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Show iakf Sribnnr ahr Thursday Morning Section December 2G, 1985 Page 22 A New Ugliness in South Africa Recalls Mau Mau Viciousness For all its ugliness, the violence that has ravished South Africa, accounting for more than 1,017 deaths in 16 months, has lacked any discernible sign, of cohesiveness or premeditation. The victims, most of them blacks, have fallen as the result of rioting and the efforts of police to suppress such protestations. Now, as was bloodily evident in Mondays bombing at a white shopping center in Durban, the violence has taken on a new deliberateness. Five people, two white women, a teenage girl and two boys ages 2 and 8, were killed when a bomb planted near a garbage can exploded. The fact that a mall, especially busy during the Christmas shopping season, had been targeted demonstrates that the operation was executed with all the careful and methodical planning of a military or terrorist attack, clear evidence that opposition to apartheid has taken on an organized form. and, possibly, The bombing at the Amanzimtoti mall was not the first attack that can be characterized as organized, rathreacer than the sporadic, knee-jer- k tions that previously marked the viocentrally-directe- d lent opposition to apartheids repressive attacks. custodians Six whites died and five were e wounded Dec. 15 in a explosion on the border with Zimbabwe, and eight people were wounded Dec. 21 in a bomb blast that wrecked a mini-bu- s in downtown Durban. land-min- This new and more deadly twist forcefully calls to mind the horribly bloody days of the late AOs and early '50s in another part of Africa, when Jomo Kenyatta organized and successfully led the Mau Mau terrorists in Kenya. The sophistication of the bombings that has marked South Africas most recent violence, when contrasted with the crude attacks of the Mau Mau, contains a particularly frightening foreboding. Unless the white ruling class of South Africa quickly and sincerely moves to obliterate apartheid and begins fashioning a society where all people are equal participants, the Mau Mau attacks of three decades ago are, quite likely, going to look like cookie and milk time in a Ilene Barth U.S. Says Humbug to Its Tiny Tims High-flyin- kindergarten. The Botha government better hope it isnt too late to heed the admonition of Anglican Bishop Desmond We must talk or else we will Tutu perish. n Dump Dram Shop Law Its incredible that the Dram Shop Act ever made it into Utahs law to books four years ago. The goal is avoid alcohol-relate- d accidents those who beyond reproach. Making sell the liquor legally responsible for the drinkers behavior, however, is poor public policy and impossible to implement effectively. The only way to make Utahs approach worse would be to expand this faulty laws attempted reach. Yet thats precisely what the Utah Citizens Council on Alcoholic Beverage Control proposes. Just like those who invented the Dram Shop Act, the council has good intentions. But its efforts will only basic complicate the law. of the concept original For one thing, the citizens council hopes to make the law more fair by holding those who sell beer and packaged liquor just as liable for a drunks damage as private club operators. For another, it expects to make the law more manageable and practical by setting liability ceilings. As it is now, only private clubs inwhich offer wine and are subject to toxicating liquors terms of the Dram Shop Law. Therefore, a private club operator can be sued for selling too many highballs to a patron who injures a third party, but the tavern owner, restaurateur or concessionaire who serves as much or more beer to an inebriated customer is off the hook. So are grocers who sell state liquor stores which dispense wine and hard liquor and hosts who let friends and family drive home after having one or two too so-call- six-pack- s, many. The citizens council properly recognizes that if one segment of the population should, by law, be its brothers keeper, all should. That goes for the state, which manages the whole mess, as well. or-dispensing Another V icw high-incom- Unfortunately, the state might not afford protection against liquor liability lawsuits under current conditions. Fewer than half of Utahs private clubs can obtain insurance against unlimited liability, according to Don Beck, Utah Licensed Club Association director. The council would take care of that problem by setting liability ceilings. Presumably, insurance would be more affordable if damage awards were limited to $100,000 for each personal judgment and $300,000 per incident. Unfortunately, improvements provided by liability ceilings would be more than offset and muddled by the fairness feature. shops that Many now sell beer may be unable to pay for liquor liability insurance and lose a lucrative part of their businesses. If they went ahead with beer sales lacking protection, they could lose more than that. injury in the Every state could provoke one or more damage suits, drawing the state, storekeepers, restaurateurs, tavern owners and taxpayers, who are responsible for state and court expenses, into the fray. Proving who provided the alcohol that raised the drinker to the point of intoxication, meanwhile, would be practically impossible. Furthermore, difficulties associated with the Dram Shop Law may discourage businesses from dealing with alcohol. If visitors have a harder time obtaining the stuff, the states tourist and economic development endeavors will find rougher waters ahead. No amount of tinkering by the mom-and-po- p liquor-relate- d Utah Citizens Council on Alcoholic Beverage Control, Utah Legislature or anyone else will make the Dram Shop Act work as intended. Because the law fails to give ultimate responsibility to the person who does the drinking and the damage, it deserves repeal, not additions or corrections. Thirteen and a half million American children now live in poverty, and 2.5 million of those children have at least one parent working full time. Those 13.5 million desper Another forgotten term is "family policy." Moynihan reminds us that four decades ago, Alva Myrdal "made the point that governments