older children. People eat barks and leaves, and ferret out anthills for grain the ants may have laid away. Josue Njock-Libii, president of the Af- rican Students Association at the Univer- sity, tells of near-starved people from re- mote villages trekking 400 miles to refugee camps in the cities for food. Others have waited for as long as ten days in line to be handed their food allotments. Children, he says, get only half a glass of milk per day in some camps. WHAT IS being done to help? Although Time magazine for December 17, 1973 cites "massive international relief," the ai d is not as massive as it needs to be. Nor has it arrived on time. Institutional foot-dragging within the Uni- ted Nations' organizations designed to send aid, Food and Agriculture Organization (F.A.O.) and Agency for International De- velopment (A.I.D.), made major donors like the United States and France reluctant to support the initial effort. The United Nations had projected that it may not arrive at alt, one west trica article states. THIS IS A DRAMATIC understateme-i: when we look at the events of recent weeks. Japan, a prime exporter of nitrate fertil- izers, has halved its output due to the fuel shortages. Such cutbacks have worldwide repercus sions. Rockefeller Foundation's Dr. Norman E. Borlaug foresees that 20 million of the world's people could die next year from the combined effect of fertilizer reduction and : The forgotten f can only be roughly guessed at. Estimates down the flow of supplies. range from 50,000 dead from starvation in Second, the "rich countries" will become Ethiopia, to 100,00 in the rest of the belt, so enmeshed in their oil crisis that they to a Red Cross forecast that 10 million farm- will neglect Africa. "It is feared that if the ers and nomads may starve in the near fu- promised aid does not arrive immediately, it. ilidy not . di-O V Af i l r ino Wat ri' imine ple just don't care," he says incredulously. With regard to the media's - and therefore ultimately the country's - concerns, he re- fers back to ABC's 36-hour coverage of she terrorism at the Munich Olympics, and to the detailed accounts of Princess Anne's fall from a horse. "Some people; are worth more than oth- ers," he realizes with sad irony. "I still cling to some hope . . . but somehow I get discouraged." t.h Trotter House,, the Interna- tional Center, and Ecumenical Campus Cen- ter, his organization is working to collect donations for a "Famine in Africa relief fund. FIRST THEY MUST wage a campaign of "Ours is a disproportionately wealthy country. We should be even more involved in economic aid. Yet we pride ourselves on an ignorance of affairs beyond our borders. This is no revelation." .__..' . . ....:.".w . . . ..M{.....x ...r::,r... ::{: .....W-: ?i1 A little research opened my eyes to sime amazing facts. It also revealed how glibly unawareness our national insularity h a s allowed us to become, and remain. In 1968 an inexplicable trend began. Rain- fall started to dwindle substantially along a swath of North Africa, the Sahel, form- erly known as French West Africa. Six Sa- helnations, Mauritania, Senegal, Mali, Up- per Volta, Niger, and Chad, and also Ethiopia, forming this belt, are being eaten up by the Sahara desert. AS IT ADVANCES because of the drought - at 30 miles per year - it forces mass migrations southward of nomadic peoples who have always relied on the tenuous cy- cle of nature. Their own movement is cy- clical too. They graze their cattle in one spot, move on when the yield becomes small, and return to the original land later. The nomad who returns with his cattle to grazing land finds, instead of the vege- tation as before, now the further reaches of an encroaching desert. We are talking of a geographic a r e a equivalent to seventy per cent of the con- tinental United States with about 50 mil- lion people. Of these, the drought has acute- ly struck home to 30 million. THE HUMAN TOLL, in gross figures, about $827 million of total support would be needed. By early November 1973 only $180 million had been sent. Of this, $90 million represented food contributions. Largest of all contributors have been the U.S. and what the U.N. terms the "Euro- pean Economic Community." China, Russia, Canada, and France have also given ma- jor shares of food. By December the U.S. Congress had passed