THURSDAY, MAY 29, 1969 McCarthy Discusses Biafra By RHONDA BLANK Collegian Staff Writer OVer a century ago, the United States embarked on a Civil War to reunify a nation, to return its seceded states to the fold. Many American statesmen are comparing the war to a struggle currently taking place in Africa, where the Federal Government of Nigeria is waging a full-scale war against secessionist tribes forming the Independent Republic of Biafra. However, according to Senator Eugene J. McCarthy (D-Minn.), the analogy of the secession of Biafra to the secession of the American Confederacy is rot valid. 'Political preconceptions have kept us from realistic examination," he said. "They have kept us from recognizing that the boundaries of Nigeria im posed artificially by a colonial power are not so sacred -as to justify the deaths of several million people. The price of 'unity is too high." New U.S. Policy In a report delivered May 16 to the U.S. Senate, McCarthy called for re-examination of the U.S. policy of "one Nigeria" and proposed a new diplomatic policy to help end the struggle which has brought starvation and death to millions of Biatrans. McCarthy recommended, "The United States should immediately call for an arms embargo. We Should actively seek a truce. We should use our good offices to promote negotiations for resolving dif ferences. We should press for a deescalation of Great Power involvement. We should seek to form a multinational effort to provide the logistic support re quired for an adequate relief effort. We should accept Biafra's right to a separate national existence and look to possible eattj recognition of Biafra by the United States and other nations." The American people have been sympathetic to the suffering of the millions of Biafran refugees who have been compressed into an area one-quarter the size of their homelands. Air-lifts carry food and medicine to Biafra, and the U.S. government has donated food and equipment to relief organizations on both sides. Current Efforts 'Superficial' McCarthy said, however, that "as long as official United States policy awaits a 'military solution' .present relief efforts will remain superficial and inadequate, if not contradictory to official policy." The Nigerian struggle, according to the report, has Its roots in the fact that, upon receiving its in dependence from Great Britain in 1960. "Nigeria was a colonial ' amalgamation of several hundred relatively autonomous peoples who had by no means developed, a national consciousness." The easterners were best educated, and many left Sociology Prof Black ghetto children don't grow up in today's society, they call it "coming up," ac cording to David A. Schulz, assistant professor of Sociology. In his book. "Coming Up Black: Patterns of Ghetto Socialization," Schulz gives his readers a dramatic view of children living in rat infested rooms, parents with no jobs, girls pregnant at 14, boys violently earning their reputations in the streets. According to Schulz. "com ing up" is a matter of learning quickly that laughter and gaiety in the ghetto are more often than not, a backdrop to misery, that joy is short-lived and pain is constant. "But even more important," Schulz said, "it is learning that survival is the major goal of the ghetto dweller—not because he wants it that way, but because it is forced on him. Just surviving drains all his energy and determination." Based on a three and a half year study of 10 ghetto families, representing 108 peo ple, Schulz sheds new light on why almost half of all black Americans are poor, and why they comprise about one-fifth of the entire poor population in the United States even though they constitute only about one tenth of the overall population. "Ghetto dwellers want very much to be able to live like the average American," Schulz INTERESTED? THEN READ COLLEGIAN AD, PAGE 8 Calls for New Diplomatic Polk their overcrowded homeland to find jobs in other parts of the country. The people of the northern region were the most regionally oriented and threatened to secede from Nigeria, unless they dominated it. - "Shifting political coalitions, eth n i c conflict, regional jealousies, and governmental corruption" were characteristic of the first' six years of the Nigerian Republic, the report said. An attempt at political unity was made in 1966 with a coup by nationalistic officers, mostly easterners. However, a counter-coup in July 1966 was followed by the killing of 30,000 Ibos and other easterners, who were living in the north. The easterners, losing trust in the Federal Govern ment, moved back to their homeland. A confederated union with equality among all the regions was designed at a conference at Aburi, Ghana, in January 1967. The government at Lagos violated the new agreement, however, by seeking to create a 12-state system which would confine the Ibos to a small area and break their influence. The easterners, feeling excluded from the govern ment, seceded in May 1967, declaring the Independent Republic of Biafra. The report continues, "Secession was followed quickly by war in July, 1967. The 'quick, surgical police operation' of ending secession, expected to take several weeks, has been followed by five 'final offensives' and a war which is now almost two years old. Armed with British tanks and bullets and with Russian MIGs piloted by Egyptians, the Nigerians have surrounded the Biafrans and cut them off from traditional sources of food and outlets to the sea. "A strategy of siege, deigned