Bather
Monday
September 30, 2002
02002 The Michigan.Daily
Ann Arbor, Michigan
Vol. CXIII, No. 20
One-hundred-twelve years ofeditorialfreedom
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JOURNALISTIC EXPERIENCE
Consumer
confidence
Correspondent
shares experience
"
of covering AIDS
By Rahwa Ghebre-Ab
and Daniel Yowell
Daily Staff Reporters
University President Mary Sue Coleman, "60 Min-
utes"' Mike Wallace, and journalists from the British
Broadcasting Corporation, The New York Times, and
Columbia Broadcasting System affiliates were among
the distinguished guests at the 17th annual Graham
Hovey Lecture Friday afternoon.
Frederick de Sam Lazaro, a correspondent for the
Public Broadcasting Service program "Newshour with
Jim Lehrer," and former Journalism Fellow, was the
featured speaker.
Charles Eisendrath, director of the Journalism Fel-
lows, opened the program by discussing last year's lec-
ture. The lecture was inconveniently scheduled for
Sept. 13, two days after the terrorist attacks. The
speaker canceled and much of the expected audience
did the same, but the program went on.
"We didn't cancel because journalism doesn't ever
cancel. It's one of the glories of the profession,"
Eisendrath said.
Lazaro, whose work focused on AIDS in the devel-
oping countries of India, Thailand and various coun-
tries in Africa, outlined four main factors that play a
major role in whether AIDS will overtake a developing
country or not.
First, the governmental and societal infrastructures
are key. If the government does not have a specific
way set up to deal with the AIDS epidemic, the prob-
lem will not take care of itself, he said.
Second, the human rights status of women is of
extreme importance, he added. This involves gynecol-
ogical guidance as well as actual sex education.
Third, the actions and words of religious leaders are
key, Lazaro said. People look to their religious leaders
as sources of guidance and if they continue to brush
the issue of AIDS aside, then it will rarely be broached
and forever viewed as taboo.
Finally, there is simply the luck factor, Lazaro said.
Lazaro showed clips of his trips to various countries.
One clip showed a hospital in Thailand where there
were hundreds of numbered plastic bags with the ashes
and bones of those who died from AIDS.
Lazaro added, "I definitely get uneasy taping peo-
ple and taking pictures of them at their weakest
moments. They are too weak to protest and in some
ways, they seem to like what little attention they
get."
The impact of the speech combined with the video
clips from all over the world left the audience talking
about little but the speech in the reception that fol-
lowed, hosted by Provost Paul Courant and Rackham
Dean Earl Lewis.
See LAZARO, Page 7A
EPS
By Ted Borden
and Shabina S. Khatri
Daily Staff Reporters
Battered by investment losses and
poor prospects for income growth,'
Americans are cutting back on spend-
ing and have shown a weak evaluation
of current economic conditions,
according to the University's Index of
Consumer Sentiment, released Friday.
For the month of September, the index
fell for the fourth consecutive month
to 86.1.
"The main factors concerning con-
sumers are the future prospects for
incomes and jobs," Richard Curtin,
director of the University's Surveys of
Consumers, said. "Business has been
affected by accounting scandals so
much that (consumers) think business-
es are not making plans to make
investments in expansion and new job
creation."
Consumer spending has slowed, as
"growth in jobs and income are antici-
pated to be lower," and about a third of
households reported finances have
worsened in the past year, the highest
level in a decade.
Many were hard-hit by this sum-
ower
mer's turmoil on Wall Street. Curtin
noted that about half of all households
have money in stocks.
Economics lecturer Janet Wolfe
pointed out that "even an employee
that doesn't buy or sell stocks with
brokers may have a part of his retire-
ment savings at work in stocks and
mutual funds of some type. People's
retirement portfolios may have
decreased in value."
According to this month's survey,
more households reported a decline in
their wealth than at any other time in
the 50-year history of the survey.
Curtin attributed this to "the declines
in income and declines in value of
assets, largely due to stock."
Consumers today are more influ-
enced by low interest rates and low
inflation. Indeed, Americans have con-
tinued to buy cars and homes, but
reduced spending on other goods.
"They're going to cut back every-
place else," Curtin said. "Consumers
are not buying as many PCs, TVs, not
eating out as much."
Despite Wall Street's concern about
a possible war with Iraq, most con-
sumers were not worried.
See CONFIDENCE, Page 7A
'
community
BRANDON SEDLOFF/Daily
ABOVE:
Frederick de Sam
Lazaro speaks as
the keynote
speaker on the
AIDS pandemic
at the Wallace
House lecture
series Friday.
