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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Feb. 13, 1989)
s ex Pected to ‘ ver a s ain thi s ; llt ‘ 13 other Aj P . at A &M las, nson not kn 0 ? 1 of questions ln g Staff," Ce„ ' the talent perience,” the season fo r4 April 14. ]6 nt to Olsen ‘i the series Texas A&M The Battalion Fm WEATHER '///////A '/■/■/ /////. FORECAST for TUESDAY: , Mostly cloudy, warm and wet. ■'/////^ Chance of rain is 50 percent. HIGH:72 LOW:56 Vol. 88 No. 94 USPS 045360 18 pages College Station, Texas Monday, February 13,1989 S will ,lis h in thetopfj herence, the, urnament at f () - The next NCAA Region u ‘f ms loss tor 11 the final oft t'onal is gj v i n „- out again. encouraging ^ dr > he said. “It' s dream •— it\,. . . 1 .. »» \ ) Play ball! Photo by Jay Janner Texas A&M President William Mobley throws out the first pitch of the 1989 Aggie Baseball season at the opening game with Pan American University Friday afternoon at Olsen Field. See related story/Page 11 Rioters demand ban of book, storm U.S. facility in Pakistan ISLAMABAD, Pakistan (AP) — Police fired on hundreds of protesters Sunday who stormed a U.S. government office to demand the United States ban a novel they consider offensive to Mos lems. At least five people died and 65 were in jured, doctors said. Police repeatedly fired semi-automatic weap ons, rifles and shotguns at charging protesters who yelled “American dogs!” and hurled rocks and bricks during three hours of fierce clashes. The rioting erupted when more than 2,000 fundamentalists tried to march to the U.S. Infor mation Center to demand the United States ban “Satanic Verses,” a novel by Salman Rushdie. Pakistan banned the novel on grounds it of fends Moslems by suggesting the prophet Mo hammed was fallible. India also banned the novel. In Kennebunkport, Maine, where President Bush was spending the weekend, White House spokesman Marlin Fitzwater said U.S. officials were monitoring the Islamabad situation closely. Fitzwater said the national security adviser, Brent Scowcroft, telephoned Bush early Sunday to tell him of the riot. “God is great!” protesters screamed as they smashed windows and started fires after driving off scores of police. They tore down the American flag at the cen ter and danced in delight as it was burned, along with effigies representing the Indian-born Rush die and the United States. “Hang Salman Rush die,” one man yelled. Three U.S. diplomats and 15 Pakistanis em- ployeed at the center were in the building at the time but were not hurt, U.S. diplomats said. “There was a pitched battle going on outside,” said Kent Obee, head of the center which con tains a public library and dispenses information about the United States. Doctors at area hospitals, who spoke on condi tion of anonymity, said at least five people had been killed by police gunfire and 65 protesters shot and wounded. They said the injured included Moslem theol ogy students and about 20 police hit by rocks or beaten by the rampaging crowd. Police arrested at least 25 protesters, and an gry officers were seen beating and kicking some of those arrested. Some protesters attacked the nearby American Eapress travel agency, smashing windows and starting a fire before police drove them off. Enraged demonstrators also attacked three Western journalists, including two Associated Press correspondents and an Atlanta Constitu tion correspondent. They were not injured. Hungary backs multiparty po litics BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Hungary’s ruling Communist Party has moved toward sharing power with other political groups by be coming the first Eastern European country to endorse a multiparty sys tem. Party leader Karoly Grosz an nounced after a two-day meeting of the Central Committee that the pol icy-making body had decided a mul tiparty system was the only way to guarantee political pluralism in Hungary. He also indicated the party had revised its view of the 1956 anti-So viet revolt to acknowledge the upris ing started with good intentions but went sour. A multiparty system would “cer tainly provide an opportunity for al liances” and participation by groups the Communists would not be able to mobilize on their own, Grosz said in an interview excerpted on Hun garian radio late Saturday and due for full broadcast Sunday evening. The system is expected to be legal under a new constitution to be writ ten next year. Grosz said he expected the consti tution to require new parties to oper ate “on a socialist basis.” “If they do not accept the consti tution, then they cannot operate le gally,” he said. He did not elaborate. No date has been announced for multiparty local or national parlia mentary elections, but both are due by the end of 1990. Grosz’s remarks indicated that dozens of political movements, many of which have begun in recent months, will be allowed to partici pate. Unlike alternative parties in East Germany, Czechoslovakia and Po land, Hungary’s groups are inde pendent of the Communists. A new pro-Marxist group with an anti-Stalinist platform was founded Saturday. Another group, named af ter a leader of the national peasants’ party quashed in the Communist takeover in 1948, announced plans to form a party calling for individual land ownership. Hungarians from the alternative groups and Western diplomats saw Grosz’s statement as a victory for Communist Party reformers. They include Politburo member Imre Pozsgay, who two weeks ago pre sented a startling reassessment of the 1956 anti-Soviet revolt. Pozsgay stunned the nation by saying the revolt was a popular uprising, not a counterrevolution as it has been officially called for 32 years. Red Army exits Kabul airport KABUL, Afghanistan (AP) — So viet soldiers Sunday handed over their last and most dangerous out post as they prepared to return home and leave the Afghan army to defend the capital against Moslem guerrillas. The Soviet-backed Afghan gov ernment renewed its offer to nego tiate with the guerrillas.' A Soviet Foreign Ministry spokes man said the remaining 300 Soviet soldiers in Kabul would leave Tues day, weather permitting. The departure would be a day ahead of the deadline set by a U.N.