NEWS
h ON CAMPUS
Author to present
keynote for Child
Advocacy Week
Kuthowrand educator Jonathan
Kool will deliver the keynote
address for the third annual Child
Advocacy Week, sponsored by Med-
start, from 7 to 9 p.m. tonight in the
Michigan League Ballroom.
Kozol's body of nonfiction -
which includes "Death at an Early
Age" and "Rachel and Her Chil-
dren" - address race, poverty and
education.
Piano trio to make
debut at 'U,
The Florestan Trio - a trio of pia-
nists - makes its University Musi-
cal Society debut at 8 p.m. tonight in
Rackham Auditorium. The England-
based trio has been nominated for a
Gramophone Award several times for
its recordings on the Hyperion label.
The Florestan Trio is scheduled to
perform Mozart's Trio in B-flat for
Piano, Violin and Cello, Dvorak's
' Piano Trio No. 4 in E minor and
Rachmaninoff's Trio 0 No. 2 in D
minor.
Tickets - ranging in price from
$18 to $36 - can be purchased at the
Michigan League Ticket Office.
Documentary to
examine ban on
same-sex unions
The Michigan Theater will screen
the documentary "All About Propos-
al 2" from 4:30 to 7 p.m. tonight.
The screening will be followed by
a panel discussion on the proposal
- which amended the state consti-
tution to define marriage as strictly
between a man and woman.
CRIME
NOTES
Fire extinguisher
taken from dorm
A fire extinguisher was taken from
the first floor of Couzens Residence
Hall within the past eight eight days, the
Department ofPublic Safety-reported.
DPS has no suspects.
Light fixture near
West Hall broken
A light fixture near West Hall was
broken early Monday morning as a
result of vandalism, DPS reported.
There are no suspects.
Sewage damages
dorm basement
A sewage backup in the basement
of East Quad Residence Hall led to an
unknown amount of damage on Mon-
day afternoon, according to DPS.
Chemists victims
of laboratory theft
Department furniture was stolen
from a lab in the Chemistry Building
4 on Monday afternoon, DPS reported.
There are no suspects.
THIS DAY
In Daily History
Jazz debate rages
on in record society
March 9, 1948 - The "be-bop-
pers" and the "moldy figs" are still
at it.
The feud between the two jazz
factions - progressives and purists,
respectively - is still smoldering
"off the record" in the University
Hot Record Society.
The purists, variously called "New
Orleans" or "Dixieland" addicts
- plain "moldy figs" to the boppers
- claim that the boppers just don't
have the spirit of real jazz.
The boppers term the Dixieland-
ers "reactionary." They maintain
that jazz has progressed since its
The Michigan Daily - Wednesday, March 9, 2005 - 3
Arab Americans
better educated
Sthan most in U.S.
U.S. Arabs also earn more
and hold more management
jobs than the average American
WASHINGTON (AP) - People of Arab
descent living in the United States tend to
be better educated and wealthier than other
Americans, the Census Bureau says.
There are about 1.2 million U.S. residents
whose ancestry is solely or partly Arab,
less than a half-percent of all Americans.
The details in yester- _
day's report covered
the 850,000 people who By the
identified themselves
in the 2000 census as States witt
having only Arab ances-
tries. Arab p0
Arabs are nearly
twice as likely as theA
typical U.S. resident to
possess a college degree Cali
- 41 percent to 24
percent. Better educa-
tion typically translates
into higher income, and
that was highlighted in New
the report: The median
income for an Arab fam-
ily was $52,300, about1
$2,300 more than the Mic
median income for all
U.S. families.
The proportion of U.S. Arabs working in
management jobs was higher than the U.S.
average, 42 percent to 34 percent.
Since the data stops at 2000, it was not
possible to measure the impact of the Sept.
11, 2001 attacks.
Helen Samhan, executive director of the
Arab American Institute Foundation, laud-
ed the bureau for a report that shows "how
integrated Arabs are in American life. It is
a community that is well-rooted and well-
invested in the United States."
"That is something that many Americans
r
th
I
wi
a
don't pay attention to when usually the Arab
community is only covered in a negative
sense," she said.
The findings cover those who responded to
the 2000 census "long form" questionnaire
as having an ancestry from a predominant-
ly Arabic-speaking country or area of the
world.
Arab-American groups say the 1.2 million
tallied in the census is probably an under-
count since many people with Arab ancestry
may be reluctant to fill out government forms
because they came
from countries with
Numbers oppressive regimes.
Lebanon was the
i the largest country of origin for
. the most U.S. Arabs
pulatlons (440,000), followed by
Egypt and Syria (about
flffl143,000 each).
The population
fornia numbers, first released
in 2003, showed the
states with the larg-
est Arab popula-
tions were California
York (191,000), New York
(120;000) and Michi-
flflflgan (115,000).
4,VVThe nation's Arab
higan population is 57 per-
cent male and has a
median age of 33, two
years younger than the U.S. population over-
all. Among specific groups, Palestinians
were the youngest at 29, while Lebanese and
Syrians were the oldest at nearly 39.
About 64 percent of residents with Egyp-
tian ancestry had a college degree, the highest
among Arab groups, followed by Lebanese
(39 percent) and Palestinian (38 percent).
Lebanese residents in the United States
made the most money - the median fam-
ily income was nearly $61,000, about $3,000
more than for U.S. Syrians and $4,000 more
than for Egyptian residents.
Undervalued yuan hurts stateside businesses
One report attributes
1.45 million jobs lost since
1989 to Chinese imports
WASHINGTON (AP) - David W.