to produce military victory, has produced massive starvation unparallel ed in modern warfare. Refugees make up more than 50 per cent of the population of Biafra, yet the Biafrans continue to struggle for their right to exist. Though the Nigerians occupy many deserted towns, the Biafrans control the countryside and the villages. Their will and determination have discredited the ad vocates of 'quick kill' and the prophets of imminent collapse. Biafra continues to maintain a stable ad ministrative structure. The Biafran army remains in tact and effective." British Give Support The British have supported the Federal Military Government of Nigeria since the, beginning of the civil war, McCarthy said, partly because of oil inter ests in Nigeria, and partly because of an emotional desires to see a unified Nigeria, which would demon strate the ability of "the British colonial technique of indirect rule and of the successful transition from colonial rule to independence." 'Coming Up' ln Toda 's Societ said. "But because they cannot and because it is painful to continue to evaluate oneself by norms that are unattainable, they have accepted an alter nate set of norms that allows them to maintain, in the midst of their isolation a n d deprivation, some sense of self esteem—'living sweet' as they like to call it." "Don't ask me why I eat chittlins, I eat chittlins because I can't afford steak," one ghet to dweller said. And chittlins, notes Schulz, have become "a significant part of what is called 'soul food,' a name that is a further attempt t o make mo s t desirable what is most at tainable and to provide a sacrament bestowing identity within a black brotherhood." Through his study, conducted in a large black housing pro ject in the St. Louis area—but pertinent to any black tenement—Schulz explores the family structure of the black ghetto. He focuses primarily on how poor migrant families make a life for themselves in the city and how they make a home where they can rear their children, children who are often not wanted, but once' born must be loved and cared for. He shows the reader, perhaps more dramatically than ever before, how children begin "catching on" to the truth that their lives are lead- THE DAILY COLLEGIAN, UNTW , RsITY PARX, PENNSYLVANIA Confederated Union Studies ing to a dead-end. This "dead endedness," Schulz said, is learned from their mothers and fathers, their mothers' boyfriends, and their older brothers and sisters. The study examines every phase of ghetto existence— unwanted pregnancies, t h e strategy of "cool." fathers wanting to prove their manhood by having children but frustrated because they can't provide for them, the proud independence of the ghetto girl who says she's "no one's woman" and able to "go for herself." There is Madeline. Schulz said, who has had f iv e illegitimate children, b u t refuses to get married. "I think it is more the idea of getting married," she said. "I keep thinking about the types of marriages they have on television and in the books. I know it's not like that. I always said I would never get married because lots of men do their wives so bad..." There is also Richard, the oldest literate member of his family at 15. "Richard handles the /I!1\ /M\ PHI SIGMA SIGMA WARMLY WELCOME THEIR NEW INITIATES JOYCE ARNOLD ELYSE BARRY JILL BENNETT SHELLY BLITZ IDELE BLOCK JUDY FLAXMAN MARSHA GOLD DONNA GREENBERG NANCY HOFFMAN HONEY INSELBERG STUDENTS MEN WOMEN SUMMER JOBS FULL-TIME WORK THIS SUMMER FIFTEEN $l,OOO CASH SCHOLARSHIPS EARN IN EXCESS OF $133 PER WEEK PLENTY OF TIME FOR BOATING, SWIMMING, GOLF WIN ONE OF MANY ALL-EXPENSE PAID TRIPS TO LONDON, ENGLAND Some Qualified Students May Work Overseas Next Summmer BASIC REQUIREMENTS 1. Must be over 18 years of age 2. Minimum of six months of college 3. Neat appearance THOSE STUDENTS WHO SUCCESSFULLY COMPLETE THE SUMMER MAY CONTINUE - THEIR ASSOCIATION WITH US NEXT SEMESTER ON A PART TIME BASIS. INTERVIEW BY APPOINTMENT ONLY • CALL MR. COOK • PITTSBURGH•2BI-7393 STATE COLLEGE 238.3631 McKEESPORT 414-9616 One American who shares such a commitment to "One Nigeria" is the U.S. Assistant Secretary of State for African Affairs, Joseph Palmer, who was the first U.S. ambassador to Nigeria. McCarthy said, "He accepted the analogy of the secession of Biafra to the secession of the American Confederacy, entirely overlooking the fact that Nigeria, unlike the United States, was not unified by a common language. culture, and historical tradition. 'and had no background of stable, capable govern ment." McCarthy predicted that his proposals would meet opposition by those who accept the current American policy in' West Africa. He said many will claim minority tribes of the east will suffer if Biafra gains independence. He refuted such an argument by pointing out that "local grievances, local animosities, and local in justices are more important than outside influences in accounting for revolutionary developments within a country." Countries Recognize Biafra He added that four African countries have recognized Biafra, and "each of them has large minority groups, but none of them seemed to fear that its recognition of a secessionist regime elsewhere would encourage secession within its own boundaries." McCarthy also disregarded the argument that his ,proposals would undermine the position of the U.S. British ally in Africa, by pointing out that British oil interests would not be threatened by Biafran in dependence, since most of the oil is in the midwestern