5
------------ Opinion
WedNEsdAy, FEbRUARy 15, 2002
Kidnapped reporter exposes dangers of job
Just ask Daniel Pearl. You see,
Pearl is a reporter for the Wall
Street Journal who was work
ing on a story in Pakistan about
terrorism. He
was last seen
on Jan. 23,
2002, after
" leaving the
home
in
Karachi
where he
Elena Bory ska and
his
Sports Editor pregnant
wife were
staying. He was on his way to
meet one of his contacts at a
restaurant and disappeared.
Four days after his meeting at
the restaurant was to have
taken place, the people respon
sible for Pearl’s disappearance
e-mailed photos of the reporter
to news organizations and gov
ernment officials, including one
showing a gun pointed at his
head. The last e-mail message
Telling it like it
Ir'4:"
figures for the budget, a group
of extremists breaks down your
door and proceeds to blindfold
you, while at the same time is
leading you out of the safety
of your office building and
into a secret hideout.
While this will most likely
never happen to people with
regular jobs, there are a few
jobs out there that are becom
ing increasingly dangerous.
received was on Jan. 30 and
threatened to kill Pearl in 24
hours. Pearl’s captors also
mentioned in one of the e-mails
that all American journalists
would become targets if they
didn’t leave the country within
three days. All of this drama
came about because Pearl was
doing his job; the group that
kidnapped him called itself the
National Movement for the
Restoration of Pakistani Sover
eignty and was convinced that
he was working for the CIA.
This incident has. brought
up some serious issues, the
first being the dangers of be
ing a journalist in a hostile en
vironment. I’m sure that if Pearl
was only on vacation in Paki
stan (why ever you would want
to go to Pakistan right now for
a vacation is beyond me) in
stead of tracking down a story,
he never would have encoun
tered a problem. But because
Retaking control of the government
Every year in the United regular policy.
States, voter turnout is lower
“People are dropping out of
than the previous year. Most democracy,” said Ralph Nader
people, it seems, see no point during his presidential cam
in voting.
paign. “That’s a very danger
The limited vote that we are ous trend. You have people
allowed does not make the saying, ‘I’m not turned on to
United
States a
d e m o c -
racy, and
the low
voter
turnout
suggests
that other
people are
feeling that as well. Politics (to politics.’ Well, history shows
the politicians) is a corporate- that if you’re not turned on to
sponsored party, and we’re politics, politics is going to
not invited.
turn on you.”
Even so, our vote has not
A lot of the problem is that
quite come to mean nothing. the consensus party (that is,
The problem is that when the Democrats and Republicans)
government lies to us or acts receives enormous amounts of
irresponsibly, we do not hold funding from multinational cor
it accountable by withdrawing porations to ensure that all
our support of it (through other voices are drowned out.
taxes and general acceptance Having a virtual monopoly on
of it). The government lies to media coverage, party members
us because we let it, and we see fit to avoid the real issues
have let it do so for so long that concern uS, like environ
that does so as a matter of its mental devastation, corporate
control of media, and the fail
ure of democracy in the United
States itself.
Thankfully, there is a grow
ing resistance to the shutting
out of the people from politics.
Just the other day I discovered
an organization that is working
to inform U.S. voters of what
the political candidates really
stand for. Found at http://
www.vote-smart.org/. Project
Vote Smart’s website is de
signed to make it easy for voters
to End out who their candidates
are,
and expose each
candidate’s record on voting,
campaign finance, statements
of position, backgrounds and
evaluations.
I think that registering to vote
and doing so (especially at the
local level) is important to get the
current government under our
control. In voting, it’s also im
portant to be knowledgeable
about candidates and issues.
That’s an area for which alterna
tive information sources are very
important, since the corporate-
controlled media is strongly bi
ased toward business-as-usual
consensus party candidates.
^Q ac I c AMAS ñ?¡NT
Everything you want in a newspaper
and more...
It’s free.
of his job of uncovering the
news, Pearl was targeted. As a
hopeful future journalist, this
frightens me. If the bad guys
of today are feeling threatened
by reporters and taking action
against them, what are the ones
of tomorrow going to do? Ac
cording to the Committee to
Protect Journalists, in 2001
there were between 37 and 55
newspeople fatalities. At least 25
of these victims were murdered.
Eight reporters have died in Af
ghanistan since Sept. 11, but not
all of them were victims of land
mines or flying shrapnel—four of
them were slain in an ambush and
another during a burglary.
One way to ensure that this
never happens again is to make
sure that reporters stay out of
dangerous situations such as
this. Of course, it is difficult to
judge how quickly a relatively
safe environment can turn hos
tile, just as it is difficult to keep
a reporter away from a really
hot story. And even if one re
porter isn’t willing to go,
chances are there is another
one out there who is. So maybe
the solution isn’t to keep re
porters out, but for the media
to stay away from the tough
stories. Who needs to know
about the important news of
the world anyway?
Okay, but seriously, there is
only one real solution to this
problem: make the people who
do this kind of thing stop. We
need to find out where they are
hiding out and let them know
that we won’t stand for this
type of thing. We need to get
the message across that kid
napping innocent people,
whether a reporter or not, is in
excusable. We need to make
sure that Daniel Pearl is the last
reporter to have to go through
this type of situation for doing
his job.
Letter to the Editor...
CCCPrint,
door!). Enforcement could
then come in the form of sim
Well, I’ll take this opportu ply directing a “dislocated
nity to say what is on my mind. smoker” to the nearest desig
nated area. The designated ar
You decide what it is worth.
I am sick of walking to class eas should have benches,
through clouds of smoke be would be the only areas
cause smokers congregate at equipped with ashtrays, and
doorways and other covered would perhaps even house a
areas. We have a policy re cigarette vending machine.
garding where one can smoke,
As a teacher at CCC, I want
but it’s not working. I don’t my smoking students to have a
think the answer is to enforce place to smoke. I certainly don’t
our current policy. I think the want them coming to class to
answer is to designate (or tallystressed-out because they
build) certain covered areas haven’t had a cigarette for quite
for smoking. These areas need some time. Otherwise, I’d get so
to be convenient (not too far stressed-out myself I’d have to
out of the way), but located so take up smoking!
that non-smokers could gen
Thank you for your time,
erally avoid or walk around
Adam Hall
these areas if they wished (i.e.
certainly not right in front of a
Mathematics Department
Do you want tó go head
to head with one of our
writers?
Bring it on!
Send your opinions to
^t@clackamas.c
ÿd.0î50Qjfwords or sto^dSBS.
104 with it saved o
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Imagine this: it’s a regular
day at the office. You come in»
sit down and begin to work on
the pile of paperwork that is
cluttering up the corner of your
desk. As you start to tackle the