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N A T IO N A L
From Health Care To Money Care
“ r-
J
HANK YOU FOR THAT
EXCELLENT RE-
S P O N S E TO LAST
WEEK'S ARTICLE ON “HEALTH
CARE I’M GLAD YOU UNDER­
STAND THAT THE SUCCESS
OF ANY GOOD DELIVERY SYS­
TEM IS A MATTER OF ECO­
NOM ICS AND CO M M UNICA­
TIONS.
W h e th e r
you wish to heal
p e o p le ,
feed
p e o p le , h o u se
them o r w h at­
e v e r,
your
“bleeding heart”
m u st be s u s ­
tained by equal
doses o f com petence and inform a­
tion. N ot only w ould I suggest that
you obtain a copy o f last w eek’s Per­
spective Colum n, but my “M inority
B usiness” article in the sam e issue -
as w ell as this weeks. It is becoming
increasingly evident to those engaged
in a w ide spectrum o f human activity
that the basic architecture m ust be
built around econom ics and inform a­
tion retrieval. R om ance w ithout fi­
nance is still an nuisance!
It was on such criteria that my
m edical education proposal was fa­
vorably evaluated by the adm inistra­
tion at Providence M edical C enter
and which is the basis for consider­
ation o f my new model by various
players in the health care industry.
From the very first contact or solicita­
tion interface it is necessary to indi­
cate that there has been a real-tim e
developm ent o f facts, figures and so­
lutions. N ot rhetoric.
I mention this because a cyclical
phenomenon has over-come me, “deja
vu all over again” as that famous
b aseball p lay er said. A bout tw o
m onths ago and unheralded, let alone
invited (singly and in groups, some
strangers), a raft o f grant seekers
began finding their way to my door.
W ell, certainly not
b e c a u se I have
money to give out
ßy
or because I am con-
Professor
nectcd to any foun­
Mckiniey
dation.
But because
Bun
as a friend o f mine
p u t it, a re tire d
s c h o o l te a c h e r ,
“ they have been reading in the media
glowing accounts of big bucks being
aw arded tocom m unity organizations
such as Self-Enhancem ent. They seek
expertise, real or im agined.”
D on’t I know it! N ot only in
Portland, but in all African A m erican
com m unities across the nation there
has com e into being a gigantic eco­
nom ic enterprise -- a m ultibillion
dollar m achine that was bom in the
1960’s as part o f President Johnson’s
“G reat Society”. W hile that particu­
lar social experim ent is not w hat this
article isabout, it is im portant to point
out that a goodly num ber o f these
grant requests are for program s to
plug holes in the dike where m ajor
program s have failed. And further,
that a huge num ber o f black people -
- com pletely out o f proportion to other
com m unities - are em ployed in the
expedition o f these program s as op­
posed to producing goods and ser­
vices in the classic m ode o f industry.
Consequently, it should not be
surprising that there should be so
many people about whose idea of
“business, incom e-producing activ­
ity, or support o f the infrastructure
and com m unity institutions” is in no
fashion related to the traditional
AN PEACE EVER COME
am erican version. The value system
TO THE HOLY LAND?
is com pletely different and over the
FOR A BRIEF MOMENT
last thirty years the resulting mind set LAST FALL WHEN PRIME MIN­
has become alm ost incom prehensible ISTER YITZHAK RABIN OF IS­
to many. I first becom e aw are o f the RAEL AND CHAIRMAN YASSIR
depth o f the chasm when I left indus­ ARAFAT OF THE PALESTINE
try and began teaching business LIBERATION ORGANIZATION
courses at the university.
