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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 11, 1985)
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The Battalion Vol. 81 No. 8 CISPS 045360 20 pages College Station, Texas Wednesday, September 11,1985 ott said, k it up, ’id tires levision I never he said, e (lisas- stay on cl, it’s a re down to leave Two left dead following riot in Birmingham Associated Press BIRMINGHAM, England — An angry crowd attacked Britain’s law enforcement minister on Tuesday when he visited the scene of over night rioting and arson that left two people dead in the country’s second- largest city. The violence started Monday night in a confrontation between blacks and a policeman and ended with 50 shops gutted by fire. It was the worst rioting to hit Brit ain since 1981, when racial violence raged for two days in parts of Lon don, Liverpool and Manchester in the greatest breakdown of law and order in this century. Home Secretary Douglas Hurd visited the rundown district of Handsworth on Tuesday afternoon to view the destruction and quickly drew a crowd, mostly of black youths, who jeered him. As Hurd said “I’m here to listen,” bricks and bottles sailed out of the crowd. Hurd was hurried into a po lice van and driven away unhurt, and the crowd pelted two police vans in a service station with stones. One van drove away, but the crowd overturned the second and set it ablaze, sending a new pall of smoke over a neighborhood still smoldering from fires in some 50 shopS. Police said they found two bodies in a burned-out post office on Loz- ells Road in the rundowm Hand sworth district. They did not imme diately identify the victims, and they said two other people were missing. Police said they had arrested 25 blacks on charges of looting. Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher said she was “absolutely appalled” at the destruction and loss of life, and urged police and com munity leaders to work together to prevent further trouble. Police and most politicians said there was no racial aspect to the fla- reup, but blacks complained of po lice harassment, saying they were the targets of repeated drug raids. The violence began Monday when a crowd attacked a motorcycle police officer who stopped a driver to check whether the car was stolen, police said. The officer, one of 25 in jured Monday night, suffered a bro ken nose. Geoffrey Dear, the West Midland chief constable, said those who ri oted Tuesday were the same “looters and rioters” who burned a large stretch of Handsworth Monday night. 5lt>f cm Many American firms pulling out of South Africa Associated Press WASHINGTON — Many Ameri can businesses and banks are grad ually but steadily pulling out of South Africa because, as one bank spokesman put it, they no long find tnat country “an attractive place to do business.” "The private market is sending a much stronger message than official sanctions have to the South African government that their policies are creating an economic climate that is unconducive for conducting busi ness,” says Jeffrey J. Schott, research associate at the Institute for Interna tional Economics. The compromise sanctions com ing out of Congress pale by compari son to what the private sector is doing,” Schott says. Some of the changes that are un der way: • Engelhard Corp., a big New Jersey manufacturer of chemical and metallurgical products, this year liquidated its wholly owned South African affiliate. “It was a pure business decision. based on the present performance of that business, the growth poten tial and the overall economics in volved,” said spokesman Frank Vi tale. • Phibro-Salomon Inc., an invest ment banking firm, announced last month a withdrawal from South Af rican operations. • Goca-Cola Co. announced sale of majority interest in its group of South African bottling plants to a South African company, though it will continue to hold a minority stake. • West Point-Pepperall, a Georgia-based textile company, sold its minority interest in a South Afri can affiliate to local managers for one rand — less than 40 cents. “Really there was no relationship be tween the social activity there,” said spokesman Donald Downs. “It was a purely business decision based on the fact the operation wasn’t profita ble.” But while officials of most compa nies withdrawing from South Africa said the decisions were based on dol- lars-and-cents business judgments, several acknowledged that political factors also came into play. “While most of them cite eco nomic reasons, and with good rea son, ... I think it’s also just fact that politics come into consideration at some point,” says Cathy Bowers, an analyst with the Investor Responsibi lity Research Center Inc. In some cases, the decision to end business dealings with South Africa was prompted by laws discouraging ties with the apartheid regime. Motorola Inc. dropped its sales of^ two-way radios to the South African police forces this year in response to a New York City ordinance barfing purchases from firms dealing with South Africa, spokesman George Grimsrud said. The company had no choice if it wanted to sell radios to New York City. Some companies say they are firm in their intention to remain in South Africa, however. “There’s been no change; it’s just business as usual,” said Cameron Calder, vice president of interna tional operations for American Cy- anamide, the big chemical company. Its South African affiliates have 700 employees and had 1983 sales of $50 million. The latest jolt was a credit pinch- off last week by U.S. banks on South African companies. The banks are expected to resume lending money to South Africans after that country ends a four-month moratorium on repaying loans. “Political and economic issues have tended to merge in that coun try,” said John Falb, head of the multinational department of Repub- licbank Corp. of Dallas. “Most American banks that have lent money to that country are in a wait-and-hold, wait-and-see situa tion,” he added. “We wouldn’t be ex tending new loans until we find out just what the South African govern ment intends to do.” Reogon sends Very important’ message Associated Press JOHANNESBURG, South Africa — The American ambassador re turned to South Africa on Tuesday