Monday, April 22, 1985
Daily Nebraskan
Page 5
Mia
mi Js vice includes cocaine, commerce
a. .
T ook," says the mayor, turning at the
I .lunch table and gesturing toward the
- window and hpvnnH at tM Mtv'a onmi.
ing skyline. "If it's so bad, how come the big
players in real estate are here?" And he rattles
off a list of those players.
r
J
George
Will
Well, maybe some of the real-estate boom
derives from the fact that there is a lot of bad
money looking for things to buy. And one reason
many banks and corporations have offices here is
the same reason a few things are bad here: Latin
America is just over the horizon. So are the drug
traffickers.
"Look," says Mayor Maurice Ferre, 49, using a
knife to draw a line on the tablecloth. "Draw a
line due south of the South Pole. Every major
airport in South America Is to the east of Miami.
If you want to fly from Lima to Los Angeles, the
quickest way is through Miami." And among the
things coming through Miami is a flood of "con
trolled substances," which barely are. Controlled,
that is. The drug traffic continues in spite of
Crockett and Tubbs, the characters and how!
on the television show "Miami Vice."
Viewing that program is like being locked
inside a rock video with two boys who, having
overdosed on chocolate donuts, are hyperactive
and should be sent to their rooms. Crockett and
Tubbs are police officers. Sure they are. When
not roaring around in a speedboat, they are roar
ing around in a Ferrari, and in $500 Italian linen
jackets and sleeveless, peach-colored T-shirts.
Does this shoot-'em-up portraying Miami
as crime-ridden bother the mayor? No, he says
equably, people are trying to explain Miami's
vitality in terms of the wrong chemicals. It
started with Dow, not drugs.
About 15 years ago, he says, Dow Chemical Co.
decided it could not efficiently run its Latin
American operations out of Michigan and did an
elaborate study that highlighted Miami's advan
tages. That study circulated widely, and soon the
city's commercial base achieved a critical mass,
with European and American banks and corpo
rations creating "symbiotic energy." The mayor
is in his sixth two-year term, and like the city, is
revved up.
Energy, symbiotic or others, Miami has, some
people think. In excess. It had amDle enerev
even before Castro flooded it in 1979 with refu
gees lacking proper character references. But
the mayor insists that Miami is a Latin American
city only the way Boston is Irish or Milwaukee is
Polish and German.
Miami has been called "the Hong Kong of
Latin America," but the mayor prefers to com
pare it to Beirut before the civil war, he
hastens to add. He says Miami is to Iatin Amer
ica what Beirut was to the Arab World: a center
for commerce, pleasure and cosmopolitanism.
The big difference, the mayor says, is "the Amer
ican flag" the FBI, the Constitution, the law.
But some Miamians think the difference is not as
big as it should be.
Of the drug money sloshing around Miami, the
mayor says: "Is it a great part of Miami? Of
course." Look, he says, Miami is the cocaine
capital of the world only because the United
States is the main cocaine market.
If all international cocaine merchants form
ed a single American company, that company
would rank with the Ford Motor Company near
the top of Fortune magazine's list of largest
corporations. It would be three times larger than
the movie and recording industries com-
4 1
Letters
UNL needs renovation,
not veterinarian school
I would like to compliment the Daily Nebras
kan on the editorial, "Vet school wins, NU stu
dents lose" (April 15). I also would like to
expand that and say that the faculty, state and
taxpayers will lose when it is approved in the
future. I would have supported the vet school
four years ago because I was seriously planning
it as a career and I couldn't have afforded to go
out of state. But, with the way conditions are at
the university now it is absolutely, without a
doubt, unfeasible whether they raise tuition or
not.
Forum identifies problem
The university doesn't need to really expand
during the next three or four years. It needs to
improve what it already has. A few examples are
Morrill Hall, Neihardt Residence Complex and
almost all of the parking areas. These all need
attention and money to restore, fix and better
existing problems.
It just seems like the regents only vote for
what they want to see done and not what the
students, faculty and taxpayers expect and want
done.
Jeff Stone
freshman
geology
bined. Recently some cocaine was found here in
the cargo on a Columbian 747 airliner. The street
value of the cocaine was $600 million five
times the value of the 747.
Drug runners have the best boats, planes and
electronic equipment. Miami, says the mayor,
cannot help but be awash with drug money.
Dealers can load the cash into jets and deliver it
to numbered accounts in Bahamian or other
"offshore" banks and then have it transferred,
electronically, back to Miami. And such launder
ing is not always necessary. If someone comes
into a showroom offering $60,000 cash for an
automobile, not many salespersons are going to
call the police.