SHOOK HANDS, PEACE FILLED
So it is that two m ajor disabilities THE AIR.
occur in the African A m erican popu­
On the road to Hebron in the
lation. There is an econom ic depen­ W est Bank, the traffic stopped. Pales­
dency on “other” to create jobs and tinian children danced am ong the
supply services - leading to a subse­ cars waving PLO flags. Israeli set­
quent loss o f self-im age and a vision tlers exchanged greetings and began
o f the future. And since so m any have to wave green, red and w hite flags.
no opportunity by either em ploym ent
The prom ise o f that m om ent is
or association to benefit from the fading fast. W hile the peace makers
expertise, perspectives, and discipline have been dickering about the details
to be learned in the m arketplace, the o f the agreem ent, the saboteurs have
com m unity social program s suffer been violently assaulting the hope for
from a lack o f business methodology peace. The m assacre o f Palestinians
and systematic approach.
praying in Hebron by a Jewish settler
The situation is endem ic and I was devastating, and more Palestin­
am losing friends inform ing them ians have been slain since Hebron
that I cannot stop my enterprises to than w ere lost at the massacre. The
perform tasks for them which should bombing o f innocent Israelis in Afula
have been prepared for in term s of has been followed by otherattem pts at
office equipm ent, m anuals, books, terror, some horribly successful by
research, consultants, etc. “Structure Palestinian rcjectionists.
is essential to program s as w ell as
I traveled to Israel and the W est
business.”
Bank last week on a jo in t invitation
from Palestinians and the Israeli gov­
ernm ent. In m eetings with Prim e
M inister Rabin and Foreign M inister
Peres, and telephone discussions with
Rainbow President Reports On Middle East
Civil Rights Journal
Fairness For Haiti
by
B ernice P owell J ackson
aiti is a country
H
WITH A RICH AND
PROUD HISTORY, OF
WHICH MANY AMERICANS ARE
UNAWARE.
W e don ’ t know, for instance, that
H aiti’s fledgling little arm y defeated
the renow ned arm y o f the em peror
N apoleon. W e d o n ’t know that Haiti
has been independent since 1804, But
Haiti is also a country with a long
tragic history of political chaos, insta­
bility and terrorism , a history o f a
people longing for dem ocracy as yet
unfulfilled.
The United States played a piv­
otal role in H aiti’s history at least
once in the past, during the early part
o f this century when the United S tates
occupied Haiti. Now, the United Stales
once again holds H aiti’s future in its
hands. It is up to the Clinton A dm in­
istration to decide w hether it wants to
go dow n in history supporting real
democracy in Haiti or whether it wants
to be a friend to a governm ent which
rules its people by terror and rape.
The Congressional Black C au­
cus recently wrote a letter to President
C lin to n , p utting it b lu n tly , “T he
United States’ Haiti policy m ust be
scrapped.” It added, “It is ineffective,
counterproductive, and encourages
the continued torture and m urder o f
H aitian civilians.”
Indeed, a recent visit by the U.N.
Civilian Mission to H aiti, a human
rights m onitoring team, found that
there have been dozens o f killings
and disappearances and that there is
a frightening and new phenom enon
o f rape being used as an instrum ent of
political violence. In the D uvalier
dictatorship the m onstrous Tontons
M acoute were the governm ent’s ter­
rorist army which tortured and killed
hundreds, if not thousands o f Hai­
tians through the years. Now the next
generation o f these thugs, know n as
the F ro n t for A d v a n c e m e n t and
Progress o r Fraph, are running ram ­
pant. A recent article on the op/cd
page of the New York Tim es d e­
scribed “ facial scalpings” by these
blood-thirsty soldiers intent on keep­
ing terror in the hearts o f H aitians and
dem ocracy out o f Haiti.
The irony o f it all is that candi­
date Clinton vociferously denounced
the Haitian policy o f President Bush,
who had ordered the U.S. Coast Guard
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T I O N
to pick up people fleeing Haiti by boat
and to return them to Haiti w ithout
considering their requests for politi­
cal asylum. Only a few days after
becoming President, Clinton re-insti­
tuted that same policy he had decried.
Both candidate Clinton and President
Clinton have said that hum an rights
is a priority of this A dm inistration.
The ignoring o f the illegal trading of
gasoline and other goods to Haiti
despite a U.S. backed U.N. em bargo
and other policies concerning Haiti
thus far belie this statem ent.
