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Page 2 Portland Observer, September 1, 1982
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Reagan rule threatens European economy
Ronald Reagan has broadened
economic sanctions against the So­
viet U nion and in so doing has
caused serious conflict with the gov­
ernments o f France, West Germany,
Italy. England and Japan by order­
ing that US companies and compa­
nies selling US technology not hon- ‘
or their contracts in the Siberia-
Europe gas line.
The gas line not only offers bene­
fits to the European and Japanese
firms and their workers but prom­
ises economic independence for the
OPEC nations.
The action was supposedly to
punish the Soviet Union for events
in Poland, but is also an attempt to
head o ff closer economic ties be­
tween the Soviet Union and western
Europe. Despite the fact that Rea­
gan’s economic war against the
USSR was not well received at Ver­
sailles, he is forging ahead.
In the five year period ending in
1985, the USSR plans to build seven
extra-long gas pipelines from west­
ern Siberia to the central part o f the
country. The Siberia-Europe pipe­
line is 5800 kilometers long and can
provide at least 1000 trillio n cubic
feet o f gas in 20 years. By 1984, if
construction goals are met, it can
deliver at least 40 billion cubic me­
ters o f gas to seven western Eur­
opean nations.
As for their participation in the
construction, the European nations
w ill receive guaranteed shipments o f
gas and oil. There are also possibil­
ities o f increased trade w ith the So­
viet Union, which could provide a
much needed economic boost. This
development would be o f decided
benefit to Europe in light o f the US
refusal to lower interest rates which
are devastating to the foreign rate o f
exchange and the continuing market
battles between US corporations,
the steel industry in Europe and the
textile and auto industries in Japan.
Firms in western Europe and
Japan w ill provide nearly SI m illion
worth o f material for the pipeline.
The USSR is the w orld’s largest im ­
porter o f steel tubes, which benefits
the nations o f western Europe. T h ir­
ty percent o f the steel tubes pro­
duced in West Germany are ex­
ported to the socialist block, partic­
ularly to the USSR, and the USSR
w ill also purchase the special tu r­
bines needed.
Since 1973 the world has been
aware o f its dependence on OPEC
oil, and the high prices o f oil have
devastated the economics o f much
o f the world. Even the current oil
glut, which has forced crude oil
sales at lower costs, has not forced
down the cost o f oil and gasoline.
Although the oil sources are owned
by the OPEC nations, the transpor­
tation, refining and marketing re­
main in the hands o f transnational
corporations, chiefly those based in
the US.
The Siberian pipeline offers a new
source o f oil for Europe and Japan.
Geologists agree that Siberia has
one o f the w orld’s richest deposits.
The Tiumen region alone contains
one-fifth o f the w orld’s known gas
reserves.
In the last ten years there has been
a ten-fold increase in gas and oil ex­
traction, w ith a total o f over 300
m illion tons in 1980. Gas produc­
tion reached 156 billion cubic meters
in 1980, with a 1990 goal o f 500 m il­
lion tons o f oil and more than 500
billion cubic meters o f natural gas.
The USSR also has large coal re­
serves.
The new pipeline w ill provide 30
percent o f the energy needs o f the
seven participating nations. This
guarantee o f a stable fuel supply is
what Reagan wants those nations to
reject in the interest o f the US cold-
war build-up.
Japanese Prime Minister Zenko
Suzuki said his government w ill con­
tinue the Sakhalin project and that
he considers it to be a matter o f
national importance. The European
nations have ordered the companies
licensed in their countries to honor
their commitments and contracts on
the pipeline — France being the first
to ship products to the USSR.
Boom tow n
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World's longest reigning monarch dies
King Sobhuza II o f Swaziland,
the w orld’s longest-reigning ruler,
died Saturday at the age o f 83.
Swaziland, a land-locked nation
about the size o f New Jersey, is sur­
rounded on three sides by South A f­
rica and on the other by Mozam­
bique. Rich with natural resources,
the nation exports asbestos and
iron.
Sobhuza II was born on July 22,
1899, during the Boer War. His
father, King Kgwane V, died sud­
denly the following year and the tri­
bal council selected Sobhuza II to
succeed him.
He was sent to the country’ s first
primary school and then to South
Africa to receive a western educa­
tion. U ntil he was 22 years old, his
grandmother and uncle acted as re­
gents. He became ruler in 1921 but
it was largely a ceremonial office be­
cause the country — a British col­
ony — was administered by the B rit­
ish High Commissioner.
His first task was an attempt to
persuade the British government
that contracts giving huge tracts o f
land to white farmers were not valid
since tribal law allows the king to
grant use o f land, not ownership.
He wanted the British government
to allow him to buy back the land.
When the British finally left in
1969 they left a parliamentary form
o f government, but after four years
Sobhuza II abolished the constitu­
tion as “ un-Swazi” and turned to
an absolute monarchy. He adminis­
tered the country closely and put his
sons and relatives in important
posts.