Look, the mayor says cheerfully, geography is
destiny and Florida always has attracted adven
turous spirits because it is "the end of the line."
So it is, and so it has been home for aviation
pioneers, land speculators and other high-spirited
folks including, it is safe to say, America's only
mayor who compares his city to Beirut before
the roof fell in, of course. The end of the line:
. That was the Wild West when it was a frontier.
Miami is a sort of frontier. It is the Wild South
and the sheriff wears a sleeveless, peach-colored
T-shirt.
1SS5, Washington Post Writers Group
TAKE V00R PICK,
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CONTRACTS,
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I
FoFeign-Americsuni stuidemlt interaction me&f&ei
New Zealand, Afghanistan, China, Hong
Kong, India, Indonesia, Iran, Japan, Korea,
Lebanon, Pakistan, The Philippines, Saudi
Arabia, Taiwan, Vietnam, England, France, Ger
many, Poland, Spain, Cameroon, Egypt, Morocco,
Nigeria, Tunisia, Columbia, Cuba, The Domini
can Republic, Equador, Guyana, Mexico, Panama,
Peru, Puerto Rico and Venezuela.
If you were patient enough to tally them up
you would have counted 35 countries in all,
spanning five of the seven continents. What do
they have in common? They are all the home
lands of one-fourth of Selleck Quadrangle Resi
dence Hall's 540 students.
Guest
Opinion
Several issues dealing with foreign American
students relations were discussed April 15 at an
International Educational Services-sponsored
forum, comprised of a panel of five foreign UNL
students and four American students, including
ASUN President Gerard Keating. One of the larg
est problems agreed upon by both sides of the
panel was the lack of personal exchange between
most American and foreign students at UNL
The fear of interacting with people of different
nationalities was an often-cited barrier in the
way of changing this situation. In the 2Vi years I
have lived in Selleck, I have seen that this fear
(and discomfort) need not take such control.
The Americans in Selleck are lucky enough to
eat their, three-to-90-minute meals with Selleck's
foreign residents. In this setting our growing
familiarity with one another allows us to replace
our fears and anxieties with companionship. Of
all the foreign residents in Selleck, half have
close American friends to dine, dance, intellec
tualize, travel, study, celebrate and dream with.
And the list goes on.
Some of you would be surprised to find
out how much most non-Americans know about
our politics, culture, history, personal interests
and so on. With this knowledge in common,
initiating and sustaining worthwhile conversa
tion is often quite easy.
At times trying to communicate with foreign
ers can be an irritable task. On those days, for
example, when you're several chapters behind in
all your classes and your tolerance is low, a given
foreigner's thick accent may be more than your
attention can cut through. His painful search for
the precise word to use may take up more time
than your sanity can spare.
These are the days when you are probably
better off plugging your mind into "Three's
Company" and tuning out the rest of the world.
These may be the days to avoid your foreign
classmates and in the company of your native
friends give thanks to God for his gift of small
talk.
It is on those days when you're ahead of the
game and you have nothing to do that one of
more of UNL's 1,170 foreign students will be
there to offer what he or she has seen of life,
complementing what you learn in the books.
If most foreign students would remain in the
United States indefinitely, I wouldn't have writ
ten this editorial. However, most students leave
soon after their studies are complete. It will only
be the fortunate minority among us who end up
in a career position working with such a diverse
group of people such as those in Selleck.
Alter receiving the go-ahead from sev
eral of Sellecjc's foreign students, I wish to
extend something of an invitation to all open-
minded UNL students to drop by sometime, pos
sibly during lunch or dinner, like several hundred
other non-residents do each day, and talk with
those foreign students who look like they may
have the free time. Neihardt as well has 115
foreign students in the International House, who
want to engage in cultural exchange.
While I have seen how easily friends can be
made in residence halls, I certainly wouldn't
rule out the possibility of making the acquain
tance of those foreign students you may meet in
the lecture halls, walking to class, relaxing in
the union or any other place in Lincoln.
Joe Hayman
junior
social work
Don't be a
heartbreaker
n American Heart
AMOciatlon
WE'RE FIGHTING FOR VOUR LIFE
Have
regular
medical
check-ups.
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fSf J
theROYAL
TdPTP23 J $6.00 advance
.fWjSik-Z $7.00 door
The Blasters
Q102 Tuesday
concert series
Tickets for the series on sale at the Royal
Grove, Dirt Cheap and Pickles In Lincoln.
GROVE
Lincoln's Entertainment Oasis 340 W. Cornhusker 477-2026