Page 4, Portland Observer, January 20, 1988
South Pacific Islanders Seek Freedom
From U.S. Authority
Roman Bedor reads the in scrip tio n on the plaque presented to him
honoring his fath e r w h o was assassinated.
Photo by Richard J. Brown
by Nyewusi Askari
On Tuesday, January 12, 1988,
Roman Bedor, a key figure in the
legal and political battle over the
future of the South Pacific island of
Palau, spoke at the Lutheran
Church, 5431 N.E. 20th, Portland.
The event was sponsored by the
American Friends Service Commit
tee and the Palau Constitutional
Supporters, a group of Palauans
living in Portland.
Palau sits in the western Pacific
700 miles southwest of Guam. In
1947, the United Nations mandated
Palau and neighboring Pacific is
lands as the Trust Territory of the
Pacific Islands.
And since the
United States had captured these
islands from Japan, it was named
the administering authority.
According to Bedor, the United
States now want Palauans to ac
cept economic aid in exchange for
U.S. military rights to Palauan land
and waterways (including visits by
nuclear armed ships and aircraft).
The aid package is estimated at
between $500-million and $1 billion.
Such an agreement would be bind
ing for the next 50 years.
In 1979, Palauans adopted a con
stitution that prohibits nuclear wea
pons in Palauan territory. The con
stitution, Bedor explained, was Pa
lauans' way of moving toward self-
government, as well as establishing
a new legal relationship with the
United States. "The majority of Pa
lauans have no desire to remain a
United Nations Trust Territory and
are distressed that America shows
no concern for the inhabitants and
the welfare of the people of Palau,"
Bedor said.
According to Mr. Bedor, Palau
ans on the island are being intimi
dated, threatened and killed, be
cause they resist the terms of a
document called the "compact of
free association."
The compact
would make Palau a sovereign na
tion, but would leave the United
States in charge of the island's de
fense. The conflict has divided the
Palauan government, which has
been identified as the main source
one who thinks that we want to re
main in that situation has narrow
vision. We want the world to realize
of the intimidation. The compact
was rejected five times by Palauan
voters before passing. Bedor says
that compact passed only because
the majority of Palauans were afraid
to vote otherwise.
While listening to Mr. Bedor
speak about the tribulations of Pa
lauans, it was easy to imagine that
he was speaking of the conditions
African-Americans are trying to
overcome in this country. The Pa
lauans who were present at the
meeting could easily be mistaken for
African-Americans.
"W e adopted an American-style
constitution, because we feel that it
speaks to the heart and soul of
Palauans. We are a peace-loving,
law-abiding people. World War II
is over. We want to get on with
the process of living, of raising our
families and developing our coun
try. We've been in this situation
every since World War II, and any-
our connection with the brother
hood of man and woman, and we
can do that if we are self-govern
ing," Bedor said wearily.
The conflict hit close to home
when Bedor's father, Bings Bedor,
was shot and killed September 9.
Many Palauans believe the bullet
was intended for Roman, who, as
a member and founder of the Nu
clear Free and Independent Pacific
Network, successfully challenged
the constitutionality of the Compact
of Free Association in 1986. He is
also a lawyer.
"The assassination of my father
strengthened my resolve to con
tinue fighting for Palau's right to
self-government," he said.
Bedor explained that Americans
can help Palauans by writing to the
State
Department's
Micronesia
Desk. "Let them know that you
believe that Palauans have the right
to self-government and would like
to see it happen. Talk to your
neighbors about us. Talk to pa-
lauans in your community."
The largest community of Pa
lauans on the west coast lives in
the State of Oregon; a fact I didn't
know until I attended the meeting.
I also didn't know that there are a
significant number of Palauans liv
ing right here in the Black commu
nity.
At the conclusion of the meeting,
Bedor was presented with an
award. He said it was the highlight
of his travel to the United States.
"It makes me feel good to know
that my work is appreciated, and I
feel very humble that this commu
nity would see me fit to receive it.
The folk back home won't believe,
but the proof is in the pudding,"
he said, with a laugh.
"The assassination o f my father
strengthened my resolve to con
tinue fig h tin g fo r Palau's right
to se lf-g ove rn m e nt."
