Pag* 2 Portland Observer February 21.1980
Diplomas, Diplomacy and
Development
EDITORIAL/OPINION
By N. Fungai Kumbula
Curriculum for the future
The school district is preparing to develop
one, tw o or more middle schools and to design
a stronger upper grade program fo r Boise.
Am ong the programs prominently mentioned -
especially for a magnet middle school - is an
arts program designed to draw children who
would later move into the Jefferson magnet
program.
We were disappointed to see in the district's
Desegregation Plan the proposal that Boise,
along w ith its fu n d a m e n ta ls p ro g ra m be
p ro vid e d speech, dram a, jo u rn a lis m and
television/radio.
The arts are valid subjects of study ana
should be taught in every school, but how
many Black youngsters will make a career of
the arts? Its alm ost like encouraging vast
numbers of Black children to place their hopes
in professional sports, when only a few can
achieve that goal.
In designing a new m iddle school in the
Black com m unity, the School Board should
try to look into the future and determine w hat
types of career opportunities will be available
and to provide the type of education that will
prepare children for those careers.
The EPA says there w ill be over 300 new job
titles in environmental protection alone. Other
growing fields are computers, space and alter
nate energy.
The Board also should look at fields where
Blacks are underrepresented - medicine, law,
engineering, foreign service - and provide not
only the educational o ffe rin g s, b u t the e x
posure to professionals in those fields that
w o u ld inspire and enable students to seek
these careers.
One reason Blacks are underrepresented in
many professional fields and in professional
schools is because Black children are mis-
educated in the early years. It's d ifficu lt fo r a
student who has never had science to get into
medical school and it is hard for a student who
has never met an engineer to be directed into
engineering.
A ny middle school established in the Black
com m unity should not only provide the basics
- reading, w ritin g , a rith m e tic - b u t should
provide history and geography, French and
Spanish, science, creative w riting and speech
as w ell as the arts, industrial arts, physical
education and athletics.
Letters to the Editor
Let's make progress at home
To the editor:
It is clear that any progressive
future involving improvements in
the qu a lity o f everyday life in
Amerikan society immediately rests
upon substantial changes in the con
tent and direction o f US foreign
policy. It is difficult for many o f the
people o f this nation to face up to,
but the stubborn fact is that we
inherit a terrible legacy o f criminal-
like behavior toward other nations
of the world from the Truman A d
ministration down to the recently
disgraced Nixon-Agnew-Ford.
The suffering caused by this
foreign policy has been enormous,
as the government o f this country
poured billions of dollars into prop
ping up fascist-type dictatorships all
over the globe because these govern
ments promised to be “ friendly” to
US corporate investments. It is
p rim a rily this area o f regressive
foreign policy that earned D r.
King’s condemnation when he said,
“ The Amerikan government is the
greatest purveyor o f violence in the
world today.” In a very real sense
our large cities with their squalor,
mass unemployment, declining soc
ial services and deteriorating public
school systems are a m irror and a
symptom of what US foreign policy
has wrought in domestic conditions.
The riches o f the national treasury
have been poured into the military
while the people’s needs go begging.
Consequently, foreign policy is, in a
very fundamental sense, a major
domestic issue. .The spiritual and
economic waste, which every ad
m in istra tio n o f the past three
decades has sponsored by pursuing
a foreign policy o f national
chauvinism and arrogance, has
brought the nation to this point
wherein a whole generation o f
young people are saddled with a
way-of-life that offers less hope for
a progressive future than has been
faced by any generation o f
Amerikans in this century.
The foreign policy o f the past 30
years has been characterized by its
lack ol morality and its unconcern
lo r human rights. The economic
and military aid which the US has
repeatedly given to the most
repressive regimes in the world -
Chile, South Korea, Iran, H aiti,
Greece and South Afrika, to name a
few - has cost the Amerikan tax
payers billions o f dollars and is an
a ffront to civilized international
relations. The foreign policy,
whether measured by open warfare
against the Korean and Vietnamese
peoples or by such covert operations
as the C IA ’ s overthrow o f the
reform government o f Guatemala in
1954, is a measure of the distortion
o f national p rio ritie s which has
taken place in our country since the
end of the Second World War. To
fundamentally change the direction
o f US foreign policy will take more
than good intentions expressed in
words. The sincerity o f President
Carter’s expressed intentions to turn
US foreign policy toward a peace
and good neighbor course is left in
serious doubt when he agrees to fur
ther US aid to the police-state
regime in South Korea on the
grounds that our “ national
security is involved. This is just
nonsense. It is not national security
but US neo-colonialism which is
served by such falsehoods.
The situation in South A fric a
reducing the arms race, especially
nuclear weapons, are the focus o f
the international community at this
juncture in w orld h istory. The
struggle fo r jobs, a nationalized
system o f health care, and quality
education in our country w ill meet
with success in direct proportion to
the victories we gain in the struggle
to achieve a progressive change in
US foreign policy. The current $120
billion a year military budget hangs
like an albatross around the neck o f
our national effort to fu lfill these
domestic needs. The military budget
has become an in s titu tio n — a
product o f the Cold War - and so
has the far-reaching crisis it Is
generating in Amerikan society.
