Page 2 - The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 16, 1986
Mazrui refutes film
Cf
By STEVE KNOPPER
University Prof. Ali Mazrui
called the National Endowment for
the Humanities' reaction to his
controversial television series "The
Africans" an "overreaction" in an
interview yesterday.
"I think it was also dangerous.
The NEH was trying to narrow the
range of views shown on public
television," he said.
"T H E Africans," a Public
Broadcast System series narrated by
Mazrui, made its debut last week
and the second segment was aired
last night. Last month NEH
chairman Lynne Cheney removed
the organization's name from the
series' list of sponsors, saying,
"worse than unbalanced, this film
frequently degnerates into anti-
Western diatribe." But the NEH's
initial $615,000 contribution to the
series was not withdrawn.
Mazrui denounced the idea that
"public funds cannot be used to be
critical of the government."
"Am I supposed to sound neutral
over such things as the African
Slave Trade?" Mazrui asked. In
response to the NEH's charge that
the series tried to blame every
problem in Africa on the West,
Mazrui said, "In those parts which
deal with the unsavory part of
American culture, I do sound
critical."
MAZRUI implies that most of
present-day Africa's problems stem
from the missionaries and slave
traders from the west, the European
colonialists' arbitrary imposition of
national borders which carved up
the continent, and capitalists who
have plundered the continents
natural resources. He also blames
much of the African violence on
weapons imported from the West.
Thomas Holt, director of the
University's Center of Afro-
American Studies, said the series
will be "a very useful teaching tool
in cultural change." He said the
NEH's actions were a "rather silly
kind of response, which
immediately shows the need for
such a series."
HOLT said the NEH's response
"reflects willful ignorance." He
said it was "dangerous and scary
(that) these people make the policy
in the United States."
Mazrui called his presentation of
the series "an African looking at
Africa for western viewers." He
said such a presentation will be
"good for the West and good for the
world."
Niara Sudarkasa, professor of
anthropology, said the series was,
"so far, very informative, especially
for persons not familiar with the
(African) situation. It generally
should add an important dimension
to our awareness of African cultures
and issues.
"PERSONALLY, I don't
think I saw anything that warranted
the action taken by the NEH,"
Sudarkasa said.
The NEH also said the program
glorified Libyan leader Moammar
Khadafi in episode nine. Manzrui
said this view reflects a "double-
standard. America subsidizes
movements of violence in places
such as Nicaragua. . . Khadafi
subsidizes other movements.
"I do try to humanize Khadafi,"
Mazrui said. "Much of American
portrayal of him has lost
perspective." The references to
Khadafi last for less than a minute
in the nine-hour series and have
been "blown up because of
American hysteria," he said.
MAZRUI, who was born in
Kenya, had a Muslim upbringing,
and a western education, narrates all
'iticism
nine segments of the program. He
said the series grew out of the Reith
Lectures, the prestigious British
Broadcasting Company radio
segments he narrated in 1979. The
BBC, calling Mazrui "Africa's
Allistair Cooke," suggested the
television series, which became
reality in 1981.
Mazru i
... defends series
Researchers find gene vital
NEW YORK (AP)-Researchers
have found the long-sought gene
responsible for the most common
form of muscular dystrophy, a
"historic discovery" that could lead
to the first direct treatment of this
now-incurable disease.
The Muscular Dystrophy Asso-
ciation, which provided much of the
financial support for the research,
cautioned that the discovery would
not immediately help children with
Duchenne muscular dystrophy, an
illness that afflicts 20,000 to
50,000 American boys who will
not survive beyond their 20s.
"WE'RE extremely encouraged
and excited by this historic
discovery," said Donald Wood, the
association's associate director of
research. "It's a very big step for-
ward in our efforts to conquer this
disease, but we still have 'a long
way to go to develop treatments."
The discovery of the gene by
Louis Kunkel, Anthony Monaco,
and colleagues at Children's Hos-
pital and Harvard Medical School in
Boston caps several years of
unusual cooperation by scientists
around the world.
In a report to be published today
in Nature magazine, Kunkel and
Monaco describe the isolation of a
segment of genetic material that
makes up about 10 percent of the
Duchenne muscular dystrophy gene.
