Page 4 -The Michigan Daily -Thursday, October 25, 1990 Elbe 31E1143UU i~rIgy EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN 420 Maynard Street Ann Arbor, Michigan 48109 Viewp rINEy NOAH FINKEL Editor in Chief DAVID SCHWARTZ Opinion Editor 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. A trashy idea Ann Arbor shouldn' t privatize garbage collection AT DUDEP\6TA1D' S FOL.v ~CADAV1X,, AAAAy7 wr Nu 4r , aT~zg / k ,._f FIRE[ .4 oRR << L-, THOUGH IT IS WILLING TO SPEND over $30 million to build parking structures and close to $3 million to replace a perfectly fine lighting system, the Ann Arbor City Council apparently can't find the money to run its own waste management service. On Sept- ember 17, Council decided to hire a consultant to advise it on the possi- bilities of turning over Ann Arbor garbage collection to a private contrac- tor. Council is trying to sell its decision as a cost-cutting measure that would save Ann Arbor taxpayers money. But this is not nearly as certain as Council would have us believe. As city trash collectors who have been protesting the changes are making clear, privatization often leads to higher costs because of companies' drive for profits, which, dressed up in language about "contract preparation" and "administration," are invariably passed on to the consumer. Worse, and again because of a pri- vate company's profit motive, privatiz- ing trash collection will lead to a de- cline in the quality of services. The city's collectors will return to collect trash from any resident who forgets to put it out. They regularly go to the door for the differently abled. And they vol- untarily pick up the mounds of student trash lying around at the end of every school year. Few private companies, for whom people are a means to an end rather than an end in itself, will have the time or inclination to undertake such responsibilities. The track record stands for itself. During the Reagan era, the privatization of municipal services reached new heights as deficit-ridden cities, bereft of the federal monies they had once re- ceived, struggled to make ends meet by cutting deal after deal with big busi- ness. The long list of consequences in cities such as Philadelphia, Houston and Detroit include deteriorating ser- vices; whopping wage cuts, busted unions, and lost jobs for workers; and the dumping of a disproportionate share of the nation's waste in areas primarily inhabited by people of color. Three of the nation's four largest dumps are located in Black Belt coun- ties in Louisiana, North Carolina, and Alabama, respectively. Waste Man- agement, Inc., the world's largest pri- vate recycler and potentially a prime candidate for the job of waste manage- ment in Ann Arbor, regularly dumps trash in a number of nations in West Africa. Given that privatization has many predictable and proven negative results - and no proven, positive, track record - City Council's decision to waste time and taxpayers' money thinking about it is both irresponsible and dishonest. If Council really cares about its citizens - both as taxpayers and as people - it will halt its recent penchant for putting profits before people and continue to give all its citizens services that have proven their reliability. , ,, ,- r % ,lil - i BR AIN T T}HE BTU 5 r4 . '- %A N Daily 'S solution won't help 3rd World To the Daily: I was appalled by the editorial, "Green Devolution: Progress means more misery for the Third World" (10/22/90). Arguing that the first world is creating environmen- tal disaster in the Third World, the Daily decries "corporations reproducing potential Bhopals everywhere." First of all, many of these projects are not started by multinational corporations, but by the governments of Third World countries themselves. The Daily ignores the benefits these projects bring, suggest- ing as an alternative "more modest pro- jects benefitting many more people." How such projects are going to attract invest- ment and thus provide jobs and economic well-being is not explained. The author then turns to economics, and states that "if the Third World is to achieve genuine development ... the first world must honestly acknowledge how it has underdeveloped these regions and make appropriate reparations ... countries such as the United States should cancel all Third World debt." This is a prime exam- ple of the "liberal's dilemma": how to bal- ance economic development with ecologi- cal maintenance, which is inherently anti- development. The Daily decries the "underdevelopment" of the Third World by the first while at the same time blasting efforts by the first world to develop these regions. So what is the solution to Third World underdevelopment? The Daily feels that "reparations" are in order - perhaps the cancelling of all debts. Consider the idea of the United States cancelling all Third World debt. The Savings and Loan crisis alone will cost $500 billion dollars, or $2500 for every man, woman, and child. Loans to Third World countries easily top $1 trillion, or twice as much. Who is go- ing to pay these sums, over $7500 per person in this country alone? Certainly not the U.S. government, which itself is several hundred billion dollars in debt. Certainly, "genuine" development of Third World countries is desirable: eco- nomic progress is inherently good when accompanied by maintenance of environ- mental standards. But the Daily, handi- capped by an inability to accept that many companies are socially and environmen- tally responsible, cannot and does not ad- vocate an economically efficient and per- manent solution to the problem of Third World underdevelopment. What allowed the first world its place in the world today? It was certainly not because of superior resources, but rather because of hard work, education, reinvest- ment, and a capitalist system that rewarded, these attributes. Trade restrictions Revoke violators' status for civil rights abuses This is a prime example of the "liberal's dilemma": how to balance economic development with ecological maintenance, which is inherently anti- development. LAST WEEK, THE U.S. HOUSE OF Representatives voted to impose strict trade restrictions on the People's Re- public of China in the wake of the Tiananmen Square massacre in June, 1989. This action clearly reveals the hypocrisy of American foreign policy. While the House makes high-handed condemnations of human rights viola- tions in China, it mysteriously ignores similar violations around the world and continues to encourage prosperous trade relationships with equally repres- sive regimes. The House voted overwhelmingly to lift China's "Most-favored-nation" trading status, which allows Chinese goods to be imported into the United States at the lowest possible tariff rates. The House also passed a bill which could result in a virtual embargo of all Chinese goods. Both bills are pending approval by the Senate and the Presi- dent. While these actions are commend- able, why has Congress not introduced or passed similar legislation condemn- ing countries such as El Salvador and the Philippines? Perhaps it is because Congress is usually motivated by the same logic George Bush is currently using as he seeks to justify his position in support of maintaining China's most-favored-nation status despite the events last year in Beijing. Chinese trade, after all, amounts to over $18 billion per year; with a reces- sion apparently around the corner, that loss of revenue would be a hard pill for the American economy to swallow. American corporate and governmental involvement frequently promotes capi- talism abroad by turning a blind eye to such issues as human and civil rights. A capitalistic China could greatly bene- fit the American economy someday; Bush and his economic advisors, fully cognizant of this, are willing to play dumb about innocent killings, issue to- ken protests, and go on as if nothing had ever occurred. The fact that it took this long for Congress to act is itself reprehensible. But these first steps are encouraging. The United States should now develop a code of accords for civil and human rights that would apply to all of our trading partners across the globe, with- out exception. Economics should not have any role in such important deci- sions; it is regrettable that Bush has pursued a "forgive and forget" course of action after such needless blood- shed. The Daily claims that the Third World "has paid its original actual debt many times over." How so? In agony, having repeatedly skipped payments and forced loan restructuring? If the Third World has indeed paid its debt, why isn't it loaning money to the United States, which is in the midst of a financial crisis? Why wear blue jeans? To the Daily: I would like to respond to Mark Perin's letter, "Don't use jeans to show gays support" (10/23/90). His criticisms and questions represent the concerns of many U of M students and deserve to be thoughtfully addressed. National Coming Out Day was cele- brated on October 11. Supporters of les- bian's and gay men's civil rights were asked to wear blue jeans. Why blue jeans? Mr. Perin suggested that jeans were inap- propriate because "the symbol should have been something less common." This fact, that almost everyone owns blue jeans, was one practical reason for choosing jeans as the symbol of support. Students were able to show their support without making any purchases (e.g. pink triangle buttons). Mr. Penn's concern is