Our unfinished agenda o f human
rights here in A m erika is con
siderable. I t ’ s achievement is also
inseparable from efforts to secure a
toreign policy which respects the
human rights and the national in
dependence,
dem ocratic
and
socialist political gains o f working
people in other parts o f the world.
LUTHER
Dr. Jamil Cherovee
Field Dir. For CORE
By Brumsic Brandon.
Date: June 17, 1987.
government had embarked upon.
Place: U niversity o f Zim babwe,
Faced w ith a cash s h o rtfa ll,
Harare, Zimbabwe.
therefore, the idea, actually the
Occasion: Graduation ceremonies
brainchild o f Dr. Mungate and a
for the University o f Zimbabwe’ s
number o f his colleagues at the
medical class.
various campuses o f the University
As Dr. Fungai Mungate, Dean o f
o f Zimbabwe, had begun to make
the School o f Medicine got up to
more sense. Called the “ Pundits of
deliver the commencement address,
Regional Development,” this group
he was thinking o f the changes that
had proposed the consolidation of
had taken place in Southern Africa
all o f southern A fric a ’ s develop
over the past decade. The position
ment projects. The countries in
he held now would have been un
volved would be Zimbabwe, Zam
thinkable way back then, in the days
bia, M alaw i, M ozam biqui, Bot
o f “ bad old Ian Smith.” Back then,
swana, Lesotho, Swaziland, Ango
his MD and Ph.D. degrees from the
la and Namibia. South Africa, or
University o f Alberta, Canada, one
Azania as it w ill then be called,
o f the best medical schools in the
would be invited to join as soon as
world, would have been good only
the Africans took over.
to w ork in some remote, ill-
The m ajor selling point o f
equipped, overcrowded, rural Black
regional development as opposed to
hospital if he got a job at all.
each country going it alone was
“ Everything comes to those who th a t, by pooling resources, the
w ait,” the old folks used to say.
countries would be able to afford
“ Sure,” thought M ungate, “ we and carry out a lot more projects
would sure have rotted under the than they could individually. Educa
yoke o f colonialism i f we had
tion was the first area o f coopera
waited.” After the conclusion o f the tion proposed. Rather than try to
war o f liberation in 1980 and the expand the University o f Zimbabwe
election o f a popular government
to cover all the fields o f study pro
which had initially been hampered
posed in the curricula, they could,
by the so-called London agreement instead, make each co u n try's
restrictions, the development o f the university system an integral part o f
country and o f the region had
the entire re g io n ’ s educational
proceeded by leaps and bounds. A f system. The plan eventually agreed
ter almost ten years o f war, the
upon stipulated that the University
primary task o f the new revolution o f Zimbabwe would house all o f
ary government had been recon southern A frica ’ s medical, dental,
structed. The government had
p h a r m a c e u tic a l, b io lo g ic a l,
focused first on health, education
chemical, public health and other
and re-orientation o f the economy
health-related fields o f study.
to gear it more towards the needs o f
M ozam bique,
which
had
the people than had been the case developed a hig h ly successful
under previous successive colonial economic system, would house the
regimes.
School o f Econom ics, Business,
The task o f reconstruction had
Finance and Financial Planning.
proved to be quite formidable given
Angola, with its overabundance o f
the sorry state o f the country at the p o litic a l experts, n a tu ra lly was
time o f independence. Even the $2 assigned the Schools o f P o litica l
billion from the Western sponsored Science, Public A d m in is tra tio n ,
Zimbabwe Development Fund had Education, International Relations
not been quite enough to finance the and Journalism. Namibia took over
ambitious program the Zimbabwe
M in in g ,
M e ta llu rg y
and
MHRC hits City hiring results
(Continued from page 1 col. 6)
“ Skilled Crafts” or “ Service Main
tenance.”
The
departm ent’ s
minority percentage dropped from
6.5to6.3.
This department had 17 Black
men and 2 Black women in a staff o f
364, or 5.2 percent. Parks, the
largest bureau, had 17 Blacks out o f
330 employees.
Public U tilities
The Departm ent o f P ublic
U tilitie s is Com m issioner Frank
Ivancie’s department. The depart
ment’ s m inority employment per
centage was 6.4 percent, w ith all
m inorities in “ O ffic e /C le ric a l” ,
“ Skilled C ra fts” and "M a in te n -
ance/Service” . According to the
study, “ The department serves as an
¡lustration o f the concentration o f
m inorities
and
women
in
’traditional’ categories.”
The Departm ent o f P ublic
Utilities had 26 Black employees out
o f 575. The largest department is
water which had 23 Blacks in a total
of 422 employees.
Public W o rks
PORTLAND OBSERVER
1st Place
Community Service
ONPA 1973
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Best Editorial
3rd Place
Community Leadership
ONPA 1975
M (M *U
N£WA
Aasociahen . founded IB M
O re g o n
J
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1 C
% |- - V
.[I.tp e r
P u b lis h e rs
■ * * V I Association
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3rd Place
Community Leadership
ONPA 1978
staff are at less than parity. “ Public
Works, despite the larger number of
hires, was furtherest below parity in
hiring both minorities (3.8 percent)
and women (4.6 percent).”
