4 OPINION Page 4 Monday, October 13, 1986 The Michigan Daily Edited and managed by students at The University of Michigan History behind By Daniel Blank Vol. XCVII, No. 28 420 Maynard St. Ann Arbor, MI 48109 Unsigned editorials represent a majority of the Daily's Editorial Board All other cartoons, signed articles, and letters do not necessarily represent the opinion of the Daily. In the Middle East EVERYBODY WANTS to blame divides them should be s somebody in the Arab-Israeli pragmatically and quickly. V conflict. The Israelis blame the hope, however, that all par Arabs. The Arabs blame the the conflict understand two Israelis and the United States. The realities, even if they ,United States blames the Arabs, acknowledge them publicly: 2but it also takes a few jabs at the *Israel is not going to go )Soviet Union. And the Pales- Since its creation in 1948, Stinians are virtually ignored, except has had to defend itself a when it's politically expedient to unprovoked attacks from ;invoke their cause. states and what amounts to g Each of the above groups has warfare by the. PLO. Ini :their proponents in Ann Arbor. Arabs and Palestinians swo The Middle East wars are carried they would push the Jews in bout on the sands of the Mideast and sea. That goal is ludicrous 'on the Michigan Daily's Opinion Israel has a right to exist, and Page. In both places morality takes who don't believe that mu a back seat to ideology and dogma.- least recognize that Israe One student said Zionism is a continue to exist because it h "badge of honor and pride, while support of the United States. its antithesis"-Palestinian *The Palestinians are mor nationalism-"is a badge of a propaganda tool for the shame." The writer condemned the states. That doesn't mea Palestinian nationalist movement as Arab countries don't us nothing more than a front put up by. Palestinians as pawns i the Arab states to undermine Israel. conflict-the fact is that Jord The Daily also receives letters control over the West Bank from the other side of the 1948 to 1967 and did not spectrum, when writers propagate consider giving it up to Pale the anti-Israeli rhetoric which nationalism. pervades much of the discussion of It is also clear tha the conflict. One letter called the Palestinian cause is n massacres at Sabra and Shatila in fabrication of the Arab states Lebanon "the logical outgrowth of Palestinians cannot be Zionist philosophy"-even though rhissed-as they often a Israeli soldiers were not directly Americans and Israelis-as involved in the attack. Another eyed terrorists who blo letter criticized all Jewish liberals schools and hospitals. for a political stance that Jewish Actually, the Palestinians and non-Jewish liberals hold. under another kind of "terro Unfortunately, that sort of self- On the West Bank, they are c serving grandstanding does voting rights and are trea nothing to resolve the Middle East second-class citizens. Th conflict. Few of the actors in the ostracized and scorned inI gedy of the Middle East seem to although, many Israelis s. ave the capability for pragmatism; Palestinian rights. And the to them, their side is utterly right, states, despite their rhetori and compromise is out of the more interested in using the P question. The extremists on all a public relations weapon tha sides of the conflict-the means to establish a Pales (Palestinians who vow to destroy state. 'Israel, the Israelis who deny There are no saints i alestinian nationalism, the Middle East conflict. Most Americans who see the Midle East there-and here-have ci onflict as nothing more than an sides without looking for rea xtension of the Cold War-are the solutions to the problem.; reatest enemies of peace in that say solutions don't exist. B egion. only way for peace to h It would be naive to believe that, chance there is if the leadersd the Arabs, Israelis, and to deal with political reality i alestinians will suddenly realize of dogmatically rejecting the Gone day that the conflict that side. 2 PBS independence settled We can ties in 3basic don't away. Israel against Arab uerilla tially, re that nto the now. those ast at l will has the e than Arab .n that e the n the an had from once stinian at the ot a . The dis- re by wild- w up suffer rism." denied ted as ey are Israel; upport Arab c, are ?LO as an as a tinian n the people [iosen ,alistic Some ut the ave a decide nstead other Drugs have recently overtaken immigration and corruption as the most popular issue regarding Mexican- American relations. What is not as commonly recognized, however, is that in the past few weeks of debt negotiations between Mexico and the international banks, some of the most important financial decisions regarding all of Latin America have hung in the balance. The most interesting development is the plan that debts to the United States be exchanged for equity in Mexican companies. Sixteen new programs for absorbing about $200 million in debt, have been announced by the Mexican government, along with unofficial plans to approve $1 billion worth of swap projects this year. Perhaps $5 billion could be negotiated under this scheme. The overwhelming question now is why the sudden rush to reschedule Mexico's payments and the great reluctance to call bad debts bad debts, and what are the implications of these negotiations for the other major Latin American debtor nations, Brazil and Argentina? Daniel Blank is an LS&A junior. working on an Interconcentration Program honors thesis in regional development, specializing in Latin America. Wasserman * The "debt problem" in Latin America is not a new phenomenon. 'Most Latin American nations have owed vast amounts of money to the industrialized world ever since their wars for independence. Britain and the United States first lent capital for the development of monocrop export systems. As the sugar or coffee or gold was booming, the exporting nations expanded their production, borrowing against future growth. But when the market turned, thesexporters were left with an unwanted surplus and massive debts. More recently, when the idea of Import Substitution Industrialization was in vogue, nations that previously ran into balance of payments problems tried to produce at home the machinery and finished products that they were importing. Unfortunately, to do this they had to import the parts and technology necessary to build and operate the machines, again the result was a huge debt as well as high inflation. The recent drop in the price of oil, which has been such a boon for importing nations like the United States, has been the final blow for Mexico. The greatest share of Mexico's exports had been oil, and it was this revenue that financed the possibility of further growth necessary to begin to pay back the incredible debt that has been amassed. This is to say nothing of the few social debts programs and plans for internal development that depended on a favorable balance of