Sobhuza actively supported fo r­
eign investment and management,
much o f which remained in the con­
trol o f a few whites, hoping it would
benefit the 600,000 inhabitants,
many o f whom were living in rural
poverty. When he took office only
37 percent o f the land was in Swazi
hands, while 73 percent was owned
by Swazis when he died.
Sobhuza stayed on good terms
with apartheid South A frica and
Marxist Mozambique, using the sea
ports o f both nations. He repeatedly
hosted Mozambique leaders and
gave shelter to South A frican exiles.
A t the same time, South African
whites came on tourists to enjoy
gambling casinos not available in
their country.
Earlier this year the king had
opened negotiations with South Af­
rica in an attempt to annex a part of
South A fric a ’ s so-called tribal
homeland where 700,000 Swazis
live. This annexation would give
Swaziland access to the sea.
He urged his people to learn west­
ern ways without losing tribal cus­
toms.
Although the Declaration of Independence was
adopted July 4, 1776, Congress waited until Sept. 9
that year to officially change the name of the country
from "United Colonies" to "United States."
•
Contrary to popular opinion, bats are not blind.
Dallas, Tex., oddly enough, was named after a may­
or of Philadelphia, Pa., George Dallas.
Sobhuza preferred to live a simple
life in a village outside the capital,
where he generally wore a leopard-
skin loincloth and led the many tr i­
bal festivals and ceremonials. He
claimed approximately 100 wives
and 600 children.
Sobhuza was popularly referred
to as the Great M ountain, the Bull,
the Son o f the She-Elephant, and
the Inexplicable. In his western role,
in which he moved at ease, he was a
Knight o f the British Empire.
•
The state of Maine has towns named China, Nor­
way, Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Peru and Mexico.
W e d o ^ o n lo business w ith South A frlce.
KINO SOBHUZA II
* J
• 1
American State
lian/i
an independent bank
Head Office
2737 N. E. Union
Portland, Oregon 97212
Saharan question threatens African unity
(Continued fro m page 1 col 6)
A t independence, the existing
boundaries in Africa seemed the
only reasonable thing to go by. Even
Kwame Nkrumah, who was the
O A U ’s moving spirit, could argue
that to redraw the boundaries in ac­
cordance with ethnic affinities
would logically culminate in the bal­
kanization o f Africa into puny and
unviable “ trib a l” states.
Nevertheless, it remains true that
what emerged from the debris o f
colonialism were not “ nations” but
unwieldy conglomerations o f na­
tions, nationalities and tribes. They
left such divided peoples as the Ewe
o f Ghana and Togo, the Yoruba o f
Nigeria and Benin, the Hausa o f
Nigeria, Niger, Chad and Camer­
oon, and the Somalis o f Somalia,
Ethiopia, Kenya and D jibouti. It is
from such divisions that border
claims and counter-claims occur.
Another result o f the colonial
border formations — the lumping
together o f two or more entire na­
tional civilizations into one colony
— has led not to border claims, but
to secessionist movements. The
most famous o f these are Eritrea in
Ethiopia, Biafra in Nigeria, Katan­
ga in the Congo (now Zaire), etc.
There are simmering cases which
threaten to take volcanic forms in
almost every country.
The point about the present bor­
der system — the split nations and
the lumped together nations — is
that the states naturally behave like
«
eggshells. Being artificial, political
instability is built into the very state
structure handed over by colonial­
ism. Some are states without na­
tions; others are nations without
states; none are true nation-states.
The question o f “ tribalism ” thus
is a colonial question, and there is
nothing particularly African about
it. It is a question which still plagues
European countries like Spain,
which has its Basque, Andalusian
and Catalan nationalist movements;
and Britain, with its Scottish, Welsh
and Cornish movements.
The basic illness o f the modern
African state, then, is that it is a
structure which has been imposed
on ethnic groups which do not have
a single cultural root, are disparate
numerically, have different levels o f
economic development, do not en­
joy proportionate shares in the state
machinery, but yet are expected to
benefit equally.
The only common denominator is
that the economic basis o f the A fr i­
can states is foreign. Since an indig-
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enous economic basis is absent in
every case it follows that any alli­
ance o f such states w ill also be base­
less economically. That is why the
various contradictions in the OAU
so faithfully reflect the foreign pow­
ers that vie fo r favor w ithin indivi­
dual states.
I f the O A U falls to pieces it will
be to a great extent a result o f the
delusion o f "national indepen­
dence” which Africans entertained
in the early sixties. But it w ill also be
an auspicious time for all thinking
Africans to come out with new blue­
prints for laying foundation stones
fo r new and more genuine nation­
states.
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are the services.
Except at The Westin Benson. W ith crystal chandeliers,
d e lic a te c h in a , gleaming silver and remarkably good food served
hy top notch professionals, we set a higher standard.
( altering costs about the same everywhere. But only The
Westin Bens< in iiffers you so many priceless extras for parties of
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