Johnson's tile company in Ohio once
boasted 650 workers at four factories
and 11 distributio eenters that shipped
ceramic tiles in 10,000 colors, shapes
and sizes to customers around the world,
including the White House.
Now, after filing for bankruptcy, the
company has shrunk to two factories that
employ 250 people. Johnson and other
managers have taken a 30 percent pay
cut, and workers' wages have been fro-
zen for three years.
"We're not in a battle to see how much
money we can make. We're in a battle
to survive," said Johnson, president
and CEO of Summitville Tiles Inc. and
chairman of the Ohio Manufacturers'
Association. "There are companies like
mine all across the country."
The problems, they say, stem from
China's undervalued currency.
U.S. manufacturers, unions and a
growing number of lawmakers say
manipulation is to blame for the
country's large trade deficit with
China and the extremely low prices
for products imported from China,
from stepladders to bargain couches
and candles.
"I compete on the quality and the
uniqueness of my product. There's no
way I could compete on price," said
Johnson, whose company in Summit-
ville in northeast Ohio is best known
for making the wood-colored flooring
installed at thousands of McDonald's
restaurants. The"business also made the
roofing tiles that adorn the East and West
Wings of the White House.
U.S. manufacturers and economists
contend that China's practice of peg-
ging their currency at the fixed rate of
8.28 yuan per U.S. dollar has led the
Chinese currency to be undervalued by
as much as 40 percent. That gives Chi-
nese products a tremendous competitive
advantage, costing about half-price in
the United States while American goods
cost double in China.
"If you look at the economics and add
it up, it's ridiculous that they are being
allowed to do this," said George Dykhui-
zen, president of Extruded Metals Inc.
in Belding, Mich., which produces brass
rod for faucets and locks. "Once plants
close and screw machines are dismantled
and sold, it's hard to turn that around."
More than 30 members of Congress
and a coalition of about 35 labor unions
sought separately last fall to bring a
World Trade Organization case against
develop a more flexible currency system
were bearing results, but a permanent
resolution would take time.
The U.S.-China Economic and Secu-
rity Review Commission, an indepen-
dent, bipartisan panel that reviews the
national security
implications of U.S.
trade with-China, "We're just
meanwhile urged
Congress and the destroyed
administration last
year to urgently W e re in a
address China's war with
currency issue.
The U.S. manu- and no on
facturing industry
has lost 2.9 mil- administri
lion jobs over the
past four years as fire any bi
companies have
been battered by
increased competi-
tion from foreign Law)
imports. Tubul
A report from
the Economic Pol-
icy Institute found that 1.45 million
jobs, including about 58,000 in Ohio,
have been lost since 1989 because of
the growing trade deficit with China.
The U.S. trade deficit with China bal-
looned 30.5 percent last year to $162 bil-
lion, the highest ever with any country.
The nation's overall deficit was a record
$617.7 billion.
"What's the administration waiting
for? The president is now in his second
going to handle this diplomatically,' "
said Rep. Tim Ryan (D-Ohio), co-chair
of the House Manufacturing Caucus.
"We'd better start playing tough. A lot
of these small companies don't have a
lot of time."
That's the case at Seminole Tubular
Products Co. in Cambridge, Ohio, and its
affiliate, Wheatland -Tube Company of
Collingswood, N.J. The companies have
cut about one-fourth of their combined
work force in the last three months due
to surging foreign imports, said company
lawyer Roger Schagrin.
"We're just being destroyed by this,"
he said. "We're in a trade war with China
but no one in this administration will fire
any bullets."
being
by this.
trade
China
term, and he's been
talking about this
since the early part
of his first term," said
Bill Hickey,.president
of Lapham-Hickey
Steel Corp. in Chi-
cago.
Various bills in
0
CO
CA)
0'405 -
c.
N -,
al
-R]
ye
in this Congress seek to
address the issue.
tion will One would require
negotiations with
[lets." China and, if the
currency isn't re-val-
.hued, tariffs of 27.5
Loger Schagrin percent on Chinese
°r for Seminole goods to make up for
r Products Co. the price difference.
The China Currency
Coalition, a group
that includes more than 30 business and
labor unions, plans to push for additional
legislation on the issue.
"The Chinese are playing to win,
and we're over here saying 'We're
SSummer Programs
w University Credit
Chee I * -I
Chl rgentina I mb
mom
onR
$10 Rush Tickets on sale 9 am -
5 pm the day of the performance
or the Friday before for weekend
events at the UMS Ticket Office,
located in the Michigan League.
50% Rush Tickets on sale for
50% off the original ticket price-
beginning 90 minutes before the
eventat the performance hall
Ticket Office.
PROGRAM
Mozart
Dvorak
Rachmaninoff
Trio in B-flat Major for Piano, Violin,
and Cello, K. 502
Piano Trio No. 4 in e minor, Op. 90
("Du m ky")
Trio elegiaque No. 2 in d minor, Op. 9
Florestan Trio
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 9,8 PM
Rackham Auditorium
Leaves of Grass
Music by Fred Hersch Words by Walt Whitman
The Fred Hersch Ensemble
Fred Hersch, piano
Kurt Elling and Kate McGarry, vocals
THURSDAY, MARCH 10, 8 PM
Lydia Mendelssohn Theatre
The Far Side of the Moon
Written and Directed by RobertLepage
Performed by Yves Jacques
Music by Laurie Anderson
THURSDAY, MARCH 10 - SUNDAY, MARCH 12
Power Center
Oslo Philharmonic
with Anne-Sophie Mutter, violin
Andre Previn, conductor
C'AT Dnflf AAV rLRuA1,) ODR
I
I