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OPINION
Tuesday, November 11, 1986
Page 4
The Michigan Daily
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Edited and managed by students at The University of !Michigan
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Vol. XCVII, No. 49
420 Maynard St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48109
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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.
Was Machel murdered?
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THE PLANE CRASH leading to the
death of Mozambican President
Samora Machel may not be as ac -
cidental as portrayed by the South
African government. Pretoria's
failure to assist the presidential
plane, before and after the crash,
adds to the suspicion that the South
African regime perpetrated
President Samora Machel's death.
The allegations begin with the
late arrival of the South African
police force. (The government has
since admitted to tracking the plane
from the moment it crossed the
border into South Africa until two
minutes before the accident.)
When the police arrived, instead of
offering assistance to the injured
passengers, they ransacked the
plane. Police took diplomatic bag -
gage and U.S. dollars held by the
presidential delegation while in -
jured passengers, trapped in the
wreakage, called out for help.
Mozambican officials speculate that
this led to an increase in the death
toll.
Medical personnel were not
brought to the scene until eight
hours after the crash. It appears
that South Africa desired to
decrease the number of witnesses
by withholding medical attention.
The pilot of the Soviet built
Tupolev 134 claimed he heard a
loud noise just before going down
and -speculates that the plane was
shot down. South African officials
consider this assertion ludicrous
and blame ,the crash on bad
weather, pilot error, and the
landing attempt's being at night.
This is a false argument: the
weather was good; Capt. Yuri
Novodran was a veteran pilot with
most of his hours logged on
Tupolev 134s and over 70 percent
of his landings at Maputo were at
night. The motivation for the
South African lies is not clear, but
one can not help having the
suspicion that South Africa has
something to cover up.
Since the accusations, South
Africa has appointed an investi -
gative committee including rep -
resentatives from the Soviet Union
and Mozambique. The in-flight
recorders were initially placed in
sealed containers in the presence of
Mozambican representatives to be
sent to Moscow for examination.
Fueling criticism, however, the
Pretoria government has since
rescinded its decision to allow the
recorders to be examined.
The reaction of the southern
African populace demonstrates
where the responsiblity lies for
Machel's death. The day after the
crash, rioting broke out in Harare,
the capital of Zimbabwe, directed
against South African business, the
U.S. embassy, and whites in
general. Both South Africa and
the United States fund the
Mozambican National Resistance
(MNR), a right-wing group
opposing the Mozambican govern -
ment's anti-apartheid forces.
Rioters sensed who was respons -
ible.
It is difficult to prove South
African culpability with the
evidence available, but information
is withheld with no profferred
reason: the incident smells of foul
play. The death of Machel is
useful for South Africa. It elimi -
nates a strong opposition leader,
weakening the Mozambican
government and allowing the MNR
to gain a foothold. Regardless, the
death of Samora Machel is a
grievous blow to anti-apartheid
forces and representative govern -
ment worldwide.
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LETTERS:
Hornback's system
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To the Daily:
Professor Bert Hornback (The
Daily, 30 October) has
discovered that government
doesn't work. And he has a
really ingenious and fascinating
solution for this problem.
Since government doesn't
work, let's add some more
government!
Professor Hornback is no
piker. He proposes to add
several hundred new bureaucrats
(they will be "bright university
students") in Ann Arbor alone.
And of course these bureaucrats
will have to have some power.
After all, what would the job
be worth without power?
What powers will they have?
Well, those mentioned by
Hornback are the power to
"tax," and the power to
"demand rebates" (from
University faculty), and the
power to "match the money
with the people" in Ann Arbor.
Naturally they will need some
further powers to enforce these
demands and these matchings.
So they will have roughly the
same range of powers that our
present bureaucrats have.
And what will the' mandate
be? "To do goo and to make
things work," say aback.
Of course. That is the mandate
of all bureaucrats. Where in
the world would we find a
"public servant" bold enough
to say frankly that his mandate
was to -do bad and to keep
things from working? No
doubt the mandate of Ferdinand
Marcos and Idi Amin was to do
good and to make things work.
Would the Hornback plan
work? It might. It is a little
more fascist, a little more
totalitarian, a little less subject
to checks and balances than
what we have now. And so it
might work. After all,
Mussolini made the trains run
on time (or so they say), and I
guess Josef Stalin made the
Gulag work. This might work
too.
There is another scheme we
could think about, but
unfortuately it is a lot simpler.
It does not require us to
"recruit" anybody students,
professors, or anyone else.
And it does not require us to
give anyone a mandate. (Just
who is this "us" anyway?) All
it requires is that people who
want to do good just go ahead
and do it.
