Former Clinton adviser
slated for UNL lecture
By Brian Carlson
Staff writer
Former National Security
Adviser Anthony Lake will address
a UNL audience today on the chal
lenges of crafting US. foreign poli
cy in the post-Cold War era.
Lake, whose E.N. Thompson
Forum on World Issues lecture is
scheduled for 3:30 p.m. at the
University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s
Lied Center for Performing Arts,
served as President Clinton’s
national security adviser from 1993
to 1996.
The lecture’s title is
“Superpower or Supercop: Dangers
and Opportunities in the Post-Cold
War Era.”
As the Clinton adviser responsi
ble for coordinating foreign policy
making, Lake advocated the con
cept of “democratic enlargement.”
Lake argued that the best inter
ests of the United States and the
world were served by expanding
democracy and free markets around
the world.
In Clinton’s first term, the
United States encouraged the devel
opment of open markets, imple
menting the North American Free
Trade Agreement and entering the
new World Trade Organization. The
United States also conducted peace
keeping operations in Somalia,
Haiti and Bosnia and oversaw elec
tions in several countries.
Wayne Babchuk, a program spe
cialist at UNL, said students should
take advantage of the opportunity to
hear about the future of U.S. foreign
policy from one who has been inti
mately involved with policy-mak
ing.
“This is a rare opportunity to be
up close to someone who has such
firsthand experience in govern
ment,” he said.
The lecture is also sponsored by
the Lewis E. Harris Lectures on
Public Policy.
British, Irish governments
sign treaties to unify action
■ The agreements will
link the Irish Republic
with Britain and Northern
Ireland.
DUBLIN, Ireland (AP) - Two days
before Northern Ireland’s divided
politicians are supposed to form a new
government, the British and Irish gov
ernments Monday signed four treaties
designed to put a crucial stage of the
troubled peace accord into action.
The treaties legalize new institu
tions linking the independent Irish
Republic with both British-ruled
Northern Ireland and Britain itself.
After the joint signing ceremony in
Dublin Castle, the seat of British power
in Ireland until 1922, senior govern
ment figures cautioned that their plans
will be dashed if Northern Ireland’s
Protestant and Catholic leaders fail to
form a coalition government soon.
“We are all aware that there remain
great difficulties surrounding the for
mation of the Northern Ireland
Executive,” Irish Foreign Minister
David Andrews said, referring to the
12-member administration for
Northern Ireland that both govern
ments hope to see appointed
Wednesday.
“But these difficulties can and
must be surmounted,” he added. “The
promise of the agreement is now so
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tantalizingly close to becoming a reali
ty that we cannot allow ourselves to
contemplate failure.”
The would-be Protestant leader of
the Executive, David Trimble, has
emphasized that he does not want to
form an administration that includes
members of the Irish Republican
Army-allied Sinn Fein party unless the
IRA starts disarming first.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams
maintains, however, that he cannot
deliver any gesture from the IRA until
his party gains its two executive posts.
Protestant leaders and successive
British governments have long called
for gradual disarmament as evidence
that the IRA’s nearly 20-month-old
truce amounts to a renunciation of vio
lence.
The treaties signed today made
legal four new structures designed to
bind the lawmakers of Northern
Ireland, the Republic of Ireland,
Scotland, Wales and England into a
formal new system of summits and
cooperative policy-making commit
tees.
Mo Mowlam, Britain’s secretary
for Northern Ireland, noted that the
treaties presuppose the new Belfast
government will be formed first.
Mowlam conceded that the
Wednesday “target date” for the hand
ing of powers to the Northern Ireland
Executive would almost certainly be
missed.
She said that now it is crucial to
achieve a resolution before the first
anniversary of the accord, struck on
Good Friday, April 10. This year, Good
Friday falls on April 2.
$
Student sets stage for stars
■ By participating in an
overseas program, a UNL
senior hit upon a behind-the
scenes opportunity.
By Heidi White
Staff writer
Every day last summer, Wade
Weigel pushed through squealing
teen-agers held back by security
guards so he could set the stage for
some of Germany’s biggest stars.
Weigel, a UNL senior broadcast
ing major, had an internship as a
video assistant on the set of one of the
top-rated network TV shows in
Germany, “Hinter Gittem.”
Weigel participated last April in
the did-UNL-Berlin program, devel
oped by Christina Brantner, an asso
ciate professor of modem languages
and literature at UNL.
Weigel, along with 14 other
University of Nebraska-Lincoln stu
dents, went through a four-month
language school at the deutsch in
deutschland institute in Berlin.
The classes were designed to sub
merge foreign students in the German
language.
Brantner said the intensive pro
gram costs about $9,500 and partici
pants receive 15 to 20 credit hours
from the language school.
After finishing the classes, partic
ipants are given a choice of two tracks
- taking more classes at a university
in Berlin or trying for an internship.
