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4A - Wednesday, January 24, 2007
The Michigan Daily - michiganclailycom
EhoMc ligan :al'oly
Edited and managed by students at
the University of Michigan since 1890.
413 E. Huron St.
Ann Arbor, MI 48104
tothedaily@umich.edu
DONN M. FRESARD
EDITOR IN CHIEF
EMILY BEAM
CHRISTOPHER ZBROZEK
EDITORIAL PAGE EDITORS
JEFFREY BLOOMER
MANAGING EDITOR
Unsigned editorials reflect the official position of the Daily's editorial board. All other signed articles
and illustrations represent solely the views of their authors.
What Pfizer can teach us
Closing proves tax abatements are not the answer
In an announcement that shocked the city, pharmaceutical
giant Pfizer announced plans Monday to close its Ann Arbor
research and development facility near the University's North
Campus by 2008. Despite boasting revenues of $52.5 billion in 2005,
the New York City-based company is closing several facilities world-
wide to cut costs. At a time when Michigan's economy needs every
job available, this loss of thousands only spells out worse things to
come and highlights the immediacy of addressing the undesirable
qualities of the state's workforce.
Our success in this war is often measured by the things
that did not happen."
- President George W. Bush in his State of the Union address last night.
JOHN OQUIST I
YOU STILL DON'T HAVE YOUR
PAPER? IT WAS ASSIGNED
THREE WEEKS AGO.
RESEARCH TAKES TIME
PROFESSORI
A62,
9
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e
Above the ruckus
Pfizer's cutbacks affect nearly 2,100
employees in the Ann Arbor area and, com-
bined with previous cutbacks, affect almost
10,000 workers worldwide. The proposed
closing is part of the company's effort to
save $2 billion a year in costs after reporting
losses in recent years. The cuts amount to 10
percent of Pfizer's global workforce but dis-
proportionately affect Michigan.
In September 2001, the University sold
much of the land the current complex sits on
to Pfizer for $27 million and staffed much of
the site with interns and researchers. After
making the deal with the University, the
company lobbied the City Council for tax
breaks and abatements. Originally, it asked
for a 50 percent abatement on a possible
$800 million future investment. At the time,
Pfizer warned the City Council that if it did
not receive the tax breaks, it would look into
building laboratories elsewhere.
Pfizer promised that the remaining tax
revenues would benefit the city and the state
for the next six to 12 years. Some financial
firms even argued that the benefits would
be accrued over a 15-year period. But Pfizer
found it necessary to abandon its Ann Arbor
laboratories.after only six years.
Pfizer's decision to leave Ann Arbor is tell-
ing because its operations will be tentatively
assumed by at least two laboratories located
in places with higher taxes than Michigan
(Connecticut and California). Tax abate-
ments that bring companies to the state are
not necessarily evil, but Pfizer's departure
makes it clear that they are not the end-all
answer: companies will still leave at the first
sign of financial trouble. For Michigan to
emerge from the economic rut it's now in,
high-tech jobs need to come and stay here.
Togetcompaniesto stay- especiallythose
that command as highly-skilled employees
as Pfizer - the state must commit itself to
building an educational system that churns
out the right kind of workers. Simply throw-
ing out tax breaks may nominally help, buta
matchless workforce is a far greater incen-
tive for companies to move and stay here. So
far, the state legislature has ignored higher
education, making it the first to take a hit in
a tight budget. Maybe the departure of Pfiz-
er will finally open some eyes in Lansing.
ast Monday, I found myself
marching with Luke Massie,
the co-chair of By Any Means
Necessary. Well, walking, really. It's
my fourth year at the University, and
I'd never attended a BAMN march. So
when the group showed up to protest
Proposal 2 on Martin Luther King Jr.
Day last week, I felt obligated to check
it out.
Massie, the
impish Trotsky-
ite who wears
a red goatee,
hoop earrings
and a crazy
gleam in his eye,
led the march-
ers, shouting t!.
slogans into
a loudspeak- DONN M.
er. Hundreds FRESARD
of kids from
Detroit schools
filled out BAMN's thin ranks. A
marching band from Cass Technical
High School made it impossible to
hear anyone who wasn't shouting.