- sponsored accord to end nine years of Soviet intervention in Afghani stan. The last soldiers were guarding the Kabul airport while the Soviets completed a food airlift to the capi tal, which the guerrillas are expected to besiege when the Red Army is gone. A U.N. airlift of food, medicine and blankets was suspended Sunday after Ethiopia pulled out of the pro gram, officials said. An Ethiopian airliner made one flight to Kabul, unloaded 32 tons of wheat and then refused to return to North trial stayed to prevent leaks of security secrets WASHINGTON (AP) — The I chief justice on Sunday delayed the I Iran-Contra trial of Oliver North. I responding to Justice Department I fears that the fired White House I aide will pour out secrets in the I courtroom that are damaging to na- | tional security. Chief Justice William H. Rehnqu- I ist ordered “that the trial proceed- I ings in United States versus Oliver L. I North . . . be stayed” pending con- I sideration by the full Supreme Court | on Friday. The court will consider Attorney I General Dick Thornburgh’s request I for a stay of the trial so the Justice 1 Department can seek a court order \|| imposing more stringent controls on "classified material North wants to use at trial. The judge in the North case, U.S. District Judge Gerhard A. Gesell, re jected the Justice Department’s re quest for such an order on Wednes day. Friday is the day the Supreme ■ Court had scheduled its first regulai ■ business meeting since its winter ■ break. I Rehnquist’s administrative stay Jcame as government sources said the Justice Department was working with prosecutors in an effort to reach a compromise that would al low the trial to proceed without de lay. Discussions under way Sunday af ternoon involved a possible compro mise, with the Justice Departmenl narrowing its objections to the planned release by North of classi fied material at his trial, said the sources, speaking on condition of anonymity. The Justice Department Wednes day detailed broad objections to many categories of classified material that North plans to intro- [duce at his trial, saying the judge in the case has imposed far too few afeguards to protect national secu- ity. The sources declined to discuss ny details of the ongoing dis- ussions over a possible compromise. Since last Thursday, the Justice epartment has been trying to delay he trial, while independent counsel wrence Walsh, whose office is prosecuting North, wants opening rguments to begin immediately. Japan divided between old, new cultures By Stephen Masters SENIOR STAFF WRITER Rapid economic changes in Ja pan are leading to social and cul tural changes as well, serving to divide the country between old and new cultures, said an adjunct professor from Columbia Univer sity in the closing address of MSC SCONA XXXIV Saturday. Dr. Robert Christopher, an ad ministrator of Pulitzer Prizes and ■ See related story/Page 3 adjunct professor at Columbia’s journalism graduate school, spoke before a group of about 300 students, faculty and guests on “The Future of Japan,” some thing he said is not necessarily easy to see. “It’s really impossible to pre dict the future for any particular society simply by extrapolating the trends that have been visible in that society,” he said. “There are just too many variables in volved and too many unforeseea ble events that can intervene to al- low anything more than informed speculation.” Christopher said any analysis of a country’s future must begin with an understanding of its cul ture. “What Americans too often fail to recognize is that social and cul tural change tends to be consider ably more rapid in Japan than in other great nations,” he said. “Be cause we don’t pay attention to that fact, our forecasts of Japa nese behavior often rest on as sumptions of the Japanese that may have been reasonably accu rate in the past, but are becoming steadily less so with every passing year.” As an example, he said most Americans’ stereotype of Japa nese as miserly workaholics with no interest in personal enjoy ment, which may once have had some truth to it, has become out dated during the past two de cades. This change has occurred so rapidly, he said, that Japanese society has been divided between the younger and the older Japa- mm, m- ■ *?- \ •,i. . <>:• ' : X:' Robert Christopher “The generation gap in Japan is easily more striking than any thing in this country,” Christo pher said. “The Japanese now in their 30s and 40s tend to be quite different from those in their 60s. People in their early 20s are radi cally different. The Japanese themselves sometimes refer to these young people as ‘The New Breed.’ ” Christopher listed several changes from the old culture to the new: • The self-imposed depriva tion that older Japanese faced is no longer enforced. Few' Japa nese under 40 have any personal experience with deprivation, which Christopher linked with the culture becoming more materialistic. • Younger Japanese now ask to be paid for overtime and ask not to work on weekends whether they are paid or not, something unheard of among previous Japa nese generations. Photo by Linker Mills • “Job hopping,” once held in low regard, has now become ac ceptable. Many Japanese compa nies employ “headhunters” whose sole purpose is to lure top executives away from other com panies. • Young people place more emphasis on recreation and are more concerned with deriving maximum personal benefits. • The percentage of wages saved is decreasing rapidly, but is still higher than that in the United States* • Child rearing and other household duties, once relegated completely to the woman, are now being shared by both hus band and wife. • Materialism also is causing many families to have two wage earners, so more women are continuing their education with college and entering the work place. Christopher said one of Ja pan’s biggest problems in the path of expansion is inflation in its real estate industry. He said the present market value of all land in Japan roughly exceeds that of all of the United States. He said the Japanese govern ment recently was contemplating a road improvement project in Toyko with an estimate of $2.5 billion. Of this, he said, all but $35 million would be used for land acquisition. Japan has been stabilized since World War II by the fact that the country has been relatively clas sless, he said. But barring dra matic changes, Christopher ex plained, the average Japanese couple soon will not be able to af ford their own home. This cre ation of economic classes is cre ating bitterness in the society, he said. Rapid aging of the work force is causing a greater share of the national reserve to be spent fund ing pensions, he said. Christo pher predicted this would cut into the savings rate, one of two major revenue sources for the country. The other source, the trade surplus, will eventually run out, he said, as the pressure to open trade to all countries becomes overwhelming. Christopher said Japan must play the same role globally that the United States played after World War II. Although he doubted Japan would become a world power, he said it will be an Asian power. Japan’s major weakness has been the country’s confusion as to what role it should play in inter national politics, he said. “Everything I’ve heard in re cent years has been that Japan is quite literally afraid to play an ac tive role in world affairs,” he said. “The goals of Japanese foreign policy are international peace and stability. “As the world’s second greatest economic power, it’s up to Japan to show initiative in the formula tion of international policy, rather than simply follow the lead of others.” the city, said Sadruddin Aga Khan, coordinator of the U.N. Office of Economic and Humanitarian Assis tance to Afghanistan. “I’m not able to say if or when the next flight will be,” Aga Khan said at a news conference in Islamabad, Pa kistan. During a heavy snowstorm Sun day, Soviet troops turned over their last outpost, on the edge of Kabul airport. Afghan soldiers raised their na tion’s red, black and green flag, and Soviet and Afghan troops cheered as the changeover was completed. Poll: Americans distrust PLO; support talks NEW YORK (AP) — Americans overwhelmingly support Washing ton’s overtures to the Palestine Lib eration Organization but are deeply suspicious of the PLO and dubious of its claim to have abandoned ter rorism, according to a national poll. Only 6 percent of those inter viewed in the Media General-Asso ciated Press survey said they be lieved the PLO’s recent renunciation of terrorism, while 74 percent said the group just made that claim for political gain. The rest were unsure. Respondents were split on whether the PLO would coexist with Israel or sought to destroy it, and a strong majority said other groups could represent the Palestinian peo ple. Still, the distrust was tempered by the desire for an end to the Mideast conflict. A majority said Israel should negotiate with the PLO, al though most said the United States should not force it to do so. The survey also found some frus tration with Israel’s support groups in the United States, with 35 percent saying they had too much influence on U.S. policy. Twenty percent said pro-Palestinan groups had too much influence. The poll was conducted among l,162 adults Jan. 4-12, following PLO leader Yasser Arafat’s statement recognizing Israel and re nouncing terrorism. Israel rejected the move as a ploy, but the United States responded by opening its first talks with the PLO. Sixty-seven percent approved of U.S.-PLO talks, with the rest split be tween disapproval and no opinion. Support was highest among college- educated Americans, with eight in 10 approving. Respondents, moreover, en dorsed a major tenet of the Palestin ian cause: Sixty-two percent said the Palestinians should have their own country. Just 11 percent said no, and 27 percent had no opinion. Roughly a quarter of the respon dents had no view on many of the questions posed, reflecting the dis tance of Mideast issues from the da ily concerns of many Americans. More men expressed opinions than did women.