LEFT: University
alum Mike
Wallace, of CBS'
"60 Minutes,"
mingles with
guests at the
Wallace House
Friday.
interacts with
Detroit at rally
By Emily Kraack
For the Daily
SAFE decries response to
'spoof'
By Karen Schwartz
Daily Staff Reporter
School of Social Work graduate student Souzan
Naser could have slept in on Saturday morning, but
instead she was standing on the Diag.
Naser and about a dozen others came together at a
Students Allied for Freedom and Equality event to
hear speakers and show their backing for the divest-
ment campaign, and also as part of a walk organized
to support Palestinians living in areas where there
have been outbreaks of hepatitis, said SAFE
spokesperson Salah Husseini.
Last week, SAFE co-founder Fadi Kiblawi report-
ed that two allegedly forged e-mails had been sent
from the e-mail account he owns and moderates for
the group. Both e-mails concerned SAFE's upcom-
ing conference, which will discuss divestment from
Israel, and contained anti-Semitic sentiments.
Kiblawi said the e-mail address was "spoofed," false-
ly leaving his name, e-mail address and phone num-
ber at the bottom of the e-mails.
University President Mary Sue Coleman sent
an e-mail late last week addressing the e-mails
as well as the discussion taking place on campus
about the issue of divestment. Husseini said
Coleman "refused to acknowledge that SAFE
was not responsible for the e-mails sent out to
faculty and students."
"We found it very irresponsible of her to give her
opinion before finding the verdict of whether we
were responsible or not for it and whether she sup-
ports divestment or not is not important - it's
whether the campus demonstrates sympathy for the
cause," he said.
Coleman did state that the matter was being inves-
tigated.
"The authorship and other related circumstances
are under investigation, and the Provost's Office will
handle the matter consistent with University proce-
dures," she said. "Although we defend the right to
freedom of expression, we also have a responsibility
to vehemently dispute speech that is incompatible
with our principles and beliefs."
People gathered at Wheeler Park at 9 a.m. for a
walk-a-thon sponsored by the Palestinian Aid Society
and the campus chapter of the Arab-American Anti-
See SAFE, Page 7A
DETROIT --"Isn't it amazing
what can happen when people come
to accord to do the work of God?"
The message of Bishop Charles
Ellis of Greater Grace Temple
greeted the 5,000 people who
attended the Metropolitan Organiz-
ing Strategy for Enabling Strength
rally at Greater Grace Temple-City
of David in Detroit yesterday after-
noon.
The rally was attended by about
150 members of the University of
Michigan, an effort coordinated by
political science Prof. Gregory
Markus, who has been working with
the MOSES project for almost a
year. He has been helping work out
ways in which the University can
work with the MOSES project and
helping with research on issues like
public transit and in-state tuition for
the children of immigrants.
"That's really an issue that touch-
es the University directly," Markus
stated, because of the population of
Michigan students who are the chil-
dren of immigrants. Markus also
pointed out that there was an espe-
cially large representation of His-
panic students in the group coming
from the University. The Detroit
Project also helped organize the
event, Markus said.
The rally was a mixture of faith,
politics and community restoration,
all sponsored by the MOSES
alliance - a multi-faith, multi-eth-
nic coalition dedicated to communi-
ty improvement in and around
Detroit. MOSES has been a sup-
porter of many Detroit area proj-
ects, including the creation of "Safe
Zones" to reduce crime and blight
in 1996, the construction of 60 new
homes in Southwest Detroit, multi-
ple public transit projects and the
"Fix It First" campaign to fight
urban sprawl and urban decay.
For yesterday's rally, MOSES
chose to focus on issues of civil
rights for immigrants, the "Fix It
First" project and mass transit.
After presentations on each topic,
MOSES leaders asked Michigan
politicians for promises of political
support. Political leaders included
Democratic gubernatorial candidate
See MOSES, Page 7A
Saying ono'
Dingell listens to
student concerns
over Iraq question
By Louie Melzsh
Daily Staff Reporter
If the opinion of those who gathered
last night at the Michigan League is
any indication, the local community is
opposed to any attack on Iraq. And
U.S. Rep. John Dingell was clearly
aware of that prevailing sentiment last
night as he discussed the possibility of
another war in the Persian Gulf during
a town hall meeting.
For his part, Dingell (D-Dearborn),
who is heavily favored to win the elec-
Arbor, said he has not made up his mind
yet on whether he, as a member of Con-
gress, will authorize the use of force
against Iraq. President Bush has request-
ed that Congress do so, and Dingell
expects such a vote to be held within the
next week to 10 days.
But immediately after taking questions
from community members and Universi-
ty students, Dingell said, "the president
should be encouraged to seek as much
international support as he can get."
Of the approximately 100 people
gathered to hear Dingell, few were
AP PHOTO
Iran anti-war nrnteters sit on the steps of the
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