that some peo- ple who normally wear blue jeans every- day would have been supporting gay rights unknowingly on October 11. In fact, the inability to distinguish gay rights sup- porters from those who just happened to be wearing jeans is another reason jeans are an appropriate symbol. Those who want to support gay rights but are afraid of making a public statement cannot be dis- tinguished from those who aren't making a statement at all. This protects people from harassment and labeling. If pink triangleswere chosen as the symbol, straight people showing their support wouldprobably be labeled gay. Again, this is a scary situation for some supportive straight men and women. My response to someone being inap- propriately labeled a supporter of gay rights is that this is analogous to being inappropriately labeled heterosexual. Since heterosexuality is the default, most every- one assumes I am straight unless there is some reason for them to think differently. It might be educational for you to experi- nrin 4%o X~ Do-;r Vote Workers World To the Daily: Many commentators are noting that the public is becoming extremely fed up with the two major political parties. And no wonder. Just look at the bipartisan in- volvement in the savings and loan scandal that will cost every taxpayer thousands of dollars. In addition both Democrats and Republicans are in full support of the Pen- tagon invasion of Panama and now the Persian Gulf War. Overall, the standard of living for the vast majority of the people in the U.S. has been dropping for the past ten to fif- teen years. Those that have been hit hard- est are at the lowest income levels. How- ever, even higher paid workers have seen their wages cut and their unions busted. Only one political party on the ballot in Michigan stands against these policies. Workers World Party, a revolutionary so- cialist party, is the only progressive, inde- pendent party running candidates in the Michigan 1990 election. William Roundtree, an African-American activist and candidate for governor, heads up a slate of 13 candidates. Most of the state's big business media have refused to even mention the Workers Word Party campaign. Yet over 35,000 people signed petitions to put Workers World Party on the ballot. This conspiracy of silence is no surprise. Are they afraid that if Workers World's platform were given even a small fraction of the atten- tion given to the racist, pro-big business, pro-war candidates of the Democrats and Republicans that a real opposition move- ment might begin to emerge? Of course no one wins elections with- out millions of dollars and the nod of the big media. But Workers World Party has entered the elections to expose the fraud and to call for mass struggle to fight noverty raem and war .n reail fnm Let's genuinely foster Third World de- velopment by helping to apply these prin- ciples with a sensitivity to national and cultural contexts different than our own. Let us not content ourselves with a one- time financial subsidy of Third World elites. Mike Zitta LSA senior from the Middle East; a $30 billion Michigan Emergency Fund for jobs, hous- ing, health care and education to be funded form the Pentagon budget and the Savings* and Loan bailout money. Vote for Workers World Party candi- dates on November 6 if you want your vote to count for something. But join Workers World in the struggle today! Kristin Hamel Workers World Party Hail to Daily's 100th To the Daily: Congratulations and best wishes to present and past staffs of the Michigan Daily on your 100-year anniversary. The Daily is a great student newspaper well worthy of a celebration. And now on to the second 100! Richard A. Gumberts LSA Class of 1927 No new requirements To the Daily: Well, the school of LS&A never ceases to amaze me. Just what every new UM student needs, another requirement to grad- uate. Don't worry though, the regents will only boost our tuition by ten percent. Don't like that, too bad. Our new Police force will make sure you don't protest too loudly. I can't rag too much about the diversity requirement yet, seeing as how it hasn't been implemented. But I thought the whole purpose of a foreign language re- quirement was to diversify oneself with a different culture. Now if LS&A would opt to replace its foreign language requirement with the new diversity requirement, they would be doing us all a favor. (But then the MLB would be just a pile of unused bricks...) But this unnecessary redundancy only further alienates me from those who truly Students' Rights Week Sponsored by the Michigan Student Assembly TODAY'S EVENT . Student Power in the Nneties;:.: 7'30 PM-Rackham E.Cneren.ce .Ro...om..,.: NY Qtly S PA tc_ J F ay S~a sou t S1 )AL,6.-teo /T-