Newspaper Page Text
The Augusta News-deview - February 16, 1978 -
Walking w ith dignity
■
si
■ Bv Al Irby 1
How will the main African national
organization in Namibia (Southwest
Africa) fit or be fitted into the revised
plan for the territory’s independence
reportedly being worked out by South
African Prime Minister John Vorster and
the Western powers? Mr. Vorster had his
own independence blue-print worked out
at a constitutional conference at the
Tumhaile gymnasium center in
Windhoek, the Namibian capital. One of
the flaws in the blueprint, as much of the
international community saw it, was the
exclusion of the main Black nationalist
movement, the South West African
People’s Organization (SWAPO) from the
Tumhaile conference. And under the
blueprint, SWAPO was expected to be
excluded from pre-independence
elections in Namibia. It is widely assumed
that the Western powers are nudging Mr.
Vorster into bringing SWAPO into the
picture. Mr. Vorster once vowed he
would never sit down with Sam Nujoma,
the SWAPO leader, who has been
operating hitherto outside Namibia.
LOOSE HIM AND LET HIM GO
Toivo ya Toivo, the founder of
SWAPO, must be released from prison
before Vorster can build a dialogue with
Blacks in South Africa. On his release Mr.
Toivo would take over the practical
leadership of SWAPO from Mr. Nujoma
and South Africa then could negotiate
with Mr. Toivo for Namibia’s
independence. Besides an erosion of
South Africa’s traditional opposition to
SWAPO, there could well be a fraying of
the Tumhaile constitution that would
allow some SWAPO men to work their
way into an interim government set up by
South Africa. A SWAPO official Ben
Gouriab, says “this interim government
eventually could include such SWAPO
men as Daniel Tjingararo, publicity
secretary for SWAPO inside Namibia.”
Mr. Gouriab did not say this, but an
interim government could include
Afrikaners (whites of Dutch descent)
such as the prominent Prof. G.
Totemeyer, who was expelled from South
Africa’s National Party for suggesting
South Africa to talk to SWAPO.
According to a well informed academic
source here in America, Mr. Totemeyer
now is a member of SWAPO, and Mr.
Gouriab says he will bet on that
statement. Most of the people in the
know, see all-out independence for
Namibia in as little as two years. This
would involve a long period of interim
government with SWAPO gradually being
introduced in it. Then would come
Happiness through health
Stutterers being helped
by new techniques
STUTTERERS BEING HELPED BY
NEW TECHNIQUES: Medical
dictionaries refer to it as anarthia literals.
We know it as stuttering, a disorder that
afflicts some two million Americans.
Moses had it, and so did the famed Greek
orator Demostenes.
Today in places like the Massachusetts
General Hospital’s speech pathology unit,
stutterers are being helped to overcome
their language difficulties in ways at
which Demosthenes would have marveled
-- group interaction, muscle biofeedback,
auditory feed and “pencil facilitation.”
Demosthenes is said to have cured
himself by going to the seashore, filling
his mouth with pebbles and trying to
outshout the surf.
In the audio-feedback technique, the
stutterer wears earphones through which
he can hear his own words only a fraction
of a second after saying them. The
stutterer thus becomes fluent by
adjusting the rate and rythm of speech.
The aim of “pencil facilitation” is to
establish a modified speaking pattern by
coordinating speaking and writing.
As the patient speaks, he or she pencils
a line or letter for each syllable or word.
The simple movement of a finger or
mental image of such pacing might later
substitute for the actual penciling and
then produce the desired fluency.
According to officials connected with
the project, drugs are rarely used. Thus
far, more than a dozen stutterers at the
MGH have been given haloperidol, a drug
used to treat certain neurological
disorders. A number benefitted, but
several complained that it made them
drowsy and irritable.
Although die cause of stuttering is
unclear, specialists feel it is often a
learned behavior which along the way has
been reinforced and maintained. Organic
factors, anxieties or phobias and extreme
pressure by parents have been blamed.
With respect to the lat - extreme or
premature parental pressure - Julie A.
Namibia
(Southwest Africa)
in the limelight
compromise elections, not necessarily
under UN supervision, and the
replacement of South African troops with
international troops.
