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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (July 1, 1976)
A ttn -4 r n , I'n v ^ n p o r t P o r tla n d , S td to U n lv o r ilty L l lr a r y H O . Box 1151 P o r ti end, urepon Ô72Q7 PO R TLA N D OBSERVER VeL 5, No. 33 Thursday, July 1, 1»78 18s per espy Garden equipment his trade Marvin Johnson b a sabsman of bwn and garden equipment - tractor», bwn mower», roto tilbrs at Montgomery Ward'» Jantaen Beach stare. He b the only Black bw n and garden equipment salesman in Portland - and maybe the only one in the Northweat. Johnaon waa lucky in that he happened to apply at Mongomery Ward at the right time. He had several option», but ehoee the bw n and garden aection. He haa had aeveral opportunities to move to what are considered the better department» but aaya he prefer» what he b doing, Johnaon haa gained a reputation among hb fellow employee» and customers one of courtesy and competence. Johnaon waa born in Detroit, »tending elementary achool there. He graduated fror* Grant High School in Portbnd and attended the University of Oregon. At Oregon, Johnaon participated in the art of fencing. Competing with athlete» from Britbh Columbb. Waahington and Oregon he won the Amateur Fencing Championship "Baptism of Steel”. Hu coach predicted that he would be in the 1978 Olympic», but he b no longer active in the »port. He pbya basketball in the City League, averaging 20 point» a game. Johnaon b a 24 year old bachelor but b engaged to Beverly Hodgea. He haa opea of one day completing hb degree in Business Adminbtration and establishing a buaineaa of hb own. Gomez chosen New Aaabtant Adminbtrator reapona ibie for the Public Aaabtance and Food Programs for the Public Welfare Divbion b Gary J. Gomel, currently Branch Man ager of Public Welfare'» Albina Office. Gomel will succeed Keith PuUum who waa recently appointed by Governor Bob Straub to bead the State Health D ivbb > The Aaabtance Section Program Man ager b directly reaponaible for 171 em ployeea and the operation of Public Wel fare» Medical. Aaabtance. Food Su m p and Inveatigation Units.. Gomex haa Masters and Bachelor» De gree» in Buaineaa Adminbtration from the Univeraity of Northern Colorado and Southern Oregon College. Prior to joining Public - -Welfare Divbion in 1974, he was employed by the Portbnd Art Assocb tion, an AaabUnt Director ot the Oregon Problem Drinker» Project, Education Coordinator for the Portbnd Metropoli Un Steering Committee, and an Aaabt ant Professor at Portbnd S U U Univers ity. “My year» with the Albina Branch have been exciting". Gome« told the Observer "Working with Mra. Haxel Haya in devel oping model» for the delivery of Human Resource Department program» haa beer, extremely rewarding. Leo Hegatrom, the AaabUnt Adminaitrator for the Welfare Divbion, and John Burch. Region Ad minbtrator. have said that they have ex cellent candidates for my repbeem ent MARVIN r el Mate 1er Agriculture 1er the I bode with Earl EUs of Crewe f • visit te Sudanese leaders visitOregon President Gaafar Nimeiri of the Sudan and hb officbl party viaited Oregon bat week during a two-week tour of the Unit ed States. The Preaident and hb Minuter» came to U .8 . to encourage technical aaabtance for hb country. Expbining that the Sudan haa pledged iU vaat agricultural potential for the feeding of the world'» hungry, he told a World Affaira Council meeting, “now we need the advanced nation» of the world to come with their know-how. The gap between rich and poc. provide» bitUr »oil for hostility. There can be no aecurity. Thb b why we believe partnership in development b in our joint internet." Although the Sudan nationalized buai neaa and confbticated foreign inveat- menU in 1989 and 1970. Preaident Nim eire expbnined that a new bw waa paaaed in 1974. the Development and Encouragement of Induatrbl Investment Act, which encourage and protecU tor- elgn investment providing the invest ment enhance» production and employ ment benefiebl to the Sudan. In the pursuit of peace, “The 8udan haa a apecbl role. It haa always been aeen as a geographical, racbl, religious and cul tural bridge»- between the Middle East and Africa.