The Michigan Daily- Thursday, January 16, 1992 - Page 3
Protesters call on
president to help
Haitian refugees
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Prof. says U.S.
corps. to blame:
for trade deficit
by sari Barager
Concerned that the plight of
Haitian refugees has dropped out of'
the news lately, about 15 "peace and
justice" activists rallied yesterday
at the Federal Building to refocus
attention on the problem.
"We just want to get the issue a
little more in people's minds. We
want to make sure this one doesn't
get lost," said Richard Cleaver, a
member of the American Friends
Service Committee. "Just because
the issue isn't on the front pages,
that doesn't mean the refugees' situ-
ation is getting any better."
Speakers at the rally denounced
the Bush administration for label-
ing fleeing Haitians as economic
migrants rather than political
refugees. According to U.S. policy,
immigrants fleeing poverty, unlike
those seeking political asylum, are
not entitled to U.S. protection.
First-year Rackham graduate
student and native Haitian Gina
Ulysse said the migrants are not
roaming in search of better eco-
nomic conditions, but are running
for their lives.
"Haiti is the poorest nation in
the Western Hemisphere. The mass
of my people are used to poverty.
It's part of their daily life. People
don't eat three meals a day like we
do. They eat when food is there,"
Ulysse said. "Conditions in Haiti
are obviously worse than just
poverty to be driving them out."
Cleaver pointed out that the
source of Haiti's deficient economy
is rooted in politics. He said Haiti
was rich in resources until it was
exploited by the United States.
"The causes of poverty are polit-
ical," Cleaver said. "(Deposed Pres-
ident Jean-Baptiste Aristide) was
overthrown because he was trying
to alleviate the poverty and redis-
tribute the wealth."
When Aristide tried to reduce
the military's historic stranglehold
on Haiti's civilian government,
members of the armed forces felt
their power threatened and orga-
nized the successful coup, Cleaver
said.
Protesters also called for the
Bush administration to help re-de-
mocratize Haiti by ridding the
country of renegade soldiers and re-
instating Aristide.
"The only solution is to get rid
of the military. (They) maintain
their power by instilling fear in
people through random killing,"
Ulysse said. "A friend of mine said
the military was shooting at his
Ann Arbor resident Richard Cleaver addresses the crowd at yestirday's
Haitian refugee protest.
house. He and his family couldn't
leave for days."
Ulysse said 25,000 Haitians fled
to The Dominican Republic despite
the racism they were likely to en-
counter. Haitians are routinely sold
in the neighboring country for $100
a head to work in cane fields, she
said.
The issue of racism also came up
when demonstrators drew a compar-
ison between Cubans, who have been
welcomed as political refugees by
the United States, and Haitians who
were turned away.
Asked why Bush has refused
Haitians entry, Ulysse said, "R-A-
C-I-S-M."
"These people with brown and
black skin are not welcomed,"
shouted one of the activists.
Rally organizers said they intend
to form a Haitian-Caribbean student
group.
by Steve Small
U.S. corporations should stop
blaming Japanese protectionism and
re-examine their own management
practices if they are to reduce the
$41 billion trade deficit with Japan,
said Business School Professor
Coimbatore Prahalad in an inter-
view last week.
But, Ken Brown, a Ford Motor
Co. executive, disagreed and said
that Japan shares most of the re-
sponsibility for American auto
maker's problems, and Kim
Cameron, a colleague of Prahalad's,
said both countries share some of
the blame.
Prahalad, a corporate strategy
specialist, argued that Bush's trip to
Japan in search of trade concessions
was an attempt to misrepresent the
true nature of the problem, which he
said really lies in Detroit's auto
companies.
"While the market could be
more open, it is the failure to ad-
dress the needs of the Japanese mar-
ket and the lack of a coherent busi-
ness philosophy that are the funda-
mental problems," said Prahalad,
who questioned the efforts U.S.
auto firms have made to penetrate
the Japanese market. "Very little
attempt has been made to develop
products for the Japanese market or
to improve the image of U.S. autos
there - an opening up of the market
would not ensure more sales."
Prahalad admitted that obstacles
such as different Japanese emission
standards have been used to prevent
penetration of the market, but
pointed out that other countries
have adapted to similar problems.
"Emissions standards in
California are the most rigorous in
the world yet Japan' s auto makers
have a 50 percent share of the mar-
ket," Prahalad explained.
