Viewpoints
Wednesday, July 22, 1992- The Michigan Daily Summer Weekly - 5
" Pollution's monumental destruction More on history of the
by Gil Renberg
In recent years, the Earth's deterio-
rating ecosystem has finally become
amonghumanity'smajorconcerns.That
our species is killing its planet and,
consequently, all other species - ex-
cept, perhaps cockroaches - is not
news. In the past century prophets such
as Rachel Carson, author of "Silent
Spring," have warned us about this
problem, but we have ignored them.
That comes with the territory: prophets
are usually ignored. Last June, the na-
tions of the world took heed of these
prophecies of impending doom and,
while meeting at the first Earth Sum-
mit, tried to find ways to preserve the
environment.
No one disputes that pollution is
among the greatest threats to life on
earth. What people often ignore, how-
ever,is thatpollutionis destroying some
of our greatest creations, such as build-
ings, sculptures and paintings. In some
cases, entire cities that once were beau-
tiful have been made repulsive by cor-
rosive emissions, acid rain, soot, and
other implements of environmental
destruction.
Some of the most tragic losses have
occurred in what was once the Soviet
Bloc. The Communistauthorites, strug-
gling to keep their economies afloat,
had no programs for pollution control
and pennitted factories, cars and most
machinery to pollute the entire region.
Their war against the land has been
rivalled only by the ongoing deforesta-
tion of South America.
These failures of the Soviet system
are responsible for killing countless
GilRenberg isan Opinion Editorofthe
Sununer Daily.
lifeforms, but they also have damaged
the non-living. From Stettin in the Bal-
tic to Trieste in the Adriatic, a curtain of
soot has descended upon the ancient
cities of Central and Eastern Europe.
Cities famous for their beauty, such as
Prague, are all ashen because of the
Communists' reliance on coal.
Budapest, whose streets are lined with
buildings representing a wide variety of
styles of architecture, was similarly
blackened by primitive methods of us-
ing energy and heat. Some buldings,
including the largest Catholicchurch in
From Stettin in the Baltic to
Trieste in the Adriatic, a
curtain of soot has
descended upon the ancient
cities of Central and Eastern
Europe.
the city, look as if they have been gutted
by fire. Certain parts of Romania, on an
average day, were covered by a dense
cloud created by unrestrained factory
emissions; the Communists are gone,
but a different darkness remains.
But the former communist nations
are not the only ones whose artistic
legacy is being destroyed. Smog and
pollution in Athens are so bad that some
scientists fear that the Parthenon, the
most glorious remnant of the ancient
Greeks, is in danger. Already some
statues thatstood nearby for 2500 years
have been brought indoors so as to
protect them from the corrosive effects
of the Athenian atmosphere..
Venice has a different problem: it
seems only a matter of time before the
sea rises so high that it floods the city.
Some of the most beautiful of
humanity's creations risk drowning if
scientists and the governments of the
world are unable to come up with a
solution. The Italians also risk losing
the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa,
which seems headed for a monumental
collapse.
Buildings and sculptures made of
some types of marble or limestone are
being destroyed by the sulfur that is
pouring down from the heavens in the
form of acid rain. For her 100th birth-
day, the Statue of Liberty received a
thorough cleaning that undid some of
theeffects ofdecadesofacidcorrosion.
Lady Liberty wasoneoftheluckyones:
many less famous monuments are be-
ing destroyed faster than funds can be
found for their preservation.
While acting to preserve the bio-
sphere, we should also try to salvage the
treasures that were created by our pre-
decessors and subsequently destroyed
by their descendents. Money must be
freed up by governments to repair this
damage. But governments have other
pressingneedsatwhichtheymustthrow
money, soit will be necessary for most
of the repairs to be funded by charitable
contributions. The Hungarians, realiz-
ing that few tourists will be attracted to
a city that is so charred, have come up
with a brilliant plan: a tenth of alltourist
dollars are immediately earmarked for
clean-up efforts that may eventually
leave Budapest spotless. Tourists will
flood in as the blackness recedes.