Bedor
Photo by Richard J. Brown
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Perspectives
by Professor McKinley Burt
What did the Reverend Martin
Luther King mean when he said that
Blacks "collectively, are richer than
all the nations in the world, with
the exception of nine"? And when
he said that "Blacks have an annual
income of more than thirty-billion
dollars a year. . . that's power right
there, if we know how to use it"?
Was it more about this 'economic'
aspect of his message that brought
about his murder than the social
content? Today, Black purchasing
power is put at over a hundred-
billion yearly!
My central theme most weeks has
been to highlight many of the eco
nomic resources of technology (in
ventions) created by, and available
to, Blacks over the last century.
ECONOMICS
Several readers have called or w rit
ten to inquire, "Great, so where do
we get the money to finance, manu
facture and distribute all these crea
tions?" My reply has been that it is
not such a big step to perceive that
all of this purchasing power, de
scribed above by Reverend King,
represents a practical vehicle for
generating the needed monies. It is
not a new or isolated concept, hav
ing been projected or initiated by
individuals and groups ranging from
Marcus Garvey to Madame C.J.
Walker, and from the Black Muslims
to Tony Brown and his 'Green
Power' theme.
We are talking about the owner
ship and cooperative control of re
tail and service enterprises, just as
the 'new Asians' and other ethnic
groups have done. And then mov
ing 'upstream' to wholesaling and
manufacturing many of these pro
ducts. At present, we do not make
anything even so simple as a natural
comb or a box of paper clips.
During my ten years of accounting
in Los Angeles, one of my clients
was the Globeware Manufacturing
Company. The business experience
of the owners (Jewish) was in
wholesale candies, but now they
had decided to manufacture skil
lets, pots and pans in pastel colors
— something they knew nothin
about, but had seen in a European
magazine. They pooled their money
and sent one partner to Belgium to
observe the process there, and the
other two spent hundreds of hours
in research in the public library.
In addition they took temporary
night jobs in a metal manufacturing
plant to gain several months of
hands-on experience.
I would make two major points
here, my observations being based
upon being involved in every finan
cial and administrative aspect of this
company. This was 1957, and I was
able to draw upon my Portland ex
perience of setting up Union Ave
nue Finance Co. for car dealers to
set up a house-to-house distribution
component for Globeware's 'Nine-
Piece Cookware Master' — "Comes
In Six 'Glorious' Colors". At $295 a
set, retail, the bank scooping off $60
for handling the housewives' con
tracts and the salemen getting $100,
the money flowed like wine, since
the product only cost $49.95 to
make.
My first point is that I had a num
ber of Black business clients at the
same time, and I can state that the
partners at Globeware did not have
any more initial capital or later re
sources than the Blacks. We will
talk another time about lifestyles
and conspicuous consumption.
Secondly, as I shall make clear in
next week's article — about The
Albina Corporation, the nation's lar
gest minority manufacturingd com
pany in 1969 — Globeware com
fortably stayed within the limits of
what its operators were qualified to
do in terms of abilities and finance.
This Portland company did not.
The process of producing pots
and pans required only three raw
materials and four machines: sheet
steel, degreasing fluid and ceramic
grit; metal shears, punch press,
welders and grinders (painting was
farmed out). The process was so
simple that in a tight labor market,
the owners would go down to the
Greyhound Bus Station and inter
cept Blacks and Hispanics with their
shopping-bag luggage, hiring them
on the spot. Within six weeks they
would be turning out utensils — and
that with only a 5% rejection rate,
and supervised by one of their own.
Fascinated with this introduction to
manufacturing, and seeing many
applications within the 'Black Eco
nomy', i began a further learning
process by 'contributing' my spare
time to the company. On Saturday
mornings, I would take a semi-truck
and trailer down to the docks at San
Diego and bring back a load of
Japanese cold-rolled steel. I would
unload it with a fork lift, and then
maybe spend the afternoon chang
ing dies in the punch presses or
using a spot welder to put handles
on the skillets.
Like many of my peer group with
these kind of skills and experience,
we expected to be welcomed with
open arms by the Black community
and Black business sector. Not to
be! As. Dr. Cruse said on Monday's
Oprah Winfrey Show, the 'social
engineers and programmers' have
failed to understand that the basic
nature of this system is about sales,
production and ownership.
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