Page 2, Portland Observer, April 3, 1985
South Africa
Whites hang on to master-servant relations
Editor's Note: AJter watching
South Africa's white leaders debate
Black critics on A B C 's Nightline,
there can be little doubt that the coun
try's crisis will only deepen in the
months ahead. The Afrikaner leaders
reveal themselves as prisoners o f un
shakable mindsets in which Blocks
can play only one role — that o f the
dutiful servant P N S editor Louis
Lreedberg. an anthropologist who
was bom and raised in South Africa,
recently returned fro m a two-week
trip through the country,
by Louis Lreedberg
As South Africa descends into its
most violent period in half a century,
Americans have had a rare chance to
glimpse its government leaders at
dose hand through AB C's Nightline
program.
What they've seen has not been en
couraging.
Government critics were eloquent
and passionate in their condemna
tion of apartheid. More illuminating
were the while leaders — all A fri
kaners — who revealed how far away
from a peaceful resolution South A f
rica remains.
The Afrikaner leaders gaved no
hint they recognize that a political
system based entirely on race is out o f
step with a morality they profess to
share with the Western world.
Nor do they seem to understand
what lies behind the growing Black
outrage.
When Bishop Tutu told viewers
that, in spite o f his being born in
South Africa, his government-issued
passport lists his nationality as "u n
determined at present," Foreign M in
ister Pik Botha responded that the
problem is Tutu's • he just does not
want to vote in one o f the national
states o f which he is probably a citi-
__ »•
ren
Botha insisted that his government
does “ not want to rob people o f their
citizenship” even though that is ex
actly what it has done to millions of
Blacks who have been told they are
not citizens o f South Africa but citi
zens o f one o f the government's
"national stales.”
Just hours after 19 Blacks had
been killed in the most violent inci
dent in South Africa since the Sharpc-
ville massacre, one o f tlie country's
The Duke Report — Portland’s
Urban Contemporary News Show.
Our journalistic focus is youth, small
businesses and Portlanders of color.
Sunday. M onday, Thursday and Friday
9:00 p.m . -9:30 p.m .
Portland's Honorary South African Consul ia a
tfUnfl of the past. For the activists who were arrest
ad, meetings with lawyers are still happening.
leading opinion-makers, journalist
Otto Krause, explained (he tragedy
away by saying "these troubles beset
all industrialized nations."
When the country's most distin
guished Black journalist Percy Quo-
boza, who has been detained, ha
rassed, his newspapers banned or
shut down, wondered aloud why at
the age o f 47 he stil cannot vote in his
own country, Krause replied, "Percy,
Percy, all you do is complain, com
plain," as if the highly educated Quo-
boza was a five-year-old child.
Then Connie Mulder, once touted
as a future prime minister, now head
o f the ultra-right wing Conservative
Party, reminded viewers o f the “ 61
coups” that have taken place in A f
rica — all caused, in Mulder's view,
by ethnic tensions between warring
Black tribal groups. South A frica’s
problem, Mulder said, was (hat it
consisted o f people who "should nev
er have been pul together." His solu
tion? Subdivide the land.
Mulder was at a loss to explain why
whites should not also be divided up
according to their ethnic back
Above. Lawyer Kathleen Herron discusses upcom
Ing legal action
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
grounds, with separate “ homelands’"
for white Afrikaners, Greeks, Ital
ians, and soon.
In his interview. Slate President
P .W . Botha seized control from the
start by saying U.S. viewers had re
ceived "erroneous perceptions” o f
South Africa. He then reeled o ff an
endless list o f statistics to prove his
point that Blacks in South Africa
were better o ff than anywhere else in
Africa.
Botha claimed he has “ the cooper
ation o f the vast majority o f Black
South Africans,” that "n o Blacks
are forced into the national states"
(the homelands), and that 50 percent
o f South Africa's best land had been
given to Blacks.
“ N o white minority has done more
to raise the standard o f living o f the
Black com m unity," he concluded,
dismissing the recent killings a, Uiten-
hage by saying "violence happens
everywhere in the w orld."
Indeed, he blamed the killings on
the London-based South African
Communist Party (outlawed some X)
children. Corinto schools are very
short o f supplies, say those who have
visited the town.
The school supply project has
raised several hundred dollars and
filled large boxes with paper, note
books and other supplies. The sup
plies will be sent to Corinto with Port
land visitors, he said.
Portlanders who have been there
describe Corinto has a hot, dusty, im
poverished town with a population of
about 30,000. A huge crane dom i
nates the harbor.
Nicaragua’s major port, Corinto
handles about 80 percent o f the coun
try's foreign trade. In 1983, contras
under the direction o f the C IA at
tacked oil tanks on Corinto's water
front. The huge fire that resulted
caused the entire town to be evacu
ated.
In 1984, CIA-sponsored mining o f
Corinto's harbor caused damage to
many foreign ships. The W orld Court
condemned the mining.
Sister d ty supporters say that adopt
ing Corinto will open people-to-
people communication and help Nica
raguans in their struggle against the
contras.
Detractors say that politics is be
hind the Corinto campaign. Adopt
ing Corinto would mean that Port-
Jefferson High School students and ata« ramming from spring hiaali
found thair building vandalized Ronald Griffin's assessment of who
avar was raaponaibla for tha graffiti war "dumb."
(Photo: Richard J. Brown)
J
land would be conducting its own
foreign policy, they say. Others say
that Portland already has enough
sister cities (Guadalajara. Mexico and
Sapporo, Japan).
Whether the city council approves
Lindberg's resolution or not, the
Corinto campaign has already estab -
lished firm sister ties wiih Corinto.