Mr. Gouriab insists SWAPO’s military
stance in the face of thousands of South
African troops is not hopeless because
SWAPO has the support of the Namibians
inside the country. He added that Cubans
are training SWAPO guerrillas in camps in
Southern Angola. SWAPO’s military
capability is far behind that of the
guerrillas fighting against the white
minority regime in Rhodesia. But SWAPO
has done better than other liberation
movements on the diplomatic front. “We
know how the system at the UN works,”
says Mr. Gouriab. And yet he adds, “we
believe the UN will not be what wins our
struggle.”
He may have been referring to the
compromise elections he had just
projected. The United States Assistant
Secretary of State for African Affairs
William Schaufele also insists UN
supervision of elections is not mandatory
- he simply wants some kind of elections
that will satisfy all sides in Namibia.
WHY ARE ALL THE BIG POWERS
PRESSURING NAMIBIA?
An unusual number of developments
and pressures are focusing attention on
the big mineral-rich African territory of
Namibia at this time. The future status of
the territory, which South Africa
administers and calls South West Africa,
is clearly an item of conspicuous concern
in the newly evolving American policy
toward southern Africa as a whole.
President Carter underscored this point
with special emphasis in Los Angeles
when he, in effect, warned South Africa
to end white minority rule in Namibia or
face “strong action” by the United States
and four other Western powers at the
United Nations. At the Mondale-Vorster
meeting in Vienna, moreover, the
Vice-President was under instructions
from Mr. Carter to take a firm stand on
Namibia.
SWAPO is already involved in guerrilla
war against South Africa in Namibia.
Many of its leaders are exiled or in jail.
The outcome still remains in doubt. But
the heavy build-up of pressure about
Namibia from the five Western Powers,
along with demands for change is surely
hard to ignore, and is building up to a
global “crescendo ”
Gangs of bouquets of victory roses for
the T.W. Josey teams as champions of
4-A East.
By Otto McClarrin
Wheelden, director of the unit,
comments:
Parents who don’t understand the
normal process of language development
may insist or precise speech from their
children before they are capable. Hence, a
child may early in life believe himself to
be a disabled speaker.”
Often, therefore, conseling is directed
at the parents rather than the child.
Studies have shown that at least 80
percent of all stytterers become fluent by
the time they reach 18 years of age. While
the reason is not clear, speculation
centers around release from parental
control.
According to Dr. Gregory L. VaVinge,
a resident in psychiatry, people whose
stuttering continues into adulthood
usually are troubled by a chronic fear of
speaking in public.
ULCER SUFFERERS GET
“REVOLUTIONARY” HELP: What
doctors call a revolutionary new
anti-ulcer prescription medicine arrived
recently at many local drugstores
throughout the country and now is
available to ulcer sufferers.
The drug is known as cimetidine, and is
called Tagamet by its manufacturer
(Smith, Kline and French Laboratories).
Recently the U.S. Food and Drug
Administration (FDA) gave its fnl
approval for use of the drug by the
general public.
It will be used to treat duodenal ulcers,
which affect seven to ten percent of the
population, and several other types of
minor gastrointestinal ailments. Tagamet
has been used successfully in Europe for
several years, and many doctors say there
has never been another drug like it.
One of the major differences between
cimetidine and other anti-ulcer drugs is
that cinetidine prevents acid secretion,
while other drugs only neutralize acid
secreted by the stomach. It is the acids
and other digestive juices in the stomach
that cause ulcers.
Page 4
’ U n SK'LIE D La B OR Market
£>l<Y7e ©LACK MEDIA INC. BRA/NDOtA JR
THE DROPOUT
i Our new day begun
«ite f
By Benjamin Hooks
The NAACP energy policy statement
which was adopted on January 19,1978,
by the National Board of Directors,
resulted from seven months of intensive
research and review. The major thrust of
this policy is to protect as well as to
foster the creation of jobs for Black
Americans in the major urban centers
where they now live.
