Newsroom: (541) 346-5511
Suite 300, Erb Memorial Union
P.O. Box 3159, Eugene, OR 97403
E-mail: editor@dailyemerald.com
Online: www.dailyemerald.com
Thursday, August 5,2004
Oregon Daily Emerald
COMMENTARY
Editor in Chief:
Jared Paben
Managing Editor:
Travis Willse
■yr Hey, Chip,
' did you ever hear ^
what the city of Eugene
is doing with the millions
, of extra dollars .
K it found? >/
Not really, Billy,
but I hear
it’s for the birds
Aaron Sullivan Illustrator
A call to
prevention
On the night of April 6, 1994, the day
Rwandan President Juvenal Habyari
mana died when unfriendly fire shot his
plane down, Hutu fighters began one of
history's most efficient genocides. (Most
other superlatives fail to distinguish it ac
curately from other instances of humani
ty's dirtiest crime.)
Raiding towns across the small, land
locked nation of Rwanda — a country
just smaller than Maryland — extremist
Hutu militiamen killed some 800,000
ethnic Tutsis and moderate Hutus, com
mitting in 100 days the last genocide of
its size in the 20th century and what is by
one count the 12th-most lethal genocide
of recent history.
The memory of hundreds of thousands
of Rwandan victims is name-dropped
most often now as an example of immea
surably regrettable international neglect,
and of foreign ignorance of gross human
tiagedy. (See Carl Sundberg's April 8 col
umn, "Media's reaction to Rwanda
showed distorted priorities," at www.dai
lyemerald.com for a superb discussion of
what its headline suggests.)
The present is, also regrettably, the time
for such a comparison and thus probably
one for action, too. In the Darfur region
of western Sudan, some 30,000 black
African Muslims have been killed, and
another 1 million have scattered to more
than 100 refugee camps dotting the re
gion. Arab fighters called janjaweed (col
loquially, "men on horses with guns," in
Arabic) rape women, abduct children
TRAVIS W1LLSE
RIVALLESS WIT
and dump carcasses in wells. (The last
crime is especially heinous in a nation
that already suffers from inadequate sup
plies of potable water.) Livestock are
slaughtered, and villages lay plundered or
even burned, but the woes of a million
people have stirred less sympathy than
they should.
(To put this atrocity in context, I offer
a brief primer on the conflict's recent his
tory: Two Darfurian groups, the Sudan
Liberation Army/Movement and the Jus
tice and Equality Movement, are connect
ed to attacks on government property,
and seek compensation for what they see
as ethnically motivated long-standing so
cial and political marginalization. In re
action, government forces and allied jan
jaweed have implemented a "scorched
earth" campaign, driving black African
Muslims from their hometowns. This
conflict is essentially separate from the
embattled nation's 21-year-old civil war
between the Muslim government and
Christian and animist rebels.)
Fortunately, the world community has
paid at least some attention to the
situation: On July 3, the United Nations
reached an agreement with Sudan that in
cluded disarming the janjaweed (whom
the government still insists it does not
support), under the implicit threat of
sanctions imposed by the U.N. Security
Council. Some 200 French troops sta
tioned in neighboring Chad will move
into the embattled region with a plane
load of U.N. aid, and the Sudanese gov
ernment insists that improvements are
being made (more recently, the United
Nations instituted an earlier deadline).
But a million people are still homeless,
and the hatred motivating genocide is
not likely easily quelled by an accord
made half a world away.
In their recent trip report from Darfur,
Sen. Sam Brownback, R-Kan., and Rep.
Frank Wolf, R-Va., painted a bleak picture
of a massive humanitarian crisis, invok
ing comparisons to the decade-old Rwan
dan massacre. Indeed, citing the United
Nations Convention on the Prevention
and Punishment of the Crime of Geno
cide, the congressmen suggested that the
Sudanese circumstances "may very well
meet this test."
But if congressmen say a situation
looks like genocide, shouldn't that draw
more attention? If the United Nations
Sudan agreement fails to curb much of
the ethnic infighting (as it almost cer
tainly will), what then? The world
should stand more alert this time to pre
vent another Rwanda.
travisivillse@dailyemerald.com
LETTER TO THE EDITOR
Commentary misses
interest-rate fact
It is valuable to inform students of fi
nancial issues, especially ones that involve
the cost of education. While I am not per
sonally familiar with the
legislation that was referred to in the com
mentary "Interesting rates" (ODE, July 6),
I noticed a factual error. It was stated in
the article that the bill proposed increas
ing the interest rate cap from 6.8 percent
to 8.25 percent. I have been in college for
four years and have taken out subsidized
student loans through the University and
the rate cap has always been 8.25 percent.
This difference means that the effects on
students will be less drastic than those
stated in the commentary.
Mela Daemion
senior
journalism
LETTERS TO THE EDITOR
Kerry's plans envision an educated citizenry
My niece recently entered college. After helping her enroll, I
was shocked to see a bill for $459.00 for six credit hours. Full
time costs will be over $1,000.00 per term at Lane Commu
nity College. The amount of a student loan will be more than
she earns in a year.
