4 OPINION Page 4 Tuesday, December 11, 1984 The Michigan Dai(y Acts of charity can fill empty stomachs 4 By Sandra Steingraber Eclipsed in the news media first by the elections, then by the death of a Polish priest, and now by an airplane hijacking, the African famine drags on, no longer a "news event" but claiming more victims every day than were lost in the massive Union Carbide accident in India last week. Less than two mon- ths after the initial BBC broadcast brought starving Ethiopians into our living rooms and elicited an outpouring of concern, the famine has drifted to the back pages, the problem still as severe and complex but no longer a "news event." Thus, I have been heartened to see the growing attention that world hunger has been receiving on campus lately. Especially important is Daily colum- nist Brian Leiter's recognition that our government has been negligent in responding to world hunger, a societal problem for which free market greed is largely responsible, "Real solutions lie far beyond charity" (Daily, December 5). However, the focus on famine as a political problem has led many to the erroneous conclusion that acts of charity by the private sector are futile. While it is certainly true that charity-in the absence of the necessary changes in our government's political priorities-can only treat the symptoms of the problem, the evidence dons not support the conclusion that short-term charity is-as Leiter says-"quite harmful." IN FACT, the world's worst famines have occurred in nations that have closed themselves off from inter- national aid and charitable assistance. The famines which killed and crippled millions of Chinese during the Cultural Revolution can be partly attributed to that nation's political isolation and refusal to accept help from nations with "ideologically inferior" governments. In contrast, India, a relatively open society, has successfully averted such massive calamities by alerting charitable organizations during food crises and facilitating relief operations. Ethiopia, the country Leiter cites, can be compared to China of the 1960s. The Ethiopian government-not wanting to spoil its anniversary party-has done everything possible to hide from the world the hunger of its people even though it has known for two years that the famine was growing out of control. The Relief and Rehabilitation Com- mittee (RRC), a branch of the Ethiopian government ostensibly responsible for monitoring food shor- tages, did not appeal to relief organizations for aid until last May. Moreover, it deliberately and grossly underestimated the number of starving in its reports. The fact that the head of the RRC is a party member and a military officer does not improve its credibility. So, by the time the need for help was made public and charitable ef- forts mobilized, it was too late for hun- dreds of thousands. Thus, Ethiopia is not an example of the failures of charity, as Leiter implies. In fact, one could argue that if charitable efforts had been allowed to begin two years ago, 900,000 dead Ethiopians (that's nine University football stadiums full of people) might still be alive. As Leiter points out, we need to recognize that charity cannot solve the problem of famine. Equally important, however, is the realization that charity can buy time until a cure can be found. To recommend, as Leiter does, that the energy and time spent on charity should all be transferred to devising long-term solutions is tantamount to leaving an accident victim bleeding on the pavement while the medical profession develops a program of physical therapy. Clearly, stabilizing the victim's vital signs is the first necessary step. And-when allowed to act-relief agencies can effectively choices as Leiter assumes. Money and effort devoted to one does not have to hinder the other. Jennifer Bowen's thoughtful letter, "Only individuals make the difference," (Daily, Decem- ber 7) pointed out that many relief organizations are dedicated to both feeding the hungry now and planning for tomorrow's crop. I would like to add that a lack of charity now may make long-term solutions to hunger more dif- ficult. Children who are adequately nourished for even a short period of time cannot produce all the brain cells they need to become mentally fun- 'To recommend. . . that the energy and time spent on charity should all be transferred to devising long-term solutions is tantamount to leaving an ac- cident victim bleeding on the pavement while the medical profession develops a program of physical therapy. Clearly, stabilizing the victim s vital signs is the first necessary step.' fam-sponsored fast is indeed a modest and disappointing sum. However, this contribution needs to be placed in the context of what it can accomplish. As stressed in the conclusion of my article, "Kifu qun: Evil days in Africa," (Daily Weekend magazine, November 30) un- processed food is cheap. Four- thousand-five-hundred dollars can feed 90 children for an entire year. Depen- ding on whether you tend to view par- tially filled cups as half empty or half full, you will perceive this accomplish- ment as either insignificant or salient. I prefer to believe that preventing the physical and mental crippling of that many children for that length of time significantly reduces the amount of human suffering in the universe. To assert, as Leiter does, that charity is ineffective because it "returns year after year doing the same fundraising for the same problem" is a little like claiming that penicillin must not work because lots of people in the world still die of disease. Saving even a few lives is not something we have the opportunity to do everyday; those who participated in the fast should not consider their small efforts futile. UNFORTUNATELY, most of those who signed away their meals bought food elsewhere