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ORLD
& NATION
Tuesday, February 20,1990
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Defense Secre-
ary Dick Cheney, shunned by Philippine Presi-
entCorazon Aquino, told Filipino officials Mon-
lay that the United States will abandon its bases
iere if*t Finds that keeping them is too expensive
r that Americans are unwelcome.
As violence was reported in several clashes be-
ween leftist protesters and police near U.S. in-
tallations, Cheney met for nearly three hours
yith Defense Minister Fidel Ramos in discussions
hat were described as “very cordial, very forth-
ight.”
Meeting reporters afterward with Ramos,
Cheney said the United States “will stay only as
ongas the Philippine people wish it to stay —and
nly if the terms negotiated are acceptable to
10th parties.”
At issue in Monday’s discussions was a $96 mil-
on cut Congress made in the Bush administra-
on’s request of $360 million to compensate the
'hilippines for the six bases, which include two
f the United States’ largest overseas installa-
,ons, Clark Air Base and Subic Bay Naval Base.
“We recognize there is a shortfall of $96 mil-
on over what we had anticipated,” Cheney said.
“I also pointed out that in East Asia, in this part
of the world, the United States provided a little
over $600 million, and about $500 million of that
comes specifically to the Philippines.”
Cheney has said his discussions with Filipino
officials did not amount to the beginning of ne
gotiations to extend the base agreement, which
expires next year.
An influential Filipino minority is pressuring
Aquino not to renew the agreement. In addition,
leading Filipino congressmen have urged her to
postpone those discussions until this year’s cuts
are restored.
There are some 18,000 U.S. military person
nel in the Philippines, plus 20,000 dependents.
For his part, Ramos acknowledged that the
Bush administration needs congressional appro
val for aid commitments but said he had told
Cheney that “time is of the essence” in meeting
current U.S. obligations.
Aquino was so upset over the congressional cut
that she announced before Cheney began his
two-week tour of Asian nations hosting U.S.
bases that she would not see him, leaving that
task to her defense minister.
The secretary pledged his “best efforts” to re
storing the $96 million cut, but U.S. diplomats
have said that an austerity-minded Congress is
unlikely to change its mind.
Despite the current differences, Cheney said
that ties between the two nations are strong.
After the talks with Ramos, Cheney flew to the
Subic Bay base, 50 miles west of Manila, to in
spect a helicopter carrier and to chat with a
group of Marines and sailors.
While there were no reports of violence at
Subic Bay, about 300 militants hurled rocks at
police trying to stop them from dismantling bar
bed wire barricades at the entrance to Clark.
Demonstrators said about 30 students had
been injured. The protesters regrouped later
and staged an “indignation rally,” accusing Phil
ippine police of being “puppets of U.S. imperial
ism.”
In Manila, about 200 members of the militant
League of Filipino Students, chanting “Yankees
go home,” marched to the U.S. Embassy and
hurled bottles and rotten tomatoes at police, who
charged with clubs and tear gas.
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Liberal
Democrats
keep control
Japanese party
win despite scandals
TOKYO (AP) — Prime Min
ister Toshiki Kaifu said Monday
the voters gave his party a vote of
:onfidence in its time of greatest
risis by keeping the Liberal
Democrats in control of Parlia-
snt.
Some Japanese who voted Sun-
iay said they were angry with the
Liberal Democrats because of po
litical scandal and an unpopular
tales tax but still were not ready
to entrust the government to the
ipposition Socialists.
Business leaders called the re-
ult a vote for the economic poli-
ies that have brought unprece
dented prosperity to Japan.
Liberal Democrats implicated
in the Recruit influence-buying
jcandal were re-elected, includ
ing former prime ministers Yasu-
liro Nakasone, 72, and Noboru
fakeshita, 65. Nakasone ran as
in independent.
Kaifu said they were “ab-
:olved” by the voter.s but added:
We must proceed with political
lUT"
I he result of the
election is a vote of
confidence of the people
under the constitution ...”
— Toshiki Kaifu,
Japanese prime
minister
ie school
search fa'
ovi
ferencf'
Reforms” in the party that has
: governed Japan since its found-
it 2!T ng in 1955.
in the If “We started when the party
He is ft® vas said to be in the greatest crisis
ensivelfi ince it was formed,” he told re-
hiscur® lorters. “The result of the elec-
rplayedjt tion is a vote of confidence of the
re. people under the constitution,
s a re$ and our government has passed
said. it."
iterestedf Socialist Party leader Takako
•is, Hu# jDoi also claimed a victory, on
Elisah® grounds that “our purpose was to
a fivefi reduce the Liberal Democrats’
unprW strength as much as possible.”