“ The Democratic Republic of Sudan b located in Northeast Africa, just south of Egypt- The desert region covers about a third of the country. In the North. In the central area, the steppe region (pbina) are covered with grass and bruah. The Savannah region, to the South, b thicker brush, with thick, green grass. In the South are tropical forests. The Nite River basin covers over one million square mites. The country'» millions of acres of fertile soil are largely undeveloped. It b in thb region that development b anticipated. Government policy b to precede with the projects that will benefit the most people. Government spokesmen forsee the Sudav providing up to 40 per cent of world i food needs, with as much as 200 million acres cultivated. One of the president's major accomp- lbhmenta has been and end to the 17 year civil war between the North and the South. The northern portion of the coun try- with a deeert economy-b Arab in race and culture. The southern portion b Chrbtbn and tribal in culture and Black in race. Arabic b spoken, throughout the nation, but education is provided in Ara bic or in Englbh. One of the major con cerns of the Nimeire government b the healing of wounds of war and the in tegration of the southern region more fully into the political and economic life of the nation. Preaident Nimeiri explained that the civil war was ended by getting the lead ers of the factions together and discuss ing their differences informally until an (Please turn to page 6 col. 4) South African rebellion threatens U.S. policy By Steve Talbet -A ' ; ' ' £ 'A • V r I with th e . S ta te . G ilc h rist Is ae w living in r o r k b a p e rtth n e 1er Pacific P ow er Gilchrist on rood to success Just a year and a half ago, Roland iilchrbt was pbying againat a sucked leek with no way to win. Now he's hold ng a hand with three aces: aaabtance in ttending college, a perttime job and the oten tb l for employment with a major itility after graduation. In early 1975, Gilchrbt was living in ’ennsylvanb, a college dropout trying to ind a job. Today with the help of Pacific ’ower and Light Company he'a at the ippoaite aide of the United States, b back n school and heading for a degree. Gilchrist. 23. b one of the first stu d en t o be assbted by P P 4L in an effort aimed it encouraging minorities to enter the ingineering field. The utility pay» a por Ion of hb tuition and books expense at ’ortland State Univeraity through a jrant given the college. PSU b reapona ble tor making the final »election of the itudent who receives the aaabtance. In addition, Gilchrbt work» at PPAL jarttime during school and full time in lummera in the company'» generation sngineering department. But Gilchrbt nasn't always had things going hb way. born in Philadelphia, he, along with a brother and abler, waa deserted by hb parents at the age of three. The youngsters were kept togeth er, living in a foster home for the next fourteen years. At 17. Gilchrbt was on hb own. Com pletely. “That's when the welfare stopped pay ing for foster home care,” he explained. “There was no financbl help avaibble to me from anywhere." Gilchrbt wanted more than what he had known in West Philadelphia and, looking for a future, he enrolled at Pen- naylvanb State in the engineering pro gram. It was more than a 17-yer old could handle alone. He received loans and tried to support himself with parttime jobs. Eventually, after two years, he dropped out of school, still faring repayment ot the loans. After several short-lived construction (Please turn to page 2 col. 4) (PNS) - The “Soweto rebellion"- the most violent racbl uprbing in modern South African hbtory-cast a bbek shad ow over the talks in Bavarb between U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger and South African Prime Minister John Vorater. The uprbing has overturned a key assumption in the longterm political strategy of both offlcbb: the belief that a rapid settlement of racbl conflicts in Rhodeab and Namibb would buy time for South Africa to adjust to its own internal racbl policies. Now it is dear that South Africa's 18 million Blacks are not content to wait. On hb recent tour of Africa. Kissinger explicity called for Bbck majority rule in Rhodeab and Namibb, white he merely cautioned South Africa's white-minority regime “to heed the warning signals ot the past two years“ and initbte “a peace ful end to institutionalized Inequality.” But the deep-rooted causes and spon taneous, militant nature of the rebellion - spreading like wildfire to 20 Black town ships reveal what may be a fatal flaw in the secretary's carefully bid pbns to bring moderate, pro-Western Bbck rule to southern Africa. The Southern African Key As outlined in hb Lusaka speech and subsequent congressional testimony. Mr. Kissinger's strategy was to enlbt South African aid in pressuring Rhodeab'» ob stinate Prime Minbter Ian Smith to ne gotiate with Bbck moderates and there by attempt to avert a major guerrilb war that could engulf the entire region. Because South Africa seemed to nave firm control over its Black majority popu- btion. U.S. policymakers reasoned that Vorster could exert heavy pressure on neighboring Rhodeab. But Vorster's clout was itself