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Wednesday, March 6,2002
Editor in Chief:
Jessica Blanchard
Managing Editor:
Jeremy Lang
Editorial Editor:
Julie Lauderbaugh
Assistant Editorial Editor:
Jacquelyn Lewis
Editorial
Advertising
revenue
should not
decide news
(U-WIRE) LOS ANGELES —
■■""led Koppel’s hair may not
be as funny as David Let
JL terman’s gap, but the host
of ABC’s “Nightline” has provid
ed a respectable, intelligent
news outlet for more than two
decades.
It is deplorable that ABC is
considering bumping “Night
line” in favor of Letterman’s
“Late Show.”
Society has already taken a
turn for the worse when it comes
to favoring entertainment over
news. ABC was the last bastion
for late-night news junkies, a
refuge from repetitive, looped
CNN stories and the pot-shot hu
mor of Jay Leno, Letterman and
reality dating shows.
In Los Angeles, “Nightline”
was an outlet that viewers could
turn to after weathering the fluff
that passes for local news. A fire
could destroy downtown but
here stations lead with a Robert
Downey Jr. drug arrest.
Industry analysts point out
that “Nightline,” which debuted
as a special show during the Iran
hostage crisis in 1979, has
watched its audience erode
because of cable options.
But vvhat it boils down to is
money. Advertisers can’t hock
beer and video games to an audi
ence that is considered older and
less lucrative. ABC can charge
much more to advertisers for Let
terman’s “Top Ten” than for a
serious analysis of current
world events.
That is where ABC has gone
wrong. Money talks, but integri
ty in television is almost extinct.
The network should leave
“Nightline” as a shining example
that television can still educate
and inform, regardless of ratings
and advertising dollars.
If Letterman jumps to ABC, a
dangerous precedent will be set.
Let the laugh tracks begin.
This guest editorial is courtesy
of the University of Southern California’s
campus newspaper, the Daily Trojan.
Letters to
the Editor and
Guest Commentaries
Policy
Letters to the editor and guest
commentaries are encouraged. Letters
are limited to 250 words and guest
commentaries to 550words. Please
include contact information. The
Emerald reserves the right to edit
tor space, grammar and style.
Consumers need to educate themselves
Having attended a presenta
tion by Jim Keaty and
Leslie Kretzu detailing
their experiences living with
Nike workers in Tangerang, In
donesia, I felt compelled to reply
to Vada Manager’s guest commen
tary (“Nike cares for its contract
employees,” ODE, Feb. 12).
Manager stated Nike’s products
are made at factories that regularly
undergo independent monitoring.
In fact, the monitoring organiza
tions utilized by Nike are Price
WaterhouseCoopers, who is paid
by Nike to provide monitoring
services, and the Fair Labor Asso
ciation, of which Nike is a
founder and board member. Hard
ly the impartial scenario implied
by “independent monitoring.”
It’s no accident corporations
choose to locate factories in coun
tries with notoriously lax enforce
ment of labor, health and safety
standards. Even when monitors
discover violations, their reports
are paper tigers without the teeth
to force factories to make required
Guest Commentary
Char
Heitman
changes. Companies realize the
cost of hiring monitors is an in
vestment in corporate image that
helps maintain profits.
Manager also referred to the
Global Alliance for Workers study
(underwritten by Nike to the tune
of $7.8 million, incidentally) stat
ing that “a majority of workers ex
pressed satisfaction with their rela
tionship with their superiors and
managers.” This is not surprising
considering that interviewees who
meet with monitors are hand
picked by management and inter
views are done with management
often acting as translators. How
honest is a worker likely to be about
factory conditions and supervisors
with a supervisor present?
Manager also talked about wages
and benefits. At minimum wage,
workers in Indonesia receive
300,000 to 350,000 rupiah, which
is $26 a month or 76 cents per day.
Many people reason that since
costs in the country are lower,
workers can afford to make less.
