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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 29, 1993)
S eptember 2 9 , 1993 » T he P or i land O bserver P ag e A? J £ i I ®je^nrtlanh©bserUer e r $ p e c t i V e s Minority Business In A Minority Economy tions pro g ra m to dru g o u r financial senses, o u r ability to perceive the clearly obvious w as severely c u r tailed. W hile O re g o n ’s m inorities can tru ly say , “ 1 w a sn ’t in it-1 d id n 't do it-I had no pow er (even Bill N a ito )”. the fact o f the m atter is their eco nom ic pain is ju s t as excruciating. A nd they are in dire need o f a ' risk m an ag em en t’ pro g ram to ensure an econom ic future on a p a r w ith the rest o f the population. W h at we a re a b o u t in this issue o f the O b serv er N ew sp ap er is to develop a p erspective th at w ill provide guide lines for both analy sis and action However, that African A m eri can business person represents only 3% of the nation’s entrepreneurs and less than 1% of the gross receipts. "A place where everybody takes in everybody else’s laundry” , th at's the way O regon’s economy was de scribed twenty years ago Has there been a meaningful change or is it business-as-usual’? O f course, it is not really a time for hum or and we will try to avoid more catch-phrases than necessary Hardtim es are upon us. It w ould seein th a t th ro u g h the y ears th e m edia h a s d iverted m uch o f o u r atten tio n aw ay from su r vival an d m e a t-a n d -p o tato issues to perip h eral an d “ a in 't-o u r-sta te - cu te” ex c u rsio n s into bottle bills, salm on d erb y s, balloon races, a r c h ite c tu ra l a w a rd s, shut-dow it- th e - f o r e s ts ’ s o rtie s a n d b a b y - boo m er fan tasizin g W ith the help o f th a t 24-h o u r-a-d ay p ublic rela W hatever specific ethnic consider ations we develop in the expanded study, nevertheless the minority is compelled to operate w ithin the same param eters and constraints as the majority . The business climate, like the weather, will enhance or defeat the purposes of us all. And the most carefully crafted economic plans of cither black individuals or organiza tions can break up on the rocks of Oregons "Laundry Business” . This reality must be thoroughly understood T he original reference m ade by that perceptive econom ist w as to the fact O regon, land o f tall tim ber, w as basically an a g ric u l tu ral econom y and, quite n atu rally , the financial w elfare o f the in h ab itants w ould be tied to the principal crop(s). All the w hile the hundreds the timber industry and their employ ers and bankers seemed oblivious to such gathering storm clouds as east ern environmentalists and congress men, all raisedon ’ Smokey The Bear", cow boys and i ndians and docunieiita- ricsextollingapristinc'G ods'sC oim - try” N ow , the lum ber industry w as the only real ‘m a n u fa c tu rin g ’ base die state h a d —unlike many stales there is no great w ealth o f m ineral resources like iron, coal o r co pper to be developed into huge p ro c e ss ing plants, nianufacturing and ship ping goods all over the country or w orld A nd, consequently, there a re n ’t the secondary industries that supply and serv ice the conglom er ates. G iven this com m ercial desert and w ith successive generations springing up and needing/dem and- ing to be nurtured, fed and housed, the crunch w as on It has been for several generations but the reali ties o f dim inishing returns (like dw indling old grow th tim ber or salm on runs) w ere ignored by m ag netic leaders and politicians w ith w hom th at "cutcy -cute m edia” had such a long love affair, so it is the stage w as set for a co n su ltan t to derisively term O re g o n 's economy as “a place w here every body takes in every body elses la u n d ry ." S pecifically, w hat that m eans is despite all fire o sten tatio u s (and m isleading) display from show y condom inium s to flashy regional shipping centers (they’re not ow ned by O regonians), and herds o f a tta Portland Federal Executive Board 1993 Minority Vendor OF The Year Award M a rin e F ly e rs R e a d y In B o s n ia __________— T here’s a new warbird protect ing safe havens in w ar-tom Bosnia- Herzegovina: The M arine Corps F/ A-18D. Eight “Hornets” from M arine F ig h te r-A tta c k sq u a d ro n (AH Weather)-533 based at Beaufort, S.C., arrived at Aviano Air Base, Itlay, July 22 The squadron joined the 5th Al lied Tactical Air Force conducting Operation Deny Flight, a mission to enforce the no-flv zones over Bosnia _ ........................ i and protect United Nations ground forces guarding safe havens for Mus lim civilians But w hile capable of air-to air combat, the primary function of the F/ A -18D is to attack and destroy surface targets, day or n ig h t under all weather conditions. One Navy official in Europe said the unique M arine aircraft were brought over to prov ide close air sup port for United Nations ground troops, not to guard the skies ov er Bosnia The official also said many of the pilots involved in the operation are becoming increasingly frustrated ov er their role as airborne peacekeepers Serving aiicraft hav e violated the es tablished no-fly zones about 52 times since April, according to a Pentagon spokesman. But U.N. pilots are under such strict rules of engagement, and cannot fire on violators unless they fire first. O n the ground, the Marine pilots would face sim ilar restriction, the official said. For instance, if one artil « ________ i _____ « T i kt lery L battery fired upon a U.N. ground force, but there were nine other iden tifiable artillery batteries in the area, pilots would only have the authority to take out the battery that actually did the firing. Similar rules were enforced during the Vietnam War, the official said This is the first operational com m itm ent for the “C heckerboard Hawks” and the two-seater aircraft. The squadron began receiving the upgraded Hornet in A pril. Along with VMFA(AW) 224, also stationed at Beaufort, they are the Corps’ only all weather fightcr/attack units based on the East Coast. “ W e’re a little unsure o f the lineup over there, but it’s a good opportunity to work with NATO forces and be involv ed in a real operations,” said Lt. Col. John Graham, opera tions officer for M arine Air Group- 31, the squadrons parent command. More than 260 pilots, crew men, cooks, carpenters and military po licemen left Beaufort for the deploy m o n t Thr* riH rn n i is ment. The cm squadron essentially a self-contained unit working out o f a “tent city” adjacent to the air base. Since Aviano is normally a main tenance base. Graham said it lacked many creature comforts. "W e've had to fall in on a semi- bare base, but w e’ve already got eight cooks serv ing three hot meals a day,” Graham said in a phone interview from Beaufort. “ It's better than field." The M arine are living in "hard back" tents that have concrete floors. The tents also have air conditioning and electricity . Support people from M arine A viation L ogistics Squadron-31, Marine W ing Support Squadron-273 and M arine W ing Control Group 28 arc keeping the camp and jets run ning smoothly . Graham said. While the length of the mission is indefinite, the squadron isn’t expected home before October "Their mood was one of excite ment. anticipation and curiosity, Graham said. che case-toting sales persons at the city centers, N othing Is H a p p e n ing! E very one dollar earned by a m em ber o f the fast declining tim ber w orkforce m ust p ass through a score o f hands in order to su p p o rt an cv cr-p o o rer circle o f d e p e n dency. Unlike m any states there is no big flow o f dollars ‘in to ’ O r egon to pay for goods shipped o u t- -not very much. With so little owned by Orego nians, and with our lottery, pension funds and banks enthusiastically fi nancing more eastern hustlers all the time - and with thousands o f spotted owls peeping out each passing day (give us the logs back) — what docs the future hold for any of us, black, white, gray or grizzle! See mv second article. panies. The firm was nominated for this award by the Bureau o f Land M anagement Oregon State Office for being a reliable and compliant source of technical expertise, providing fair prici ng, a nd for bei ng a valuable team worker in providing service and as sistance to the Bureau of Land M an agement Mr. Pai will be honored at the annual Minority Enterprises Devel opment Week luncheon to be held in Portland on October 6, 1993 at the O regon C onvention Center. This vice on Federal gov em m ent procure event is held to recognize the out ments under $25,000 each standing achiev ements and contribu Business C om puter M anage tions of our nation’s minority-owned ment. Inc is a nine year old company businesses. Tickets for the luncheon that provides personal computers, can be obtained by contacting Impact components, and accessories to Fed Business Consultants, Inc at (503) eral. state, and local gov eminent agen 245-9253. cies as well as to major priv ate com- Joseph Pai. President, Business Computer M anagement, Inc.. ofPort- land, Oregon has been selected to receive the Portland Federal Execu tive B oard’s 1993 Minority Vendor o f the Year Award, according to Carl R Culham, Chair, Minority Business Opportunity Committee. This year the Portland Federal Executive Board is honoring an out standing m inority-ow ned business whose selection is based on its supe rior performance and custom er ser i T This Way