In recent m onths, the State D e­
partm ent has put forth a dangerous
policy which assures amnesty to the
leaders o f the coup w hich ousted the
de moc ratically elected Prcsiden t, Jean
Bertrand Aristide, and doesn’t set a
target date for President A ristide’s
return to Haiti. It has also brought to
the table a Haitian legislator widely
known to be connected with the ter­
rorist Fraph group. A ccording to the
congressional Black Caucus, “Our
entire Haiti policy appears to be a
series o f m achinations on the part of
the w orld’s sole superpow er to derail
the dem ocratic program so painfully
and m o v in g ly e m b ra c e d by our
hem isphere’s poorest people.”
As new stories o f horrible human
rights violations appear daily, it is
im perative that the C linton A dm inis­
tration change its Haiti policy. First,
it m ust denounce the cam paign of
terror now going on in Haiti and call
for an investigation into these actions
by a recognized hum an rights viola­
tions group. Secondly, it m ust work to
make the em bargo o f oil a reality.
That would include pressuring the
neighboring D om inican Republic,
which has surreptitiously allowed oil
into Haiti and im posing sanctions
against any country that violates the
embargo. Thirdly, the U.S. must stop
sending Haitian refugees back to Haiti
without a hearing by U.S. im m igra­
tion officials -- never before in U.S.
history have we taken such steps and
such actions easily lead to charges of
racism. Finally, the C linton A dm in­
istration m ust look into its own soul
and adm it it has an inadequate State
D epartm ent plan. Such a plan sabo­
tages the governors’ Island Accord
which the U.S. itself had sponsored
only months ago and m akes the world
question the sincerity o f our public
pronouncem ents about democracy.
PLO Chairm an Arafat, I urged these
leaders to go back to the bargaining
table personally, to cut through the
bureaucratic concerns to c o n d u d e the
agreem ent rapidly so that change
could be felt im m ediately on the
ground. Both the leaders in israel and
in the PLO realize that if the fruits o f
peace cannot be tasted quickly by
Palestinians in the W est Bank and
Gaza, then the poisonous violence
may kill the peace tree before it can
take root.
The leaders on each side face
terribly difficult decisions. In Israel,
every act o f te n o r becom es an argu­
ment against going forward. In re­
sponse, the governm ent imposes se­
curity m easures that only breed an ­
ger, frustration and m ore violence
from the Palestinians. Somehow the
governm ent m ust be strong enough to
move aw ay from sweeping, collective
punishm ents (the iron presence o f the
occupier) to give the Palestinians,
peace can only be bui It on devc loping
trust. If they cannot control the ex­
trem ists who target innocent victims,
as at A fula, then surely they must
isolate them , condem n the acts o f
terror, even as they begin to build
their own autonomous institutions and
economy.
Cynicism is the com m on coin in
the M iddle East. Reporters, Israelis
and Palestinians can detail many rea-
sons why nothing can or will change.
In many ways, a hundred year w ar is
easier to continue than to stop. There
is a tendency among both Israelis and
Palestinians to recycle their pain, to
dwell on their losses, to let the hon o rs
blind them to the hope.
But through bold and decisive
leadership, Rabin and A rafat-form er
enem ies-have taken m utual risks for
peace. They are now bound together.
Rabin cannot succeed unless A rafat is
strong; Arafat cannot succeed unless
Rabin in strong.
P eace is risky to b o th o f th em .
B ut w ar is risk y too, and the fru its
o f p e a c e are m uch sw e e te r. N ow
in th is c ru c ia l m o m en t, it is v ita l
th a t p e o p le a c ro ss the w o rld o ffe r
su p p o rt and e n c o u ra g e m e n t fo r
c o n tin u in g this peace p ro c e ss. T he
U nited S ta te s and its a llie s sh o u ld
be a c tin g b o ld ly to g re a s e th e
track s th a t have a lre a d y b een la id ,
and to h elp g e t th e tra in m o v in g
b e fo re it is too late.
Some contend that to be optim is­
tic about peace in the M iddle East is
merely to be a dreamer. But Rabin
and Arafat are not dream ers, but lead­
ers seeking a way out. Perhaps, they
are wise enough to understand that in
this mom ent, it is time to work tire­
lessly on making the dream com e true
in the M iddle East, so that the night­
mares w on’t continue.
Celebrate Diversi
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