According to calculations by Keaty
and Kretzu, however, a meal of rice
and veggies, a soft drink (less ex
pensive than bottled water, local
water being non-potable) and a bag
of peanuts cost 62 percent of a
workers daily wage. That would be
like an American minimum wage
worker paying $31 for a sandwich,
chips and drink! Or imagine not
being able to afford the medicine
and doctor’s office visit for a sick
child because it costs 654 times
your daily wage.
Even the Indonesian govern
ment admits the minimum wage
meets only 80 percent of an indi
vidual employee’s financial needs.
Yet, economically struggling coun
tries are pressured by foreign gov
ernments, corporations and finan
cial institutions to maintain a
“favorable investment climate,”
which encourages the suppression
of labor movements and attempts
to increase minimum wages.
Taking advantage of exploitable
workers under deplorable labor
conditions is how companies can
realize the gargantuan profits
which make it possible to amass
obscene personal fortunes (Phil
Knight’s net worth: $52 billion)
and offer lucrative endorsement
contracts. Is it right for Tiger
Woods to make $100 million or
the University of Michigan $25
million for wearing Nike products
while the laborers can not even
meet their basic needs working 60
hours a week to make them?
This is a complex issue without
easy answers. But rather than ac
cept the corporate party line, edu
cate yourselves. As consumers,
we are part of the equation. I urge
you to go to:
/www.nikewages.org./FAQs.html
#Anchor-49575/ for an excellent
in-depth analysis of this issue.
Char Heitman is an instructor
at the American English Institute.
Steve Baggs Emerald
Letters to the editor
Student renters
need to take action
A housing code functions to
define standards of safety, sani
tation and livability within a
city. Currently, the city of Eu
gene lacks the presence of a code
that not only holds renters and
landlords accountable for the
condition of their buildings, but
also provides a tool for solving
disputes over housing issues.
The lack of housing standards
affects University students and
community members alike, and
students need to advocate
around housing standards in Eu
gene in order to protect their
rights as renters and ensure
proper living conditions within
their community.
ASUO is running a student
awareness campaign to bring
this issue to the attention of the
students and city councilors of
Eugene. Running through Thurs
day, ASUO will be putting on a
week of action encouraging stu
dents to voice their own com
plaints about the conditions of
their housing situations. During
the week, a table will be set up
outside the EMU for students to
drop by and share their griev
ances, which will then be shown
to visitors from the city council
during the final day.
Through the week of action,
students can educate themselves
about the issue of a city housing
code, as well as voice their own
opinions of complaints to be
heard by the city council and oth
er students.
Ian Henri
junior
English
Think before acting
Whether as groups, nations or
individuals, we humans are capa
ble of atrocious acts. The rationale
for these typically boils down to
“you don’t think or behave like 1/
we think you should.” True-be
liever fanaticism underlies our
species’ abhorrent, murderous
history. As beings who usually do
know what love and caring and
safety feel like, what can we pos
sibly be thinking when we permit
ourselves — en masse as a nation,
or solo as an individual — to per
petrate suffering?
I submit that in “thinking” lies
the answer to this question: How
many of us have ever really
stopped and watched our “own”
thought process? Even doing this
for a few moments, the watcher
may discover that thoughts are
“thinking themselves” — that
thoughts arise and leave constant
ly, and none of it is “me.” To then
believe — much less commit war
and murder on the basis of —
those thought forms, those little
voices inside our heads, is a gen
uinely psychotic act.
Yet it happens all the time, giv
en holy sanction in fact by mul
lahs, priests and rabbis (not to
mention presidents and prime
ministers) who all believe their
“own” internal voices. The reme
dy isn’t just to “think good
thoughts,” as the bumper sticker
advises; it is to question the rela
tive usefulness and lovingness of
one’s thoughts, before acting on
them. A truly compassionate and
peace-loving culture will teach its
members to still themselves,
check the unreality of thoughts
and beliefs, and then act with
awareness.
Vip Short
Eugene