Minorities make up 4.8 percent of
the employees.
Public Works had 36 Black men
and one Black woman out o f a total
o f 1,449 employees. Large depart
ments include streets with one Black
out o f 146 employees, Sanitary
Engineering w ith no Blacks on a
staff o f 93; maintenance with 14 our
o f 377, Fire with 17 out of 683; and
Wastewater Treatment with 4 out of
122. Blacks made up 2.6 percent of
the Department o f Public Works
staff.
The D epartm ent o f Public
Utilities and Public Works “ stand
out due to poor utilization as well as
having the lowest promotional per
centage for both protected groups,”
(m inorities, women) “ evidencing
the need for affirmative actions to
address lim ited progress towards
equal employment opportunity.”
M H R l made the fo llo w in g
recommendations:
1. That the A ffirm a tive Action
O ffice determine and analyze un
determ ined barriers to increase
u tiliz a tio n o f m inorities and
women, especially in departments
where under u tiliz a tio n exists;
analyze bureau’ s goals; report find
ings and make recommendations to
the Commissioners-In-Charge.
2. That the training component of
the Personnel Division work with
the A ffirm a tiv e A ction O ffice to
analyze the p a rtic ip a tio n o f
minorities and women in training
opportunities and develop plans to
further assist minorities and women
in competing for permanent em
ployment and promotional oppor
tunities.
3. That the EEO Regulatory
Committee be activated and assume
its mandated role to “ enforce both
the need tor, and the successful at
tainment o l, positive A ffirm a tiv e
Action goals and timetables, and to
serve as agent of the Council to en
sure implementation o f the A f f ir
mative Action Program.”
M H R C recommended that the
Mayor and each Commissioner ap
point staff members to sit on the
committee and that the Mayor see
that the committee is formed and
meets regularly.
4. That the City allocate necessary
s ta ff and resources to the A f f i r
mative Action Office.
Linda Roberts, Interim Director
of MHRC, told the Observer that
the Com m ission’ s em ploym ent
committee is meeting with the City
< ommissioners to explain the study
and discuss implementation o f the
recommendations.
We have found a positive a t
mosphere and im plementation o f
parts o f the Affirm ative Action or
dinance that have been neglected
seem closer.”
“ The EEO Regulatory Commit
tee has met only a few times - very
irregularly - in the past, and people
were not appointed to serve on a
continuing basis. This committee - if
it functioned properly - would give
the Commissioners an insight into
what is happening in the depart
ments on a regular basis. They
w o u ld n ’ t wait fo r a once-a-year
report that is two years late.”
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Honorable Mention
Herrick Editorial Award
NNA 1973
283 2486
ALFRED L. HENDERSON
Editor/Publisher
The Department ol Public Works
was headed by Mayor Connie Mc
Cready during the 1977-78 fiscal
year, the period o f the analysis.
"The Department of Public Works
exhibits poor u tiliza tio n o f both
women and m inorities in every
category w ith the exception o f
women in “ O ffic e /C le ric a l”
.positions and m inorities in “ Ser-
v ic e /M a in te n a n c e ,” evidencing
protective class concentration in
traditional areas.”
In all categories except "Protec
tive Services” (5.3 percent) and
“ Service/Maintenance” (8.0 per
cent) the Public W orks m in o rity
5th Place
Best Editorial
ONPA 1973
The Portland Observers official position is expressed only in its
Editorial column Any other material throughout the paper is the
opinion of the individual writer or submitter and does not neces
sanly reflect the opinion of the Portland Observer
Engineering Swaziland took Math,
Physics, Genetics and Agricultural
Science. Botswana had the Social
Sciences, Humanities, Music and
Art while Zambia took over Speech,
Mass Communications, Languages
and History. Malawi became the
center for studies in Geography and
Land Management. Thus the
university o f each country began to
operate as an adjunct o f the Univer
sity o f Southern Africa.
Not only did this serve a lot o f
money but it also increased coopera
tion in the region, im proved the
quality o f ecucation tremendously
since all the experts in each field
were concentrated in the same place.
The artificial boundaries imposed
by colonialism began to crumble
and the African Fam ily began to
come together again. As successful
as this project became, it was only a
matter of time before it was dupli
cated in other parts o f Africa.
This cooperation, with the lessons
learned in education, was extended
to other areas such as the building
o f roads, hospitals, schools,
railroads and travel connections: an
a irlin e , bus and tra in services,
telecommunications networks and
agricultural as well as industrial
projects. As a result o f all this
“ u m o ja ,” southern A fric a soon
became the fastest growing region in
the w orld in terms o f national
development. The success o f all this
also brought p o litic a l s ta b ility
because when people’ s bellies are
fu ll, what do they have to gripe
about?
South A fric a ,
which had
anxiously watched all these goings
on, hoping against hope that they
w ould a ll come to nought, was
dismayed at their success. A t this
point in time also, it was a matter o f
time before apartheid was buried
for good.
As Dr. Mungate got up to speak,
he was thinking: “ When Azania
jo in s .. . . ”
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