payments. The interest alone on current debts is substantially more than the shaken Mexican economy can hope to support,. and international lending institutions have become increasingly concerned about the possibility of Mexico defaulting on its loans. What has traditionally been the deterrence to this is the threat of commercial and financial ostracization.. All Latin American nations depend upon loans as well as trade with the United States and other developed nations for their livelihood. To be cut off is such a radical step, that the "d" word is not even mentioned. There have been other radical proposals however. The cocaine barons in Bolivia made it clear to the government that, if left alone, they would solve the debt crisis, to which the government in effect replied, let's talk. Also, the notion of a -debtor's coalition has been vigorously discussed at times. If the major debtor nations all defaulted together, with the ideas of trading amongst themselves for the imports that they need, perhaps they could tell the north to go to hell. This might explain the great enthusiasm with which the international banks have pursued a settlement with Mexico, and may yet with Brazil and Argentina. T76 TEf-W PE&NANcY ?3LFM IS REALLY A VICIOMSCIPCLE ?OOR- TEEN,EARE THE WST LIKELY TO BECOME TEE~N MAEWS,,, C C 140 IEEUN PRNTS I.4E ThE IMST UVE.LI To 6E P009- KF1c W~E.LL, NT LEAST They'RE Vr-epN& IT To ThEMSEL1.-VCS I LETTERS:. Home lessness edit is irrespnsle IDEOLOGICAL ATTACKS ON A Public Broadcasting System (PBS) series called "The Africans" hosted by University Political Science Prof. Ali Mazrui threaten the independence of Public television. The series deals with a variety of issues involving the African ;continent from the viewpoint of :Mazrui, a Kenyan. The destructive, effects of Western imperialism come under specific attack. After viewing the series Lynne Cheney, the recently appointed head of the National Endowment for the Humanities which helped fund the series, demanded that the NEH' s name be removed from the credits. She criticized Mazrui's anti-Western bias and said that the NEH was unaware of the content of the series when funding was approved. What Cheney's opposition are undeniably biased and unpopular in the U.S., it is important that they are heard .nonetheless. Equally disturbing is the view of the role of Public television reflected in Cheney's attack. Cheney feels that since the program was partially federally supported it should not criticize U.S. policy. The NEH, however, is getting its money's worth when by promoting alternative views it facilitates the free flow of ideas. PBS is most valuable when it shows things which would not appear on commercial television, educational programs such as "Sesame Street" and cultural programs such as "Masterpiece Theater." Commercial networks already present the Western view of Africa; PBS should be a forum for other views. To the Daily: After reading the editorial in Wednesday's edition of the- Daily about the homeless man arrested in West Quad, I found myself wondering how the Daily could print such an editorial based on information taken from an old memo. Being the RA on the court floor of Wenley House, where "the lounger" lived, it was with great resentment that I read "the approach that was taken seems unnecessarily harsh." First of all, many of the residents were aware that this man was living in the lounge and they didn't have any problem with the situation. When the staff of Wenley House was finally made aware of the situation, we felt that the man was just an unfortunate individual in need of help. In fact, we had approached the man and we were planning on informing him about alternative places to stay when we discovered that not only had he stolen the property of Wenley House resident, but that a man fitting his description was seen entering an occuppied woman's shower in West Quad. He had seen. the woman, and was walking toward her, when, fortunately, the woman screamed and he ran away. However, had this innocent resdident been molested, what would the editorial staff of the Daily have then said about our lenient attitudes. It is ridiculous, but of course typical of the Daily, to make a complex social problem seem extremely simple. I agree with the Daily's assessment that "generally, if people are stealing it is because they have relinquish. This man, then, was not just a homeless individual. He was also a thief and a potentially dangerous sexual offender, though the Daily does not acknowledge this in their editorial. The residents of West Quad, and of any other dorm, should be entitled to a living environment free from crime. This "lounger," was also a criminal, had keysto West Quad. Had tose keys not been confiscated, "the lounger" would have continued to live in the TV lounge. It seems to me that the actions of Wenley House staff were not "unnecessarily harsh" but rather the only methods possible to maintain a safe living Congressman Pursell misrepresented To the Daily: I am writing in response to Nancy Stoke's letter, "Pursell's strategy is embarassing" (Daily, 9/23/86), regarding Congressman Carl Pursell's appearances in Ann Arbor this year. The letter contained yet another piece of misinformation. Congressman Pursell's appearance at the Great Peace March on, September 6 was neither unannounced nor a surpnse. He appeared at the personal request of Mayor Ed Pierce. After checking with Congressman Pursell's office, I discovered he responded favorably to the invitation soon after it was received. Further, he certainly did not decline an offer to speak at the tree planting. In fact, as reported in the Ann Arbor News on Sunday September 7, Congressman Pursell was not given an opportunity to speak, unlike Democrats Lana Pollack and Perry Bullard. This is unfortunate particularly be- cause, of all the elected officials present, Congressman Pursell is the only legislator who has a continued and direct effect on the arms control and peace issues by his votes in congress. It is a shame that an embarrassment to all the people of the Second Congressional District as Stokes contends. -David Goodsir September 26 Editors' note: The Ann Arbor News article indirectly quoted Congressman Pursell to the effect that he was not given the right to speak at the Great Peace March tree planting in September The Ann. Arbor News did not comment on the accuracy of that statement. .According to Great Peace March organizers, congressman Pursell had the opportunity to speak .with the understanding that Democratic candidate Dean Baker, who is seeking Pursell's seat in the House of Re- presentatives, would also speak. Under these conditions, Pursell refused the opportunity to speak. 0 environment. Inmthe future, it would be appreciated if the Daily would check out all of the facts before an editorial is printed. -David Elkin Resident Advisor Wenley House West Quad October 12 I 4 0 V B 0 F1I F, I a