In Northwest Portland. M etropol
itan Learning Center, Portland's
alternative school, has adopted Ruben
Dario elementary school as its sister
school. M L C students have sent let
ters, drawings and poems to their
sister school, and they are eagerly
waiting for a return package
And over in Southeast, Lincoln
Street United Methodist Church is
now sister church with the first Bap
tist Church o f Corinto.
In addition, Outside-In clinic in
Southwest Portland may soon adopt
Policlínica Gaspar Garcia I asiana in
Not one o f these white political
leaders remotely suggested that a uni
fied South Africa, in which all citizens
would have the vole, was a negotiable
issue. Clearly, a chasm still separates
the two sides.
Nor did there seem to be any hint
o f self-doubt.
Under pressure, Afrikaner leaders
only reveal a more exposed racism:
Blacks are there to do what the white
man wants them to do. Otherwise,
they belong somewhere else — out o f
sight, preferably in the homelands
or in outlying townships.
That is why there is little chance for
anything but a deepening crisis in
South Africa. Most white South A fri
cans expect a classic master-servant
relationship to continue to flourish in
South Africa.
© «VS
Corinto as its sister clinic.
Lincoln Street pastor John Schwic-
bert received a letter recently from
Rev. tim e r Barahona in Corinto.
Barahona explained why his church
supports the Sandinista revolution.
“ We see God from history," he wrote.
" H e freed the Hebrews from slavery
in Egypt, and he liberated Nicaragua
from the slavery o f Somoza (Nica
ragua’s former dictator)."
Sister city spokeswoman Diane
Hess said that several other U.S.
cities have adopted cities in Nicaragua
and other Central American countries,
including Adam a, Georgia; Burling
ton, Vermont; Boulder, Colorado;
Seattle and Port Townsend, Washing
ton. and Berkeley, California.
The city council will hear public
testimony on Corinto as Portland's
next sister city from 10 a m. - noon,
and from 2 - 3 :3 0 p.m. on Wednesday
April 10.
Seattle march organized
by Ionita Duke
GRASSROOT NEW S. N.W . _ A
national mobilization around the rallying
cry o f jobs, peace and justice has been
planned by a coalition of more than 80
national organizations Locally, a num
ber of organizations and unions plan to
show support of the April 20th march in
Washington with a sobdanty march in
Seattle, Washington.
Organizations have issued a four-
point resolution: Stop U.S. military
intervention in Central America; create
jobs and cut the military budget, freeze
and reverse the arms race, and oppose
U.S. government and corporate sup
port for South African apartheid and
overcome racism at home.
Natxmal sponsors include the Amer
ican Indian Movement, National la w
yers Guild, TransAfnca and the Na
tional Black United Front.
" T a i years ago this April, the war in
Vietnam coded We recall that war and
what it took to stop it. We know protest
makes a difference When we stand
with struggling people of the world, we
have the strength to turn the tide," said
the sponsoring organizations
Activities to coincide with the Wash
ington, D .C ., mobilization are underway
in Los Angeles and San Francisco
CHANNEL
years ago, and now inacive within the
country).
“ I ’m going to keep order in South
Africa and nobody in the world is
going to stop me from keeping
order," Botha proclaimed.
brought to you
every week
by
A M E R IC A N STATE BANK
M t u e iK i i o t f t A i o te o s ir
Spearheihng ihe Pacific Northwest
Mobilization is a coalition formed to
hdp organize people to attend the march
in Seattle Chartered buses are standing
by to transport Portlanders to the event.
Suzanne Auger, a student representa
live of the April 20lh coabtkm, said,
"Young people's rights are bang at
tacked with the cuts in education. It's
time to come out and say something
“ If ever there was a time for people
to unite to defend their rights, this is it.
We see continued increases in the war
budget, Ihe nuclear arsenal and sup
port to repressive regimes like South
Africa. We see more attacks on our
nghis and siandard of living. As Ronald
Reagan enters his second ierro, we have
a chance to speak out against inhumane
policies,'' Auger added.
Local labor unions are encouraging
their membership to attend the March
in Seattle "These issues are particu-
larty important for working people
and our unions,” said Sam Gillispie.
Mike Hereford, and Nita Bmcggernan
— all union officials.
Bus tickets are open lo ihe pubik for
S I5.00. For more information, call
231-0902 or 232-7206. Unite for Jobs.
Peace and Justice!
m s u r a n c i c o a a o a a t io n
Your letters can be much better than phone calls and
greeting cards at conveying the emotions o f the heart.
Forget (he flowery prose. A few simple words, straight
from the heart are the most effective.
•
Printing was introduced to what is now the United
States in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Wrestler Ed (Strangler) Lewis lost only 33 out of
6,200 matches in his 44-year career.
CityCouncil to vote on Corinto,Nicaragua plan
by Bobert Lothian
David and Elizabeth Linder feel a
special affinity for Nicaragua, their
ton. Ben, has lived there for I years,
pulling his mechanical engineering
skills to work helping to develop geo
thermal and hydro-electric generating
projects.
Ben Linder visited his parents in
Portland in December. He said that
on the road to El Qua, the poor nor
thern town where he works, teachers
and other Nicaraguan citizens have
been attacked and killed by C IA -
backed contras.
Even though he uses another road
which is safer, reports o f contra at
tacks have worried Ben Linder’s par
ents since he returned in January.
That worry hasn’t stopped David
Linder from getting involved in a
campaign to convince the city council
to adopt Nicaragua's Pacific port o f
Corinto as our next sister city.
Commissioner M ike Lindberg's
Corinto sister city resolution comes
before the city council on April 10th.
Lindberg started the sister city cam
paign after his visit to Corinto in
August.
Linder, a pathologist at the U n i
versity o f Oregon Health Sciences
University, has organized a project to
gather school supplies for Corinto
23
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