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Non-violence
no option?
Page 5
Decline
of C.O.R.E
Chief Still
on Hunter
Page 4
Page 7
PORTLAND OBSERVER
UJ
USPS 959 680-855
C tx t* PuftluhingCo.. I9SJ
February 23. 1983
Volume XII, Number 20
25C Per Copy
Three Sections
Brame publishes black records
Herman L. Brame is preparing to
publish the fourth edition o f his
book. World Records o f Black Peo
ple this fall. The book lists accom
plishments o f black people— those
o f A frican background— in many
areas including science, technology,
literature, sports, politics, govern
ment.
Brame began collecting data
about black people as a hobby, and
finding that no book of “ lists" ex
isted. he " fin a lly got the nerve to
put it on paper." The first edition
was published in 1929— a mimeo
graphed and stapled edition. Public
interest spurred Brame on and he
produced two more editions—each
larger and o f high quality printing
and binding.
The book provides a void left by
history books, Brame explained. It
gives an overview and inspires the
reader to delve more deeply into the
history and heritage of black peo
ple. The book contains facts about
ancient and modern Africans, A m
erican blacks, and a smattering of
facts about the black residents of
the Caribbean.
Most o f Brame’s early research
was done in the Portland State U ni
versity and Multnomah County L i
braries and many facts were p ro
vided by friends. Some facts come
from magazines and newspapers.
This year Brame has gone about
his research in earnest. He recently
bean. Freetown also has a large pop
ulation o f Europeans, Arabs, and
Hindus, and is a commercial center.
It has been a center of education,
sending out doctors and mission
aries to Ghana, Nigeria and Liber
ia?
HERMAN L. BRAME
returned from a trip to Sierra Leone
in West A frica where he visited
Fourah Bay College This college is
the oldest in West A fric a , and has
been a center o f iearning fo r dec
ades. Sierra Leone was a destination
of American blacks who chose to re
turn to Africa, former residents of
the U .S ., Canada, and the C a rib
Because o f its ties to the New
W o rld , Freetown offers a unique
environm ent for the study o f the
history and culture o f A frica peo
ple.
W hile in Freetown, Brame con
tacted person at the university who
will help him gather facts. One bit
of inform ation he received was on
the doctors also found the d iffe r
ence between m alaria and black
water fever and the preventative
measures that allowed settlement of
the area.
Brame is a native of Oregon. He
attended Jefferson H igh School,
earned a B.S. in Sociology at the
University o f Oregon and an M B A
at the U niversity o f Portland. He
was employed by M odel Cities in
1969 and 1970 as a financial special
ist; was co-director o f the U nion
Avenue Redevelopment P ro ject,
and was employed by M ultnom ah
County.
The current edition of World Rec
ords o f Black People can be ob. .
tained at the Talking Drum Book
store and Daltons. O f course Brame
is always happy to receive new facts
and records.
Thraa-yaar-old Jamila Harris Jaarna African dance with the Talking Drum Dancers
(Photo: Richard Brown)
U.S. policy threatens
Sua Dickson, nationally recognized axpart in tha
teaching of reading, talks with students and par-
ants at Reading Trae workshop,
(Photo: Richard Brown)
The small black nation of Belize,
located on the eastern coast o f
C entral A m erica, is feeling the
threat o f U.S. foreign policy in the
region.
Neighboring Guatemala claims
possession of all of Belize, resulting
from historic Spanish land claims
that predate (he English occupation
o f Belize. However, it now says it
will settle for 7,000 square kilome
ters that would give it access to the
Atlantic and rights to considerable
resources of oil and other natural re
sources.
The Reagan A dm in istratio n ,
together with Congress, has lifted
restrictions on military aid to Guate
mala saying that (he military regime
o f General Rios M o n tt is doing
"very w e ll" in the area o f human
rights— only 10,000 citizens have
been killed since Montt took over in
a military coup last year.
G uatem ala w ill receive $6.3
million worth of armaments. There
is no guarantee that their weapons
will not be used against Belize.
W hile the U .S . is strengthening
G uatem ala, it has been reported
that Israel will provide Guatemala
with an arms factory. Britain, which
left troops behind when Belize
achieved independence a year ago,
would like to be relieved o f this f i
nancial burden.
Bccaue of the constant threat to
its existence Belize has been forced
to establish a defense force of regu
lar and voluntary troops and ear
mark a considerable share of its lim
ited resources for defense.
