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About Oregon daily emerald. (Eugene, Or.) 1920-2012 | View Entire Issue (Jan. 26, 1976)
-editorial Poetic justice Question: how can the U.S. avoid picking the losing side in the internal political struggles of a country? Easy, don't pick any side. This solution isn't that easy to follow, however, given the present mentality in Washington towards U.S. foreign policy. In the case of Angola, mentality seems to dictate that whenever possible the U.S. must act to tip the balance of power in favor of the "pro-western'' faction. Despite the desirability of having such a faction in control, what this mentality does not take into consid eration is the advantage the U S. could enjoy if it maintained a “clean-handed," neutral position in Angola. Now unfortunately, the U.S. is closely identified with the two factions being supported by troops of white supremacist South Africa; not the best position to be directly identified with on a largely Black-dominated conti nent. Last year when the Portuguese attempted to withdraw from their former colonial possession of Angola by granting it indepen dence, the transition of power quickly degenerated into a three way civil war. Three factions attempted to assume control. The Popular Movement for the Liberation of Angola (MPLA) became identified with the Soviet Union. The National Front for the Libera tion of Angola (FNLA) attracted Western support and became allied with the National Union for the Total Independence of Angola (UNITA) which enjoys Chinese Communist support. All three had been active in the effort to drive the Portuguese out but couldn't agree how to share the pie after the Portuguese left. The political instability created attracted the attention of Washington, Moscow and Peking. All three are interested in the strategic importance of Angola. The most direct and convenient route for the shipment of copper from Zaire and Zambia is the British Benuela Railway which transverses Angola from its east ern border with Zaire and Zambia to Angola's west coast ports on the Atlantic. The most severe fighting has occurred along this railway as the rival factions seek to control it. Incidentally the leader of the Western-backed FNLA, Holden Roberto, is the brother-in-law of the president of Zaire. The advantages to Zaire of having the FNLA control and safeguard the railway are obvi ous. To complicate the situation even more, it appears that the alliances may be shifting. Last week secret talks were underway in Zambia among several African states who seek a peaceful solution to the conflict. Reports from the meeting indicate that UNITA feeis it has more in common ideologically with the Soviet backed MPLA than its present ally, the Western-backed FNLA. and that it may be prepared to accept second place to the MPLA in a united Angolan government. If accord is reached, the two factions could claim the political allegiance of 58 per cent of the population with 20 per gent loyal to the FNLA and the remaining 22 per cent undecided. Even though the U.S. Senate has cut off any further funds for military aid to Angola, tne damage has been done. The stigma of covertly meddling in Angola’s internal affair is attached to us. We will be forced to deal with any emerging government from the position of a former antagonist. While it is true that a hands-off position on our part wouljJ not have kept the Russians out. their scope of involvement would have been severely restricted. If our involvement hadn't forced other factions into the Soviet camp, how well would have blue-eyed, fair-skinned European (Russian) troops been welcomed by African nationalists who are just now casting off the remnants of European colonialism? One course of action, however, offers some hope. We must clearly disassociate ourselves from any direct military involve ment in Angola. From this_position we can then work diplomati cally through the Organization for African Unity and with other African countries to publicize the presence of Russian troops in Angola. Their presence would then be even more obvious and less justifiable in the absence of our involvement. With us out of the picture militarily, how long would they be hailed as liberators? Given Rnsgig’s use of a similar tactic in Vietnam, it would almost be poetic justice^ ■! I y-, l«i-.. II. ' ■ — titirs tow ; to$wn pole ot jjtjot Kies lmH»e\0»ViMe(she) he one that incurs pay me^liM»y imptovement'rn con ’^££8igMtait^4fW or univer sity facilitiesV This ha§ gone on long enough. ' By instituting a Onion for stu dents, we can gain an important voice in what we must pay for in tuition and fee hikes. We can en sure that faculty and staff posi tions will not be enhanced at the cost of our education. And we can ensure that programs and policies controlled by the university will have the students interest in mind. I urge you to let the ASUO know your feelings about a student union. The sooner they know where students stand, the sooner they can institute the union and Page 4 start protecting our rights Michael Stepka Recreation and Park Management Please lead I have been confronted several times in the past two weeks to sign petitions for various campaigns that have been circulating around campus. By observing the petitioners, I became aware of many students who for some obs cure- reasons sign without even reading the petition. Now I would like to promote a petition not for anybody to sign, but only to read. To all U of O students that have been or will be approached by fel low petitioners. Please and I em phasize please for your own well being, read what you're signing! Don't feel ignorant by asking questions. Many times petitioners highlight certain points in order to “Thank heavens for a few disrespectful young brats!’’ a,) * vj VI y li ‘You vill do as ve say, Liebchen!’ get signatures, but disguise the true motives of the petition or fail to state critical issues that are also included above your John Henry. Ask for information such as who they are associated with or what their main objectives include. Without a careful understanding of the petition you may be promot ing a violent demonstration or communist movement without being aware of it. Therefore my plea is not for stu dents to disregard all petitions, but to take interest and make sure you understand the arguments, both pro and con of the petition before you sign. Kevin Knode Bus. Ad., Soph. Let us know This is in reply to a letter to the Editor in the Emerald of January 21, 1976, by John Billingsley re garding the shortage of texts for certain courses. Your complaint is not new, in fact, most bookstores around the country have been listening to this for years. Unfortunately, n® one has come up with the perfect solu tion. During the opening rush of winter term "we had a professor come in saying that he had or dered 25 books for a class and felt that this was adequate^ Much tp h**-Sur prise 75 students regis tered for this class. Tkps was only onw^ instance in this particular school where many classes sud-, dej% swelled way beyond expec tations. How do you suggest the bookstore take care df such-a situation? Our overstock of Text books for winter exceeded 25*per cent of our purchases. This means thatout of every four books we purchased for classroom use'we had one left on the shelves. This is adout the national average for college bookstores today. This happens to us at the end of every quarter. Four times a year. Returning books to the publisher is a very costly process considering the fact that we have already paid freight to get them and then have to pay again to return. Come in and examine our text shelves and look at the thousands of books left over. We carry 3,200 different titles for the opening of school. If we followed your sug gestion and expanded every fa culty member's order by 5 extra copies, this would amount to 16,000 extra books with no guarantee they would all sell. This would just aggravate our costly re turn problem. The American Bookseller's Association figures it costs somewhere in the neigh borhood of 50 cents a copy to re turn a book to the publisher This covers freight, packing materials and labor Our text department is already operating at a loss with the 10 per cent discount to students Any further losses mean higher prices for other items in the bookstore We do not like to run out of books Our sole purpose is to serve the students. So. if you can help us with a solution which is economi cally feasible, please let us know. We would like to bring to your attention our new SOUNDING BOARD in the main lobby of the store which was activated by the Board of Directors. Whenever you have a criticism or suggestion, you can drop it in the box next to the board and you v" hove an answer on the board within ten days. A copy of this letter will be on the board along with a copy of Mr Billingsley's letter. G.L Henson. Manager UofO BOOKSTORE. INC. Bear in mind I would be very interested to hear the Revolutionary Student -Brfjjadfes definition of the word “oppression. According to their repent leaflet commemorating ChoO€n-iai and the Chinese Re volution. the people of Communist China have largely succeeded in Mheir war against oppression The leaflet gpes on to infer that this “aSpdJtion'' is in fact ever-present in our country and exists, to a large extent, because of our capitalistically-oriented system Bearing in mind that the people of this country enjoy many more freedoms than do their Chinese adversaries, and hence have far greater control over the direction of their lives, I find it hard to recon cile that we are an oppressed group and have still to attain those victories enjoyed by the Chinese people. Mitch Carter Business Sin committed I fail to see the point of all the emotional controversy regarding the Concorde SST Anyone famil iar with the place knows that its only advantage over conventional passenger aircraft is its super sonic speed, up to 1400 m.p.h. To achieve this speed, the cabin is very narrow resulting in an aisle just 14 inches wide, and the two seats to either side scarcely wider All seats would be first class, too meaning that for one s discomfort one would have to pay outrageous fares much higher than on present aircraft Boeing engineers are currently working toward the goal of an effi cient, clean burning, quiet and confortable SST They have stated, though, that it is not tech nologically possible at this time with fuel prices as high as they are, to build a cost-effective SST How long, then, do the British and French think they could sub sidize this aircraft's operation given the critical economic situa tion? I fear they have committed the sin of making the same mis take twice The premature opera tion of the de HaviUand Comet in the earty 1950s brought disas ough operation of trie ___ — ,*iOuld prove to be less spectacutar. few. if any, air lines Will be able to make a profit by it. ; *h The man cry against the SST regards its potential damage to the ozone. About two weeks ago. the World Meteorological Organi zation stated that, based on their studies, flights of 30 to 50 SST s flying at 60.000 fpet would not af fect the ozone I feel then, that unfit a reasona ble SST is built, the Concorde should be allowed to fly scheduled service into the United States.and so to fait, economically, on its own merits. Such#pokey rntght settle both envronhienU^end diploma tic squabbles Brace E Si mill Sr., geology Letters policy The Emerald will accept and try to pnatj0yleUci. containing fafreo/rtfiienton ideas and topics of concern or interest to the University community. Because of space timita tions. tetters must be no more than 200 words, typed, triple-spaced, dated and signed with the perons s ma/or No un signed letter will be pub lished. Longer opinion columns will be published whenever possible after being sub mitted to the editorial page editor The limit on opinion col umns is 800 words, using the same format as letters. Monday, .January 26, I!'7'’