Wednesday, May 29, 1985/The Battalion/Page 3 ater and food Researcher: Scientists must learn from poor to help poor By JERRY OSLIN Stuff Writer If scientists and technicians are (■solve the problems of the vorld’s poor, they must learn tom and work with the poor )eople of the world, a British re- icardter said Monday. TIo alleviate world hunger, we need to adopt a new professional ism and put poor people first,” said Dr. Robert Chambers, a pro fessor with the Institute of Devel- opfnent Studies at the University pf Sussex, England. ■Chambers’ speech was part of I’exas A&M’s food and water conference. Bdhamhers told a group of about 400 people at Rudder Au ditorium that scientists and re searchers are not solving world hunger because they don’t see the real solution to the problem. “ ‘If we produce more food, we can vanquish hunger,’ ” I have heard this again and again at international conferences and from the empirical evidence, this is simply not true,” Chambers said. “World food supplies have been rising faster than popula tion.” The problem is not with pro duction of food, Chambers said, but with the power of poor peo ple to obtain it. Scientists have been wrong in other hunger-solving ap- proaches, Chambers said. “The growth trickle down ap proach iias been very strongly discredited; it is a kind of naive wish f ulfillment on the part of de veloping countries,” he said. “There are too many countries where there are a relative few who benef it f rom the growth.” The lack of f ood is not the only problem facing the world’s poor, Chambers said. “There is a lack of basic goods among people such as matches, batteries, soap, salt and even clothes,” he said. Scientists and other problem solvers have been wrong in their approach to solutions because of their inability to learn from poor people. Chambers called scientists’ in ability to learn from poor people “normal professionalism.” “As professionals we tend to value the sophisticated, complex and the high tech rather than things which poor people value,” he said. “We also are trapped in cores of knowledge which we can transfer to the poor people who are ignorant of this knowledge. If we are going to alleviate poor people’s problems, then the flow must be the other way around.” If scientists really want to alle viate the problems of the world’s poor, they need to start seeing problems and priorities from poor people’s point of view. “We shouldn’t see things from our point of view; We should see things from their (poor people) point of view,” he said. “The key to changing policy is to establish what the priorities are and the way to do that is to ask them. “We professionals are part of the problem and we have to look at ourselves,” Chambers said. Groundwater conservation issue discussed at conference ByJERRY OSLIN Stuff Writer If countries don’t stop using groundwater to irrigate crops in (Irv areas, the remaining ground- water will become salty and unu- seable, two scientists told about 3()i) people Tuesday at Texas A&M’s food and water confer ence. ■Dr. William Brown, Chairman of the Board on Agriculture of the National Research Council, and Dr. Marvin Jensen, president of the International Commission on Irrigation and Drainage, both said new technology needs to he used to help save the remaining groundwater in dry areas. Brown, a member of the Na tional Academy of Sciences, said underground aquifers in every state of the United States, includ ing the Ogallala Aquifer in Texas, are becoming more salty because of the increased depen dence on them for irrigation wa ter. He also said groundwater is becoming more polluted by pesti cides and fertilizers. Brown said new drought-resis tant and salt-resistant hybrids need to be developed to stop the overuse of groundwater to irri gate agriculture. The use of salt water for irriga tion retards the growth of crops, Brown said. Researchers have spent too much time developing high-yield hybrids instead of anti-drought and anti-salt hybrids, Brown said. “There has been little research done on drought resistant hy brids,” he said. “There has been some progress in developing new hybrids, but those have been high-yield hybrids and not envi ronment-resistant ones.” Jensen said groundwater should be considered a supple ment to irrigating crops and not as the main source. More ef ficient methods of irri gation need to be used to con serve groundwater, Jensen said. More efficient methods of irri gation are available but farmers don’t use them because water costs so little. “Free and low-cost water leads to waste arid other problems such as increased salinity,” he said. New water-efficient methods should be developed but proven methods should be used, he said. c and technological break throughs can have a major impact but the major breakthroughs have evolved slowly over the past 100 vears,” he said. A&M won’t fight final GSS ruling By KAREN BLOCH Stuf f Writer Texas A&M’s nine-year battle to deny University recognition of the Gay Student Services group appar ently ended in defeat for the Univer sity last week. On May 20, the U.S. Supreme Court denied A&M’s motion for a rehearing of the case and University of ficials say they will not attempt to fight the ruling. Dr. John Koldus, A&M’s vice president for student services, said Tuesday the University will not op pose the ruling. “The Supreme Court made a de cision and the University will abide by it,” Koldus said. Don Albrecht, associate director for student activities said his office hasn’t recognized the GSS because they haven’t filed registration papers yet. “There’s nothing left for us (the History today University) to fiirht.” Albrecht said. “They (the GSS) just need to register with us.” Albrecht said he hasn’t heard any thing from GSS since the Office of Student Services verified the Su preme Court’s decision. “We expected to hear something from them,” he said, “but so far, we’ve heard nothing. “They don’t have to go through the recognition process, but they need to register the group. All orga nizations have to register with us ev ery year. All the GSS has to do is fill out the registration papers.” As a recognized student organiza tion, the GSS will be allowed to use campus facilities, advertise on cam pus, use office space in the Student Programs Office, hold meetings on campus, use banking facilities and mailboxes in the Student Finance Office arid use funds supplied by the MSC Bookstore for the use of stu dent groups. Associated Press On May 29, 1953, Mount Everest was conquered as Edmund Hillary of New Zealand and Tensing Nor- kay of Nepal became the first to reach the summit of the 29,000-foot Himalayan mountain. In 1765, Patrick Henry de nounced the Stamp Act before Vir ginia’s House of Burgesses. Respon ding to a cry of “Treason!” Henry replied: “If this be treason, make the most of it!” In 1790, Rhode Island became the 13th and final original colony to rat ify the United States Constitution. In 1917, the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, was born in Brookline, Mass. One year ago: The United States announced it had sold 400 Stinger anti-aircraft missiles to Saudi Arabia in the face of escalating conflict in the Persian Gulf. 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