Third world nation debt threatens U.S. economic crisis
The world's economists, bankers,
and finance ministers have been
warning for at least two years of a
coming international crisis that
could bring an end to the U .S .’ cur
rent economic system The entire
world— with the exception of Japan
and some Southeast Asian countries
— has been plunged into a depres
sion comparable to that o f the
1930s
Threatening the world banking
system is the $550 billion foreign
debt o f the T hird W orld nations.
These debts have their roots in the
rising in fla tio n o f the 1960s and
1970s and the increase in oil costs.
Inflation slowed economic growth,
increased balance o f payment defi
cits and necessitated borrowing. The
bulk of the external financing came
from private commercial banks in
the U.S. and western Europe.
Rising U .S. interest rates drove
up interest rales in the international
money markets, and according to the
World Bank each percentage point
of increase in interest rates costs the
developing countries $1.8 billion a
year in additional interest payments.
Added to the increase in interest
cost and the high cost o f oil and
imported manufactured goods due
to inflation, is the drop in price of
the raw materials on which the
T hird W orld nations depend for
their income. Since 1980 the world
price o f cotton— on which Egypt
and Sudan depend— has dropped
from 92 cents a pound to 57 cents.
The price o f copper, important to
Zam bia and C hile, has dropped
about half. Cocoa, the main export
o f many A frican countries, has
dropped in price from $1.18 to 75
cents a pound. Sugar, the m ajor
crop of the Caribbean and the Phil
ippines, had decreased from 43
cents a pound to 6 cents a pound. In
addition to low prices the developed
nations, also caught in the depres
sion, are buying less o f the prod
ucts. The high cost o f imports and
the low payment for exports keeps
these nations in a vicious cycle that
cannot be broken.
The developing countries cannot
pay their debts so they postpone
paying the principal, and get new
loans, paying higher and higher in
terest rates and slashing their bud
gets to spend higher percentages of
their income on interest payments.
However, they still cannot pay even
the interest on the loans.
The T hird W o rld nations owe
$550 billion to foreign banks and
governments in debts that have
nearly doubled in four years.
their loans and deposits too rapidly,
taking on risks out of proportion to
their financial strength. During the
past 20 years the banks' equity-to-
total assets ratios have dropped se
riously. Equity is the stockholder's
stake in the bank. Losses are sub
tracted from equity and if losses ex
ceed equity the bank is insolvent.
in normal times the banks would
have about 10 percent equity-to-
total-asset ratios and could easily
absorb losses from the usual bad
debts. Now many major banks are
down to 3.5 percent and a loss of 1.5
percent would eliminate half its as
sets and it could be in serious
trouble and to increase capital
would have to curtail loans.
Tha U.S. banka
If nations with a major debt, like
Mexico of Brazil, were to be unable to
refuse to pay their debt, this could
force major U.S. banks like Chase
Manhattan and Citibank into insol
vency. For this reason, these banks
The international debt situation
brings two threats to the U.S.
The U .S . banks are in the most
serious period since the 1930s. The
U .S . banks have been expanding
continue to provide " b a il-o u t"
loans to these countries.
Less drastic than insolvency
would be a curtailment of lending—
for working capital and equipment
loans to U.S. corporations at home
and car loans to citizens. Not only
U.S. banks would be affected, but
Japanese and Western European
banks as well. The effect would be
reduction in production and em
ployment and a deepening of the de
pression.
The other major effect a default
would cause is a discontinuation of
trade. The U.S. economy is depend
ent on export o f goods, about 12
percent o f the gross national
product. Currently 20 percent of the
goods produced in the U.S. and 40
percent of the agricultural products
are exported. I f debtor nations de
faulted and loans to them were dis
continued, they could not purchase
U .S . exports. About $12 b illion
would be lost, causing a loss of jobs
For this reason, the U.S. govern
ment and banking circles are discus
sing possible solutions.
The U .S .' answer to the problem
is to somewhat increase the ability
of the International Monetary Fund
to make emergency short-term loans
to nations unable to make their in
terest payments. To obtain (he loans
the nations must accept internal
economic measures imposed by the
IM F , which include drastic reduc
tions in social, educational and
health programs and (argetling a
large percentage o f the nation's
funds for debt reduction.
The IM F is only only a temporary
solution and its ultimate result is to
increase the Third World debt.
,
Tha International Monetary Fund
The IM F was created at the end of
World War II to manage the inter
national system. It collects funds
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