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Page 2/The Battalion/Monday, October 3,1983 Latin American refugees pouring into the U.S. Obnoxiousness is easy to spot By Maxwell Glen and Cody Shearer LOS ANGELES — As one reason for supporting his hard line on El Salvador, President Reagan has offered the pros pect of refugees flooding this country to escape communism. But if pre-empting uncontrolled im migration is his purpose, then the presi dent’s policies are a failure. Central Americans have fled to the U.S. in the hundreds of thousands, and a large num ber — possibly as many as 500,000 — have come from El Salvador, a nation a of only 4.7 million people. Here in Reagan’s former hometown, some 200,000 Salvadorans are said to live with 50,000 of them squeezed into L.A.’s downtown Pico-Union district. While on Pico Boulevard commercial symbols of El Salvador’s growing U.S. presence stare openly at passersby, the sidestreets overflow with families who hide in Pico-Union’s dilapidated apart ment buildings, often in one room. "The Salvadorans are a frightened re fugee population,” says Aurora Mar tinez, a retired nurse who coordinates health care efforts for Pico-Union’s Oscar R. Romero clinic. Origins only complicate the bleak em ployment picture. Says social worker Cynthia Anderson, referring to prop osed federal restrictions on employers who hire undocumented workers: “With the passage of the Simpson-Mazzoli bill in the House, no employer wants to hire an illegal alien and get fined.” Few Salvadoran refugees, however, seem prepared to return home just yet, or even if and when Central America’s strife subsides. But, they say, serious peace negotiations to end El Salvador’s civil war might encourage more potential refugees to stay home. Donald Woods, a South African journal ist once imprisoned for his anti-apartheid activities, has formed an organization to inform foreign journalists and govern ment officials about developments in his home country. The new group, Lincoln Trust, will have its U.S. office in Washington. John Tower’s decision to step down from his Senate seat after nearly four terms has irked White House officials. Tower, a Texas Republican and chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, had already received substantial political assistance from the administraiton in anticipation of a tough re-election fight next year. As an exession of its interest in Tower’s stand on immigration issues, the White House is said to have established its latest task force on border problems, the Banker renegotiates international loans by Art Buchwald I met a man the other day who has a very interesting job. He renegotiates loans for Third World countries. We shall call the man Jean Valjean, and he works for the Credit Bearnaise. He told me, “A loan renegotiator is the most important figure in the banking world today. Without him the monetary system would go under.” “How do you renegotiate a loan?” I inquired. “You renegotiate a loan by not paying it. The service you perform is to come up with a legitimate reason why a country cannot repay a loan to a foreign bank. “At the moment I just renegotiated a loan for the South American country of Santa Busta. Santa Busta is a Third World country that owes $1 billion to a consortium of Western Banks.” “Why did the banks loan her that kind of money?” “Because she was willing to pay two percent more for the loans than other countries. Besides, at the time, Santa Bus ta was getting $4 a pound for mining raw Velcro, its only natural resource.” “What did Santa Busta do with the bil lion dollars?” “Some of it went for roads, some of it went for Mercedes Benzes, some of it for scotch, some of it went to pay for tear gas, and quite a bit of it wound up in num bered Swiss bank accounts belonging to Santa Busta politicians in power.” “Okay, so the money was well spent. Why can’t they pay it back?” The Battalion USPS 045 360 Memlvr ot Texas'Press' Association' Southwest Journalism Conference Editor Hope E. Paasch Managing Editor Elaine Engstroni City Editor Beverly Hamilton Assistant City Editor Kelley Snlith Sports Editor .I”! 111 Lopez Assistant Sports Editor JoeTindel Entertainment Editor .... Rebeca Zimmermann Assistant Entertainment Editor Shelley Hoekstra News Editors Brian Boyer, Kathy Breard, Tracey Taylor, Kelly Miller Photo Editor Eric Evan Lee Staff Writers Brigid Brockman, Ronnie Crocker, Scott Griffin, Christine Mallon, Michelle Powe, Ann Ramsbottom, Stephanie Ross, Karen Schrimsher, Carol Smith, Angel Stokes, John Wagner, Kathy Wiesepape, Wanda Winkler Cartoonist Paul Dirmeyer, Scott McCullar Photographers Brenda Davidson, Michael Davis, Guy Hood, John Makely, Dean Saito The Battalion also serves as a laboratory newspaper tor students in reporting, editing and photography clas ses within the Department of Communications. Questions or comments concerning any editorial matter should he directed to the editor. Letters Policy Letters to the Editor should not exceed 300 words in length, and are subject to being cut if they are longer. The editorial staff reserves the right to edit letters for style and length, but will make every effort to maintain the author’s intent. Each letter must also be