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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.
e
with that
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C atering prices are pretty standard all over town. But so
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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