For Black Empowerment My Letter To Yasir Arafat By Dr. Lenora Fulani Last week as Y asir Arafat, chair man of the Palestine Liberation O rga nization (PLO), and Yitzhak Rabin, the prim e m inister o f Israel, agreed to a peace accord under the approving eyes o f President Bill Clinton, I sat down and wrote a letter to Brother Arafat. On behalf o f the independent New Alliance Party which I chair, and o f the millions of people in the United States who support the Black- led, multi-racial independent politi cal movement, I extended our con gratulations to him and the Palestin ian nation at this turning point in their history. Although the accord signed on September 13 is just a first step, it m arks the first time that Israel and its patron, the United States government, has recognized the legitimacy of Pal estinian national aspirations and the PLO as the leadership o f the Palestin ian people. W hile the accord doesn’t address the status o f the refugees, the precise character that self-rule will take, and a host of other life-and- death issues, it is something to build on. B ut even as I congratulated Brother Arafat, I also made a de mand. I called upon him, as the leader of the Palestinian people, to publicly acknowledge all of us who have sup ported the Palestinian struggle for so many decades. All over the world, and especially here in the United States, those who have supported the PLO have been vilified in the press, investigated by the FBI and the ADL, beaten, jailed, even killed. The very powerful Zionist lobby headquartered in the U.S. saw to it that Arafat, his people, and by association all o f us who supported them, were made into demons - ugly, filthy, vile carica tures of civilized beings. N ow th at the p o w er brokers in W ashington have decided that it’s n o longer in th e ir interests to d e m onize Y asir A rafat, it’s very im portant th at h e acknow ledge and defend those w hose friendship has been tested again and again. It is fine fo r the P alestinian people to be to ld that they n o w h av e “a friend in the W hite H o u se,” but, as I pointed o u t in m y letter, it’s ju s t as n e c e s sary for th e P alestinian people to know that they have had friends in this country all along. N o t the fair w eather friends w ho show ed up at the W hite H ouse on S eptem ber 13 S ubscribe r * .* (Hljc ^ I u r iiu n ir flD bscvbcr ¡i » (USPS 959-G00) OREGON'S OLDEST AFRICAN AMERICAN PUBLICATION Established In 1970 by Allred L. Honderson Joyce Washington Publisher T he P ortland O bserver 5 can be sent DIRECTLY TO YOUR HOME FOR ONLY $30.00 PER | I YEAR. The PORTLAND OBSERVER Is iocatod at 4747 NE Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. Portland, Oregon 9721.1 503-200-0033 • Fax 200-0015 Deadline for all submitted materials: Articles: Monday, 5:00 pm—Ads: Tuesday, noon POSTMASTER: Send Address Changes to: Portland Observer, P.O. Box 3137, Portland, OR 97200. Second class postage paid at Portland Oregon. . P lease fill out , ENCLOSE CHECK OR MONEY ORDER, and M ail I J to : S ubscriptions I | I I I î T he P ortland O bserver : PO Box 3137 „ , P ortland , O regon 97200 j Tho Portland Observer welcomes freelance submissions. Manuscripts and photographs should be clearly labeled and will bo rolurnod if accompanied by a self addressed envelope. All created design display ads become the sole property ol the newspaper and can not be used In other publications or personal usage, without the wrltton eynsent ol the general managor, unless the client has purchased the composition ol such ad. © 1993 THE' PORTLAND OBSERVER. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. REPRODUCTION IN WHOLE OR IN PART WITHOUT PERMISSION IS Namo Address PROHIBITED. Subscrlpllons:$30.00 por year. Tho Portland Obsorver-Oregon’s Oldest African-American Publication-- Is a member of tho National Newspaper Association-Founded in 1005, and The National Advertising Representative Amalgamated Publishers, Inc., Now York, NY. and The Wosl Coast Dlack Publishers Association • Serving Portland and Vancouver city, Sialo zip-codo T hank Y ou F or R eading T he P ortland O bserver I I Ir I I I I I I I I I I I to sec and be seen, but th eir true friends -- A m erican progressives and in particu lar A frican A m e ri cans -- w h o have refused to be sham ed o r bullied into abandoning the P alestinian people. As I point out in my letter, it’ snot in the interests of the Palestinian people to forget their friends, nor is it in the interests o f the broad masses of the w orld’s people who have not yet overcome (including the millions of under-enfranchised and dispossessed in this country). Our struggles con tinue. W hat 1 am calling for from Brother Arafat is public recognition of the very high price that