4 - TheMichiganDaily-_Friday,September_17,_2004 OPINION ie £i+)§au PUII 420 MAYNARD STREET ANN ARBOR, MI 48109 tothedaily@michigandaily.com I EDITED AND MANAGED BY STUDENTS AT THE UNIVERSITY OF MICHIGAN SINCE 1890 JORDAN SCHRADER Editor in Chief JASON Z. PESICK Editorial Page Editor Unless otherwise noted, unsigned editorials reflect the opinion of the majority of the Daily's editorial board. All other pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of The Michigan Daily. NOTABLE QUOTABLE You deserve a president ... who will not ignore his own intelligence while living in a fantasy world of spin." - Sen. John Kerry ,at a campaign speech to a group of National Guard veterans in Las Vegas, as reported yesterday by CNN.com. SAM BUTLER T v4h4- could 9° w ,, KrnE .l\ R A ) iq Oil for lives: the Sudan crisis JASMINE CLAIR THE niIEANINC, OF PROGRES. mergency! Geno- cide alert! An entire civilian pop- ulation is being massa- cred. Defenseless women are being raped and slain. A generation of inno- cent babies, many now orphans, are being mur- dered. Men are being cas- trated. Villages have been set ablaze and bombed. More than one million have fled for their lives in hope of safety, only to encounter famine, disease, malnutrition and more death. This is what is taking place in the Darfur region of Sudan right now. Perpetuated by a militia group known as the Janjaweed, a group of nomadic Arab herdsmen sponsored by the Arab government of Sudan, the violence is aimed toward suppressing the rebellious sentiments of a population of African farm- ers. In the month of September alone, 10,000 more of these African civilians will lose their lives. Yet, nations across the globe are delay- ing their efforts to condemn these occurrences and bring peace and stability to the region. Due to the oil industry in Sudan, it remains doubtful that the United Nations will impose any type of economic sanction on the Suda- nese government. Countries such as China, Pakistan and Russia, which exploit Sudan's 320,000-barrel-a-day oil industry, are voicing strong objections to any U.N. action that could potentially jeopardize Sudan's ability to export oil. Hence, after finally becoming a known international crisis, countries will knowingly pay for their oil at the expense of thousands of Sudanese lives. Fortunately, the Clinton administration severed oil ties with Sudan in 1997 after finding that they were housing such terrorists as the infamous Osama bin Laden. If not, America may have also been one of these countries sacrificing humanity for oil. Perhaps we need to bring the Bush admin- istration to the University for a history les- son on what happens when the United States and the United Nations take passive action against genocides. It seems as though they have forgotten about the recent events in Rwanda and the Balkans, both examples of genocide, in which the U.S. administration delayed its response, costing hundreds of thousands of lives. Specifically in Rwanda, the United Nations lacked sufficient power to protect civilians. In the Balkans, the world stumbled over ignorance as it tried to figure out why ethnic cleansing was taking place. Meanwhile, thousands more died. President Clinton expressed deep regret for his failure to respond promptly on both occa- sions. Under the Bush administration, this lane of memories is being revisited. Howev- er, the bloodshed of the '90s was not enough to remind Bush about the consequences of delayed action. After visiting Sudan and wit- nessing first hand the great number of rapes and killings that were taking place, Secretary of State Colin Powell took well over a month after his visit to declare that genocide has now persisted for over 18 months. Despite knowing that the death toll is rising very quickly, U.S. action will remain limited to American dollars and attempts at diplomacy. Money is nice. It feeds the starving and shelters the homeless. But what good is money to the mother trying to awaken her dead baby, or to the man staring at his sev- ered genitalia on the ground before him? The violence must be stopped. Monetary aid is needed, but will not end this civil war. Powell also advocated allowing the African Union to "monitor" the region. Translated: More spectators will be invited. When did genocide become a spectator sport? How many more people have to die before this crisis is adequately addressed? Admitting that diplomacy often fails, Senator Richard Lugar (R-Ind.), chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee, stated that the United States could not get involved militarily because it gives the Arab commu- nity reason to believe that the United States is deliberately waging war against it. Appar- ently, the senator ignored the memos tell- ing him that "the United States is currently occupying a country with a 75 percent Arab population (Iraq) in a war termed "the war on terror." Perhaps what the senator should have said was that America will only make humanitarian efforts to fight hostile Arab states when our oil is at stake. The Sudan crisis continues to be the most obvious and pressing display of human rights violations in occurrence today. Tak- ing action should not be a question of eco- nomics, ethnicity or partisanship. This is not an issue of one's support for Bush or allegiance to this nation. This is a matter of humanity crying out to the world and as a country that proclaims its liberties, mor- als and values all across the globe, Amer- ica has a moral imperative to respond. If we can derail dictators simply because we don't want to be their friends anymore, the United States can do more than send aid and