dealt a heavy blow by the 8oweto revolt, which effectively shattered the illusion of sta bility and racbl calm in South Africa. Beset by its own Balcks - as well as growing split in the white ranks South Africa may now find it hard to convince Ian Smith that he should negotbte rather than fight. For Smith has just seen once more that hb South Africa counterparts - when they feel threatened - respond with massive, violent repressions. Kissinger himself acknowledged that the uprbing - in which at least 175 were killed - "underlined the urgency of the situation.” For Kissinger's plans pivot around a stable South Africa committed to reform that could aid in undercutting marxbt Black liberation movements in Namibb, Rhodesb and South Africa itself. It could thus help pave the way for a pro-Western Bbek moderate solution that will protect the extensive U.S. investment in the reg ion. Like South Africa gold mining magnate Harry Oppenheimer (a liberal by his country's standards), Kissinger hopes to see a stable, economically integrated and developed southern Africa - firmly en trenched In the Western camp. It was this goal Kissinger outlined to Congress and the press before he met with Vorster. “I’m not meeting with Vor star to make concessions or to lend ap proval of the system of government," he said. "Tm meeting to see if South Africa b willing to contribute to a moderate and peaceful evolution of events in southern Africa." Kissinger took great pains to expbin that he was not endorsing apartheid - in fact he pledged to tell Vorster apartheid should be abandoned. He was merely trying to line up a pivotal country behind U.S. interests and strategy in southern Africa, Kissinger said. Following the talks, both Kissinger and Vorster were guarded; next to nothing was said about apartheid in public. But Kissinger expressed cautious optimism that Vorster had seen things hb way and that “the process is in motion" to avoid “a threatening conflict" in southern Africa. But ironically, even as the talks pro gressed, the "threatening conflict" con tinued to spill into violence in South Africa itself - the very center of the moderate reform strategy. “We did not expect anything like this.” Justice and Police Minister James Kru ger told parlbment in Cape Town as 10,000 Black high school students battled heavily armed riot police in the Soweto ghetto outside Johannesburg. There was a new militancy and political consciousness among the students who took part. Young Blacks taunted police, chanted “Black Power" and sang the na tionalist anthem, “God Bless Africa." They burned ears, buses, government buildings, white-run churches, police sta tions. beer halls and schoob where the government was trying to force them to learn math and social studies in the de spbed Afrikaans language - a symbol of white oppression. In Soweto alone, they destroyed 134.5 million worth of white- owned property, according to a prelimi nary estimate by South African insurance companies. "This is a rebellion against apartheid,“ declared Winnie Mandeb, the wife of the (•il*ui (••r lo r n f t h e A fr ic a n National Con gress. one of South Africa's two banned liberation movements. None of thb bodes well for the Vorster regime. And neither does the support for the Bbck uprbing evidenced by hun- reds of white university students whose protest marches in downtown Johannes burg were broken up by motorcycle gangs and club-wielding police. The erb b revealed growing dissatisfaction among South Africa's four million whites - with many liberab, minuter» and opposition papers blasting the Vorster regime in unusually strong language. One English-bnguage-paper, the Sms- day Tribune, mocked the government's cbim that the rebellion was the work of a small number of agitators. "There are agitators at work, of course.” the paper said, “ the agitators are poverty, frus tration and the cruel b w s of apartheid." Those laws - packing the Black 70 percent of the population onto 13 percent of the bnd, paying an average wage to Black workers that is below the officbl poverty line, spending $41 a year on the average Bbck student compared to $700 for the white, issuing pass books to con trol the movement of every Bbck and stripping Blacks of any political power - indicate there will be more Sowetoa. If the Soweto rebellion is a sign of what's to come, then the U.S. may soon be forced to choose between the white- minority regime and an impatient Bbck population that refuses to be held down any longer. (Steve Talbot is an African affairs analyst on the steff of Internews, a Berkeley based international affairs news service which provides daily radio reports and publishes the biweekly Intsrustbual Bulletin.
