The Michigan Daily - Thursday, October 26, 1995 - 5
I
Viewpoint unfair
to residents of
third-world
countries
To the Daily: X
Alexandra Neyman's viewpoint
("Cruel joke of communism still un-
funny, 10/23/95) showed good points
in denouncing the Communist approach
ofsolving the social and economic prob-
lems in societies around the world. But
her reasoning about why the United
States is the "most prosperous" country
in the world and why the "third-world
countries" cannot stand on their own
was obviously a simplified and limited
view.
She said: "the American people work
0 times harder than those people of
third-world countries." This is really a
'disgusting prejudice. I don't know
where she got this impression and I
hope she can address this issue on the
Ifaily to help me understand my coun-
try and my people better. (Though
Taiwan is no longer considered as a
third-world country, it was 10 years
,.ago.)
Since I came to the United States
three years ago, accepted in the Ph.D.
program in Electrical Engineering, I
,keep feeling that I lost something, it
~seems to be the definitely positive con-
fidence for the humans' future. Why?
It's simple, because I witness how this
"most prosperous country in the world"
Is built upon the Earth; the endless
wasting of precious resources and the
debt imposed upon our next genera-
tions are two key factors.
I cannot imagine that the American
dream would come true if it's not the
relatively few people on a huge land
and the enormous amount of resources.
The economic growth is based on in-
creasing productivity, which is in turn,
largely based on intensive use of natu-
ral resources. It is very effective, at
least for the past hundreds of years, but
I feel painful to see this approach has
been adopted by many countries and
will eventually by most. Yes, it is true
that the American people work 10 times
harder than those of third-world coun-
tries, the American people work 10
times harder to use up the natural re-
sources of our Earth. For the past three
years, I could not help but trying to turn
off the lights while nobody is in the
rooms, turn off the TV sets scattered
around the North Campus in the middle
of nights, and not to drive the car when-
ever is possible. Oh, tell me that I am
really a fool, that demanding every-
thing that you want is the way it should
be in the United States, and that wast-
ing is what the high living standard is
for.
My opinion is: The American way
was great, but is outdated and should
not be "taught" to every developing
countries without any reservation. The
United States does not live offthe backs
of the third-world countries, but it lives
on the expense of the Earth and there-
fore, the welfare of other people in the
world.
Tzu-Hsien Sang
Engineering graduate student
Letters on race
issues show
ignorance
To the Daily:
I am writing in response to the recent
letters on affirmative action. It really
disgusts me to see and hear people pass
off the past racism and oppression of
blacks as if it had no effect on our
socioeconomic status. You hear that
slavery was horrible, but it is the past
and it is not fair to trade one form of
racism with another.
Do you understand how ignorant that
sounds? It almost sounds as if those
opposed to affirmative action are say-
ing, "sorry about the hundreds of years
of oppression, it won't happen again.
Now that blatant racism no longer ex-
ists we do not think it is fair to imple-
ment programs to try to help you reach
our level of success."
Before any action is taken to get rid
of affirmative action, we need to look at
the root of the problem, the school sys-
tems. There is a gigantic disparity the
quality of education coming from pri-
vate and suburban schools compared to
inner city public schools. Until educa-
tion is standardized you can never ex-
cept people on the basis of standardized
tests and call it fair. Also I do not think
it should be based solely on race, but
also on one's economic background.
One last point for those of you who
thinkblacks and other under represented
minorities are taking over because of
affirmative action, next time you go to
class take a look around and count on
both hands how many black people you
see. I wonder how many fingers you
have left?
Jason B. Marshall
LSA senior
Support striking
newspaper
employees
To the Daily:
The real experiences of the Detroit
newspaper striking workers have been
unilaterally excluded by the mainstream
media. This media blackout limits pub-
lic awareness of the aggressive anti-
union strategy of the Detroit News
Agency (DNA). In turn, a lack of aware-
ness limits the growth of existing com-
munity support.
Much media attention has been given
to alleged violence on the picket line by
strikers. Few hear of the cases where
DNA semis have driven through crowds
of protesting strikers unpunished.
