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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 28, 1978)
Page 2 Portland Observer Thursday. September 28. 1978 Africa news carries bias We see the world by N. hungut Kumhulu through Black eyes The quantity of news coming out o f A fric a , p a rtic u la rly southern Africa has jumped considerably over the past few months. A lot o f the newspapers, magazines and other publicatio ns now carry regular features devoted to African affairs. But. while the quantity o f news has improved, the quality in most cases still leaves a lot to be desired. Considering the severity o f the censorship in both South African and Rhodesia, maybe this should not be too surprising. After all. both coun tries are far away enough but also added to tha; is the problem o f un- familiarity. Even with all the news flow ing out o f the area, a lot o f journalists are still very much in the dark once they arrive in southern Africa. And, because they usually have deadlines to meet, most end up getting all their news from govern ment sources. Thus the news is always presented in a way that makes the government(s) look good and responsible and portrays the African freedom fighters as bloodthirsty, an ti-white, communist led savages. Protesters deserve respect Suggestions have been advanced that the per The proponents of nuclear power cla»m it is sons who protested the proliferation of nuclear safe. But the makers of destruction always power plants by ''occupying'' the Trojan plant defend their products. The residents along Love should be forced to pay for the increased cost of Canal, who now find themselves in danger of police power by paying large fines. Since Trojan death and deformity, must wish someone had is located in a small county, police and court protested the dumping of chemicals in their costs have taxed the local county budget. backyards. And those now dying of lung disease The locals thought Trojan was a good idea caused by asbestos must wish someone had seen when it was proposed — bring jobs and tax funds the danger and had been brave enough to to their area, much as some of the people in protest. Eastern Oregon have fought for the proposed How long did the tobacco growers maintain Pebble Springs plant, the Boardman arsenal and that cigarettes have no hazzard to health? And nuclear waste storage grounds. They tend to what about DDT, thalidomide and all of the other favor immediate gains in spite of long range products that have been used for years with dangers. Then, when problems do arise, the tax devastating effects? burden falls on the few residents and property owners who get left with the bill. So don't be too quick to laugh at those who So now the public calls for bigger fines and protest nuclear power or spraying the forests larger jail sentences for those who protest. And is with pesticides. In future years, when the profits the case of all who dare to oppose the establish have been made or when the negative effects are ment, they are heaped with ridicule. too blatant to ignore any longer, the people will Both Rhodesia and South Africa The same abuse was given Martin Luther King wonder why they were not banned long ago. Then have notorious “ guided tours” for and the civil rights activists, Cesar Chavez and maybe we will remember with respect a few journalists, so the journalists can the farmworker's union, the anti-war protesters. people who sat in rain and then went to jail. only see what the government wants ''foutl Uouo Startling statistics from The Atlanta Inquirer NEW YORK (UMC) — Ten million children in the U.S. have never received any medical care, half the nation's children have never seen a den tist, and one million children were physically abused by their parents in 1975. These statistics and others showing serious problems among children were cited by President Carter in appointing the U.S. Commission on the U.N. International Year of the Child (IYC). Even more impressive to a small group of United Methodist Women, who gathered in New York in August to make plans for the 1979 obser vance, was the information that 16 percent of all America's children are growing up in poverty, below the government's "understated poverty line." In 1976 that figure stood at $5,500 for a family of four in a non-farm environment. "T h a t's a bare m in im u m ," said Franna Diamond, program specialist for the Children's Defense Fund of Washington, D.C. "Children are the poorest age group in our population; they constitute an even larger group than the elderly poor," she said. The Women's Division Task Force will propose several IYC goals to the division's October annual meeting. These include: seeking to rediscover the theological basis for justice fo r children; highlighting the U.N. Declaration of the Rights of the Child; learning about the children of other culture; and working for justice for children through legal and legislative structures. The Human Rights Seminar scheduled for February 22-23 in New York City will give special emphasis to the rights of children in an effort to increase United Methodist women's awareness of them. Since the main thrust of the year is to generate far-reaching and sustained national activities on behalf of children, the seminar will concentrate primarily on problems plaguing