Separately, right-wing counter-
protesters were holding signs of their
own and yelling at the BAMN march-
ers. With the election over, they
weren't really protesting so much as
gloating. They seemed to enjoy pro-
voking the crazies on the other side.
One of them could barely contain
his giddiness when Massie made an
obscene gesture in his direction.
At the corner of State Street and
North University Avenue, the conser-
vatives realized they had lost a mem-
ber and dropped out of the march.
A couple whipped out cell phones.
"Knowing Justin, he's probably
screaming in someone's face some-
where," said Clark Ruper, former
deputy director of the Michigan Civil
Rights Initiative campaign.
Ruper was referring to Justin
Zatkoff, the Michigan Federation of
College Republicans co-chair who
embarrassed himself a few months
ago when he claimed to have been
beaten up by members of BAMN and/
or gay activists outside an Ann Arbor
party. It turned out one of his high
school friends had broken his nose,
cheekbone and eye socket in some
drunken horseplay.
After retrieving Zatkoff - who
was, indeed, screaming in someone's
face ("The people of Michigan have
spoken!") - the young conserva-
tives hustled back to the front of the
march.
I left them to talk with some of the
Detroit students. Some just seemed
bewildered, like Demarco, a skinny
13-year-old who walked tentatively
along the sidewalk with a BAMN sign
tucked under his arm while everyone
else yelled at each other in the street.
One, a Murray Wright High School
senior named Christopher who car-
ried the left side of a huge "Undo Prop
2" sign, turned out to be one of the
plaintiffs in BAMN's lawsuit. He had
applied to the University earlier this
month, and he said he might get in if
BAMN's request to delay Proposal 2
were approved.
After the march came the requi-
site Diag rally. It wasn't that cold,
but some kind of freezing rain had
started frosting everyone's hair. A
string of speakers got up on the steps
of the Grad to throw around demands
and accusations. (BAMN, one speaker
intoned, knew for a fact that Proposal
2 was intended to serve the economic
interests of white racists.)
Standing at the back of the rally
with the other counter-protesters,
Jeremy Boguslawski, chair of Oakland
University's College Republicans,
looked over the crowd with contempt.
"It's like the kid who is complaining
because you stole the ball from him,
and he wants it back," he said.
Was he sure he wanted to put it that
way?
Boguslawski backtracked and came
up with a new analogy. It was like the
last inning in a baseball game, with
two outs and the center fielder had
just made a catch. The game was over,
but BAMN was arguing the out.
retty soon, the BAMN peo-
ple moved to Angell Hall for
another round of speakers. Just
as they started, J. David Singer, a pro-
fessor emeritus of political science,
stepped out of an elevator, bemused.
He had heard the rally from his sixth-
floor office and come down to check
it out.
At first, he told me he wished there
were more people out here protesting
Proposal 2. When he surmised that
this was a BAMN event, though, he
lost interest. "That expression - 'any
means necessary' - that sounds like
those idiots in the White House," he
said.
I'd lost interest, too, and we ducked
outside so he could smoke his pipe.
Singer, a reader of the Nation and
Mother Jones magazines who is dash-
ing and witty at 81, had been on fac-
ulty governing boards in the late '80s
Coffee with a wise
professor was calm
amid a storm.
and early '90s, when administrators
were first selling the idea of affirma-
tive action to the faculty. Singer was
an early supporter - "in the days
when it wasn't easy to be" - but now
he didn't see the logic in trying to defy
the voters.
And Singer isn't the don't-rock-the-
boat type. He's been fired by Univer-
sity departments more than once for
clashing with his superiors. He got
his first teaching job, at a Navy officer
training school, after getting kicked
off his ship for defyingthe captain.
We took the elevator to Singer's
office, grabbing a cup of coffee on the
way. (He stirred half a packet of hot
cocoa powder into his.) After chatting
for about an hour, we got back to affir-
mative action. He seemed confident
that the University could find cor-
relates of race that it could consider
without breaking the' law, and that
more progressive economic policies
would eventually make affirmative
action less necessary anyway.
