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Show LCttCrS less than 400 words, Should be typed double-space- d, and phone number (number signed with full name and include address won't be published. Direct questions to Mitch Wilkinson, A Qomioes dangerous journey President F.W. de Klerk's partial liftstate of emergency ing of a returns South Africa's security situation to something more closely resembling normality. It also removes a major four-year-o- ld impediment to formal negotiations of aimed at ending the abhorrent system apartheid and giving voting rights to the black majority. At the same time, however, if the removal of emergency powers results in increased violence among blacks anxious to reap the promised benefits of democratization, de Klerk's white power base could collapse, possibly with disas- trous results. Like Mikhail Gorbachev, de Klerk has unleashed a democratic revolution that threatens to overwhelm him. He has reached the point of no return in his efforts to share political and economic power with the black majority after 40 years of illegitimate domination by the white minority. De Klerk now has no option but to forge ahead with reforms in order to maintain control. If he falters, he will be not to his black political oppolost nents, but to con- - servative whites who, after decades of conditioning to racial segregation, now feel he is razing the edifice of apartheid too fast. ' De Klerk asserts he still carries the support of 60 percent of the white electorate, which is sufficient for him to push through his reform measures. But in the near loss of a critical the city of Durban has shaken his National Party. A surge of new support for the Conservative Party, which favors a return to full segregation, indicates that even moderate whites have taken fright at the speed of change. Conservative leader Dr. Andries Treurnicht even predicts civil war if the pace of reform increases. And yet de Klerk must press ahead right-win- g Sunday June 17, 1990 R THE LEANING TOWER OF NEW YORK Herald comment deliberately. He must continue to set the pace from the front or be run over, himself. He cannot ignore trade sanctions applied by the international community, and he must move swiftly enough to meet the mounting aspirations of South African blacks. By lifting the state of emergency everywhere except in the province of Natal, where black factional fighting continues to take a heavy toll of life, de Klerk has taken some of the edge off of African National Congress (ANC) leader Nelson Mandela's tours of Europe and America. Mandela's mission is to promote more Western sanctions and maintain existing ones. Even those nations which applaud his political rhetoric must ponder the practical sense of new trade boycotts at this stage. In fact, de Klerk's steady moves toward democracy bring South Africa nearer to fulfilling preconditions adopted by the U.S. Congress for lifting sanctions. But there is still some way to go, particularly in the area of releasing political prisoners. Existing sanctions should be kept in place until all the conditions have been met. r De Klerk is, of course, still dependent on white support to continue the reform process. But the ANC could make a positive contribution by renouncing violence and removing the fear that is driving whites toward the unstable and unpredictable areas of the radical right. South Africa is headed in the right directiion at last, but the most danger-'ou- s part of its journey is yet to come. wur im 1 ii TO RETALIATE AND NO. FURTHER DEGRADE THIS " ..andjculKxi.Uii&up ecuiomy, press the but.tpn 'and miA!'. I p He idUoiial i, i eP1 ? PLEASE? BLINK . I Cjlk ior Haroldsen WTMfeONXXJR ifjm. are you gong cPPONErrr is MAKING VICOJS AND IRRESPONSIBLE ATTACKS 0NWXJ. Second thoughts on the Jordanelle dam Last month I urged that the Bureau of Reclamation be given "a fair chance to present its case for the Jordanelle dam." Ed Since then I have been guilty of not giving a reader a fair chance to present the case against the dam. It happened this way: I was rushing around trying to take care of last minute obligations before HERALD leaving on a trip to Hawaii. Just then a COLUMNIST woman phoned and started to talk about 20 column on the Jordanelle. She my May was pleasant enough; she merely asked if I had talked to geologists who had serious there were all busted up. The bureau tried reservations about the dam. As I listened I pumping concrete in to hold the rocks recalled the considerable reading and talktogether, but their budget ran out. They ing I had done about the dam and so had no more money to fill the holes in the instead of hearing the woman out, I rather rock. So they went ahead and built that abruptly informed her that I did not have earth-fi-ll dam and it didn't even get filled time to debate the issues. I invited her to before it failed." write a letter to the editor. My geologist friend also seriously quesBut a minute or so after hanging up I tions whether there will be water for the started thinking about what I had said Jordanelle dam. The early 1980s were and how I had reacted to the woman. I unusually wet years, but "we could have was embarrassed even more so because normal water years for decades. If that's I had no way to get in touch with her and true, I wonder where they are going to get talk about her concerns. the water." Later I talked with a geologist friend Of course if there's no water to fill the whom I have known and respected for and I learned what I should have dam, then disscusion of whether it is built years realized