signed and show the address and telephone number of the writer. Columns and guest editorials also are welcome, and are not subject to the same length constraints as letters. Address all inquiries and correspondence to: Editor, The Battalion, 216 Reed^McDonald, Texas A&M Uni versity, College Station, TX 77843, or phone (409) 845- 2611. Editorial Policy The Battalion is published Monday through Friday during Texas A&M regular semesters, except for holi day and examination periods. Mail subscriptions are $16.75 persemester, $33.25 per school yearand $35 per full year. Advertising rates furnished on request. Our address: The Battalion, 216 Reed McDonald Building, Texas A&M University, College Station, TX 77843. The Battalion is a non-profit, sell-supporting news paper operated as a community service to Texas A&M University and Bryan-College Station. Opinions ex pressed in The Battalion are those ot the editor or the author, and do not necessarily represent the opinions of Texas A&M University administrators or faculty mem bers, or of the Board of Regents. United Press International is entitled exclusively to the use for reproduction of all news hspatches credited to it. Rights of reproduction of all other matter herein reserved. Second class postage paid at College Station, TX 77843. Southwest Border States Working Group. Philippine opposition leader Benigno Aquino’s brutal assassination at the Man ila airport last weekend should have fueled the imagination of anyone who remembers the Nicaraguan revolution. In 1978, a similarly charismatic opposi tion figure, La Prenza editor Pedro Cha morro, was gunned down on the streets of Managua. As is likely in Aquino’s death, Chamorro’s killers were never identified but were nonetheless linked to the nation’s long-ruling dictator (in Nicaragua’s case, Anastasio Somoza De- bayle). It’s generally concluded, too, that Cha morro’s death served most to unite all of Nicaragua against Somoza’s rule. Time will tell whether history repeats itself in the land of Ferdinand Marcos. British disarmament activists are appa rently finding rock bands reluctant to play benefit concerts. One reason seems to be that some of the more outspoken groups — The Clash, The Specials and Peter Gabriel, for example — have re cently disbanded. Another reason, however, is more telling about Britain: At two recent “rock the bomb” festivals, divi sions among concert-goers led to mud- hurling and minor skirmishes. Obnoxious people can be defined in many ways: Howard Cosell, Joan Col lins, Don Rickies, Jerry Lewis. Everyone encounters at least one obnoxious person. I happen to have en countered several. Most people will usually agree that a person who uses his index finger as a Kleenex is obnoxious. But obnoxious ness goes deeper than disgusting per sonal habits. Personally, I find a person who skips his 8 a.m. statistics class when I have to get up and go to it, obnoxious. I also find anyone who understands his 8 a.m. statistics class obnoxious. To tell the truth, I find statistics class obno xious. Any girl who says she is on a diet and then eats three desserts, or any girl who wears' size 5 jeans and complains about being fat is obnoxious. People who also can be classified as obnoxious include couples who, when parting before class, kiss each other so passionately that they could feasibly conceive a baby in the middle of the MSC. Anyone who treats a student working as cafeteria and bookstore help as “two- bit minumum wage help” is not only obnoxious, but also rude. I would much prefer to say that I helped support my self in college by working or earning a scholarship than say, “Mummy and Daddy are paying for everything.” People who put you on hold, when you only want to find out how rad pizza costs, can usually be dassifii obnoxious. Anyone who gets an averageoflj letters and one package a weekori one who makes his bed within twoj of getting out of it usually aren’tn to high in my book. Nor is anyonei complains about noise at 11:3 a Friday night. I find people who go to lot games only because they gettokisil dates after touchdowns extreij obnoxious, as is a freshman wholl he or she is the hottest thing to hilll Anyone who has the attitude! professor is senile just because I over 50 is obnoxious. I guess all is fair though. Therep ably are some people who find coliij writers, w ho write about peoplewht obnoxious, obnoxious. SCHEDULE FOR WALTER MONDALE “Last year the price of raw Velcro tum bled to 10 cents a pound and the country went bankrupt.” “So that’s when you were called in to renegotiate the loan?” “Right. Both Santa Busta and the con sortium of banks asked me to come up with a plan that could justify them not paying the loan back. I talked Santa Bus- ta’s leading families into announcing a tough austerity program, which they were more than happy to do, since most of them live in Florida. Then I went to the banks with the austerity program, and asked them to renegotiate the loan by not demanding principal for seven years. The banks accepted this providing Santa Busta pay interest on the loan.” “Where could Santa Busta get the money to pay the interest?” “I persuaded the consortium to do it so they could keep the Santa Busta debt on their books as a viable loan. If Santa Busta couldn’t pay the interest, the banks would have to tell their stockholders that a ma jor loan client was in default, and then everyone would be in the soup. As far as the banks were concerned it was just an accounting transaction. They put the in terest money they loaned to Santa Busta in one computer and transferred it to another computer in the same office. “I can now see the value of what you do. What do you get paid for this sort of thing?” “A nice percentage of the loan, which the banks are only too happy to pay any one for getting them off the financial hook.” 9 : 00 AM National Catfood Distributors endorsement. Speech. 