Is there a housing shortage in
Ann Arbor? Maybe. If there
is, then maybe two or three
economics students could get
english course. It may even be
something which they would
not learn in an economics
course.
And who knows? It could
even make them better qualified
to be bureaucrats when that
comes their way.
Would this work? I don't
know. Maybe it is too simple.
Shanty
accurately represents apartheid
To the Daily:
I consider myself to be
"middle of the road." I've
always felt that to declare that
you side with the Right or the
Left, Republican or Democrat,
was pinning yourself down to a
prescribed way of looking at an
issue, instead of deciding for
yourself. Whatever the issue,
I've always been entertained by
the mostly predictable stances
taken by both sides.
I have been curiously
following the Daily's Letters
to the Editor that are concerned
with the shanty on the Diag.
Right or Left, I can see only
one justifiable view of the
present situation in South
Africa, and I think that this is
the view that the great majority
of students at the University
hold . Apartheid must be
stopped.
As with any issue, there are
some people who feel more
strongly about ending apartheid
than others. These are the
people who have constructed
the shanty on the Diag. The
shanty is a realistic
representation of the actual
living conditions of a black
South African. It is not very
appealing to look at, let alone
Borowsky OK
To the Daily:
I just wanted to compliment
Mark Borowsky on his
insightful and humorous
column "Mets win : U must
live with fans". (Daily,
11/29/86) If anything, the
response to the column in the
Daily's letters section proves
that New Yorkers at Michigan
are aggressive (a polite way to
say pushy) and oversensitive
("crybabies"). A certain
segment of New Yorkers here--
those whose letters chastised
Borowsky--obviously cannot
recognize humor when it is
written.
To all of those people I
only have one thing to say:
How many New Yorkers does
it take to win a World Series?
Ten million. Twenty four to
play the game and 9,999,976
Greeks aiding charity hypocritical
live in (even with the lack of
affordable housing in Ann
Arbor). The shanty was
intended by its builders to
arouse awareness of the
situation in South Africa, and I
think that it's beginning to
work
Unfortunately there are
apparently a lot of people who
are unable to realize the
purpose of the shanty. These
people have been very vocal
lately, and have succeeded in
labeling the shanty as an
"eye-sore," putting the
anti-apartheid supporters on
the defensive. I can see how
while walking through the
Diag attempting to be tuned
out with the Walkman on full
blast and eyes hidden behind
To the Daily:
Why am I surprised? The
hypocrisies of the Greek
system have again appeared on
the Diag in the form of
"charity."
Throughout society, we
often see charity used the way
it has been here on campus,
but here it is even worse. Rich
men, seeking to be thought of
as wonderful humanitarians,
give to charities. They give
money they can afford to give.
Charity is supposed to be for
the benefit of the poor or
needy, but the real benefactors
are the givers. But the poor
and needy do gain some by
these contributions, and I do
not completely reject the
benefits of charity coming
from the Rockefellers or
Vanderbilts.
The Greeks on campus are
another story. They do not
give their money. They give
the hand-outs they get from
other people. They sacrifice
one, maybe two hours, of their
time to a charity, and then have
the gall to say how wonderful
they are. They use the charity
to justify their poor behavior
towards their neighbors and
fellow students. When I have
complained to them personally
about their unnecessary
behavior, they remark that the
Greeks are virtuous because.
they are charitable. If they
truly cared, then they would
not need to brag about it; they
brag about because they need
the political clout. What the
Greeks give to the charities
they take away from the
community around them by
many degrees.
So, when you are walking
through the Diag and see the
bucket, please think of the
people living next to the
Greeks and think of the
injustice they have wrought by
using the charities to justify
the pain they cause people.
Think of these things and pass
the bucket by; go home and
send a check to whatever
charity the drive claimed as its
sponsor; this way the needy
win; you win; and the Greeks
may be just that much closer
to facing the realities that they
must change their ways.
-Jon Jacob
November 5
mirrored sun glasses, that the
haggardly appearance of the
shanty could cause quite a jolt.
But then, most black South
Africans don't own Walkmans,
and their shanty towns are a
reality.
Yes, the shanty is a eyesore,
but the effort put forth by the
minority of people who have
thought it worth-while to
build the shanty is beautiful.
I suggest that somebody
construct on the Diag a
suburban type house, maybe
with a jacuzzi and neatly
trimmed shrubbery, in an
attempt to arouse awareness to
free the real captives.
-Joseph Heibel
November 2
Maybe there isn't enough of a
role in it for "us."
-George I. Mavrodes
Professor of Philosophy
October 31
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