Scores of strikers have been injured at
the hands of company security guards
and truck drivers. The first arrest was of
a company driver who had driven his
truck over a striker, breaking both of
the striker's legs. Upon returning to the
site, the driver claimed he had not real-
ized he had hit anyone. Witnesses felt
he returned because he did not fear the
company-friendly police who had of-
ten witnessed reckless driving on the
part of company drivers and done noth-
ing.
The other misconception fostered by
the media is that the unions are money-
hungry. However, from the beginning
of the strike, the unions have been will-
ing to negotiate with the DNA. The
DNA has rejected union offers to save
the company $15 million in wage and
job cuts. The DNA is out to bust the
unions. Detroit News Publisher Robert
Giles stated, "We're going to hire a
whole new work force and go on with-
out unions, or they can surrender un-
conditionally and salvage what they
can."
The strikers continue their struggle,
fighting not only for their own jobs but
for the right of workers to be repre-
sented by a union. If you would like to
hear about the strike from their per-
spective,join us on Thursday Oct.26 at
7 p.m. in Rackham's East Lecture Room
(third floor).
Any questions, email us at
SLAC@umich.edu.
Amy Carroll
Ellen Schweitzer
Melissa Koenig
UM-Student Labor Action
Coalition (SLAC)
Barbie a symbol
of sorely lacking
campus diversity
To the Daily:
In the Daily on Wednesday, Oct. 11,
1995 in the Local/State section you had
this article regarding the marketing of
Barbie dolls dressed in University of
Mississippi outfits ("Barbie goes to U.
of Mississippi"). This does not refer to
you. But it refers to the University of
Mississippi as a whole.
On the diversity level, there is only
one white Barbie and one black Barbie,
what happened to the other ethnicities?
Do we not exist in the university at all?
(I thought a university was supposed to
exemplify the different cultures that it
has in its community. Not the elimina-
tion of other minority groups from its
campus. People come to a university to
experience the multiculturalism that it
offers. So that the individuals them-
selves can benefit from it.) I just would
like for the marketers to have an open
mind to see the rich diversity that lies
around us. All ethnicities should be
recognized and not shunned from the
public eye.
We should utilize the richness of
multiculturalism that we have, not aban-
don them.
Choua Yang
LSA first-year student
Lawmakers attack habitat laws
To the Daily:
As a student with little time to get
actively involved outside of the colle-
giate realm, I wanted to express my
outrage at our politicians' attack on the
environment. It does not take a brain
surgeon to realize that this country still
hosts an enormous amount of problems
centered around our environment, so
who got the idea into their head that
weakening these laws is going to make
the problem any better?
This past summer while many of us
were off travelling or basking in the
sun, more than 100 million people in28
states across our country were breath-
ing unhealthy air. Michigan was one of
those 28. Despite this statistic as welt as
many other devastating statistics, the
U.S. House of Representatives passed
an appropriations bill thatwould weaken
the Clean Air Act and other environ-
mental laws. In addition, this law would
cut the EPA's funding that would nomi-
-Bally go toward enforcing the current
laws.
Right here in our state, Michigan
recorded the sixth highest smog read-
ing in the country over the first half of
this summer. The surrounding states -
Indiana, Ohio and Illinois-also ranked
in the top 13. We all know too that it is
completely impossible to put tip gates
or walls around the states to keep the air
pollution out. Their problems only add
to ours.
Now is the time to take action and do
all we can to get our politicians to
realize that we still have environmental
problems in this country. It is so obvi-
ous to even the most ignorant of people
that rivers and lakes are still polluted
and that developers are destroying the
little, pristine land that we have left.
Why not leave it alone and go after
something else, another avenue in which
there is not already a huge number of
existing problems. I realize that we, as
students, are all busy with the more
immediate problems in our lives, but
there are some things that must take
priority. It's hard enough to eat well
and get enough sleep; now we need to
worry about the air we're breathing?
Please, enough is enough. Let's get our
senators and representatives to realize
that we not only want, but need these
environmental laws intact and not weak-
ened.
Rohit Ramanand
Engineering sophomore
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