diluted U.N. resolutions to end genocide. America is strong, but what use is strength if it can't protect the weak? And as the lone superpower, what good is power if it can't be used to defend the powerless? a 6 Clair can be reached at jclair@umich.edu. Sourcing outsourcing SAM SINGER SA Cs U n typical pre-elec- issue was so eagerly politicized? Think about prompt more efficient capital reallocation. Take tion-time fashion, the it, the logic is consistent, evidence seemingly Delta. After the airline exported 1,000 call cen- pulse of the national watertight and the impact - well, the impact is ter jobs to India in 2003, a new $ 25 million sav- economy has been wired heartrending. With a little help from the media, ings cushion allowed the company to add 1,200 to a hypersensitive polit- the outsourcing debate has been transformed new reservation and sales positions in domestic ical heart-rate monitor. into a saga of the modern-day labor struggle - a locations. The slightest fluctuation Michael Moore documentary waiting to happen. What about the manufacturing sector? Dem- of the Dow, a bounce Spearheading the campaign is CNN com- ocratic Party leaders can't seem to remind us in the Consumer Price mentator and self-proclaimed guardian of enough of manufacturing's abysmal employ- Index, a marginal hike the working class, Lou Dobbs. In his nightly ment outlook. But were those jobs simply dis- in crude oil futures - any economic hiccup "Exporting America" diatribes, Dobbs tells placed overseas with a tacit wink and nod from - can immediately become partisan mortar a poignant story of social dislocation at the Bush? An Alliance Capital Management study fire for the field guns of both contending par- hands of a free-trade-happy White House. says no. According to its findings, between ties. And with disconcerting growth reports In a typical segment, Lou will fume over the 1995 and 2002, the U.S. manufacturing wit- streaming from Washington and whispers unemployment rate and the "jobless recovery," nessed an 11 percent decrease in employment on Wall Street of a monetary slowdown, the share an upsetting anecdote about a middle levels. In the same span of time (and here's the president has begun receiving his share of the class family now void of a primary source of kicker), the report found that the global share of shelling. income, then run a brief clip of a Dell call cen- manufacturing employment rates suffered an For closing his eyes to a pending transfer ter in India to shore up his case. In spite of his identical 11 percent falloff - a rather damn- payment crisis, allegedly neglecting Social earnest demeanor, swaying rhetoric, and com- ing piece of data for any outsourcing adversary. Security and other pension programs in lieu pelling reasoning, there is one concept Lou But wait, it gets better. While factory workers of more immediate discretionary spending, never fails to overlook - causality. across the globe were scampering for sever- he has been called shortsighted. For his part Though Dobbs and his big-labor allies would ance pay, productivity levels were skyrocketing in accumulating what is in nominal terms the like you to believe otherwise, outsourcing and (the same seven-year period saw a 30 percent largest budget deficit in this nation's history, he high domestic unemployment figures are two increase in global output). has been called a fiscal loose cannon. And for ships that passed in the night decades ago. In You see Lou, your enemy was never the his short term stimulus package, a consumer- the two sectors most vulnerable to competition president's free trade agenda, or the globalized friendly bundle of tax relief initiatives and from foreign labor markets, manufacturing labor market, it was technological innovation. interest rate cuts, he has been labeled an eco- and information technology, the numbers do Productivity growth, Lou, not outsourcing, nomic chiropractor - accused of squeezing all the talking. holds the bulk of culpability for the plant clos- the budget in order to bring fleeting reprieve By the most alarming of estimates, over the ings and overcrowded unemployment offices before November. next decade, U.S. corporations will send an you so love to document. The next time you But of all the inside-the-Beltway name call- annual 220,000 IT jobs offshore. Sounds scary attack outsourcing, Lou, be upfront - tell 'em ing, no single disparagement has spilled more right? Sure, until put in the context of a 130- what you're really condemning: a firm's ability presidential blood than the Left's most fre- million-strong labor market. And when you to efficiently allocate labor and capital, a com- quently launched pseudonym - the "insensi- account for the Labor Department's projected pany's capacity to shed uncompetitive sectors tive outsourcer." You've heard it everywhere. internal generation of 22 million jobs in the next in order to generate further profit, a perpetu- From the Sunday morning talk shows to the five years and an additional four million to be ally expanding and productive economy - the John Kerry stump speeches, President Bush is insourced, Lou's horror stories start to become tenets of global capitalism. sending jobs overseas by the thousands, and less frightening. Those numbers also don't con- middle-class America is paying the cost. sider outsourcing's positive effects on corporate Singer can be reached at But does it really come as a surprise that this profit margins - revenue windfalls that usually singers@umich.edu. LETTER TO THE EDITOR I I Droleci. ~OllL HTS~a!tJUtU1~ ~I~)J~ ~ LU~UU 4, nrylky c rrna love "o me Mirl r4l v Ad