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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1980)
Governor asked for Black, Hispanic Commissions I H ,1 ■ - a f A ap p ' » A ■ . . — Com f The Governor’ s • Advisory mittee on m in o rity A ffa irs has recommended to Governor Victor Atiyeh that he establish immediately by executive order a Commission on Black Affairs and a Commission on Hispanic A ffa irs ; that he request funds fo r the Com m issions and legislation to continue them from the 1981 Legislature. The ten member Committee was established by Governor Atiyeh to study the feasibility o f establishing a M 1 — — inorities « Î " - _ p to — S ad Commission on AS.' M dress the needs o f the Black and Spanish speaking communities. This directive was an outgrowth o f un- cessful attem pts by Black and Hispanic groups to get legislation through the Legislature. The committee held a series o f town hall meetings across the state, d istrib u te d questionaires and analyzed available information. The outstanding fact derived from public testim ony and the p questionaires was the desire and need for two commissions rather than one commission to deal with both communities. Although there are many prob lems and issues in common to both m in o rity groups, there are problems and needs specific to each group. An example is the language problem that pervades all aspects of Hispanic life. Among the reasons given for the need for two commissions are: 1) Hispanics and Blacks have diverse needs and prio ritie s; fo r example, bilingual considerations and immigration problems are high priority for Hispanics. 2) Separate commissions would be perceived as representing their constituents, so would have more legitimacy and influence. 3) Language problem s would cause communication problems on a joint commission. 4) There is a need to preserve identity and focus on specific needs as they are perceived by each group. 5) Combining the groups would impede each group's progress. Testimony received by the com mittee revealed the problems con sidered most serious by Black and Hispanic Oregonians: Employment: The unemployment rate fo r Blacks and Hispanics is three times that o f whites. Both groups expressed concern that em ployers are failing to meet their af > PORTLAND OBSERVER firmative action goals and equal op p o rtu n ity o b lig a tio n s. M ig ra n t workers are frequently paid unfair wages. Job training: The most frequent complaint is that federal funds for training are not serving Oregon’ s m inority population. Adequate in formation was not available on the local or federal level to verify this complaint, pointing to the need for commissions to m o n ito r these (Please turn to page 2 col. 3) NATlOMAt ^xoti'Q-2, V olum e 10 N um ber 35 Septem ber 11, 1980 10Çper copy USPS 959 680 Mugabe seeks national unity (Editor s N o te: This is the con clusion o f an exclusive interview w ith His Excellency Comrade Robert Mugabe, Prime Minister o f Zimbabwe, by Observer staff writer I ungai Kumbula, a citizen o f the new nation) Observer: M r. Prime M inister, how do you see the change in government effecting the politics o f Southern A fric a and the outside world? Mugabe: First, o f course, is the cessation o f hostilities in Zimbabwe; the end o f the war. That means Zimbabweans can put their energies to more constructive pursuits. The end o f the war also means an end to the periodic raids into Mozambique and Zambia as well as Botswana, our staunch supporters through the bitter years. A ll these countries as well as Tan zania and Angola can now concen trate on rebuilding their economies singly as well as jo in tly. They can now all pool their resources into providing health care, education, job opportunities and other such amenities whicn so far they had been prevented from doing full time due to the war. The Zimbabwe experiment w ill have a significant impact on the rest o f the w orld since we are s till pushing for the same fundamental changes in both South Africa and A m ong the hundreds of people at Peninsula P a rk , J a c k ie M c H e n ry and d a u g h te r J e n d a y i N am ibia. I f the experiment succeeds, which it w ill, that w ill silence all critics o f A frican self- determ ination and give our allies and supporters througho ut the w orld more am m unition fo r the diplomatic and economic battle on South Africa. Essentially, the logic will be this: if Black rule works in Zimbabwe, it can and w ill work in South Africa and Namibia. It w ill be that much more difficult for those supporters o f the apartheid regime to continue to support such an unjust system. Observer: What steps, i j any, have you taken tow ards greater cooperation with the form er Front Line States since it appears that the fu tu re development o f the entire region w ill depend to a larger extent on closer cooperation? Mugabe: I have already men tioned the tentativer steps we have taken towards the creation o f the Economic Community o f Southern African States. We are also easing travel restrictions in all o f Southern Africa so that before too long it win no longer be necessary for a Zim babwean, for example, to need a passport to travel to, say, Mozam bique or Lesotho or Angola. We are w orking towards im proving telecommunications links w ith all our neighbors and also working on the transportation net works. In a few short years we hope to be doing all our shipping via Mozambican ports instead o f South African as we are currently forced to. In the area o f sport and other cultural exchanges, we have already had several soccer matches w ith Mozambique, Malawi, Zambi and Tanzania. You might be interested to know that we won most o f them. As tim e goes on, this sort o f