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Show Mdw Altoapiiiiit Hi? nDaDnrmtt What role do you believe the United States should play in El Salvador? Paul McCann Negotiate a solution, and do not send arms. 'Ti ""--' PtgeA2 Thursday, February 25, 1982 14 : ft- "V, X y---',"'.)nui,y... J K County should learn from iaise promise 01 vtia Tf I TV 111 A i It 1 T1M. J.i. - C 4.1 If Advanced Health Systems goes into the used car business, they sure won't find many willing customers in Coalville. Advanced Health has left a load of bad faith and credibility problems in its management of the Coalville Hospital. While admitting mistakes, the AHS managers have constantly con-stantly exhorted the community to work with them. Meanwhile, Mean-while, they failed, with a long string of physicians, to keep any of their doctors in the area. Their hospital costs had Coalville residents screaming. And their management led to funny coincidences, like a local surgeon being called on the AHS' carpet after he talked to a TV news crew., But they saved the worst for last. AHS has given its six-month six-month notice to Summit County to end its contract, after laying down double-talk for weeks which said they were committed to staying. For instance: at a November meeting of the Summit County Board of Health, Dr. Robert Winn pressed AHS representatives to prove they were committed to staying. "We intend to provide a lasting service," said regional manager Bob Schapper. Last Tuesday, KPCW Radio asked Coalville doctor Wayne Bosworth if Advanced Health would hang in there. "That's what they keep assuring me," said Bosworth. Finally we recall a report we received about a meeting in early February between Advanced Health and the County Commission. We sent a reporter. Division Manager Bob Smith told him the firm was reestablishing confidence, and new physician Robert Birch was building a rapport with Coalville patients. (Now it is reported that Birch too has left the hospital.) Smith also said Advanced Health would not make an overnight decision to leave because the firm had an obligation to the community. "We can't just lock the door," he said. The date of that meeting was Feb. 2. Smith has now revealed that on that same day, Advanced Health delivered the six-month notice to terminate its contract. Based on the evidence so far, AHS is guilty of constant duplicity. And the County Commission doesn't look so good either, for not alerting the public to what was coming. AHS has suggested shortening the six-month termination process so both sides might possibly avoid some expenses. It's worth considering. But first, we believe the county should bring in an independent in-dependent auditor to survey AHS' financial condition, and should retain legal counsel to look for any possible improprieties im-proprieties in its operation. "We may be bad businessmen, but we're not bad people," pleaded Bob Smith last Tuesday. We hope that's true, but there's no nice way to say it AHS hasn't been very reliable, or truthful. Smith was right about one thing, when he told The Newspaper the next few months would be a time for Summit Sum-mit County to reassess its health care needs and wants. The County Commissioners wisely understand they're not medical experts, but perhaps they've been too eager to yield to the judgments of one group of health-care experts in a corporation. Do we need a "Summit County Hospital", when statistics show Kamas residents going to the Wasatch County hospital, and Park City-Snyderville residents traveling to Salt Lake for treatment? To answer this question and many others, the commission should draw upon the knowledge of state research, their own county health officials, and local physicians like Bosworth. If Summit County understands what mistakes were made with AHS, and refuses to repeat them, something good may emerge after all from the confusion, double-talk, and false promises. RE Anderson Weekly gpecnall K Manotoc's family believes Marcos was behind kidnapping Tommy Manotoc is the handsome young man who married the daughter of Philippines President Ferdinand Marcos without her parents' permission permis-sion last December in Arlington, Va. He made the world's headlines when he was kidnapped a few weeks later in the Philippines. And several days ago, he made headlines again when he was apparently rescued from his kidnappers kidnap-pers by his father-in-law's soldiers in the mountains a few miles east of Manila. At a press conference that can only be described as peculiar, Tommy Manotoc assured the press that he had been abducted by Communist guerrillas guerril-las not people working for Marcos. He specifically absolved his father-in-law, the all-powerful president of the Philippines, of any responsibility in his kidnapping. But at the televised press conference, confer-ence, Tommy was surrounded by high-ranking military men in the Marcos government. Reporters noted that he seemed nervous and kept his eyes on the table in front of him. Our associate Lucette Lagnado has talked with members of Tommy Manotoc's family, both in Manila and here in Washington. They don't buy the Marcos government's story. They're convinced that Tommy was forced