a bill giving $25 million in emer- gency funds and $50 million for longer-range aid to the West African belt. FROM THE SAME issue of the New York Times that ran the drought story come., a tiny article on a contract between Con- solidated Edison and a state government. The price: $200 million. Africans themselves had 'not been idle. Yet their donations are pathetically meagre. Libya's $68,180 gift was the largest of any of the drought-stricken area's neighboring states. And since six of the seven affected countries are among the world's poorest, self-help is out of the question. West Africa, an indigenous magazine, stresses in its January 21 issue the crucial need for immediate help. Feared above all are two things. First, help will arrive, but maybe not until March when rains will have bogged A woman in Upper Volta pounds in a mortar the last bit of grain her family owns. continuing global weather changes. Twenty million! Except for a few 'instances, the plight of the people in sub-Saharan Africa has gone unheralded in the U.S. While we fret over milk rising a few cents, agonize over cutting down our voracious thirst 'for gas, and rush to the supermarkets to horde toilet paper, millions of Africans are facing star- vation; thousands have died already. OURS IS A disproportionately w e a 1 t h y country. We should be even more involved in economic aid. Yet we pride ourselves on a disproportionate ignorance of affairs beyond our borders. This is no revelation. At times our myopia is overwhelming. Josue is learning this bitter fact. "Peo- awareness. This is an unfortunate necessity in an age when the "shrinking" world, an electronically-connected world, congratulat- es itself on transcending national concerns for international cooperation. When the Nobel Peace Prize Commit- tee awarded UNICEF (United Nations Childrens Fund) the prize in 1965, they said, "Feeling is growing everywhere . . that we are in reality one family in the world .. ." If we are a family, we are failing to look after our own. Ted Har/-ell writes for the editorial staff. Internal conflicts weaken Bangladesh .I Editorial Page: Ted Hartzell, Heyn, Cindy Hill, Joan Weiss Mornie Arts Page: Ken Fink, Mara Shapiro Photo Technician: Thomas Gottlieb i L-1 -#I- tfTMTi , r f 4 r I -^ 4- By LAWRENCE LIFSCHULTZ DACCA, BANGLADESH: THE DAY AFTER the recent re- signation of Bangladesh's first President, a major daily in Decca, the capital city, ran a front page cartoon showing Prime Minister Sheikh Mujibur Rahman riding a black bull full speed toward the end of a cliff. To his side stood the ex-President saying, "Sir, you may go the rest of the way alone." If it were not for increasing poli- tical difficulties in Bangladesh, the resignation of the President would probably have been accepted with little speculation. But after two years of independence from Pak- istan, the Awami League Govern- ment is facing a major deteriora- tion in public support. The Presi- dent's resignation has succeeded in bringing these difficulties to the world's attention. Failure to restore production to 1971 pre-independence levels has been a major factor in creating the rising tide of opposition to t h e Awami League. Prices of food, cloth, and other basics are three to four times the 1971 levels. Many other essentials are in short sup- ply. POPULAR UNREST spawned by these economic difficulties has led to increased agitation. A series of natural calamities are partly to blame, but the government's fear that the people have turned against it has led to stepped-up depression. The President's resignation has been attributed at least in part to his reported objection to us- ing Presidential orders (known as "Popular resentment has also come to be in- creasingly identified with the government's in- ability or unwillingness to halt border smuggling with Bangladesh's giant neighbor, India." "..:::...:. e':- : ...S..... ...SS .........:. :. ". :.... neighbor, India. This smuggling has not only cut food supplies, but has led to the loss of valuable foreign exchange income. Border smuggling has become one of Bangladesh's biggest businesses. Jute makes up 83 per cent of Bang- ladesh's foreign export earnings, and India's recent announcement that it would export 500,000 bales of raw jute this year has caused great embarrassment in Dacca. There is widespread