This piece of the gene can now be
used to isolate the entire gene.
THE RESEARCHERS also
report that the gene appears to serve
as the blueprint for manufacture of
a protein in muscle tissue.
Duchenne muscular dystrophy is an
inherited disease marked by gradual
death of muscle tissue. It occurs
when the protein is misssing or
altered.
Scientists had presumed that the
defective protein responsible for the
disease was located in muscle
tissue, but so little had been known
about the ailment that scientists had
been unable to prove that-until
now.
Kunkel and his collaborators
found that the gene had produced in
muscle tissue a substance called
messenger RNA, an intermediate
step in the production of a protein
by the gene.
KUNKEL SAID
telephone interview yester
the next critical step in the r
will be to identify thel
encoded by the gene, a s
forward task that cou
accomplished within a year
that happens, Kunkel said,"
go back and look at patients
how their protein differ
normal, to understand the
iology of the disease."
When the physiolo
to MD cure
understood, researchers might be
in a able to devise ways to alter it-thus
a that ameliorating or even curing the
lesearch disease.
protein "It could be a long way off,"
traight- Kunkel said. "What we don't want
yld be is for everybody to say, 'Now that
. Once the gene is cloned (identified), next
we can year there will be a cure for
, to see muscular dystrophy.' This does not
s from mean that. It means we can
e phys- attempt to understand what's
wrong, then maybe design rational
gy is treatment."
)ngly accept
IN BRIEF
COMPILED FROM ASSOCIATED PRESS REPORTS
House passes immigrant bill
WASHINGTON- The House passed a bill yesterdady to slow the
influx of illegal aliens with a carrot-and-stick program of amnesty
for those with roots and penalties for employers who hire undocumented
workers.
The compromise legislation, writen by a conference committee,
went to the Senate after the 238-173 vote.
The bill had been forced off the House floor late last month in an
embarrassing procedural defeat that left sponsors pronouncing it dead.
But with nearly 5,000 aliens apprehended on a typical day, not to
speak of those who elude U.S. Border Patrol and other authorities,
sponsors resuscitated the legistlation within the last week.
The bill would use as its "stick" a system of fines and prison terms
against employers who knowingly hire undocumented workers. As a'
balancing "carrot," those who crossed the border illegally before 1982
and established roots in the United States would be given legal status.
To protect Hispanics, the bill would create new protections against
employment discrimination based on national origin or citizenship
status. A special counsel would be created in the Justice Department to
enforce the protections. Employers of three or fewer people would be
exempted from that provision.
Soviets start Afghan pullout
SHINDAND, Afghanistan-Communist Party chief Najibullah
threw flower petals at about 1,500 members of a Soviet tank regiment
who clanked away in a dusty column yesterday on their long and well-
publicized trip home.
The departure from a parched basin in this region near the Iranian
frontier began the withdrawal of about 8,000 of the estimated 115,000
Soviet soldiers who help the communist government fight Moslem
guerrillas.
Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev promised the pullout in July,
during a speech in Vladivostok. Moscow has contended that Afghan
government forces are much stronger now than when it sent the first
troops to Kabul in December 1979.
Western diplomats in Afghanistan say the withdrawal is
insignificant, a gesture timed to ward off criticism during annual U.N.
debate on the Afghan war later this year.
Scientists share Nobel Prize
STOCKHOLM, Sweden-Two Americans and a Canadian won the
Nobel Prize in chemistry yesterday, and three Europeans shared the
physics prize, with all six cited for helping man to peer into the tiny
world of molecules and atoms.
Dudley Herschbach of Harvard University, Yuan Lee of the
University of California at Berkeley, and John Polanyi of the
University of Toronto shared the chemistry prize for their study of how
molecules interact to form new substances, the Swedish Academy of
Sciences said.
It said their work "provided a much more detailed understanding of
how chemical actions take place."
The academy awarded the physics prize to three inventors of high-
powered microscopes: Ernst Ruska of West Berlin, who built the first
electron microscopes in the 1920s and 1930s; and Gerd Binnig of
Frankfurt, West Germany, and Heinrich Rohrer of Switzerland, who
designed a new type of electron microscope calfed the scanning
tunneling microscope.