and thus helped raise funds but not their own consciousness. The fatigue, the irritability, and the lack of concentration that build as you try to accomplish a normal day's work without food can sensitize you for the rest of your life to the plight of the chronically hungry. I urge the Commit- tee Concerned with World Hunger to make this purpose clear to next year's participants. The restructuring of political priorities needed to solve the problem of hunger can only come about when we, who live surrounded by food, understand what it is we are helping people out of. Brian Leiter is right to call for a change in political will on the part of our federal government. But until that happens, sincere charitable efforts on the part of informed individuals can ex- tend lives, alleviate suffering, and offer hope. Yes, it. is easy to give away a meal and delude yourself into thinking that you've done something more significant than offer temporary respite to a hungry person. But it is far easier to give up nothing at all in the cynical belief that such small efforts are futile. Please give generously. Discuss the problem of world hunger with your family and friends over Christmas break. Urge your Congressmen to sup- port the African Recovery Act now pending in the House. An ancient Ethiopian proverb states, "When spider webs unite, they can tie up a lion." We must believe this is possible. administer this kind of first aid. For example, in the government-controlled areas of Ethiopia, where relief agencies have been allowed in, the daily death rate from disease and starvation has dropped dramatically. However, in the rebel-held areas of rural Tigray, which are officially off-limits, the death rate has increased from 450/day last month to 1,400/ day now. CHARITY and long-term develop- ment are not mutually exclusive ctional adults. If we ignore appeals for charity because we think it only a temporary measure, a whole generation of children may grow up so physically and mentally stunted that they will not be able to implement the long-term changes we finally devise to make them self-sufficient. But on to Leiter's major point that bit contributions by college students giving up a single dorm meal constitute a "sick joke". The $4,500 raised in the Ox- Steingraber is a graduate student in biology. C - LETTERS TO THE DAILY ebt a n Mihigan Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan Aid peace. Ask for protestors' release Vol. XCV, No. 79 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Editorials represent a majority opinion of the Daily's Editorial Board Responsi*b1iity for Bhopal THE TRAGEDY in Bhopal is the latest reminder of technology's awesome power to destroy. Whatever the reasons for the accident at the In- dian Union Carbide plant, the awful fact remains that thousands have died. Unchecked, technologies can and will go awry. The corporations that operate such plants and the governments that regulate them must take respon- sibility. Over 2,000 have already died in Bhopal, 50,000 have flooded hospitals and makeshift clinics, and hundreds continue to die every day. The lethal gas which leaked from the plant has grim consequences for those who breathe it. Methyl isocyanate attacks the lungs filling them with fluid until the victim literally drowns. As disastrous as the accident has been, however, it is unfortunately not the fir- st of its kind. In 1976, a dioxin cloud poisoned an entire Italian town. Last month in Mexico City, 400 people died in a gas line explosion. Large scale industrial accidents are far too frequent. The Ox- ford Committee on Famine Relief has estimated that each year 22,500 people die from exposure to pesticides alone. Technology's toll in lives and environ- mental damage is unacceptably great, especially in the Third World. Blame for the disaster in Bhopal has been assigned to poorly trained workers, and the Soviet Union even proclaimed that capitalist greed was the direct cause. Both are simplistic reactions to the disaste that ignore the fundamental problem: inadequate in- dustrial safeguards. If a plant cannot be operated safely, it should not be operated. American companies overseas are not held to the same safeguards required in the United States. Many Third World governments do not require strict environmental or health standards, often resulting in lax precautions. At a Union Carbide plant in Indonesia half of the workers recen- tly were found to have kidney damage due to mercury exposure. American companies exporting industrial operations should be required to export strict environmental standards. Part of the problem has been a lack of willingness in Washington to enforce safeguards on American operations. overseas. In 1981, the Reagan ad- ministration cancelled an executive order issued by President Carter to impose stricter requirements on U.S. companies exporting hazardous sub- stances. Someone must take respon- sibility. If American plants overseas and the governments where they are located will not insure adequate safety measures, then the United States should step in. The risks are too great to stand idly by. To the Daily: This letter concerns the 13 people (including five University students) arrested at Walled Lake on Dec. 3 for protesting the production of cruise missile engines at Williams Inter- national. Because some have expressed concern over the fact that many people would be left unemployed should Williams either close or move elsewhere, we would like to emphasize that the Dec. 3 action.; was not only a sit-in for peace but also a call to economic conver- sion. Military production is detrimental to our economic well- being. Studies by state Rep. David Hollister prove a direct correlation between increased military spending and rising unemployment in Michigan. They also reveal that defense related