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MARCH 20,1997 AUGUSTA FOCUS
World / National View
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SENEGAL
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First Lady, Chelsea
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visit hub of African
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slave trafficking
‘ GOREE ISLAND, Senegal
They stood in the doorway together, mother
‘and daughter, gazing out at the expanse of ocean
— as scores of mothers and daughters did ages
-ago in fear, sorrow and chains.
* However, Hillary and Chelsea Clinton turned
_around Monday at the Door of No Return, un
worried about traders with muskets who would
shoot them if they refused to board waiting slave
ships or the sharks that would devour them if
"they jumped overboard to swim away.
Nor were they threatened by a horrible jour
ney aboard a cramped, disease-ridden ship or by
slavery that would force them apart, sending
‘them to sugar plantations and cotton fields in
North or South America. «
“I cannot even imagine what that would be
‘like,” Mrs. Clinton said. She stood in the court
yard of a 221-year-old house where captured
Africans were weighed, chained, separated ac
cording to their value and herded into captivity.
This house, called Maison des Escalaves (Slave
House), was Mrs. Clinton’s first stop on a six
nation tour of Africa. She said she wanted to see
the heartbreak of Goree, a hub of the slave trade
for 300 years, because of its meaning to black
Americans.
She ran her fingertips along a rusted ankle
clamp held by Joseph Ndiaye, curator of Goree,
who explained that the shackle and a rusty 20-
pound weight held down one of the estimated 15
million to 20 million people taken into slavery
through the island.
“Millions of African Americans claim their
roots in West Africa, through Goree Island,” she
told students at a girls school.
Diet pill safety debated
From page one
gusta disagrees. Dr. Rita Udom-
McCoy, a pioneer in the weight
loss movement in Augusta, has
been using a chemical similar to
Redux for over a decade and has
not hesitated in prescribing Redux
as a safe method for losing weight
quickly for some patients.
Dr. McCoy dismisses concerns
about the side-effects of Redux and
similar medications. The impor
tant issue, she says, is the risk
benefit ratio for the seriously over
weight.
“The negative reports stating
that certain weight loss medica
tions such as Fen/Phen (a popular
appetite suppressant) or Redux
cause hypertension, heart failure
et cetera, are very misleading be
cause people who are overweight
already have these problems be
cause of their weight, and the
health risk of staying overweight
is much greater than the proven
cure millions are discovering us
ing the proper medications and
new diet pills,” she said.
Dr. McCoy’s Doctor’s Choice
Weight Loss & Health Centers are
located in Augusta and Atlanta. A
weight-loss specialist for morethan
a decade, Dr. McCoy promises
rapid weight loss—up to 25 pounds
inh 30 days. Other medical profes
sionals, however, suggest that loss
of too many pounds too soon is yet
another reason to think twice be-
The CSRA Black Expo 97
Saturday, April 12, 1997
Augusta State University Sports Complex
11:00 a.m. - 6:00 p.m.
For information, vendor, sponsorship and enter
tainment packets call Kelley Cornish at 706-722-
0994 or (803) 613-9161. Deadline for registration is
Friday, March 14, 1997.
REBEL ADVANCE REMAINS STEADY
Panic in Zairian capital,
Mobutu’s health questioned
B Government combats talk
of military coup. Claims made
that Mobutu will be ready to
“protect the country.”
By Beth Duff-Brown
ASSOCIATED PRESS Writer
KINSHASA, Zaire
Panicked residents fled the capital Mon
day while rebels boasted they would take city
after city, and rumors spread that the only
president ageneration of Zairians hasknown
was seriously ill.
The autocratic, charismatic Mobutu Sese
Seko, who hasruled Zaire for nearly 32years,
remained hospitalized Monday in Monaco.
He had surgery for prostate cancer in Au
gust.
The government announced Mobutu was
“functioning normally,” but The Associated
Press has learned that the president was in
serious condition and had undergone sur
gery after being admitted Friday. A sourcein
Monaco provided the information to the AP
on condition of anonymity.
The streets of Kinshasa were rife with
rumors that the 66-year-old Mobutu was
dead and the military was plotting to take
over the government.
Government spokesman Jean-Claude
Biebie Ekalabo called on Kinshasans to re
main calm and disregard “fantastical ru
mors.”
He said Mobutu would return home this
week. Mobutu’s son, Nganza, also said his
father would soon return to “continue the
process of containment — of protecting the
country.”
Ferries from Kinshasa across the Zaire
River to Brazzaville, the capital of neighbor
ing Congo, have been full for days and inter
national flights are booked as fearful resi
dents flee. Some foreign shop owners have
boarded up their stores and sent their fami
lies out of the city.
There is great concern in the capital that if
Mobutu dies or the army attempts a coup,
fore embarking on such an ambi
tious weight-reduction journey. -
“Itis healthy for a person to lose
four to five pounds a month. Los
ing 20-30 pounds a month is dan
gerous because you are losing
muscle and bone tissue in addition
to the fat,” Dr. Oliver said.
At least one major metropolitan
government has gone on record as
opposing rapid weight loss. The
New York City Department of
Consumer Affairs cautioned con
sumers against quick cures. In its
Consumer Bill of Rights, the
agency issued the following warn
ing: “Rapid weight loss may cause
serious health problems. (Rapid
weight loss is weight loss more
than 1.5 to 2 pounds per week or
weight loss of more than 1 percent
of body weight per week after the
second week participation in a
weight-loss program).
