Tuesday, November 13, 1934
Pago 4
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at your vegetables! There are
people starving in Ethiopia. "
That platitude has been
uttered In this overfed country again and
again. For some reason, though, concern
about people starving in faraway places
to an occasional, short-lived phenomenon
in the minds and media of the United
States.
For four years, drought has drained
the food supply in areas of Africa. Only
now has the crisis in Africa hit the news-,
stands and broadcasts. And now money
end food is pouring into Ethiopia faster
than it can be delivered
The food and money are needed, and
will save some lives. But the aid pouring
into Ethiopia's desolate stomachs and cof
fers is insufficient, temporary and a little
to late.
In Ethiopia's last famine, about a decade
ago, about 100,000 died. According to last
week's Newsweek, relief officials estimate
one million people might die this time.
The hunger extends far past Ethiopia's
borders. Eighteen countries in Africa face
hunger problems, and those in danger of
starvation are numbered anywhere from
1 1 to 35 million, according to Louis Picard,
a UNL associate professor of political
science, whose special area of study is
Africa.
There's not much interest in this coun
try with the Third World," Picard said.
Cold statistics don't get the sympathy
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graphic pictures do, he said. A British the drought is a natural phenomena,
Broadcasting Corporation film on Ethio- long-term aid to Ethiopia would help
pia set off the recent interest in that prevent starvation on such a massive
country, he said. scale.
The aid now arriving in Ethiopia is "a Technical assistance in the form of
band aid approach, Picard said Although education, hybrid seeds and equipment
appropriate to labor-intensive, small
farms, would be a sound vay to help pre
vent another crisb, Picard said.
In addition to the aid the United States
is providing, monies should be approp
riated to fund programs that would help
prevent another mass famine. The United
States often provides countries with arms
to gain their affections. The United States
now has a chance to provide something
that would save lives instead of destroy
ingthem. The crisis in Ethiopia has created
another constructive posslblity. Ethiopia
is a communist country. It's net afuJlmember
of the communist bloc but it gets support
from East Germany and Bulgaria.
The Western bloc countries have a
chance to work with Eastern countries in
alleviating the famine. Many Ethiopians
will never reach the camp3 where food
is available they might have to walk for
day3. Transportation zs well as food is
needed
It may be uncharacteristic of many
Americans, especially in light of the man
date for President Reagan's individualist
"meritocratic" philosophy, to help those
who cant help themselves, but it would
be humanitarian.
Temporary food aid to needed You can
donate money to CROPr a food aid pro
gram, in care of Church World Services,
1 020 Terminal Building, Lincoln, NE 68508.
Home computer fails to liberate wwlcaholie from the office
ack in college, science
courses were divided into
lectures and labs. That was
instructive in more ways than
one. You learned, if you did not
already know it, that what looked
good in theory often failed dis
mally in the lab. This, by another
name, to called life.
3?
Richard
Colier
Now, I have learned that les
son, once again. Several years
ago, I thought it fit to offer some
wisdom on computers. There was
a story in Timeweek, probably a
cover, saying that more and more
people were working at home on
computers. I decried this, ruling
the end of the ofSce community,
the shmooze by the water cooler,
the interchange with colleagues
that produces, if not inspiration,
then so much good gossip. Crowd
ed cities, after all, produce civili
zation. Lonely farms produce hop.
Now, though, I have gone from
the lecture to the lab, I have
bought a computer an IBM-PC.
It does things beyond imagina
tion (at least what I'm told), al
though all I want to do to write. I
already use a computer at the
office and carry a portable with
me when I travel. I wanted one at
home to write a book and an
occasional column.
Journa
For about two weeks, the com
puter was beyond me The sales
man said installation was "idict
proofl" I proved him wrong. I
hooked up the printer the wrong
way, did not understand how to
"boot" the system and, in short,
could not make the thing work.
Now I can. I can even make my
computer "talk" to the one in the
office. The result to not quite
what I expected I work at home,
all right. I also work in the office.
In fact, I work all the time.
A home computer is to "work
aholics" what a bottle of booze to
to an alcoholic. I cannot stay
away from it. A thought strikes
me, I bound to my study to start
banging away on the old PC, Then,
1 have my computer send what
1 1,5" 1,0
coiiversatisHt bows to 1
Pve written to the computer in the
oUce. Just to show you how hcok
.ed I am, I do it the other way, too.