earlier that he and other on a firm foundation is, in a sense, irrelevant. However, for safety's sake, we geologists do, indeed, have some serious concerns about the dam that urgently beg better assume there will be water in the for public discussion. But their' concern is dam. And if so, the public deserves better not with the earthquake hazard, the matter reassurances than it now has that the dam which the woman wanted to talk with with will not fail and in a domino effect take me about. They see this as a moot point. with it the Deer Creek dam. But my geologist friend is concerned As I said in the earlier column, the about another and more scary issue. He bureau should translate its mass of technisays that the dam is being built on "rotten, cal information on the dam into terms we not solid rock." that the Bureau of Reclamation "thinks it can scrape off the top citizens can understand. But it also needs to do a better job than it has done until layer and get down to solid rock but there isn't any there." His criticism jives with now in convincing concerned people that the concerns of BYU geologist Morris my geologist friend is wrong in concluding Peterson. Peterson was earlier quoted as that the dam is being built on "rotten" rock and, like the Teton dam, may fail. saying he believes the rock foundation of the dam has been altered by hydrothermal But we better not leave this all up to the activity not by weathering, as claimed by Bureau of Reclamation, which obviously the Bure;iu of Reclamation that the has a vested interest in the dam having dam's engineers have got to resolve the construction go ahead, without interference difficulty of rcconsolidating a vast amount or criticism from others. The bureau is run of altered rock in order for the dam to be by engineers, not geologists. Engineers like stable. challenges; they're not discouraged by Such conunents remind us of what hapthem. They like to build things. pened at the Teton dam. My geologist The governor's office and our own Utah friend says geologists were concerned about that dam, too, and wrote critical Congressional delegation, as our elected letters even while it was being planned and representatives, should make a serious, built. He adds, "But no one listened. The thorough, independent investigation into now! problem was the abutments. The rocks these concerns nr. rmt W90 -- 5ANMUt0W rP XJJ r AWKHDOOCKSEMEM.. lr W, H Wm V K fvJhWA I J ROCKETS' RED GLARE, MR. KEY.. IT SEEMS SOME CIVIL LIBERTIES FANATIC JUST SET THE FLAG 1 HI 3 Will Soviets and Saudis form oil pact? - WASHINGTON The world's largest producer of oil and the largest exporter of it are forging an uneasy bond that could dominate the whole world in the petroleum market. The Soviet Union and Saudi Arabia are strange bedfellows. One has long been ruled by communists and atheists. The other is a strictly religious monarchy and the birthplace of Islam. But that doesn't seem to be stopping a relationship of convenience between the two nations amid a persistent world oil glut. On the heels of another summit by the OPEC oil cartel aimed at bolstering sagging prices, the Saudis and Soviets have opened new talks of their Arab-dominat- ed own. They're apparently trying to accomplish without OPEC what the cartel couldn't. The Saudis, rich in oil reserves, dominate OPEC. The Soviets, who are not members of the cartel, produce more than Saudi Arabia but have less oil in the ground. The two are trying to stabilize the prices. If Saudi Arabia and the Soviet Union accomplish that by agreeing on production and if they pull in Iraq, the next- joals le Jack Anderson & Dale Van Atta UNITED FEATURE SYNDICATE some say they could largest producer dominate the market. It could also mean the end of the impotent OPEC. Of course, the mismatched marriage has some major stumbling blocks. The Saudis detest communism and long have been a strategic U.S. ally. The country's Islamic theocrats have, made no secret of their steadfast financial and moral support for Afghanistan's freedom fighters, battling a Soviet-backe- d regime. One of our associates who visited Saudi Arabia last year said it is not uncommon to meet people who have volunteered to fight for the rebels in Afghanistan. Soviet troop casualties there over the last decade are largely a product of the hundreds of millions of dollars In Saudi aid to the rebels. ( Another hindrance is the Saudis' historical interest in fostering ties with the Soviet Union's own 53 million restive Moslems. Soviet Islamic leaders are challenging the traditional communist hierarchy amid po; litical change there. Vet problems remain between the United States and Saudi Arabia that could drive the Saudis closer to the Soviets. The United States maintains close ties to Israel, at least publicly alienating many Arab countries. America has neglected broad-base- d Arab demands for an independent Palestinian state. And In the Saudis' eyes, Israel exercises veto power over U.S. arms sales to the Arab kingdom. As far as the Saudis are concerned, the time could be right to cuddle up to the the Soviets. As always with the intrigue of geopolitics, they probably can overlook their fundamental philosophical differences for the time being so both can shore up oil prices and bring in more hard currency. That doesn't mean the Soviets will stop worrying about the Moslems militating for greater freedom on the Soviets' own southern flank. Nor does it mean the Saudis will overlook their traditional Arab unity, enmity toward communism or longstanding friendship with the United States. |