with a “very important message” from President Reagan, and the country’s leading business newspa per said the new U.S. economic sanc tions ^show the white-minority re gime has “pushed the world too far.” President Reagan withdrew U.S. Ambassador Herman Nickel nearly three months ago. Nickel said Reagan had given him “a very important message” to de liver to South African President P.W. Botha, but he would not say what it was. Business Day, an influential finan cial daily, said Reagan’s economic sanctions were “more economically inconvenient than terminal.” But it added, “The most powerful leader in the Western world is giving South Africa a clear and unequivocal politi cal message: reform must continue at a pace acceptable to the Western allies whether Pretoria likes it or not.” Anti-apartheid groups attacked the sanctions as cosmetic and inade quate. Foreign Ministers from the 10 Eu ropean Common Market countries, meeting in Luxembourg, de nounced apartheid and nine of the 10 member countries agreed to a package of mildly punitive mea sures. President Botha told students at the Rand Afrikaans University Tuesday that South Africa was com mitted to reform “within a frame work of order, peace, safety and progress,” based on Christian values. “But nowhere does Christ teach me to commit suicide for the sake of my neighbor,” Botha said. Last group of prisoners released by Israelis Associated Press Israel on Tuesday released 119 Lebanese and Palestinians, the fi nal group of more than 750 pris oners in Israel whose freedom was demanded by Shiite Moslem gunmen who hijacked a TWA jet liner in June. The Israeli action opened the way for the possible release of at least some of the Westerners kid napped in Beirut in the last 18 months. Shiite Moslem officials in Bei rut said two Frenchmen kidnap ped in Beirut nearly four months ago would be freed soon. But there was no word on 10 other missing Westerners, seven Amer icans, two Frenchmen and a Bri ton. The hijackers of the American jet in June held 39 Americans hostage for 17 days. Although Is rael and the United States re fused to negotiate with the hijack ers, Israel said it would release the prisoners in several groups if calm prevailed in south Lebanon. The fourth and final group of prisoners was welcomed as heroes when they rode into the southern Lebanese port of Tyre on buses. Many of them chanted: “We will fight Israel again.” The men had been held in Is rael’s Atlit prison near Haifa. An International Red Cross official, who declined to be identified by name, said, “Atlit is now empty.” When the prisoners, 83 Shiite Moslems and 36 Palestinians, ar rived in Lebanon they were cheered by hundreds of men and women lining the road to Tyre. Most of the released prisoners were rounded up as suspected guerrillas by the Israelis in the last months of their three-year oc cupation of southern Lebanon. Sophomores may get mandatory test By CYNTHIA GAY Staff Writer Testing. One, two, three . . . test ing. The public university system may be working, but a mandatory test for all college sophomores before they can gain junior status may be used soon to fine tune higher education in Texas. The state’s colleges and universi ties open their doors each year to many students ill-equipped to han dle a variety of courses, and Texas educators are afraid those students may slide their way to an overrated college degree, said Dr. Joan Mat thews, program officer of the Uni versities and Research Division of the Coordinating Board, Texas Col lege and University System. “Forty percent of entering college students need remedial work,” Mat thews said. Thomas D. Erwin, associate direc tor of Texas A&M’s Measurement and Research Services, said if A&M was to test its sophomore class, “our students would do well.” But state officials in Austin are not as confident about all Texas col lege students. Armed with multiples of test re sults from Florida, Georgia and New Jersey, a 12-member committee has been appointed by the Coordinating Board to conduct a one-year study on the merits of required testing for college sophomores and graduating junior college students. Nine committee members are ad ministrators or faculty members at state colleges and universities. A Texas school district superin tendent, a representative from the Texas Education Agency, and a stu dent from Angelo State University round out the committee. President Robert Hardesty of Southwest Texas State University is serving as chair man. “The work of this committee will be extremely important for the state,” Larry Temple, the chairman of the Coordinating Board, said in a press release. “A uniform test — imperfect though it inevitably would be — pro vides a measure of both the quality of teaching and the quality of lear ning,” he said. “Surely, that would be beneficial to all of public higher education.” If the committee recommends the testing and the Board accepts it, Matthews said, the Texas Legis lature would decide the test question during the 1987 spring session. Students should feel the results in the next three or four years, she said. “Traditionally, the (Florida, Georgia and New Jersey) tests have looked at reading, writing and math ematics,” Matthews said, and this skill selection is consistent with re vived emphasis in Texas and across America on a strong general educa tion curriculum. She added that this is a pulling away from “airy-fairy, highly special ized” approach to education in the 60s and 70s. Testing results would influence not only the required course load, but also how the curriculum is taught, Matthews said. She said an engineering professor might gear some of his classes more toward developing reading and writ ing skills. Lindsey Dingmore, executive vice president of A&M’s Student Gov ernment, said although some stu dents may appreciate administrative efforts to broaden their education based on testing results, “most stu dents would probably rather have their grades determine their desti ny.” What about the costs of this test ing? A&M Administrator Erwin said, “Any program which would be im plemented in all public colleges and universities would be expensive.” Proposed in this day of tight- fisted budgeting, he said the fund ing for these tests must undergo close scrutiny.