Before leaving the office, I arrange
things so that when I get home, I
can call up on my home com
puter what IVe written that day.
There to no end to perfecting a
column.
I should have known, Grand
son, that I am, of Louis the Social
tot, I should have wondered why
so many companies offer rebates
to employees who buy home com
puters. They say they do this so
their workers will become com
puter literate surely a contra
diction in terms. I accepted that
(Grandfather, forgive me.) I
should have known that no com
pany does anything out of the
more i
goodness its heart They all know
that v3 workaholics will toil for
them on our own time. They are
the contemporary versions of Tom
Sawyer. We workaholics wiH white
wash every fence in sight
Now I work almost 16 hours a
day. I hate to think of what I earn
on an hourly basis. I send columns
back .and forth to the office. I
have the computer, at home, call
the one in the ofSce for messages.
Before I go to sleep, check to see
if there are any messages on the
computer in the office. Sometimes
there are usually one saying
someone in the office has lost a
ring in the bathroom. There are
things you have to know before
you can go to sleep.
Cez&lsssd ca Pftgs 6
asmonaoie trend
ast week the Daily Nebraskan reported that in
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JLJ President Reagan, none of the Big Eight schools
student newspapers had endorsed him for president.
More than one person subsequently commented to me
about the article, typically complaining about the ap
parent disproportion of the phenomenon. Evidently in
the nation as a whole this disproportion was main
tained at the newspapers of the larger universities
Rogers
I agree that the truly underwhelming number of bud
ding young conservative journalists is disturbing. How
ever, on a slightly broader scale, I am concerned with
more than simply the fact that student-run newspapers
are not giving vent to the new conservative majoritarian
sentiments of student bodies.
My concerns with the press were similarly noted by
exiled Soviet dissident Alexander Solzhenitsyn in his
now-famous Harvard commencement address. Among
other concerns with Western culture in general, S0I2
henitsy complained that superficiality and an unbecom
ing faddishness were and are strong characteristics of
the American press.
Lack of rigor is too often characteristic of the journal
istic mind. Solzhenitsyn correctly noted that "hastiness
and superficiality these are the psychic diseases of
the 20th century and more than anywhere else this to
manifested in the press. In-depth analysis of a problem
to anathema to the press, it to contrary to its nature."
Perhaps as a result of the shallowness of thought
manifest in the media is a concomitant faddishness of
thought which fills the empty void Solzhenitsyn said,
"Unrestrained freedom exists for the press, but not for
the readership because newspapers mostly transmit in
a forceful and emphatic way those opinions which do
not too openly contradict their own and that general
trend.
"Without any censorship in the West, fashionable
trends of thought and ideas are fastidiously separated
from those which are not fashionable, and the latter,
without ever being forbidden, have little chance of find
ing their way into periodicals or books or be heard in
colleges." -
Now I dont want to be unfair. Indeed I am painfully
aware that there to a shameful lack of clear and articu
late conservative journalism on issues of broad concern.
But then conservative journalists are a relative minority
among professionals in the medium and consequently
are not prone to the charge of adhering to a mindless
journalistic liberalism.
Our nation's journalism departments and student
newspapers need to be wary of instilling a shallow left-of-centcr
mind-set in their students. The seeds of the
low esteem from which the press now suffers in the eyes
of the public were sown in the schools where too often it
seems that liberal Journalistic "sensitivity" was and is
simply a smokescreen for political and social beliefs
comprised mainly of unquestioned slogans and silly
platitudes.
Journalists, perhaps more so than any ether sector of
our society because of their quasi-public calling, need to
develop broad and rigorous methods of thinking. Now
may be the opportune time for journalism schools to
begin thinking of requiring strong core requirements in
the fundamentals of serious thkiMng. Among others,
these requirements should include philosophy, history
and literature. This would train the journalists in an
ability to be aware of the broad contexts of the reported
beliefs and events. At worst, the students produced with
such backgrounds will have some understanding of the
primary metaphors which guide Western thinking and,
at best, a better and more challenging journalism will
result.
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