speculation here that India's "bumper crop" is made up in part of Bangladesh's difficult to control. There are reports that highly placed persons are linked with the traffic, making police efforts more difficult, if not impossible. Accord- ing to numerous sources including a United Nations official in Dacca, the Prime Minister's brother is known as the "Smuggler King of Khulna." His fortune has report- edly been made in shiopirg and food grains. The Prime Minister's nephew, who heads the youth wing of the Awami League, has also ac- quired a substantial fortune since independence. months ago, and ,.he port, in fact, has been fully naviga~ale for more than a year. Critics of the n e w agreement maintain the remaining four vessels which are not obstruc- ting shipping can be cleared by the Bangladesh Navy. MANY CONSIDER Soviet mili- tary assistance to Bangladesh to be a means by which the Soviets can continue to use Chittagong as a base for their own opera- tions in the Bay of Bengal and the Indian Ocean. Two squadrons of MIG-21 aircraft have been deliv- ered to the Bangladesh Air Force. Training and maintenance are be- ing done by Soviet crews. The Bangladesh Navy is also be- ing supplied with Soviet aid, and the Russians have given ten fish- ing trawlers to Bangladesh. These are being run by Russian person- nel while Bengalis are trained in their use. On December 30, at the largest mass rally held in Dacca, attended by more than 100,000 persons, a leader of a new militant opposition party, the Jatyo Samajtantrik Dal (JSD - National Socialist Party), demanded the immediate with- drawal of the Soviet Navy from the Bay of Bengal. He also warned India and the United States against interference in Bangladesh's. in- ternal affairs. THE PRIME MINISTER is re- ported to be maneuvering so as, not to get caught in the rising wave of anti-Indian and anti-Soviet sent- iment. He is said to want a re- alignment by which all four pow- ers - China, India, the USSR, and the U.S.A. - will have equal sta- tus in Dacca. Such a move would undoubtedly be viewed in Delhi and Moscow with disfavor. Sheikh Mujibur Raman has re- cently sent a secret emissary via Hong Kong to approach the Chin- ese. "We would like to put t h e Chinese embassy right next door to the Soviet, if they would only come," said a source close to the Prime Minister's office. Forces among the anti-Soviet left hope the Chinese do not come in the im- mediate future and thereby provide a new lease on life to the Awami League. AT LEAST for the present, with old scores still unsettled, it is doubtful that the Chinese will ac- cept the invitation to Dacca. The Prime Minister's international standing is faltering, and his abil- ity to control internal dissent not yet tested. It is anyone's, guess as to how long his regime can sur- vive unless major economic and social changes are made. Lawrence Lifscbultz, an econo- mist specializing in the problems of economic development, is Pacific News Service correspondent for South Asia. Copyright, Pacific News Service, 1974. fH' , t 1 ;, ;:" , .u : .w\ .. , n, '1 , ><:. . " .a. \ \4 t 4 \ \\\V' ' ' A , , - ti,?. own crop which has been smuggled across the border. ACCORDING TO reliable sources in Dacca, rice, the second largest export, is also being smuggled in- to India in large quantity. One Uni- ted Nations source reports that two border areas have yielded bumper crops in the last couple of years. Nevertheless, they gave been declared "shortage areas" because close to 50 per cent of the harvest has found its way across the bor- der. United Nations food grains have had to be shipped in to make up the deficit. IN THE international arena, the traditional Soviet support of the Awami League has hardly been a drawing card for Sheikh Mjuibur Rahman. Especially following Sov- iet leader Brezhnev's visit to New Delhi last December, anti-Russian sentiment has been on the in- crease. Bombs have besn thrown at both the Soviet Cultire Center and the Indian Airlines Office in Dacca. Various claims about S )viet ac- tivities in Chittagong, Bangladesh's hajor port on the Bay of Bengal, have also fueled anti-Soviet senti- ment. The Soviet Union and Bang- Contact your reps- Sen. Phillip Hart (Dem), Rm 253, Old Senate Bldg., Capitol Hill, Washington, D.C. 20515. Q -k12--+ '_iff f al 1maszandReate Rldm. Caitol r 1