Whooping cranes and Bengal tigers
are special, but so are the Parthenon and
St. Marks's Square in Venice. We must
act now to save the ecosystem, but we
should also come up with a system
whereby we can protect the works of
our hands from ourselves.
Armenian uenociae
To the Daily:
I am outraged to hear about the
prejudice expressed toward the Are-
nian Student's Cultural Association.
Your treatment of the club in connec-
tion with the full-page ad run in the
April 22 Daily is disturbing.
Leslie Davis, the American Consul
in Harput, Turkey, from 1915 to 1917,
was an eyewitness to the genocide and
told a horrid tale. Here is a quote from
page 20 of Davis's "The Slaughter-
house Province: An American
Diplomat's Report On The Armenian
Genocide, 1915-1917," which was ed-
ited by Susan Blair
Iintendto supplement these reports
on the deportation and massacre of the
Armenians with an account ofrtwo trips
which we now made to a lake aboutfive
hours distantfrom here wherelsaw the
dead bodies offullytenthousandpeople,
many of whom had been recently killed,
and to illustrate it with photographs
which I took of them alive in camps. It
would not have been prudent to send
such a report now.
Daviswrote that year aboutthe "de-
portation" and "massacre" of the Ar-
menian population that had inhabited
the region since ancient times. Do you
still have a problem with these words?
Genocide is defined as the deliber-
ate and systematic destruction of ara-
cial, political, or cultural group. There
is no better word than genocide to de-
scribe theactionsofagovernment which
issues an edict to exterminate a people.
In 1915, the Ottoman Turkish govern-
ment issued orders for the deportation
and destruction of Armenians, and this
resulted in mass slaughters of innocent
civilians - not civil war or battles
between soldiers but destruction of in-
nocent citizens.
This letter contains official Turkish
wartime governmental telegrams, in
translation, that entail the orders for the
extermination of the Armenian people
in Turkey. These telegrams wereissued
by the Turkish Ministerof the Interior,
Talaat Pasha. Please note how the lan-
guage and tone of these ordersis similar
to the anti-Armenian Turkish-govern-
mental generated propagandarecapitu-
lated by the Turkish students:
Although the extermination of the
Armenian element, which has for cen-
turies been desirous of destroying the
sure foundation of our Empire, and
now taken the form of a real danger,
had been decided upon earlier than
this, circumstancesdid not permit us to
carry out this sacred intention. Now
that all obstacles are removed, and the
time has come for redeeming our fa-
therlandfrom this dangerous element,
it is urgently recommended that you
should not be moved byfeelings ofpity
on seeing their miserableplight; but, by
putting an end to them all, try with all
your might to obliterate the very name
'Armenia' from Turkey. See to it that
those to whom you entrust the carrying
out of this purpose are reliable men.
Minister of the Interior Talaat
Here's another
To the Government of Aleppo:
All the rights of the Armenians to
live and work in Turkey have been
completely canceled, and with regard
tothistheGovernmenttakesallrespon-
sibility on itself and has connanded
that even babies in cradle are not to be
spared. The results of carrying out this
order have been seen in some prov-
inces. In spite of this, for reasons un-
known to us, exceptional people mea-
sures are taken with 'Certain People'
[Armenians], and those people instead
of being sent straight to the place of
exile are left in Aleppo, whereby the
Government is involved in an addi-
tional difficulty. Without listening to
any of their reasoning, remove them
thence-women orchildren, whatever
they may be, even if they are incapable
ofmoving; anddo not let people protect
then, because through theirignorance,
they place material gains higher than
patrioticfeelings, and cannot appreci-
ate the great policy of the Government
in insisting upon this. Instead of the
indirectmeasuresofextertination used
in other places - such as severity,
haste (in carrying out the deportations),
difficulties of traveling and isery -
direct neasure can safely be used there,
so work heartily.