U.S. children. But because the year is an international obser vance, the task force said the activities of multinational corporations in developing coun tries and their impact on children should also figure in the discussions. Possible topics for "struggle groups" at the seminar include: parent/family situations, health and nutrition, children in crisis, child welfare, children and the media, education and child care. Eileen Moon, who covers UNICEF for the Women's Division, urged that IYC not be a "one- year e ffo r t" but tha t "a fte rw a rd you keep children in your thinking. In closing Ms. Diamond warned: "The temp tation will be to debate the issues rather than doing something about them. We know what children need. We don't need a study on hungry children. We need to do something about feeding them ." We'd like to simply say "A m en" to that last statement. 1st Place Community Service ONPA 1873 PORTLAND OBSERVER 1st Place Best Ad Results ONPA 1873 Published every Thursday by Exie Publishing Companv, 2201 North Killmgsworth, Portland, Oregon 97217 Mailing address: P .O . Box 3137, Portland. Oregon 97208 Telephone 283-2486 5th Place Bast Editorial NNPA 1873 Subscriptions: $7.50 per year in the Tri-County area. $8.00 per year outside Portland. Honorabia Mention Herrick Editorial Award NNA 1873 Second Class Postage Paid at Portland. Oregon ALFRED L HENDERSON Editor/Publisher The Portland Observer ’i official position is expressed only in its Publisher s column (W e See The W orld Through Black Eyes) Any other material throughout the paper is the opinion of the individual 2nd Place Best Editorial 3rd Place Community Leadership ONPA 1876 writer or submitter and does not necessarily reflect the opinion o f the Portland Observer. National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers. Inc New York Oregon Newspaper Publishers Association $7.50 1 9 •« T r i- C o u n t y A r e a 3rd Place Community Laadership ONPA 1878 J jttM to tht Zd/f/A Defends school adm inistration To the Editor: In Herb Cawthorne’s most recent myopic pre-release o f a portion o f the C o m m u n ity C o a litio n fo r School In te g ra tio n fin a l report (Oregonian, September 26, 1978), he employs the use o f literary theatrics laced w ith em otionalism , all ap parently calculated to enrage rather than inform the public about Port la n d ’ s school desegregation program. His comments implying that Port land Teachers have received little or no training in the management o f a desegregated classroom or teaching Black children, that schools teach no Black history whatsoever, and that children are callously scattered in schools are a ll examples o f his monumental ability to manipulate, distort and when necessary, ignore existing data which fails to hone his axe. M r. Caw thorne’ s comments on teacher training are o f particular concern to me because this is my current fie ld o f a c tiv ity . School D is tric t 81 records, w hich were available to M r. Cawthorne, reveal that P ortland has provided a multitude o f teacher training in race relations, m ulti-cultural education, and teacher effectiveness. The follow ing list o f past and current Portland Public Schools offerings, while not complete, provides some Another interesting aspect is that all the missionaries killed had been supporters ol the guerillas. One ol the first victim s, Bishop Adolph Schmitt was a personal Iriend o f Joshua N kom o, one ol the two guerillas chiefs. The Pentecostals, the latest victim s, had been cooperating with the guerillas in their areas. On the other hand, the missionaries o f churches that have been supporting the regime such as the Dutch Reformed Church and the Anglican Church have never even been touched. Something smells very fishy. Both N kom o and Robert Mugabe, the other guerilla chief, have stated that the regime, realizing that it is losing the war, has sud den! larted to sacrifice missionaries in .i cl fort to discredit the guerillas and win world sympathy. Rhodesia also has powerful sup porters in the U.S. which help make its voice heard. The Rhodesia Inlor- mation Office in Washington D.C. continues to diseminate propaganda to sympathetic Americans especially po liticia n s and jo u rn a lis ts . The media outlets o f the New Right are busy mobilizing support for the in ternal ‘ settlement’ , Robin Moore heads an unofficial U.S. “ embassy” in Salisbury. Robert Cleaves, a Los Angeles “ lawyer” writes and speaks extensively trying to sell the internal ‘agreement.’ Industry is represented by E .F . Andrews o f Allegheny Ludlum (the c o u n try ’ s largest specialty steel company and one that has used Rhodesian chrome) who has been lobbying for years fo r a re sumption of trade with Rhodesia. V irtu a lly a il the news from Southern Africa that you read about in this country comes either from AP or UPI, both o f which have bureaus in Salisbury but none in the Front line states where the Patriotic Front guerillas are based. Propaganda can be a powerful weapon and Smith and Company are going fo r broke in their efforts to gorge you. * idea o f what in fact has been provided fo r teachers and other staff: Black Culture and Awareness Sem inar; In te rg ro u p Problem Solving: Intergroup and C u ltu ra l Awareness Workshop for Classroom Teachers in Support o f the A d ministrative Transfer Program; U