section of Nigeria, and the Biafrans have never "expressed any intention of expropriating British oil." McCarthy also said. "In my opinion, the interests of the United States and of Great Britain may best be served by disentangling the Nigerian-Biafran war from the Cold War and by reducing Great Power in tervention in the area. It would be better to use this area as a testing ground for reducing tensions among the Great Powers, since their interests are less serious here than elsewhere, than to perpetuate Cold War maneuvers out of habit." He added that since many African countries are distrustful of "Great Power" involvement in their af fairs, they would welcome a reduction of Cold War competition. The Federal Government of Nigeria cur rently is playing off the Soviet Union against Great Britain, in order to receive as many arms as possible from both. "To argue that diplomatic recognition of Biafra would constitute intervention into purely African af fairs is irrelevant; non-recognition is also interven tion," McCarthy said. Black Ghettos finances," Schulz said. "His parents, recently from the South. are afraid of the city but Richard likes it...he can 'play it cool' or in his words 'Down there you have to pick cotton but here you know it's different...you can get better shoes up here.' " Schulz's study leads to the conclusion that poverty has a distinctive life style which must be reckoned with if the social problem o f im proverishment is to be over come. "Apparently the answer lies in a radical alteration of the conditions of isolation and deprivation which are the basic conditions to which the poor must adapt." Schulz said, Schulz said some form of in come maintenance that goes beyond providing a minimum subsistance level for poor Americans seems to be the most just, and^in the long run. the most likely mean of eliminating poverty. It should be obvious, Schulz added, that even with an income main tenance program, s o m families will need special help. "The most acceptable form THE SISTERS OF SHELLEY LEVINE SUSAN MASHBITZ DENISE MORRISON RUTHIE REITER LYNN ROSEN GAIL SAKS JULIE SHORE NANCY SNYDER BEVERLY SPEIZER DONNA ZELENKO of income maintenance, both to , the poor and to the average ' American, is one that ties in come to a job," Schulz said. 1 "The majority of project dwellers would rather work than receive a dole, but there are those who are unable to work," he added. "In justice these few should receive the same supports through other forms of income main tenance." Schulz said that the moral question that must be weighed is: Should we continue to punish the vast majority of the poor because we fear that a few will benefit unjustly? "The time has 'come when the af firmative answer to such a question can no longer be ac cepted," Schulz asserted. "American cities are in crisis. The need is pressing to rebuild the American dream in concrete, in cities once more fit for human habitation," Schulz said. "The economic and technological resources necessary to meet the poverty problem head-on are at hand. They can be evaded no longer." Industrial Recruitment Up Despite Disruption Threats NEW YORK t' Despite threats that radical students would take jobs to disrupt American industry this summer, corporations across the country have increased campus recruiting efforts. A survey of colleges and businesses showed. however, that many firms hesitate to hire stu dents known to have radical leanings. McDonnell Douglas Corp.. the St. Louis air craft manufacturer. talked to 8.000 students this spring—its "biggest year." At Texas Instruments Corp. 1,000 college grads will be hired this year compared to 250 five years ago. A U.S. Steel spokesman reported increased recruiting this year. Max Jacobson. a student at the University of Pennsylvania said recruiting is up because "businesses are very hard up for college grads and rather than displaying coolness are looking harder than ever for qualified people on cam pus." No Effect Most colleges and industries surveyed denied that campus disturbances have in any way at- College Questionnaire Research Penn State students who have received, but have not completed and return- ed the College Student Questionnaires, are re- quired to do so as soon as possible. The response of each individual student adds to the potential im- pact of the total results. Thank you for your cooperation and Best Wishes for a Happy Profitable Summer. and 111!IMIII!!1 fectcd recruiting efforts "Our policy hasn't changed a bit and we don't intend it to," said Vern F. Peak, personnel director at Kaiser Industries in Los Angeles. "No, the disturbances aren't affecting,us. not even in the defense-oriented industries." said Ralph Keller. placement director at Stanford University in California. "We have more recruiters coming in now than ever." But many firms have a policy of avoiding campus trouble. 'ln case of any trouble. we have a contingen cy plan, we'll silently close up our tent and steal away." said Ling-Temco-Vought's pro fessional placement officer. Tom Wright. CIA Harassed The Central Intelligence Agency, whose recruiters have repeatedly been harassed by dissidents, said it cancels or postpones in terview plans if a demonstration looms. "We feel strongly that we shouldn't go any place that will cause violence because universities are places for the pursuit of knowledge," an agency spokesman said. Student Project Gerald D. Williams Student Affairs Research PAGE THREE
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