The NAACP feels that the Carter
Administration’s national energy program
overly emphasizes conservation at the
expense of directing national goals to the
development of new and alternative
energy supplies. This thrust, we are
convinced, will cost Blacks their jobs by
forcing the flight of industry away from
the older cities.
The President’s emphasis on energy
conservation could severly restrict the
expansion of the nation’s economy, since
the rate of economic growth historically
has depended on the abundance of energy
supplies.
The NAACP believes that a stagnant
economy, which would result from the
President’s energy plan, would have a
disproportionate and disastrous effect on
Black Americans’ employment.
The NAACP also questions the
Administration’s complex energy, tax and
regulatory proposals. While the statement
does not endorse regulation or
deregulation, it raises questions about the
best approach for meeting the energy
crisis.
The NAACP recognizes that
government sponsored programs must
continue to provide the basis for ending
poverty, especially among the traditional
victims of racism. Nevertheless, in a
country such as America, government
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The NAACP,
energy and jobs
alone cannot be expected to provide the
final solution.
U.S. corporations with their massive
resources in finances, capital, technical
and professional skills must be
encouraged, where they cannot be
compelled, to participate in the process
of providing equal opportunities for
minorities. This is, and will continue to
be, the goal of the NAACP.
The current debate over the NAACP
energy policy statement is centered
around one principal aspect of the
revolutionary document - deregulation.
Nowhere in the statement is the word
deregulation or regulation used.
Yet the preoccupation with this facet
of the several issues involved in a national
energy policy has clouded the true intent
of the NAACP statement. This is to direct
the attention of our members and the
nation to *he historical realities of Black
progress.
Namely, as we saw in the 60s, the
chances for bringing Blacks into the
mainstream of the nation’s economy are
best during periods of healthy economic
growth.
Presently, despite all the studies and
reports showing that Blacks have been
living in a depression state since 1969,
despite all the protests, complaints and
warnings of dire consequences, the
prospects for developing real solutions
specifically directed at the Black
condition seem very distant.
Consequently, the NAACP recognizes
that there are new dimensions to the
struggle for equal opportunity. To meet
these complex challenges, new outlooks
and new strategies must be developed by
Black Americans under the NAACP’s
leadership.
Prison reform is out of style today.
Hard line, law and order propaganda
seems to have convinced many people
that the way to solve crime problems is to
lock up offenders and throw away the
key.
But the evidence of the past indicates
that won’t control crime. If anything,
prison produces embittered people unable
to fit into society.
That view was confirmed for me by
a conversation 1 had with John Coleman,
President of the Edna McConnell Clark
Foundation. A leading advocate of prison
reform, he arranged to spend time in two
maximum security prisons last year to get
a first-hand view of the prison system.
He served as a guard in one Texas
institution. The experience, he found,
was demeaning for prisoners and guards
alike. The only difference between the
two groups, a fellow guard told him, was
that the guards serve less time - eight
hours a day.
The system is designed to strip people
of their basic human dignity. He ran a
“gang” of twenty field laborers who
picked cotton. Once they stooped to do
their work they weren’t allowed to
straighten up without a guard's
permission. To light a cigarette, to wipe a
brow, to stretch, all required the guard’s
OK.
Some of the guards were young men,
18-20 years old. The absolute power they
wield over their work gangs requires the
judgment and maturity few people
possess, much less inexperienced youths.
Coleman left that prison with
sympathy for the guards and the guarded
- both were forced into inhumane
positions by a rigid system. Preserving
dignity and rehabilitating offenders are
supposed to be the goals of that system.
Those goals are inconsistent with the
actual workings of the prison.
The Minnesota experience was
different. Coleman arranged to be an
inmate, supposedly convicted of
embezzlement. His cell block didn’t stack
prisoners, each had his own cell which he
decorated according to personal taste.
Petty regulations were at a minimum.
Personal rights and a degree of privacy
were observed. Work opportunities fitted
to individual needs seemed to be
available.
But there still was a pervasive
dependence among the inmates. Their
Letters to the editor
Responds to letter on Mclntyre
Dear Editor:
I would like to respond to the letter
from Aminifu Askari which was printed
in your January 19, issue.