Brantner said the institute
attempts to match students with an
internship of their interest, but many
are not paid.
Participants have worked at jobs
in diverse fields such as a chemical
plant, a high school, a women’s center
and at the American consulate.
With only two German classes
taken at UNL and the experience
from the program under his belt, the
22-year-old from Fairbury decided to
try for an internship.
The institute found Weigel a job
at Sineimpuls, which provided equip
ment for the production company
working on “Hinter Gittern,” or
“Behind Bars.” The show, which is in
its first season, ran on the largest
commercial station in Germany.
Set in a German women’s prison,
the show centered on the prisoners,
who often got weekend passes to
leave the prison, and their family
members on the outside.
What made the show so popular
though, Weigel said, was its story
lines, which involved power struggles
between the inmates, drug deals and
other, racier addictions.
“It was almost like being on the
set of a porno sometimes,” he said.
But there was obviously a small
catch to this extraordinary opportuni
ty - no one around Weigel spoke
English.
Weigel’s 12-hour workdays were
spent surrounded by German-speak
ing coworkers, leaving him strug
gling to communicate in whatever
way he could.
“I had to learn all the vocabulary
by pointing,” he said. “I was always a
good laugh for the staff because I
took everything literally.”
As a video assistant, he set up
equipment and moved the cameras
and monitors in between shots.
Another drawback was that
because he didn’t have a work permit,
Weigel spent his 50 to 60 hours a
week toiling for about 80 cents an
hour.
But in the end, he said, it was all
worth it. He said he got great profes
sional experience, contacts in Europe
and learned more German than he
ever thought possible.
A meeting about the did-UNL
Berlin program will be held today at 4
p.m. at the office of International
Affairs.
Brantner said this kind of experi
ence in a foreign country can benefit
students in any field of work.
“Recipients have often said one
thing they would do earlier in their
career in college would be going
abroad.”
Committee considers giving
employees mandatory day off
To allow workers much-needed
rest and time with their families, sup
porters of LB 174 argued Monday the
state should require employers to give
their employees one day off per week.
Based on an Illinois law on the
books since the. late T930s, the bill
would require that employees who
work more than 20 hours per week
receive at least one full day off the job
each week. Employees still could
choose to work all seven days.
The bill makes exceptions for agri
cultural, construction and seasonal
workers, and employers could require
their employees to work in emergen
cies such as machinery breakdowns.
The Legislature’s Business and
Labor Committee held a hearing on the
bill Monday.
“This is essentially a health and
safety bill,” said Joe Kohout, a legisla
tive aide for LB 174 sponsor Sen. John
Hilert of Omaha.
Gordon McDonald, president of
the Nebraska AFL-CIO, said unions
had been unable to negotiate a weekly
day off in many industries. Workers
need the day off to spend more time
with families and to protect their
health, he said.
But Arlo Bower, representing
Walker Manufacturing in Seward and
Monroe Automotive in Cozad, said
LB174’s restrictions could force busi
nesses to transfer production out of
state so they could meet customer
demands.
The bill also might encourage
employers to ask employees to work
more hours per day to ensure factories
meet their customers’ needs, Bower
said.
General Affairs bills would
restrict out-of-state alcohol
Sen. Stan Schellpeper and others
said Monday that the state must regu
late Internet and out-of-state alcohol
purchases to enforce the legal drinking
age and capture tax revenues.
The General Affairs Committee
held a joint hearing Monday on LB281
and LB790.
LB281 would prohibit the trans
port of all alcohol into Nebraska.
Senators said the bill had generated
a deluge of angry mail from con
stituents who were members of wine
of-the-month clubs receiving monthly
shipments of new wines.
Proponents made clear they intro
duced the bill to generate discussion
and said the bill should be held to allow
further study of the issue.
“We need to ferment this wine a lit
tle longer,” said Mary Campbell, repre
senting the Nebraska Beer Wholesalers
Association.
Opponents said the bill would pre
vent them from buying their favorite
overseas wines and liquors to bring
back to Nebraska.
LB790 would restrict the transport
of alcohol into Nebraska.
Under the bill, anyone shipping
500 gallons or fewer of alcoholic liquor
each year Would have to receive a trans
portation permit. Anyone shipping
more than 500 gallons would have to
receive a shipping license as a licensed
wholesaler. The state would collect
sales and excise taxes on all sales.
Transportation permit holders
would have to provide the signature of
a person at least 21 years old and sub
mit annual reports on the amount of
alcohol transported. If the state found
someone was in violation, it would
have the authority to block alcohol
shipments.
Ken Winston, legal counsel for the
General Affairs Committee, said the
bill was designed to prevent minors
from buying alcohol over the Internet
or through catalogs, prevent unfair
competition and allow the state to col
lect taxes on all alcohol purchases.
“This bill allows people who have
legitimate interests in obtaining these
products to continue obtaining them,”
he said.
Compiled by staff writer Brian
Carlson
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