cooperation will increase depending o f course on how well it works. So far it's working very well and we do not forsee any problems. Observer: A p a rt fro m develop ment aid which Zimbabwe needs so badly now, what else do you see as most cru cia l to Z im b a b w e ’s im mediate and future development? Mugabe: Manpower is going to be very important. We would hope that now all the thousands o f our students scattered throughout the world w ill begin to come back home and lend their various skills to the nation’s development. We are most concerned that whoever comes to Zimbabwe does so with Zimbabwe’s interests at heart. We are not in terested in anyone who comes just fo r the money. Zimbabwe needs some dedicated people. Observer: How do you see Zim babwe fiv e years, ten years down the road? (Please turn to P ace2C nl?i manage to steal a fe w minutes to themselves. (Photo: Richard J. Brown) Cawthorne presents Biko oral history program Steve B iko, the Black student leader who was murdered in a South African prison by his jailors, is the subject o f an oral history presen tation by Herb Cawthorne. The program, " B ik o ,” which is sponsored by the American Friends Service Committee and Oral History Programs is the third o f a series in which Cawthorne has presented the writings o f influential Blacks. Prior presentations were on Dr. M artin Luther K ing, J r., and W .E .B . DuBois. B iko, a th irty -y e a r old law student and one o f the leaders o f the student freedom movement in South Africa, was detained by the police on August 18, 1977. He was placed naked in solitary confinement for three weeks; beaten; schackled un conscious on his cell floor; and two days after he was determined to be seriously injured, was transported 750 miles naked in a truck to another prison. Biko was an important political strategist fo r the lib e ra tio n movement and an in sp ira tio n a l voice in the struggle for justice and dignity in South Africa. Cawthorne’s performance will be (Please turn to Page ” 2 Col 3) ' The President m et w ith Prime M inister Robert M u g a b e of Z im b a b w e in W a s h in g to n . In the course of a cordial, constructive talk, the President and the Prim e M in ister discussed the A frica, relations betw s situation iiu a u u ii in s southern u u iiia rn M iric a . relatio ns D e tw een ee the U. S. and Z im b a b w e , and the p ro sp ects for peaceful settlem ent in Nam ibia. They discussed ii some depth Zim babw e's im m ed iate reconstruc tion and developm ent needs. New King principal discusses educational goals By Stephanie Cole A A. . | I was was reassiantd reassigned frnm from Ari„ta Arleta School. O f one hundred principals in the Q. Who selected you to f i l l the P ortland P ublic School System, position? only eight are Black. Bill Gerald, the A. By the area a d m in istra to r new principal o f King Elementary perhaps the Superintendent. School, has been a principal for Q What are your goats and ob twenty years and was Oregon’ s first jectives f o r King School? Black principal. Gerald who is a A. To raise the reading and math native o f Texas, was recruited in level scores significantly. 1968 by the Portland Public School Q. A re you aware that King Administration. School is at the lowest level concer His past principalship include Mt. ning Black childrens' performances Tabor, Irvington and Arleta School. on achievement tests? In an interview with Gerald, aspects A , That I have no way o f concerning education and its impact knowing. A few years ago we used on the Black com m unity are to print and publish all the scores discussed. for all the schools in the city, we Q How did you come about your don’ t do that anymore. Unless you position at King school? went fo rth and picked up all the scores fo r the schools across the city, you really w ould not know anymore. Q. A ccording to a study o f schools made last year in Portland concerning the perform ances o f P ortland schools on achievement tests. King School had the lowest ranking o f any other school in Port land. A. That w ould have taken a study. Someone would have had to gone fo ith to make that com parison. The in fo rm a tio n is out there and is available, but it isn’t something a p rin cip a l generally does. They stopped publishing those about 3 years ago. Recently I had the scores for King School but I don’ t have the scores fo r anyone else. You really can’ t make that comparison unless you’ve made that comparison all out. I suspect that the person who has that information went forth and asked someone to pull that information and thus made the comparisons. Q. What specific measures w ill it take to s ig n ific a n tly raise the academic perform ance o f K ing School? A. It’ ll take alot o f things. It’ ll take alot o f hard w o rk, good planning and alot o f support from the home. I t ’ ll take everybody working toward the same goal, the kids, the s ta ff, the parents, the community. If we don’ t get that, it a not going to happen. Q How long w ill it take before a significant increase can be seen in the academic performance. A. There is no way to predict unless all o f those elements I just described come through. That isn’ t to say that it won't happen. Perhaps one o f those things can be so good that it could overshadow the other two or three, but it isn’ t likely. Only if we can get all o f these things going at the same time are we likely to be able to increase those scores. Q. The Black United F ront has proposed that parents be Involved in the selection o f teachers. What are y o u r views about th a t...a re you receptive to that proposal? A. Well, first o f all, that has to be broken apart, it’ s very complex. It’ s (Please turn to Page 3 Col I) BILL GERALD