production creates far fewer jobs than any other major industry. Other studies show that military research and produc- tion, by diverting funds from civilian production, threaten our future economic com- petitiveness. The engine produced at Williams does contribute to first strike capability. As University Physics Prof. Daniel Axelrod, a court-certified expert on nuclear weapons, has explained, the cruise in combination with the more rapid, highly accurate Per- shing II missile, makes possible a U.S. one-two first strike strategy. In addition, the cruise missile's small size and mobility makes a verifiable nuclear freeze im- possible and nuclear arms talks impractical. Should Williams decide to take its business elsewhere, we trust our brothers and sisters all over the state and across the country will continue to oppose produc- tion of first strike weaponry. It is possible for Williams to stay in business. Until 1975, they were involved in peaceful production and presently 20 percent of their contracts are non-military. We have urged them to return to pre- 1975 values, and they have per- sisted in refusing to discuss this possibility. We have been criticized for our trespassing on private property and interfering with business. But Williams is not just any business, and on its private property it spends our tax dollars to build weapons of inordinate destruction. It is our respon- sibility as citizens to prevent use of our tax dollars for such pur- poses, and trespass laws should Some have also questioned whether civil disobedience is the appropriate response to the nuclear arms race. In 1982 the State of Michigan and eight other states voted overwhelmingly for a nuclear freeze. There has been no government response. The recent civil disobedience of several of our own congressper- sons suggests that efforts to act within the normal political arena are not always sufficient. And we would not have our present civil rights laws if Martin Luther King had only taken his views to Congress and if he had always respected the laws of property. Civil disobedience is consistent with America s strong democratic tradition, under which initially small numbers of people have courageously taken the first steps leading to our in- dependence, our abolition of slavery, and our consolidating of civil rights. Life is not served by the production of weapons each one of which is 16 times more destructive than the bomb drop- ped at Hiroshima; liberty is not assured by our being held hostage to nuclear threats; and the pursuit of happiness is not achieved when growing numbers of our youth testify to their fear of a nuclear holocaust, and when that fear contributes to a drastic increase in the suicide rates among our teenagers. Finally, it must not be forgot- ten that the 13 arrested for pur- suing the path of lasting peace have been handed an indefinite, i.e. a life, sentence, to be served either in Oakland County Jail or with the Salvation Army. (The terms of the Salvation Army sen- tence are 8 hours a day, 7 days a week-for the rest of their lives.) Clearly, the Williams 13 are prisoners of conscience, and will remain so until all of us, in our letters and phone calls, demand their release, and demand, as well, the termination of cruise missile engine production at Williams International. -Randi Metsch Eric Goldstein December 10 Metsch and Goldstein are members of the Ann Arbor Peace Community. ) a Remove campus Pentagon projects 0 To the Daily: Thank you for bringing atten- tion to the deadly connections between the Pentagon and the University. The editorial "An outdated relationship with the Pentagon" (Daily, December 6), is correct in warning of an in- crease in Department of Defense sponsored research at the University due to Reagan ad- ministration policies. However, while the editorial opposed a return to the blatant applied weapons research of the '70s, it failed to point out current Depar- tment of Defense funded resear- ch projects at the University which are clearly inappropriate. One such project was protested last May and 11 students were arrested for blockading a laboratory. The project in question, "Analytical Studies on High-Powered Diodes" involves the design, building, and testing of solid state diodes and tran- BLOOM COUNTY sistors. This Department of Defense funded projects provides the basic electronic equipment for use in Phoenix missile guidance systems, as well as in other equipment, such as high speed and computercom- munications systems. Another deadly project on "Basic-Scale OceanrAcoustic Tomography" will be evaluated by the Research Policies Com- mittee on Dec. 14. This project was rejected by a student mem- ber of the Classified Research Review Panel (a panel which reviews projects *to determine whether they fall within the 1972 Classified Research Guidelines) because it would ultimately be used by the Navy for anti-sub- marine warfare and would give a destabilizing first-strike capability. Such research violates the Classified Research Guidelines which prohibit research a specific purpose of which is to destroy human life or to incapacitate human beings. The Research Policies Com- mittee has shown that it is willing to carefully consider this project and its possible applications as. voting was postponed last month so that more information could be presented. Although this commit- tee has never rejected a classified research project, we sincerely hope to see the Classified Research Guidelines enforced, and this "Basin-Scale Ocean Acoustic Tomography" project rejected. The University community must work as a whole to maintain peaceful educational research and advancements in technology for people-not for their destruc- tion. -Andrea Walsh Jeff Meckler December 7 by Berke- Breathed 0 TewsRaPL. 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