But Brown, Ford Motor
Company's international public af-
fairs manager who accompanied the
president to Japan, said he views the
problem very differently.
"The Japanese system of gou-
ernment, business and bureaucracy
has not only created a closed market,
but also a mind set deeply unfavor-
able to foreign products," Brown
said. "The U.S. trade deficit with
other countries is small, and gener-
ally improving. This shows that we
have a general trade problem with
Japan, not a problem with manage-
ment practices."
Brown also cited the emissions
example, but complained that
Japan's insistence on testing eveiy
car is unnecessary because no U.S.
auto has ever failed.
Similarly, the Japanese distribu-
tion network is criticized for re-
stricting access to U.S. autos. Brown
was encouraged by what he peer-
ceived as a new willingness to bend
on some of these issues, but he is not
confident that the trade imbalanee
will improve without a "change -of
attitude" in Japan.
Cameron, who has studied the re-
cent reorganizations of the auto
firms, avoided blaming either side
for all the problems. While he
agreed with Prahalad that
"inefficiency and complacency"
have characterized U.S. auto firms'
attitudes, he said he believed the in-
dustry is improving.
"GM has cut 75,000 jobs, but
they are still too fat, and more im-
portantly there have been no funda-
mental changes in attitude," he said.
In terms of quality and value,
however, Cameron said U.S. autos
are now genuinely comparable to
their Japanese competitors. "There
was a noticeable quality gap in the
'80s, but since '88-'89 there has been
no noticeable quality difference," he
said.
Cameron agreed with Chrysler
President Lee Iacocca that since
World War II, Japan has had the ad-
vantage of a large U.S. market to ab-
sorb capacity and avoid recession.
I
Jackson and Engler
meet in Lansing:
Watch out for that treeU
Jeff Beuche, a junior at Gabriel Richard High School, catches some air
off a jump in the Arb yesterday.
Corrections
William Krebaum will not run for City Council, as was reported.
The University Grounds Department, not Moving and Trucking, is re-
sponsible for campus snow removal.
THE LIST
What's happening in Ann Arbor today
agree to d
LANSING, Mich. (AP) - The
Rev. Jesse Jackson met with Gov.
John Engler yesterday after leading
chants of "Down with Engler"
during a march on the Capitol to
protest welfare cuts. and
homelessness.
Engler said the 90-minute
meeting was "unproductive, but
very sincere. Basically, I think we
agreed to disagree."
"He left that out," Engler said
of the chant. The governor added
that Jackson was "very courteous. It
was a very professional discussion."
Jackson represented the
traditional Democratic view of
heavy spending on social programs,
while Engler said he's trying to cut
government size and spending and
taxes to spur economic growth.
"They have (Democrats) carried
the day for a lot of years in
Michigan policymaking. I think
what we said was we have to look at
change because it hasn't worked very
well," the governor said.
"We did not leave the meeting
with the sense that he's confident
that our approach is better than his
approach and that preferred by
members of his party."
Jackson said he hoped the
meeting would be the start of a
process that would get Engler to go
along with emergency spending for
the poor, especially those hurt by
the end of a state-funded welfare
program last month.
The end of General Assistance
stopped state checks that were going
to about 83,000 able-bodied adults
without children. Engler said that
$240 million would be better spent
on aid and health care for poor
families.
"They are able-bodied in a
disabled economy," Jackson said.
Democrats in the Legislature
have pushed to use money from the
state's rainy day fund for a
isagree'
replacement program, and Jackson
echoed that after meeting with the
governor. They talked to reporters
separately.
"There's a flood, but there's a
resistance to using the rainy day
fund even though a lot of people are
drowning," Jackson said, adding
Engler's main goal should be to
"mitigate the misery" of the poor,
jobless, and homeless.
Jackson said he hoped to set up a
meeting soon with top executives
from General Motors Corp., Ford
Motor Corp. and Chrysler Corp. to
get them to look at new ways of
investing in America to create jobs.
Earlier yesterday, Jackson led a
crowd estimated at 3,000 by
Michigan State Police on the
protest march.
"We're fed up. Won't take no
more," many chanted during the
snowy three-block walk to the
Capitol in bitter 17-degree cold.
"We the people will turn to each
other, not on each other," Jackson
said at the start of his speech.