to say what he did at the press conference. And they're afraid he would be in serious danger if he were to tell the world what really happened. In short, Tommy's family thinks the sudden rescue was an elaborate hoax by President Marcos. They don't think there were any Communist kidnappers. kidnap-pers. They firmly believe that Tommy's Tom-my's sudden rescue was nothing more than an attempt by Marcos to avoid further embarrassment. The Manotoc family told us that Jommy is very confused and very afraid. They say he is under constant surveillance, even when his wife, Imee, calls him or arranges to meet j him. . At one point, we were told, Tommy murmured while half-asleep, "The whole thing was a farce." Tommy has reportedly told his family that his marriage to Imee is apparently up in the air. According to the Manotoc family, Imee has told Tommy that she promised her father she would break up with her husband. But she has also told Tommy that she is willing to continue their relationship. Obviously, this hasn't done much to ease Tommy Manotoc's confusion after his six-week ordeal. And if the Manotoc family is right, the story of the Romeo and Juliet of the Philippines has yet to be told. VASHCHENKO UPDATE: Three-and-a-half years ago, seven Russian citizens forced their way past the Soviet policemen outside the U.S. Embassy in Moscow and asked for asylum. They are Christians and they wanted to come to the United States to escape religious persecution by Communist Com-munist authorities. Six of the Russians have been virtual prisoners in the American Embassy every since. The seventh, Lida Vashchemco, was taken to a Soviet hospital on Jan. 13 after a month-long hunger strike. Her mother, Augustina, continued to refuse food in the small basement room that has been their home for more than three years. She started eating again about two weeks ago. The Soviet government won't let the uninvited embassy guests emigrate to the United States. The persecuted Christian Russians two men and, nowv four women-sent women-sent word that they wanted us to tell their story to the American people and the world. We called the Moscow embassy to talk with them. But at the last minute, on orders from American officials, they were not allowed to come to the phone. We do have indirect word from the unfortunate prisoners in the embassy. It's a letter they wrote to Soviet President Leonid Brezhnev last month. This is an English version they gave to Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.J., when he visited them recently. He sent it out through the diplomatic pouch so it would not be confiscated. The letter is heartbreaking. It is and this is incredible one of 500 letters they have sent to the Kremlin in the past 20 years. The letter says in part: "You already know that we are a Christian family and our Christian ideas cannot be combined with Communism...We have been asking permission to leave this country." The Vashchenkos point out that they have never received an answer to their letters. That's why they undertook the hunger strike. "We consider the hunger strike not a suicide of ourselves," they wrote, "But the last attempt to achieve the emigration of our whole family." The women's determination is clear when they tell Brezhnev, "You can, if youMsiLJresoJveJhepbJenLbefore our death, but if you do not want to pay attention to this, the whole world will consider this case as a murder committed by you." Footnote: Lida has been returned to her home and has reapplied for permission to emigrate to the United States. WATCH ON WASTE: The U.S. Navy has been inadvertently subsidizing the Egyptian government in the form of overcharges on American warships passing through the Suez Canal. The Navy apparently took Egypt's word for the fees instead of checking the bills. Government auditors have found that the Navy paid some $600,000 more than it should have over a two-and-a-half-year period. Each vessel was overcharged over-charged by an average of $5,000. Copyright, 1982 United Feature Syndicate, Inc. . , , V-, U i.--i.- v ; IlilSlIlfti'S iffvi" $, " ' '' Brigitte Buckley Let then) fight with themselves. I think if we get involved it would become another undeclared war like Vietnam, so I don't feel any more military advisors or soldiers should be sent. I don't feel that it poses a Communist threat. Adelle Holmlund I think we should stay out of it. I don't think Korea was necessary, and I think this would be the same thing. im .::::::.; ki : mm Alike Pdrk I don't mink the aid as long as it's for a good purpose. But as far as sending troops, that's not what's needed. Don Gomes We need to support a democratic government, but the U.S. can't survive or support another Vietnam. by Stanley Karnou (Bfltolball VSew The U.S.S.R.: a distressed giant . Washington, D.C. The crackdown on the dissidence in Poland may have been a political triumph for the Soviet leaders. But they are paying an exorbitant economic price for the victory, which eventually may cost more than it was worth. The Polish crisis is imposing severe strains on the domestic Soviet economy econo-my at a time when, because of its own appalling weaknesses, it can least afford to be saddled with