With the loss of jobs to outsourcing, our children are going
to need affordable, quality education. When Thomas Fried
man explored outsourcing to India, he found one reason for
India's success was its commitment to educating its citizens.
To compete, America also must make education a priority.
I have been disappointed in our country's current lack of fo
cus on education, so I looked at John Kerry's Web site. There I
found thoughtful policies including a strong commitment to
education such as: the College Opportunity Tax Credit, the Ser
vice for College Plan, and workable plan to stop rising tuition
fees. Our children are going to have to be globally competitive.
John Kerry's commitment to education gives us an excellent op
portunity to make college universally available. I urge parents
and college students to review these plans and help to make
them a part of our commitment to our nation's young people.
My niece wants to become a nurse, but today's reality is
that she may not be able to afford the education necessary
to reach those goals.
Kathy Thomas
Leaburg, OR
Consumers should effect changes
in automobile industry
How is grousing about gas prices every few years with each
new run-up in gasoline prices working for you?
When was the last time you, your class, group, or organi
zation asked auto makers to make cleaner-air vehicles?
When was the last time you asked others to ask auto makers
to make more efficient and cleaner-air vehicles? When was
the last time you supported auto-alternative transportation
modes for others, if not for yourself?
Tell auto makers (as often as it takes) that you'd like them to
phase in existing fuel efficiency technologies that would as
much or more than double the gas mileage of most cars, light
trucks, and SUVs, and would save consumers in reduced fuel
costs as much or more then three times what these technolo
gies would cost to install in new vehicles: (1) continuously
variable valve engines, (2) integrated starter-generators, and
(3) continuously variable automatic transmissions.
You don't have to wait fifteen to twenty years or longer (if
ever) for hydrogen fuel technologies to be developed and de
ployed to keep fuel costs low, these other technologies exist
right now. All you have to do is convince the auto industry to
take them down from off the shelf and put them in new vehi
cles for a more efficient motoring and cleaner-air future.
And, consider practicing one or more of the dozen or
more random and planned acts of car-lessness for cheaper
gas and cleaner air.
Rand Knox
San Rafael, Calif.
Testing, grades Irrelevant' in education process
Jeremy Scheid’s letter (ODE, July 20) is a perfect example of
what we can expect when business majors are consulted in ed
ucation matters: a letter replete with references to efficiency,
monitoring and control with no mention of actual learning
except when it comes to students learning how to "respect and
handle authority." Sadly, the extent to which the educational
system has been almost completely co-opted by the American
business model means that little critique of Scheid's rationale
is likely to be found even within the field of education.
Decades of research have shown that testing and grades are
entirely irrelevant to the educative process. They are neither nec
essary for one to learn a given subject nor do they measure real
world competencies. Scheid is worried about students who use
deception to artificially inflate their grades but ignores the fact
that tests and grades are their own form of artifice and deceit, al
beit ones that have the approval of the status quo, like the "boss
man" Scheid refers to. Schools should be places where students
follow a course of study because it allows them to achieve their
intellectual and/or utilitarian goals. To the degree that tests are
used at all they should be voluntary. I have researched such
schools worldwide and their students do just fine in school and
later in their chosen professions. Not only should our regimes
of testing and grading be changed, they should be entirely
dropped in favor of real learning based on intrinsic motivation.
Jason Maas-DeSpain
graduate student
education
Oregon Daily Emerald p.o. box 3159. Euoene or 97403_
The Oregon Daily Emerald is published daily Monday through Friday and
Tuesday and Thursday during the summer by the Oregon Daily Emerald
Publishing Co. Inc., at the University of Oregon, Eugene, Oregon. The
Emerald operates independently of the University with offices in Suite 300
of the Erb Memorial Union. The Emerald is private property. The unlawful
removal or use of papers is prosecutable by law.
-i—i—__>_J—i— -.A i ■—■ - >■ . ' ■ V ■ ' V i > v i v * v \
NEWSROOM — (541)346-5511 Editor in chief: Jared Paben Managing editor:
Travis Willse News reporters: Ben Brown, Omie Drawhorn Pulse editor: Ryan Ny
burg Sports editor: Alex Tam Columnists: J. Tobias Montry, Porscha Collette Carey
Illustrator: Aaron Sullivan Design editor: Kira Park Online and photo editor: Erik R.
Bishoff Copy chief: Tarah Campi BUSINESS — 346-5512 General manager:
Judy Riedl Business manager: Kathy Carbone Receptionist: Rebecca
Critchett Distribution: Eliyh Donaldson, John Long, Mallory Mahoney, Holly Mistell
ADVERTISING — DISPLAY 346-3712 CLASSIFIED 346-4343
Director: Melissa Gust Sales manager: Tyler Mack Sales representatives: Mathew
Betz, Heron Calisch-Dolen, Megan Hamlin, Domenique Lainez, Mia Leidelmeyer, Emily
Philbin, Stephen Weeks Classified ad manager: Trina Shanaman Classified advertising
associates: Liz Conant, Sabrina Gowette, Keri Spangler
PRODUCTION — 346-4381 Manager: Michele Ross Production coordinator: Tara
Sloan Designers: Jen Cramlet, Kristen Dicharry, Andy Holland