I didn't know if he was right. But
I made that cup of coffee last quite a
while before taking the elevator back
to the first floor of Angell Hall.
Donn M. Fresard is the Daily's
editor in chief. He can be reached
at dmfres@umich.edu.
0
SEND LETTERS TO: TOTHEDAILY@UMICH.EDU
Affirmative action is easy sentiment. So wh
voters agreed wit
way out of tough solution ers in.California i
disastrous for col
TO THE DAILY: voters were unini
I've been reading the comments and articles At least Michigan
written about the debate over Proposal 2. What right to be educat
many of its opponents are missing is that it isn't sions of this legisl
being black that causes poorer SAT scores and Additionally, G:
application essays. It's being poor. speech. If crazies
Opponents of Proposal 2 believe that being dents on the Diag
black somehow makes you unable to do well in why can't the pre:
the classroom: That's racist and unacceptable, responsible citizen
especially from the University. Proposal 2 says After all, our gove
nothing about helping low-income families come tect the rights of t1
to the University; it only bans the use of race and cal majority, event
gender preferences. function in the mo
Instead of spending money fighting an amend- Let's remembe
ment passed by the majority of Michigan voters, over Proposal 2 is
why doesn't the University set up programs in the prevalent asE
the School of Education that can help the poor- prior to the prop
est parts of Michigan in the same way Teach white men.
for America does? My guess is that affirmative
action is easier and trying to solve the discrep- Sarah Tomasik
ancy between the poorest and the richest schools LSA senior
is more difficult. The leaders of the University
would rather put a band-aid over the problem and
tell themselves they're good people for doing it, Daily mus
even while they stick their heads in the sand and
tell us that skin color alone determines intelli- responsibl
gence and opportunity. The University should try
to help disadvantaged students meet standards TO THE DAILY:
instead of lowering them with a system that ste- I find it quite pi
reotypes applicants based on skin color had to resort to I
at if a greater percentage of
h Proposal 2? So did the vot-
n 1996, and the results were
liege admissions then. Most
formed of the consequences.
residents should have had a
ed on the possible repercus-
ation.
aber ignores the right to free
are allowed to harass stu-
with unpopular beliefs, then
ss express its dissent? Part of
nry is to question the majority.
rnment was founded to pro-
he minority againstthe politi-
though it sometimes does not
'st effective manner.
r that beating a dead horse
s not any more heinous than
sertion that discrimination
osal was directed at young
I be more
'e with sources
tiful that the Daily reporters
Facebook.com for "informa-
0
KIRSTEN SCHOHL
it's time to intervene in Darfur
0
Carl Paulus
Alum
Continued Prop 2fight is
democratic necessity
TO THE DAILY:
Andrew Gaber's complaint of student activ-
ism in opposition to Proposal 2 (Daily's advice
to 'U'attempt to thwart will ofMichigan voters,
01/22/2007) misses two key elements of the
democratic process upon which the editorial is
based. One is the right to dissent from popular
tion" about Ryan Turner and that the
tors actually allowed the article to be prir
(Dental student dies at CCRB, 01/18/20
It would have been tactful and tastefu
wait an extra day before publishing any s
details in order to get in touch with his fa
and friends, rather than provide informa
about what movie quotes were in his Faceb
profile. The editors should have been pat
and waited till they had a more complete:
cle, like the one that ran the day after (Fan
friends, remember 'go-to guy,'01/19/2007).
Please, do not do this again.
Darshan Karwat
Engineering senior
e
nt
Su
M
Iti,
ie
ar
mn
KIM LEUNG
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0
CL.
CL
di- In Sudan's western region of Dar-
ed fur, more than 200,000 citizens have
'7). been killed, two million are homeless
to and thousands of women and girls
ch have been raped. In one of the world's
ily worst human disasters, the Arab-led
on Sudanese government and the Janja-
ok weed - Arab militias allied with the
ent Sudanese government - have engaged
ti- in genocide against non-Arabs over
ily, the past three years.