we paid and continue to pay for doing the right thing. Even more importantly, I am calling for an immediate end to our demonization. Only Arafat can give such recognition, and only he can make the demand that the punish ment of those o f us who have been his friends must stop. C learly , w e cannot ex pect Bill C lin to n or Y itzak R abin to do e i ther. T h e y w ill n o t speak o u t on this issue; they are am ong the c h ie f sp o k esm en o f the philosophy o f “ forgive and fo rg et” : those w ho h a v e borne the burden o f suffering m u st forgive those w ho im posed it, and th o se w h o cau sed it m ust be allo w e d to forget w hat they did. T h a t is the a ttitu d e o f W ashington an d T el A viv to w ard the P alestin ian d ead . T h a t is th eir a ttitu d e to w ard th e m illions o f P alestinian peo p le w ho have been forced to live in exile in th eir ow n land, to brin g up th e ir children as refugees, a c c u sto m e d to te rro r and brutality. In m y letter to A rafat I m a d e it c le a r that I w as n ot, o f c o u rse , com plaining. T h at the w rath o f the pow ers-that-be in this co untry has been turned upon m e for the ‘c rim e ” o f supporting the P alestin ian c a u se w as to be expected. N o r w as I asking fo r thanks for m yself, fo r m y colleagues in the N ew A lliance Party — m any o f w h o m are Je w s - - or for any o f those on the A m e ri can left w ho have been sim ilarly attacked. G iven o u r principles as in te rn a tio n a lis ts , and as progressives, w e have only do n e w hat w e had to do. As Yasir Arafat and the PLO set forth on the path of hope, I have simply asked that they not forget the friends who have been with them all along. We still have a long, long way to go. Lo cal S tu d e n ts C o m p le te I P M A s s is ta n t P ro g ra m Scouting is done with special A local high school student has recently completed a unique voca insect m onitoring systems dev eloped tional education program through his by Trccc, Inc., which attract to traps FFA chapter call 1PM Assistants, using a synthetic lure call a phero sponsored jointly by Trccc. Inc.. Sali mone. Students count the number of nas. California, and St Paul Feed insects and plot the results to show key periods of pest activity. Supply, St. Paul. Oregon. The scout worked closely with The program is designed to give FFA members practical farm experi Jim Bernards, with St. Paul Feed ence about Integrated Pest M anage Supply, who coordinated the field ment (IPM) techniques, while pro work for the program and was the viding farmers with scouting and field lead pest management adv isor, “The monitoring information, according to information helps growers make de Bill Lingrcn. president of Trcce IPM cisions regarding control programs," is a comprehensive approach to deal Bernards says. "In some cases, grow ing with pests that use methods that ers w ho normally spray on a regular are ecologically and economically schedule might skip a spray if scout reports show little pest activity. When effective, Lingrcn says control measures arc required, the James Bcnningcr. a sophomore pest data can be used to time sprays at Newberg High School. Newberg. more precisely. In either case, the Oregon, completed the summer-long grower benefits from higher effec work experience, according to FFA tiveness and lower costs.” leader Bob Bcckncr As an IPM As “Insect pest monitoring is an es sistant. Bcnningcr was required to sential component of a glow er’s IPM scout fruit trees for destructive insect p ro g ram ,’ says Bill Lingrcn with pests and report his findings to grow ers and their pest management adv i Trccc. “and insccl pheromone trap ping systems arc probably the most sor on a regular basis important tool for detecting and moni toring hidden insect inv aders before they reach levels of economic im por tance. Scouting reports allow grow ers to make informed decisions based on science, not guesswork The result is a more effective, environmentally sound pest m anagement program .” I n addition to twice-weekly scout ing of orchards and groves, IPM As sistants attend a seminar conducted by Trcce. Inc. and St. Paul Feed Sup ply to learn about Integrated Pest Ma nage me nt pract ices and pest moni - toring techniques They are also pro- v ided with study materials, including pest identification guides, field charts and background information on IPM Trccc Inc. is a manufacturer and international m arkctcrof pheromone- based insect monitoring systems and components for agriculture The com- panv has initiated IPM Assistant pro gram s in California. Oregon and W ashington, with new FFA chapters joining each year. For more informa tion about IPM Assistant, contact Trccc, Inc at 408-758-0204. ■ * "It ¡ S A. 1 I