additional burdens. Meanwhile, the trouble in Poland has badly damaged the economies of Eastern Europe, which are closely linked to one another within the Soviet orbit. All this suggests, I believe, that Moscow will face increasing pressures during the period ahead. And its problems are likely to be aggravated by changes in its ruling hierarchy as its old and ailing chieftains disappear. The Kremlin lost one of its most influential figures with the death of Mikhail Suslov a few weeks ago. Leonid Brezhnev, the 75-year-old Communist Party boss, cannot last much longer, and his demise is almost certain to spark an internal struggle for power. So, it seems to me, the Soviet Union ought to be viewed as a desperately distressed giant and not, in the exaggerated perception of the Reagan administration, as a mighty colossus capable of world domination. Within recent weeks, for example, the Russians have been selling unusually large quantities of gold, diamonds and oil on Western markets in an urgent effort to raise the cash to meet immediate requirements. They need the money to pay for bigger imports of grain from the West in the wake of their third disastrous harvest in a row. Estimates are that they will purchase 43 million tons of grain this year from the United States and other Western producers. The funds also are destined to prop up Poland, whose economy had been collapsing even before its labor unions began to rise in protest. Soviet assistance to Poland until now has probably exceeded $10 billion, part of it earmarked to service the huge Polish debt to Western banks. Moscow also has been borrowing enormous sums in the West to finance such projects as the controversial natural gas pipeline, planned to run from Siberia to Western Europe. Soviet loans for the pipeline total more than $2 billion, and the Kremlin asked West German banks for additional credit in December. Under the weight of this load, the Russians have been forced to slash their aid to their East European satellites. Not long ago, for instance, they cut their oil deliveries to Eastern Europe by 10 percent, preferring instead to peddle the fuel in the West for hard currency. The East Europeans have been suffering as well from the disarray in Poland, which has been unable to supply them with the coal, industrial equipment and food that are vital to their own development. Underlying this gigantic shambles is a basic reality. The Soviet Union, which once touted itself as the global model of the future, has proved to be a dismal economic failure. It is fair surmise, indeed, that its population might be better off today if the revolution had never occurred. A fundamental flaw in the Soviet system is management. Fearful of a flexible structure that might threaten their authority, Soviet leaders since the days of Joseph Stalin have relied on an overcentralized, rigid and conser vative bureaucracy that cannot adapt to the country's diversity. Not only are Soviet bureaucrats egregiously corrupt in defense of their privileges, but their direction of the economy is marked by extravagant waste. As Anthony Robinson of the London Financial Times points out, they have long been blind to the connection between production costs and prices. Striving to fulfill their aspirations, the Soviet leaders also devote scarce resources to a military establishment that may well be beyond their economic means. Military expenditures now consume nearly 15 percent of the Soviet gross national product roughtly twice the proportion spent on defense by the United States.which is at least twice as rich. Another expensive item in the Soviet budget is foreign ventures, such as aid to Cuba and Vietnam. The guerrilla war in Afghanistan is draining the Kremlin's treasury just as Vietnam clobbered the American taxpayer. The worst Soviet diaster, though, has been agriculture a victim of Communist Commu-nist ideology that holds that peasants should not be motiviated by material incentives, but must work on collective farms. For the Soviet bosses to admit otherwise would be to confess that communism is a myth. Thus they squander their meager assets on imported grain, which is a very costly way to keep the faith. To forecast the imminent end of the Soviet empire would be excessive. But President Reagan would enhance his credibility by depicting the great Communist experiment as it actually is a mess of monstrous magnitude. (c) 1982 The Register and Tribune Syndicate Inc. Mewspapeir: Subscription Rales, 15 a year in Summit County, $12 a year outside Summit County Published by Ink, Inc. USPS 378-730 Publisher jn Wilking Edl,or David Hampshire Advertising Sales Jan Wilking, Bill Dickson Business Manager Rick Lanman Gn,Ph,cs Becky Widenhouse, Liz Heimos Staff Reporters Bettina Moench, Rick Brough, Morgan Queal Typesetting Sabina Rosser, Sharon Pain. Kathy Deakin Subscription & Classifieds Marion Cooney Distribution & Photography Mjchae, Sp)1djnt! Entered as second-class matter May 25, 1977, at the post office in Park City, Utah 84060, under the Act of March 3 1897. Published every Thursday at Park City, Utah. Second-class postage paid at Park City, Utah. 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