I worked in Southern and Eastern
Africa for a year and I’ll never be the
same either, just as Mr. Mclntyre said
after his three-week trip. I’ve also been to
North Africa, the part of the continent
which tries to disassociate itself from
“Black Africa.”
Africans were impressed with my being
there too. They’d seen so many white
missionaries, technicians, teachers, etc.,
from this country that they wondered
what happened to the Blacks. West
Africans have generally had a bit more
contact.
I became friendly with a young woman
bank teller in Gaborone Botswana, who
finally got nene enough to ask me a
string of questions about where I was
bom, my parents, etc. I assured her that I
was bom in the U.S., as were my parents
and grandparents. She came back with
“Then why are you so dark?” She
happened to be a Cape Coloured from
South AFrica and thought that as long as
Blacks and whites had been in this
country, I should look more like her. This
was an opportunity for me to dispel a
myth. There were many such
opportunities.
I visited South Africa on several
occasions, and though I wouldn’t have
Mallory K. Millender Editor-Publisher
J. Philip Waring Vice President for Research & Development
Frank Bowman General & Advertising Manager
Mike Carr Photographer
Mary Gordon Circulation
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• NfW YORK • CHICAGO IT • .
To be equal
Prison reform
overdue
By Vernon E. Jordan Jr.
basic life decisions were out of their
control. Even after a few days, he felt the
loss of the independent decision-making
and control of one’s own life that alone
can fit a person to survive in society.
So both prisons failed the crucial test
of equipping inmates to take their place
in society as functioning, law-abiding
citizens. The strict regimen of the harsh,
punitive Texas facility, and the milder,
more humane Minnesota institution both
prove ultimately incapable of returning to
society people equipped with the skills
and independence to function in that
society.
Yes, Coleman agrees that prisons are
necessary for some people. Habitual
violent offenders who are not susceptible
to rehabilitation may have to be
incarcerated, for society’s safety. But
most prisoners don’t fall into that
category. To assume that a person who
breaks the law will always break laws is to
take a bleak view of human nature and to
frame a society suspicious of its people
and negative in its outlook.
The fact is that most people now in
prisons will return to the outside world
some day. Will they return to productive
lives as useful citizens, or will they take
part in criminal activity that will return
them to the prison walls?
Those who glibly claim that prison
cannot rehabilitate or that offenders
should be punished by long prison terms,
don’t have the answer. Prison by itself,
through its very nature, offends against
human dignity and creates attitudes and
mindsets that make eventual adjustment
to society difficult, if not impossible.
For the majority of inmates who oo
not need to be incarcerated for their own
and for society’s safety, alternative means
of dealing with the consequences of their
offenses must be found.
Community-based programs emphasizing
work training and supervision will suffice
for most people now in prisons.
Restitution to victims makes more sense
than prison.
We have more people serving longer
sentences than most industrial countries
have, and we have a higher crime rate
than most. The old solutions haven’t
worked; prisons, as John Coleman found,
corrode human dignity and solve little.
It’s time to try new solutions based on
human dignity, respect for human needs
and for society’s ultimate good.
chosen the status of “temporary white,”
that was the only way I could go. If the
Black South Africans can suffer under
such indignities for a lifetime, I certainly
could endure it for a brief while. Most of
them are starved for any kind of touch
with the world outside. Ebony Magazine
was barred until 1976. They still might
not be receiving it. Letters to my friends
there are sometimes not delivered.
I welcomed the opportunity to visit
them in person. The newspapers in that
part of Africa only carry the worst news
about us. The face-to-face contact that
Black U.S. delegations have with African
Nationals can go a long way towards
helping them to understand our problems
as a race and our efforts to solve them.
Incidentially, for every Black delegation
the State Department sends, there are
probably 20 other groups.
I’m not writing in defense of Mr.
Mclntyre’s trip, especially, but in support
of more Blacks visiting Africa, going
deeper into the continent, beyond Nigeria
the Gambia, and other West coast
countries. Each country is different and
fascinating, going about its development
in unique fashion. More of us need to
experience it. Well never be the same!
Mary Ida Gardner
7-B
549 W. 123rd St.
New York, N.Y.