Tell the officials that are to be ap-
pointedfor that purpose that they must
work to put into execution our real
intent, without being afraidofresponsi-
bility. Please send cipher reports ofthe
results of your activities every week.
Minister of the Interior Talaat
These telegrams were entered as
unquestioned evidenceeduring the 1923
trial of Talaat Pasha's assassin,
Soghomon Tehlerian. TheTurkish gov-
ernment never questioned these "death
marchorders" until 1986, during atime
when the world was again reminded of
the genocide of the Armenians.
For reasons known to those who
study the psychology of genocide de-
nial, the Turkish government and its
supporters in crime deny that such or-
ders were ever issued, and further claim
that these telegrams were forgeries
based on a study by S. Orel and S. Yuca
of the Turkish Historical Society.
If one were to examine the sample
"authentic text" provided in the Turk-
ish Historical Society study and use
their own forgery test on that sample,
their sample itself would be a forgery!
In fact, if any of the tests delineated by
the Turkish Historical Society are per-
formed on any piece of Ottoman Turk-
ish or Persian/Arabic script, then any-
thing handwritten in such language is a
forgery.
Today, the body of TalaatPashalies
in a tomb on Freedom Hill in Istanbul,
Turkey, just next to the Yildiz Univer-
sity campus. Thebody of this genocide
architect was returned to Turkey from
Germany during World War IH when
Turkey was in a heightened state of
proto-fascism.
This monument represents the
epitome of the Turkish government's
pathological denial of a clear historical
event and is an insulteto a people whose
only crime was to be born Armenian.
Roland Telfeyan
New York, New York
Advice on sex and AIDS in the '90s
by Toby Jacobowitz, M.D.
As a physician caring for college
studentsattheUniversity,Ihave thought
long and hard how I could impact the
risingincidenceandprevalenceofsexu-
ally transmitted infectionson campus.I
want so much to reach all of you so I
decided to write an open letter to col-
lege newspapers.
Where do I begin? This letter is
addressed primarily to women because
sexually transmitted diseaseshave a far
greater impact on women than on men,
although the responsibility for spread-
ing them falls upon both. The majority
of these infectios cause more subtle
symptoms in women, leading to delays
in seeking medical attention. They are
harder to diagnose in women than in
men. Women are more likely to suffer
serious consequences such as infertil-
Toby Jacobowitz works for University
Health Services.
ity, tubalpregnancies,andcervicalcan-
cer.
As I write this letter, I remember
vividly patients I've cared for this past
year. I remember the 19-year-old
woman with herpes who had a condom
in her purse that went unused because
her boyfriend swore he's never had any
sexually transmitteddiseases. Iremem-
ber the 21-year-old woman diagnosed
with gonorrhea, chlamydia and herpes
transmitted during a single episode of
casual sex when she became intoxi-
cated at a party.
Unfortunately, you cannotcount on
your partner to protect you from sexu-
ally transmitted diseases. You need to
protect yourself. There are ways to be
sexually active - kissing, massage,
mutualmasturbation-without sexual
intercourse. In fact, abstinence is the
only sure guarantee against contracting
a sexually transmitted disease. If absti-
nence is notpossible for you, the use of
latex rubber condoms with the
spermicide containing nonoxynol-9 is
the most effective known method to
minimize your chance of contracting a
sexually transmitted disease, with the
coincidental benefit of contraception.
Find out about your partner's health
and sexualhistory.Talk about previous
partners and previous sexually trans-
mitted infections. Be prepared to post-
pone or not have sexual intercourse if
your partner is not responsive to your
concerns or is not taking you seriously.
I am not trying to unduly scare you.
Sexual activity is normal and pleasur-
able, but in today's times can be a
hazard to your health and well-being
carrying the risk of long term conse-
quences. There is a good deal you can
do to minimize the risk to you and your
partner. Please take the responsibility
forpreventing sexually transmitted dis-
eases. And if prevention should fail,
please seek care as soon as possible.
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