Her party campaigned on op
position to the 3 percent sales tax
introduced last year and re
minded voters of the scandal, in
which the Recruit Co. informa
tion and publishing conglomerate
Bjyiade large contributions to poli-
^•Hjlticians and sold them stock at in-
J sider prices.
Doi said Nakasone, Takashita
and others touched by the scan
dal won re-election to Parliament
because of their powerful politi
cal machines.
The Liberal Democrats got 275
ats in Parliament’s powerful
lower house, a 512-seat body that
chooses the prime minister and
sets the budget. Fourteen more
candidates who ran as indepen
dents are expected to join them.
Before the election, the party had
295 seats.
I When the Liberal Democrats
reached 271 seats Monday morn-
ing, giving the party control of all
committees in the lower house,
Kaifu Fdled in the blank eye of a
papier-mache “daruma” doll in a
traditional ceremony signifying
fulfillment of a wish.
I Socialists won 136 seats, up
from 83.
H One scandal-tainted candidate
who lost was Kunio Takaishi, a
former vice minister of education
■ho benefitted from low-priced
RCRfD shares of a Recruit subsidiary and
is being tried on bribery charges.
asher
Ethiopia threatened by famine
Rebels close key port of entry
causing millions to go hungry
WASHINGTON (AP) — The lives of up to 5 million
Ethiopians are at risk because anti-government forces
have shut down a port that has been the key entry point
for food assistance from foreign countries, U.S. officials
say.
Further aggravating the situation has been the pros
pect of severely diminished harvests throughout north
ern Ethiopia as a result of poor rainfall in and around
the region.
To the west, U.S. officials say a crisis situation is rap
idly developing in the Sudan, where a bitter civil war
has prevented the transport of relief supplies to rebel-
held territories located in the southern region of the
country.
President Bush sent a letter to the Sudanese presi
dent last week asking for his cooperation in restarting
the international relief effort, to which the United
States contributes $15.7 million.
Renewed Fighting has led to the recent suspension of
flights containing food to southern Sudan, and the
Ethiopian government is preventing the departure of a
relief train along a route where food shortages are re
ported as severe. The rebels also have been blocking re
lief efforts.
Estimates of the number of Sudanese potentially af
fected by famine range between 1 million and 3 million.
In Ethiopia, the cutoff of relief supplies through
Massawa, a deep water port on the Red Sea, affects not
only Eritrea province but also Tigray and portions of
three other provinces.
“The next six weeks to two months is the critical
time,” Andrew Natsios, director of the Office of For
eign Disaster Assistance, said.
“We’re trying to explore options for getting the food
in,” he said.
He added that a “worst nightmare” scenario is devel
oping — a civil war and a famine in the same area at the
same time.
A Western relief official told the Washington Post,
“If the port is closed for any length of time, then there
is the possibility of tragedy in northern Ethiopia.”
The situation evokes memories of the 1984-85 pe
riod in Ethiopia when more than a million people died,
primarily because of drought.
Renewed drought last year in Ethiopia touched off a
major international relief program led by the United
States and the European Community, both of which
funnel food donations through private voluntary orga
nizations.
Other contributing countries include Canada and
Australia.
Thus far, the United States has either delivered or
pledged more than $70 million to the relief effort. The
figure for the rest of the international community is
about $84 million, according to estimates by U.S. offi
cials.
• The goal of the donor countries was to compensate
for severe shortages expected early this year resulting
from disappointing rainfall last summer.
But earlier this month, the Eritrean People’s Liber
ation Front staged one of its most daring assaults in 27
years of warfare with its capture of Massawa and the
road leading inland.
Massawa had been the entry point for food for the
needy in Eritrea and also for provinces further south,
including Tigray, where Ethiopia’s Marxist government
is in the process of being challenged by yet another re
bel group.
Complicating the situation for Ethiopian leader
Mengistu Haile Mariam has been the reduced effi
ciency of his army.
The officer corps underwent extensive purges last
year after an abortive army-led coup attempt occurred
in May.
Sandinistas use sex campaign
to attract Nicaraguan youth vote
MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) —
Ajax Delgado snaps his fingers and
plops his sneaker-clad feet on the ta
ble. The laces are electric green.
“Music!” he exclaims. “The cam
paign needed young music!”
On the wall hangs a glossy poster
showing two pairs of naked thighs
pressed together, jeans and a rose
crumpled on the floor.
“It’s beautiful the first time when
you do it with love,” reads the coy
slogan.
Personally, Delgado doesn’t like
the poster.
“The guy’s legs are too skinny,” he
says, dismissing it with another snap
of his fingers.
Who is this fast-talking fellow in
the black T-shirt and the tight jeans
eating whipped cream cheese with
his fingers?
A hip advertising executive? A ris
ing record producer?
Not quite. Delgado, 28, is secre
tary-general of the Sandinista
Youth, part of the leftist party that
has ruled Nicaragua for more than a
decade.