r ban School Management; Human Awareness Workshop; Summer U r ban School Management Workshop for Administrators; lntergroup and C u ltu ra l Awareness W orkshop; Team B uilding fo r M u lti-c u ltu ra l E ducation ; System atic Self- Observation; Summer institute for ln te rg ro u p E d ucation ; Values C la rifica tio n ; Fallm ark; A M u lti c u ltu ra l E ducation T ra in in g W o rk s h o p ; M u lti- c u ltu r a l Curriculum Development; and many more. I f Mr. Cawthorne can set himself up as investigator, judge and jury o f P ortland’ s desegregation program and exclude relevant data, such as provided above, who then, can stop him from totally polluting the stream o f understanding? C lifford Campbell Jr. Portland, Oregon (Editor's Note: Mr. Campbell is Curriculum Specialist f o r the Port land P u b lic Schools T itle V II (desegregation) program.) Doesn’t like cover photo To the Editor: The Portland Observer welcomed NAACP delegates with an excellent June 29th special edition. It was well- written, in good taste, and valuable to the delegates. Consider another Portland-based p u b lic a tio n , the Oregon Times, which had the monumentally bad taste to welcome the N A A C P delegates with a July cover featuring a KKKIanner holding a noose before a sign reading, "Welcome to Oregon — Have a Nice V isit but Please Don’t Stay.” When the New York Daily News reported that the delegates were of fended by the cover, Oregon Times editors apologized in the September issue, saying, “ the cover was meant to convey Oregon’ s historical at titude toward Blacks.” D o n ’ t spend too much time searching historical sources because you w ill not find this “ historical at titu d e ” conveyed. A t no time in history did Oregon ever say "Welcome to Blacks,” for a visit or otherwise. So, then, Oregon Times editors — just what was the cover meant to convey? Dean Synder Aaaociafwn - FsunSW 1M8 $8.00 O th e r PORTLAND OBSERVER C ity _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ Taking a closer look at a concrete example: did you notice how every time a number o f whites are killed, you hear the story for weeks on end? Did you know though, that thirty Blacks are getting killed every week? When those twelve missionaries were k ille d , the governm ent flew in foreign journalists and allowed them to write stories and photograph all the gory details and made no attempt dem anded fo o d . M r. N y a d iriri refused them food and the murderers gunned him dow n w ith Soviet automatic weapons.’ ” M W A ren N a m e ------------------------_________ ----- A d d re s s them to see. And even after they gather the news, it has to pass through a Board o f Censors and anything that portrays the govern ment in an unfavorab le lig h t is scratched. In Rhodesia at the moment, no journalist can go into the operational areas. A ll the news about the war comes from govern- Selous Scouts. They were more time it comes out, it (the news) has been fully doctored. to censor anything. Just (wo weeks before. Smith’ s security forces had massacred 22 Black civilians. Did he fly in journalists to take all the pic lures and write all the stories like he did w ith the k illin g o f the missionaries? Hell, no! At (hat time, even the protestations o f his colleagues in the Executive Council, Biship M uzorewa and Reverend Sitholc, were censored. Also, only a day before, Rhodesian troops had raided a refugee camp in Mozam bique and killed seventeen refugees and two United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization volunteers Irom Belgium but, that news too, never saw the light of day. The Rhodesian arm y has a notorious band o f operatives known as the Selous Scouts that have been responsible fo r some o f the worst atrocities o f the war. David Martin, w ritin g in 77it' London Observer (3/I3/77) says that all but one o f the people (missionaries) that he spoke to stressed that their A fric a n congregations were convinced that the killings were the work o f the Selous Scouts. They were more afraid o f the Scouts, whom they regarded as the real terrorists, than o f the guerillas. The former Bishop o f Umtali (since deported) the Rt. Reverend Donal Lamont said . . . “ I had a visit from one o f my African clergy who reported that he was being terrorized by the European (white) members o f the security fo r ces. They said to him: ‘ You’d better watch out. One dead missionary is as good as 100 dead terrorists.’ ” W onderful M ukoyi, a captured Selous Scout, quoted in the July- December issue o f Zimbabwe News had this to say: “ A thirteen man sec tio n o f Selous Scouts posing as guerillas arrived at Nyadiriri kraal. The com m ander. L y tto n , in terrogated M r. Nyadiriri and, after torturing him for two hours without getting any useful inform ation, or dered his men to shoot the innocent man. Three days later, the Rhodesia Broadcasting C o rp o ra tio n (radio and TV) filed this report: ’Terrorists arrived at N y a d iriri kraal and ____ P.O. Box 3137 Portland. OR. 97208 Life, Health, Group Insurance, Annuities. Pension Plans PEGGY JOSEPH Field Underwriter 283-5012 The New York Life agent in your community is a good person to know. Interested In current books ebout African Liberetion? Visit: JOHN REED BOOK STORE in the Dekum Building 519 S W 3rd Avenue Sixth Floor Or cell: 227 2902