11:00 AM Gay Dentists endorsement. Speech. 3:00 PM Norwegian Moonies endorsement. Speech. 5:00 PM Press Conference. Deny you are pawn of special interest groups ’III Sarah Marie Bui and Alison Burt ler best to corisi at the Brazos V Tb&g | The follow jorted to tin Jpartment o THEFTS: A black §|c)de from tl 'lick. 1 wo tree fAMU-TV. Jj* A wallet Kt unattendc Jwt lounge Indent Cen Tit into Run glenn gaii /Jmr***^ Gymnast advises young athletes by Children’s Express United Press International (Editor’s note: Children’s Express, a privately funded news service, is real world journalism reported entirely by children 13 years of age or under whose tape-recorded interviews, discussions, re ports and commentary are edited by teenagers and adults.) SOUTH BEND, Ind. — When the guest athletes were introduced at the opening ceremonies of the Sears National Junior Olympics, they all got big hands. But when Kurt Thomas was introduced, the audience went wild. All the girls and lots of people with cameras and autograph books came running. Kurt Thomas started out in the Junior Olympics and now he’s the Junior Olym pics spokesperson. We were really look ing forward to meeting him because he’s an excellent gymnast and we’ve seen him in commercials and newspapers. Kurt Thomas is a success story. In the Pan American Games, he won gold medals and became quite famous. Now he has a gymnastic school, a camp, and a book called “Kurt Thomas on Gymnastics.” He’s also a sports commentator for ABC. score a certain score, or hit a certain routine, I did. That was good for me.” But Thomas also said that it’s very bad for coaches and parents to put the win-at- all-costs attitude into their kids. If it’s more like a dictatorship and a threat, it makes the kids feel scared. At his gymnastics schools, sometimes the parents want their kids to do so well that they bribe them with money, the car keys, or something that the kid wants. They get angry if they don’t do good. Thomas says it’s very selfish. “The pa rents put a lot of pressure on their kids to excel so that ultimately it’ll come back to them,” he said. “A kid wants to be pushed to the ex tent that he knows the parents support him,” he added, “but not to the point where they want him to do it for them instead of himself.” On TV, Thomas looks much younger. When we saw him, he looked young, but more mature. We went to dinner with Thomas and his wife, Leanne. He doesn’t seem like some stars whose outside is dif ferent from their inside — he’s really nice. We also went to an interview with him about competition and pressure on young athletes. He told us that he put pressure on him self. He really wanted to succeed in gym nastics. He said that pressure was good for him — it sort of gave him a kick. “In a non-pressure situation, I kind of slacked off,” he explained. “But when I had to Thomas thinks that a child should feel like he can do it on his own, “that it should come from within.” He also told us that “a lot of the coaches push kids very far.” So if some one in some sport feels that his coach is pushing him too hard, he should say, ‘Back off a little. Pretty soon this is not going to be fun for me. And if it’s not fun, I’m not going to participate.” Thomas pointed out that he didn’t want to win because his opponent fell down or slipped. He wanted to win when his opponent did his best. The win-at-all-costs attitude can get kids away from sports. “You win, and then at the next meet you don’t win. You feel like, ‘The whole world’s collapsing on me,”’ Thomas said. “You’ve got to get to the point where you accept failure, although it can be one of tne hardest things to do.” Thomas feels that the kind of encour agement young athletes need from their parents, coaches and friends is “nol pushed to win, win, win, but lose! towards winning. “When I was in my firstJuniorO pics,” he told us, “I was 13th out of dead last. But that really motivated( train harder. T he next year I p fourth. I saw that if I could move 13th to fourth, I could move fromfo to first. So I worked real hard and! become first. T he next year 1 slacld and placed third, but it was another? experience.” Thomas was saying that you sfc have good sportsmanship, yoush» : start yelling around, and you sh think about your mistakes. After mess up, try to make it workoutsfl won’t mess up the next time. “Accept failure,” he said, “build failure teach you something. TuU failure into success.” Slouch LC \by Jim 6 Features: 2! • B ii “Now mind you I don’t r say that classes on cutting logs the bonfire is bad •••• ’’