He is one of the keys to President
Daniel Ortega’s effort to beat the
United National Opposition, led by
Violeta Barrios de Chamorro.
Clearly, things have changed since
the days when the Sandinista Youth
motto was a dreary Marxist “Study,
Defend, Produce.”
The motto is now “Plug into the
Future,” and the sell is pure sex.
The youth vote will be a critical
factor in Sunday’s general election.
A third of the 1.7 million registered
voters are between the ages of 16
and 25.
Delgado is a mastermind of the
campaign aimed at selling the Sandi
nistas as the fun party, the party of
the future, the hip place to be.
It’s a tall job in a country left
shabby and tattered by war, a U.S.
embargo and a devastating eco
nomic crisis. But Delgado is con
vinced the Sandinistas have the
youth vote wrapped up.
Membership in the Sandinista
Youth, open to people between the
ages of 15 and 30, has doubled to
50,000 in the past two months, he
says.
Delgado laughs off the idea that
the Sandinistas have shamelessly
adopted one of the crasser advertis
ing concepts of their capitalist neme
sis: sex sells.
“It’s a Sandinista invention,” he
jokes.
The poster with the naked legs
and the double-entendre message
for first-time voters is just one of a
series of posters featuring amorous
couples in the youth-oriented cam
paign.
The group also has sponsored
beauty contests — “The feminists
were critical,” Delgado admits —
kissing contests, dances, parties and
even a Valentine’s Day rally at which
a member of the nine-man Sandi
nista directorate got married in the
“Forest of Love.”
Sandinista campaign headquar
ters bustles with young workers in
brightly colored T-shirts bearing
pictures of President Ortega and
other candidates.
Young people wear Sandinista
headbands, Sandinista tank tops and
Sandinista baseball caps. They light
up with Sandinista lighters, tote
their books in Sandinista backpacks
and tap their toes to Sandinista tunes
in Costeno-style, the reggae music
from Nicaragua’s Atlantic Coast.
The slick campaign is no hit-or-
miss affair.
Delgado says the Sandinista
Youth prepared by polling young
people on their likes and dislikes,
their worries and hopes.
The study showed that Nicara
guan teen-agers are a lot like teen
agers everywhere in many ways.
They are vain and rebellious; they
are interested in sex and having fun;
their heroes and role models are ath
letes and musicians.
Their concerns, however, reflect
the troubled reality of this politically
divided and economically crippled
nation of 3.5 million: the war, the
draft, finding a job, getting a decent
education and figuring out how to
have a good time in a country where
the inflation rate was 36,000 percent
last year.
The Sandinista message doesn’t
dwell on this dreary daily reality.
“Everything will be better,” the main
campaign slogan proclaims.
Chamorro, UNO’s presidential
candidate, is a white-haired and aris
tocratic widow of 60 whose image
contrasts sharply with that of Or
tega.
There were rumors her campaign
would bring in Gloria Estefan and
the Miami Sound Machine, but it
didn’t happen.
Before some of her rallies, young
women danced to a tropical beat.
It’s beautiful the first time when you do it with love.”
— Sandinista slogan
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or greater}
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by participating in an 8 hour at home research
study with an investigational over-the-counter
fever medication. No blood drawn.
Call Pauli Research Int'l 776-0400
After 6 & Weekends call 361-1500
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MSC VISUAL ARTS PRESENTS
AN ANNUAL STUDENT
ART COMPETITION
ENTRIES ACCEPTED IN THE MSC
VISUAL ARTS GALLERY ON FEB.
28, AND MARCH 1 & 2 FROM 10 am
TO 3 pm. ENTRY FEE $4.00 PER
PIECE WITH A FOUR PIECE LIMIT.
FOR MORE INFORMATION CALL-
VISUAL ARTS 845-9252.
A
T
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Spend this summer with the Elephants
TAMU Study Abroad in Kenya 1990
Only a few spaces still available.
For more information and an application contact:
Study Abroad Office
161 Bizzeli Hall West
845-0544
WALT DISNEY WORLD
COLLEGE PROGRAM
Walt Disney World Co. representatives will present
an information session on the Walt Disney World
College Program on Wednesday, March 7, 1990,
6:00 p.m. Attendance at this presentation is required
to interview for the SUMMER and FALL '90 COLLEGE
PROGRAMS. Interviews are scheduled for Thursday,
March 8, 1990 (time and location to be announced).
The following majors are encouraged to attend:
Summer program: Communications, Business, PR,
Hospitality, Travel/Tourism, Theatre/Drama,
Recreation; Fall program: All majors.
Contact: Office of Cooperative
. Education
7^, Phone: 845-7725
Cl989 The Walt Disney Company
NOTES-N-QUOTES
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