He reminded the crowd that they
marched on Martin Luther King
Jr.'s 63rd birthday and urged them
to follow his example an
"organize, organize, organize."
"Marching is one step, bu
organizing is the ultimate step," he
said. "Today is the beginning of the
process of taking government back
to the people and the start of the
process of reinvesting in America.
"We are not fighting for
welfare. We're fighting for job
share and health care," Jackson said
"We must not look down on the
homeless. We must lift them up and
stand with them."
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by Crystal Gilmore
Retired University Professor
Hans Kurath, a noted linguist and
editor of the Middle English Dic-
tionary (MED) for 16 years, died
Jan. 2. He was 100.
Helen Kao, an associate research
editor for the MED, said Kurath
was disciplined and strict, but also
kind and gentle in his actions. "We
all feared him a little bit, because of
his knowledge," she said.
Kao, a student of Kurath's, said
she remembers his teaching style as
well organized.
Kurath is best known for his
work as editor in chief of the MED
from 1946 to 1962. During that
time, the first 28 sections of the dic-
tionary, which documents the En-
glish vocabulary from 1100 to 1500
A.D., were published. The dictionary
was begun in 1930 and is now near-
ing completion.
He also authored several books
including The Linguistic Atlas of
New England and A Word Geogra-
phy of the Eastern United States.
Kurath was born in Austria in
1891 and immigrated to the United
States in 1907. He attended both the
University of Wisconsin and the
University of Texas as an under-
graduate and earned his doctoral de-
gree at the University of Chicago.
In 1961, Kurath received the U-
M Distinguished Faculty Achieve-
ment Award.
When he retired in 1962, the
University Board of Regents com-
mented, "The final tribute to Pro-
fessor Kurath will be the enduring
use by the scholarly community of
those works which his distinguished
gifts of mind and powers of organi-
zation have made possible.
Mddle English Dictionary
editor Kurath dies at 100
Meetings
ACT-UP Ann Arbor, meeting,
Michigan Union, Crofoot Rm, 7:30
p.m.
Amnesty International U of M,
weekly mtg, East Quad, Green Lounge,
7 p.m.
Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers (IEEE),
luncheon mtg, 1311 EECS, 12:30-1:30
p.m.
Intervarsity Christian Fellowship,
large group mtg. Dana Rm 1040, 7 p.m.
Islamic Circle, weekly mtg, Michigan
League, 3rd floor, 6:15.
Speakers
"Supercoiled DNA Energetics and
Dynamics - New Algorithmic
Approaches", Dr. Tamar Schlick.
1640 Chem, 4 p.m.
"Environmental Resources and
Individual Variation in
Reproductive Decisions", Elizabeth
Hill. Rackham E. Lecture Rm, 4 p.m.
"The Japanese Real Estate Market
and Finance", Masahiko Takai. Lane
Hall Commons Rm, noon.
Furthermore
Safewalk, night-time safety walking
service. Temporary service. Sun-Thur,
8 p.m.-11:30 a.m. Stop by 102 UGLi or
Sunday, Jan. 26.
Northwalk, North Campus safety
walking service. Temporary service
Sun-Thur 8 p.m.-l1:30 a.m. Stop by
2333 Bursley or call 763-WALK. Full
service begins Sunday, Jan. 26.
Housing Division Resident Staff
Positions, Required Resident Staff
Selection Information Meetings, All
new RD/RA/RF/MPA/MPAA
applicants must attend either this mtg
or one Jan. 19. Applications for
positions will only be available at these
mtgs. MLB Aud 3, 7:30-9:30 p.m.
Study Abroad for International
Students, International Center, Rm 9,
4-6 p.m.
U-M Gilbert and Sullivan Society,
Auditions for Pirates of Penzance,
Michigan League Basement, Jan. 16,
17 7-10 p.m.
Film Series, Maids and Madams,
free, 1500 EECS, 5 p.m.
Russkij Chaj, Russian conversation
practice at all levels, MLB 3rd floor
conference rm, 4-5 p.m.
U of M Snowboard, snowboarding,
The Cube, 5 p.m.
Palestine Solidarity Committee,
candlelight vigil, Diag, 8 p.m.
Career Planning and Placement.,
On Campus Recruitment Program
Information Session, Angell Hall, Aud
B, 6:10-7 p.m.; CP&P is now open
WHERE IS YOUR
WORLD GOING?
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Paris $515*
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