Mich courts use house-arrest
DETROIT-Nonviolent criminals throughout Michigan soon
could be serving time in their homes instead of behind bars- judges
willing, of course.
A monitoring program that ties offenders electronically to their
homes when they're not at work, school, or counseling has proven so
successful that state Department of Corrections officials are expanding
it statewide next month.
Deputy Director Perry Johnson said his office will invite the state's
circuit court judges this week to try the system, already tested
successfully in four Michigan counties.
"We're prepared to handle about 200 offenders and will expand the
program as necessary to keep up with the judges' requests," Johnson
said. "It's an excellent alternative for short-term prison confinement
and may even have more lasting value than a stint in jail."
The system relies on a transmitter attached to the offender's ankle
with a security band that cannot be removed without being cut, he
said. A monitoring device installed in the offender's home- attached
via telephone to a central computer- picks up a coded signal from the
transmitter within a range of about 150 feet.
An automatic alarm alerts a state computer whenever the felon
violates his curfew- either by leaving home early or coming home
late, or by tampering with or disconnecting the system.
Hope fades in San Salvador
SAN ,SALVADOR, El Salvador-With hope rapidly fading of
finding further survivors, rescue workers yesterday began dismantling
the Ruben Dario building, where hundreds of earthquake victims were
killed, trapped, or injured.
The five-story downtown office complex was flattened by the quake
that hit San Salvador on Friday, toppling, destroying, or cracking
hundreds of buildings; leveling more than 2,000 homes; leaving 982
known dead; and injuring more than 8,000.
The Ruben Dario building was the hardest hit, but more than 150
people were pulled alive from its wreckage by rescuers who tunneled
into the debris, crawling through the dark holes and narrow passages to
remove workers one by one.
Even with those successes in five days of painstaking digging under
a broiling sun and amid the stench of death, hundreds were feared still
beneath the wreckage. Dozens of bodies were taken out in the first few
days.
hIw Atirijigan BZIVI
Vol. XCVII -- No. 31
The Michigan Daily (ISSN 0745-967 X) is published Monday
through Friday during the fall and winter terms. Subscription rates:
September through April-$18 in Ann Arbor; $35 outside the city.
One term-$10 in town; $20 outside the city.
The Michigan Daily is a member of The Associated Press and
subscribes to Pacific News Service and the Los Angeles Times
Syndicate.
4
fir..
TAs
str
contract
(Continued from Page 1)
TAs requested a 5.7 percent pa
increase to offset the high cost
living in Ann Arbor, a 10 percei
increase in tuition waivers, and pal
TA training. University official
offered a 4.7 percent salary increas(
a 3 percent tuition waiver, and pa
TA training in only son
departments, according to a GE(
newsletter.
THE DIFFERENCE betwee
the TAs' position and t-
mediator's proposals breaks dow,
to about $110 per term, for moi
TAs.
"The (bargaining) team felt thz
the proposal was just sweet enoug]
to cut the legs out from under an,
strike," said Matthew Schaefer, c
settlement
Haddy praised GEO member
involvement, saying, "The
membership got us at least half of
the tuition increase. The
University now ews us as an
active union."
HADDY believes that this will
be a great asset to the GEO during
future negotiations. "The
bargaining team can ask for things
knowing that the membership is
behind us in a pinch."
In the future the GEO should
push for a full tuition exemption
for teaching assistants, and those
terms should be non-negotiable,
according to Diane Young, a
teaching assistant in the
Department of English, who voted
against the settlement.
Young also stressed the
importance of GEO involvement
during negotiations. "Activity
within the membership was a
definite factor."
502 of the union's 1,800
members voted. 426 were in favor
of the ratification, 75 were against,
and one abstained.
.,
the GEO bargaining team
History Department.
and
UM News in
The Daily
764-0552
M"
WDET Welcomes to the Power Center
October Blues Fest!
JOHN LEE JOHN ELVIN
HOOKER HAMMOND BISHOP
and PINETOP PERKINS
Thursday, October 16, 7:30 p.m.
"2
with
specialdguest
Connie Kalder & Bim
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r'
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