Bather Monday September 30, 2002 02002 The Michigan.Daily Ann Arbor, Michigan Vol. CXIII, No. 20 One-hundred-twelve years ofeditorialfreedom Partly cloudy during the morning but clearing up in the afternoon and into the evening. wT 8 LOW-.ro66 Tornorro- 92/66 www.michigandaily.com 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 II I' gtDf DING/UailY Y