But rapid weight loss is only a
problemifthe patient is not closely
monitored, according to Dr.
McCoy.
“As a family practitioner and
weight loss specialist, lunderstand
the side-effects of rapid weight loss.
I constantly monitor my patient’s
progress and health and most im
portantly speak to them with en
couragement,” says Dr. McCoy.
Once the weight is off, keeping it
off is the next challenge faced by
the weight-loss professional and
the patient/client. It is here, how
ever, that many weight-loss pro
grams ultimately fail.
“Diet programs make money on
the weight-loss phase, not the
weight maintenance phase. At the
time when people need the most
help in controlling their weight,
many programs cut them off,” says
Xavier Pi-Sunyer, M.D., director
of the Obesity Research Center at
St. Luke’s-Roosevelt Hospital Cen
ter in New York. By various esti
mates, as many as 85 percent of
dieters put the weight back on
within two years after weight loss.
Here, Dr. McCoy makes an as
tounding claim.
“What sets us apart from other
weight loss organizations is that
our folks don’t gain their weight
back. Once they’ve gone through
our maintenance program the
weight is off permanently. Over 90
percent of our patients keep the
weight off because they change
their attitudes,” she said. “Our
patients lose a lot of weight fast,
but they keep it off because we
focus on metabolic information.”
A changein lifestyle is the key to
weight loss and maintenance, ac
cording to Dr. Oliver.
“People need to learn how to eat
right and how to live. That is more
important than weight reduction.
Ifatotal attitude adjustment takes
place — including a lifestyle
change, Redux and other weight
loss pills wouldn’t be needed,” he
said. Finding causative agents for
obesity — not Redux pills —is the
key ‘to solving half of the battle
against obesity, according to Dr.
Oliver. A
riots would break out among soldiers and
civilians.
Riots in 1991 and 1993 killed hundreds of
people and destroyed many businesses.
The rebels, who accuse Mobutu of robbing
his country to enrich himself, have swept
across eastern Zaire since September. They
say they won’t stop until they reach the capi
tal —or the president agrees to negotiate. But
Mobutu has rejected rebel leader Laurent
Kabila’s demand for face-to-face talks. He
now may be too ill to talk, or to prevent a
military coup.
Top generals met in secret Monday, as they
did Saturday and Sunday.
Prime Minister Leon Kengo wa Dondo and
his Cabinet held an emergency meeting and
met with foreign diplomats Monday.
A source close to the presidency told the AP
that the army would try to stop Kengo from
leaving the country Tuesday. The prime min
ister was planning to attend a summit on
Zaire, scheduled to convene Wednesday in
Kenya. The source, who was in Kinshasa, also
spoke on condition of anonymity.
The source also said a presidential plane
had been requested for Tuesday, perhaps to
take Mobutu to his hometown of Gbadolite,
700 miles northeast of the capital.
But even if the president returns, most
observers agree his dictatorship is nearing an
end.
“It is threatened, the regime is very threat
ened,” said Bemba Saolona, president of the
Group of Allies of Marshal Mobutu and a
member of the transitional parliament.
In its first official response to the fall last
weekend of Kisangani, the northeast regional
capital and Zaire’s third-largest city, the gov
ernment said Zairian troops had been at
tacked by Ugandan forces. Zaire has repeat
edly accused Uganda and Rwanda of support
ing the rebels, a charge those countries deny.
The rebels are now threatening to seize the
country’s second-largest city, on the Zambian
border.
“All the towns of the republic are on our
agenda... but Lubumbashiis our next target,”
rebel spokesman Raphael Ghenda said in the
eastern town of Goma.
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to fight racial injustice.” e b
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needs of African and:
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House committee says
ok to inmates getting
HOPE scholarships
ATLANTA
(AP) Inmatesin thestate’syouth
jails could be eligible for a HOPE
scholarship under a bill approved
by a House committee Friday.
The House Education Com
mittee vote cleared the way for the
bill to be voted on Monday by the
full House.
No committee members voted
against the proposal, although two
_ Reps. Charlie Smith, D-St.
Marys, and Mitch Kaye, R-
Marietta _ abstained from voting.
Teens who get their education
in a youth jail can be eligible for a
HOPE scholarship only when they
have completed their sentence. But
no one serving time in a youth jail
or state prisoniseligible for HOPE.
“The governor doesn’t believe
that you should get HOPE if you
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rights issues to the top
of the L.S. foreign policy
agenda. Robinson and
IransAfrica continue to
~ work toward equality
and peace for Black
people around the
world, ;
are incarcerated,” said Rick Dent,
spokesman for Gov. Zell Miller.
Rep. David Lucas, D-Macon,
said he sponsored the bill so that
inmates in state youth jails could
be eligible for HOPE scholarships
ifthey have good enough grades or
have obtained a GED.
“These are the kids we said we
want to help,” Lucas said.
The Department of Children
and Youth Services now pays for
its inmates to take courses offered
by certain state technical schools,
according to Iris Smith, a DCYS
administrator. Professors from the
technical schools teach courses at
the jails.
: Lucas’ bill would ease the
department’s financial burden by
making those teens eligible for
HOPE scholarships.
(ETER RVLITRTET S
Busch supports the
work of Trans Africa,
just as we support other
educational and social
programs, community
projects and minority
businesses,
At Anheuser-Busch,
we're committed to a
better quality of life. For
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lfll ANHELUISER BUISCH
(—— ( OMPANIES