To date there have been many
promises but little action by outside
forces to implement peace in Darfur.
Many people feel that it is time for the
United Nations to send peacekeeping
troops to the region without the Suda-
nese government's consent, while oth-
ers think the United Nations should
simply negotiate peace agreements. An
intervention by peacekeeping troops
must take place now, at all costs, to
stop the atrocities in Darfur.
The majority of Darfur's 6 mil-
lion citizens include African farmers
and Arabic nomads who have mixed
easily in the past. But over the past
two decades, persistent drought has
forced the Arabs to move to less desir-
able land, straining relations with the
Africans. This caused the formation
of an African rebel group, known as
the Sudanese Liberation Army, which
began destroying villages and killing
government soldiers. Sudanese Presi-
dent Omar al-Bashir reacted by calling
on local tribes to crush the rebellion,
initiating the formation of an Arab
nomad group. Not only did this group
attack Sudanese Liberation Army
members but also innocent civilians.
In consequence, the Janjaweed (Ara-
bic for "horse and gun") receives back-
ing from the Sudanese government
to support the ethnic cleansing of all
Sudanese Africans.
With the destruction of homes and
villages, the Janjaweed have caused
over 2 million Darfuris to flee to refu-
gee camps. Recently, U.N. aid agen-
cies made a statement warning that
the relief keeping millions alive can-
not be sustained much longer.
In May 2006, the Sudanese Libera-
tion Army and Sudanese government
signed a peace treaty, promising to
disarm the Janjaweed. This prom-
ise has still not been fulfilled, and it
appears that the crisis in Darfur has
actually worsened since the agree-
ment. Founded in 2002, the African
Union, a group of 53 African coun-
tries, also tried to help by gradually
sending 7,000 troops to Darfur, but
the force was not strong enough to
successfully help the large number of
victims. Given these failures, Darfur
is in need of new outside peacekeep-
ing initiatives immediately.
The United Nations recently pro-
posed sending 22,500 peacekeepers to
the Darfur region, but currently there's
a standstill. Al-Bashir does not want
any U.N. forces deployed to Sudan and
insists on troop control. The United
Nations insists on waiting for his per-
mission to take action, though such
permission is arguably not required.
The question remains of who
should lead an estimated $1.4 to $1.6
billion peacekeeping intervention into
Darfur? It's likely that many countries
would need to finance the interven-
tion. Denmark, Norway, Sweden and
Canada have said they are each will-
ing to send several hundred troops.
But again, who will lead?
While the America could co-lead an
intervention, its forces are already in
Iraq and Afghanistan. France already
iS
has troops in neighboring Chad and
has significant regional business and
oil interests to protect. Great Britain
is historically tied to 20th century
leadership of African countries for
economic interests as well. Sudan's
acceptance of an African Union
peacekeeping proposal is possible, but
the AU is not well-funded.
Sudan's nine neighbors (Egypt,
Libya, Chad, Eritrea, Ethiopia, Kenya,
Congo, Central African Republic and
Uganda) should play a role, even if it
is only in border protection and repel-
ling Janjaweed advances. Because it
shares the largest border with Sudan's
Darfur region, Chad should be most
involved with an intervention because
Sudan's problems are now becoming
its own.
Finally, any peacekeeping interven-
tion should be accomplished without
necessarily imposing a government
structure - not even democracy - on
the Sudanese. Those involved, includ-
ing America, should instead focus sole-
ly on stopping the genocide. Trying to
impose democracy can get in the way
ofendingthe atrocities because democ-
racy may be seen as a selfish capitalist
move for economic gain.
It is our duty as human beings to
force an immediate troop intervention
in Darfur. While America should have
a significant role in this, it should not
lead, leaving that to African Union and
United Nations forces. The main pur-
pose is to stop the atrocities without
enforcing democracy. We must come
together and fight for the lives of the
people of Darfur by actingnow.
Kirsten Schohl is an LSA freshman.
This viewpoint is a modified
version ofa paper for a class.
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