New Haiti policy may
stem the refugee tide
In yet another change of policy, the Clinton admin
istration announced on Tuesday that Haitian refugees
picked up on the high seas while fleeing their troubled
Caribbean nation will no longer be allowed to enter the
United States, even if they qualify for political asylum.
Instead, those political refugees — refugees who are
deemed likely to suffer persecution if returned home —
will be sent to safe havens in Panama and elsewhere in
the Caribbean where they will await a new and more sta
blo government in Haiti. Economic refugees, or those
deemed to bo leaving for economic reasons only, will
be sent back home.
While the United States' new policy on Haiti represents
a more pragmatic and humanitarian approach than pre
vious policies — including a Bush-era plan to sent! all
refugees back to Haiti, political or no — it rests an inor
dinate amount of faith on the prospects for a new gov
ernment in Haiti.
The countries that have consented to be safe havens
have made it clear that they will not bn permanent reset
tlement sitos for the refugees. They have only agreed to
shelter the refuget*s for six months.
What this means is that the military dictatorship in
Haiti, which replaced the democratically elected gov
ernment of Jean-Bertrand Aristide in a violent 1991 coup,
must also fall in six months.
To help bring down that government, the Clinton
administration has already leveled a series of economic
sanctions against Haiti, which Clinton has said he believes
"are having an impact.” But the possibility of success
fully forcing Haiti's dictators to step down through pure
ly economic measures is doubtful at best. The U S has
imposed sanctions against Fidel Castro's Cuba for decades,
with still no movement from the dictator’s chair. And
Saddam Hussain has remained in power in Iraq, despite
similar economic efforts.
Clinton has left open the option of military interven
tion, and although his special adviser to Haiti has said
that an invasion is "not imminent," with "imminent"
being defined as "within the next few days," he has also
said that "the coup leaders will not Ire allowed to stay in
power,"
The removal of those coup leaders through military
force is not a particularly desirable option, but given
the limited effectiveness of sanctions, it may be the only
option available. Clinton has handicapped himself some
what. however, by giving himself a do facto deadline of
six months. It would have been better to find a more per
manent location for the refugee camps, recognizing the
possibility that sanctions may not work that quickly and
a military invasion may be more effective if delayed.
But the current solution, however temporary, is a sig
nificant improvement over Clinton's previous policy,
which allowed political refugees to come to the United
States. That policy resulted a serious upswing in the num
ber of refugees, with more than 12.000 being picked up
by the U.S. Coast Guard in the last 12 days, many in ovor
crowdod, unseaworthy boats. More than 100 Haitians
were killed when one such boat capsized.
The administration hopes that sending refugees to tem
porary camps outside the United States will discourage
them from attempting more dangerous ocean crossings.
If the new policy succeeds in this mission, and if the gov
ernment of Haiti does step down in six months, Clinton
will have achieved a major foreign policy success. If not,
he will have to define yet another Haiti policy, and the
United States will suffer yet another setback on the inter
national stage.
Oregon Daily
Emerald
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OPINION
What’s the appeal of the ’60s?
li\m FORMAN
Ahh. summertime in Eu
gene. If you breathe
deeply, you can almost
smell the '60s
it starts m the spring when the
Saturday Market rolls hack into
town A few months later Satur
day Market invades the campus
when the Street Fair sets up
shop on 13th Avenue.
Then in June we get the
Willamette Valley Folk Festival.
The spinners really start crawl
ing out of the woodwork, and
the scent of patchouli wafts
through the spring air.
And then of course the patron
saints of the '60s, the Grateful
Dead, bless Eugene with their
presence, bringing scores of
deadheads with them
If your thirst for the "60s has
not bean satisfied, never you
inind. This weekend, the zenith
of all '60s events, the gigantic
hippie fest to end all hippie
fasts: The Oregon Country Fair.
The 1960s are now 25 years
behind us. yet places like
Eugene and other pockets
throughout the country continue
to hold on to that lost decade
with all their might.
And my question is: Why?
Maybe it’s becauso I just
missed the '60s altogether. I was
born in 1970; I didn't even
breathe '60s air My parents
missed the '60s by a hair. They
rode in on the tail-wind of the
1950s. By the time student
activism was taking off on col
lege campuses, they had gradu
ated from college, spawned a
kid and were working steady
jobs Amid all the turmoil, they
like many Americans were try
ing to achieve the American
Dream. I have grown up
estranged from '60s romanti
cism.
So I come to Eugene aware of
the history and the music, but
otherwise clueless to an entire
culture dedicated to reliving the
1980s
The really baffling part is that
it is not those who lived the
'"80s experience" who am keep
ing the decade alive here. It is
people who. like me, were not
even alive during the ‘60s.
Walk around the campus.
You'll find yourself in a sea of
tie-dye and long hair. Everyone
is wearing sandals, listening to
bands that were being played on
the radio 30 years ago and of
course, getting stoned.
And the music There is the
Dead, and then wo have the
Dead cover bands and the Dead
sound-a like bands. And the
now children of the '80s contin
ue to make 30-year-old bands
richer and richer. This place is a
cultural time warp
I really don't get the appeal of
the '60s.
Hut I don't mean all of that
decade So much that happened
then has radically changed soci
ety today The civil rights move
ment, the women's movement
and student activism shook the
very foundations of American
society. All of this falls along the
wayside here in Eugene When
we remember the ’60s here, we
are choosy; our nostalgia is very
selective.
Here in Eugene, we remember
the hippie movement. Particu
larly enticing to folks here seems
to be the drug scene, resplen
dent now and resplendent then.
I asked a friend of mine what
the Country Fair was like. She
told me that it was like Saturday
Market only everyone is wasted.
That stopped any plans I had
of ever going
I asked another friend who is
a Grateful Dead fan to explain to
me the appeal of the shows, of
the scene in general. He told me
that the music complimented
drug use perfectly.
I’ve also been told how "free"
the atmosphere is at these
places, how accepting it is. But I
wonder if a preppie Republican
boy set foot into any of these
places, looking ostensibly out
of-place, how welcoming the
atmosphere would be.
Well, my personal ax is
ground enough. I admit that I
hid in my house during the
Dead shows. But my concern
The '60s happened.
A lot was achieved
and a lot failed. But
they are over.
gin's beyond my personal views.
I worry about my generation
The media is falsely tagging us
as tho Generation X — a brood
of lazy slackers.
I strongly disagree with tho
stupid Gen X myth, but I won
der about the recycling of
decades. The '60s happened. A
lot was achieved and a lot failed.
Hut they are over. The ‘60s have
not been over long enough to
bring track already.
Perhaps it is the vitality of tho
decade that is so appealing to
young hippies. Maybe the social
movements draw many into '60s
nostalgia. These are all things
that can be transplanted into our
generation, right here into the
1990s
But l know that the drug scene
also has large appeal. I’m not
telling anybody to “Just Say
No." The fuss over drugs has
been blown out of proportion by
both the government and the
users. But do you really want
drugs to be the denning forte of
your life? They can't be that
important.
Our generation is so often
atx used not making any signifi
cant cultural statements. I look
around me and see all sorts of
statements A new kind of femi
nism is emerging, a music scene
is boiling, a new kind of self
made magazine is popping up
and will hopefully give the
industry a run for its money All
of this is happening right here in
Eugene.
Except it is overshadowed by
the great rainbow cloud of '60s
nostalgia. Eugene is a 60s kind
of town, and I don't deny this is
a nice place to live.
But if our heads are constant
ly swiveled back toward the
past, how can we see what is
happening right in front of us'
Peace.
Gayle Forman will be a
columnist for the Emerald in the
fall