--I 4 4A - The Michigan Daily - Monday, December 1, 2003 OP/ED Ul IwAl~idgttDtig 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 letters@michigandaily.com EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 LoUIE MEIZLISH Editor in Chief AUBREY HENRETTY ZAC PESKOWITZ Editorial Page Editors Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other articles, letters and cartoons do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE He'd filled his trousers in the truest sense of the word." - A police spokesman for the German town of Olpe, where a man was arrested Friday after attempting to steal 177 packs of cigarettes from a supermarket. The man, aided by three accomplices, had stuffed all 177 packs in his pants, as quoted by Reuters. i deG~dIly viru'ts. T&oo'.* k - Now novm WI foe +r4-kc f' raid -- t1 iovsUpon bill worts - in \ t'sjve 3 r~ wi c) dtia 4 t vie.C a(4~ rw-t1-f~ie aj AKr4 tn22>CO .. SAM BUTLER Tr SOAPBOX 4 .0 I 'She just ... died' AIDS in Africa STEVE COTNER MY BACK PAGES W hen I visited dence of HIV in the country, and she told On Saturday, Nelson Mandela put on an the countries me she had worked at an orphanage there. I AIDS benefit concert with world-famous of southern asked if she meant an AIDS orphanage, and performers in Cape Town's Greenpoint Sta- Africa, AIDS was she said yes, but she avoids saying so dium in Cape Town South Africa. It will air always somewhere because people can be scared by it. globally on MTV tonight as a celebration over my shoulder. In Stigmas about AIDS are not a uniquely (if that's the right word) of World AIDS Zambia, there were African phenomenon. People will avoid Day, and will include acts like Beyonce billboards that instruct- thinking or talking about sexual disease if Knowles, Peter Gabriel, Bono, Annie ed you to "condomize" they can, and our entertainment and adver- Lennox and Yusuf Islam (formerly Cat as the third step toward tising industries thrive on carefree portray- Stevens). It will be worth watching to hear protection (the first two steps said, essen- als of sex. the Soweto Gospel Choir sing, and to hear tially, never have sex). In Malawi, there It is also hard to depend on leaders, Mandela speak about this crisis, which he were ads everywhere that showed a warrior anywhere in the world, who deny problems says will require "even greater resolve than shield against a stark yellow flag and read that are obvious. The Kenyan government was shown in the fight against apartheid." "Chishango" in bold letters; I asked two denied for a long time that the AIDS-rav- He understands the importance of appealing men at a bar in the town of Mchen- aged slum of Kibera even existed, though to the conscience of Western nations, and gawamoto (the Hot Sands Village) what it it holds 700,000 people and sits within though it would be easy for some to shrug was, and they laughed - it's a brand of view of the president's house. Likewise, off the politics of celebrities, I think they all condoms. And in the Botswanan town of President Ronald Reagan hesitated to know the importance of what they're doing. Nata, attendants pumped gas and children address the U.S. AIDS crisis in the '80s The fight against AIDS will not be easy wearing V-neck sweaters walked to school because he wondered if AIDS "was per- - people will have to change their sexual everyday under the AIDS billboard at the haps a plague brought down by God behavior, embrace the use of condoms and main intersection. because illicit sex was against the Ten overcome any number of stigmas against But to me, an outsider, the presence of Commandments" (this from a Grand victims. But none of this is as important as the disease was only felt indirectly, Rapids Press article citing a biography the very first step, when people finally start because no one will talk about it. written in cooperation with the Reagans). talking about the disease. Mandela's efforts My group's guide in Zululand, a woman But Africa is unique because it suffers are significant for that reason. They are an in her mid-twenties named Jabu, introduced more than anywhere else. South Africa unequivocal appeal for help from abroad and us to her family and showed us pictures of alone contains 5.3 million of the 46 million a rallying point for sufferers all across her sister's children, whom she cared for infected worldwide. Botswana is a prosper- Africa. The proceeds from the benefit con- herself. Her sister had died a few years ago, ous country by most measurements, but it cert will go to the Nelson Mandela Founda- and one of us asked, innocently enough, has a 38 percent adult AIDS rate, and its tion, which will only help with AIDS what she died of. Jabu told us, "She just ... president came to the United States three research and relief within South Africa, but died." It seemed as if we had intruded on weeks ago to say it needs help. African the awareness raised should help everyone. something just then. You would think any- leaders have the resolve to combat the In some countries, as many as 90 percent of one would be compassionate toward an problem, but they don't have the resources. those infected don't even know it. Once peo- AIDS orphan, but they face a strong stig- The amount of money making its way from ple start talking, maybe things will change. ma. I met a girl in Cape Town who had just Congress to the continent this year will not come from Durban, part of the Kwazulu- be anywhere near enough, and Africans are Cotner can be reached Natal province that has the highest inci- looking to raise awareness in new ways. at cotners@umich.edu. LETTERS TO THE EDITOR Good leadership means taking one in the wallet for the team TO THE DAILY: Regarding Aubrey Henretty's Tuesday col- umn (The union that cried wolf: GEO's fairy- tale folly, 11/25/03), I would like to share a story of two administrators. Last year, the pas- tor of my church, in response to a financial cri- sis, proposed a revised church budget, which began with a 6-percent decrease in his salary, and also included salary cuts taken by the other ministers. The secretaries and janitorial staff, however, did not see their salary reduced. With that in mind, the remaining budget cuts were relatively easy to accept. Meanwhile, I received an e-mail from Uni- versity President Mary Sue Coleman, who is paid $475,000 and accepted a $200,000 bonus this year. It stated that budget cuts were forcing the implementation of a new health care struc- ture, in which employees would share the costs. As Henretty points out, my proposed share, as a graduate student instructor, would amount to $12 per month (though it will greatly increase in future years, and is much higher for GSIs with dependents). Twelve dollars is 1 percent of my monthly income (and about .03 percent of Cole- man's pre-bonus salary). Would I object to a 1-percent reduction in my salary, were it truly warranted, and if it applied to all University employees? No, not even if I had signed a contract forbidding it. But do I object to the University's high-handed and regressive method of budgeting? Most assured- ly. There is a difference between using power and being a leader, and in this affair the Univer- sity has shown that, while it may be well versed in the former, it needs to go back to school in the latter. EVERETTE ROBERTSON Rackham GSIs deserve more for the money they save 'U' TO THE DAILY: In response to Aubrey Henretty's col- umn of Tuesday (The union that cried wolf: GEO's fairy-tale folly, 11/25/03): Tto .,,+- _ QV ~ r -- +, t-+ . And yes, this is where the University is going with its premium plan - anyone who thinks they would just stop at a 5-per- cent contribution (Henretty's "$12 per month") is an extremely naive individual. Health care would quickly become unaf- fordable, even on my "living stipend large enough that GSIs can live comfortably even in the outrageously overpriced realm of Ann Arbor apartments." Please. Even if we are paid too much, as Henretty insinu- ates, the fact is that graduate students still make money for the University. Who is doing the work that brings in the millions of dollars in grant money every year, any- way? ANTHONY NICHOLSON Rackham GEO's past negotiations have helped undergrads TO THE DAILY: While I appreciate the idea behind Aubrey Henretty's opinion in "Neurotica" (The union that cried wolf: GEO's fairy-tale folly, 11/25/03), I would have to disagree with her argument. I, too, am an undergrad, but I am also a parent of two children, so it is because the Graduate Employees Organization made a big fuss over childcare in 1997 that I am able to attend the University. When GEO fought for daycare subsidies, it made sure that this money was eligible to all students in the University, not just GEO members. Thus, because the average cost of full-time day care in Ann Arbor runs at about $180 a week per child, and, as an undergrad, I do have to pay tuition and live largely off of loans, and what's more, the people who work to represent me at the University are more concerned about moving spring break back a week than real-life issues, if I didn't get the childcare subsidy the graduate students fought so hard for I would have to just give up the idea of college all together. So, in the end, while I understand the frustration behind Henretty's thoughts, I would have to say that until my student government can figure out that there are many undergraduates at the uni- versity who are not privileged enough to even get a spring break, I side with the GEO com- tant than your children, 03/19102) when I found her latest polemic against the Grad- uate Employees Organization on the Daily's editorial page Tuesday (The union that cried wolf: GEO's fairy-tale folly, 11/25/03). Henretty cites a health insurance co-premi- um of $12 a month as the impetus for GEO's recent consideration of a grade strike. This was the figure the administration had proposed for single graduate students with no depen- dents. For those of us with spouses and chil- dren, the costs the administration proposed we accept were much higher - high enough to eat up one of every eight paychecks. For someone who makes $14,000 a year, taking a 13-percent pay cut may make continued pur- suit of a graduate degree impossible. If Henretty proposes that I should have been willing - for my students' sake - to lie down and submit when the administration tried to foist this change on me and on my col- leagues, I beg to disagree. We all teach by example: Henretty could go anywhere in the country to learn how to meekly accept whatev- er her future bosses are willing to give, but as long as GEO is an active part of this campus, the University will not be where she learns that lesson. If she is ever responsible for the care of small children (instead of merely acting like one), I hope that she will remember and regret her casual dismissal of our successful fight for the benefits (childcare and low-cost health care among them) that make graduate education more accessible to everyone. ALYSSA PICARD Rackham Former chief negotiator, Graduate Employees Organization Though 'U' could do more to help cover costs, most GIs 'extremely well compensated' TO THE DAILY: In response to Ari Paul's Wednesday col- umn (Mary Sue, can you live up to your own rhetoric?, 11/26/03): Graduate student instructors are not payed poverty wages. The majority of GSIs make $6,427 per term plus their tuition waivers. Tuition for out-of-state students is al (. 1 15'1 . > .