cannot avoid actions that affect families. Moynihan points out, for example, that all other benefits under the Social Security Act are indexed to inflation; allowances for families with dependent children are not. "In the 70s, the real value of those payments d without anyone nodropped by ticing, he said. Thats a policy. According to Moynihan, it's projected that a third of all children born in 1980 will have been on AFDC before theyre 18. The senator believes that the single most important measure that could benefit children is raising the tax exemption for each dependent. The current deduction is $1,080. If the deduction represented the same percent of average personal income as it did in 1948, it would be $5,600, Moynihan says. The president stood by his proposal to increase this exemption to $2,000 for all tax one-thir- g able to shoot out an enemy's satellite had any value in a crisis, it would be very slight, far outweighed by the dangers of panicking one side or the other into firing in all directions if some of its satellites were shot out of space by accident Stopping tests while the only such weapons in existence are an American system only slightly less crude than a similar Soviet system makes sense. The real danger with ASATs is not what they can do now to satellites but what they might do to far more important communication satellites in orbit 26,000 miles high if the superpowers got into a serious ASAT race low-flyin- at his word are the ideal pieces of hardware for experimenting with a concept of arms control by mutual icstruint It is an Idea that attracts many defense analysts With the Pentagon showing no interest in rc'tfaitit !fep George K Drown di It Calif, began some months ago uigmg Ins colleagues to give the concept a trv Past week tliev listened The weapons, known as ASA Is, a i c ideal, first, because notmdv needs them If being Hanning ASAT testing also will help keep research on "Star Wars" honest Satellite-killerand the president's project are two separate and far different programs ASATs are simple weapons that knock orbiting satellites out of space The president's Star Wars program, the most s space-defens- e payers after the House decided on $2,000 and $1,500 for long-forusers (who are usually higher earners): A $2,000 deduction will ease the misery of some families, but not all. Still, tax reform seems the only relief politically viable these only for days. Fiscal abandonment of children predates ' the Reagan administration. "There's been a blackout on the issue for 15 years, says Moynihan. It's impossible to talk about federalizing aid for dependent children. The level of income supplements for children largely depends on states generosity unlike Social Security pensions which are uniform and flow directly from Washington. Poverty is still with us despite the resolve of "The Great Society programs, but no one likes to admit how much the real value of aid to poor children has fallen. Most of whats looming in the new year isnt cheering. The president is counting on the Senate to restore elements ' Gramm-Rud-mato the tax bill. The effect of ' the new deficit-cuttinlegislation , slash-signed by the president will either be as everyone but ing of social programs, or new taxes that will Reagan seems to know take back from families that which tax reform may give. Were not going to enact any social leg-- , islation in this country in this decade and perhaps not in the next, concludes Moyni' g han. Of course, it's not the children America hates. Its their parents who don't have the gumption to pick themselves up from the pavement (all too literally in thousands of cases) and take jobs that dont exist. Demos Paid Price for Ban on ASAT Universal Press Syndicate - A small sliver of WASHINGTON peace on earth appeared in the Capitol last week. Like a lot of things in Washington, it came with a big price tag. The defense spending portion of the continuing resolution actually came out in a House-Senat- e conference with a ban on antisatellite weapons testing (ASAT). It is a wonderful thing for people who think that peace through strength means more strength than peace. It is, as its author, Rep. Les AuCoin, says, the first arms control achievement in the five years of the Reagan administration." AuCoin doesnt deny that the bill was staggering. It was so high, in fact, that Monday night, his liberal allies in the House rose up and voted down the whole conference report, which contains funds for about half the government. Except for the ASAT ban, the Democratic House was mauled by the Republican Senate. The House had voted a defense budget of $292 billion. The Senate wanted $302 billion. The compromise? $297 4 billion on looking Rep. Barney Frank. at the figures, quipped, "The only way to get arms control around here is to buy it." The liberals had to be glad that they did manage to tack down $6.3 billion that was floating around in what is known as the slush fund" -t"Pentagons Gramm-Rudmahe unassigned money that the defense department keeps under the pillow so that the n cuts that affect all other departments wont hurt in Fatland. The House wanted four reforms in military procurement. At the 11th hour it got one: an amendment on allowable costs that forbids defense contractors to kennel their dogs or to join country clubs on the taxpayers tab. sponsor of Rep. Barbara Boxer, the amendment, said that "the important Gramm-Rudma- n Mary McGrory complicated collection of technology ever put on paper, is designed to blow up incoming nuclear missiles But there are overlaps Some Star Wars tests eventually will violate the 1972 ABM treaty that prohibits widespread ballistic missile defenses. But some of those tests will look much like ASAT are not tests, and, because satellite-killer- s covered by treaty, the Star War tests could be explained away as permissible. At the same time, if neither power is testing ASAT systems, neither can disguise tests space defense tests as satellite-kille- r The White House has refused to discuss ground rules for Star Wars with the Soviets But if the only way to continue space tests would be an open break with the ABM treaty, then the logic of negotiating might finally dawn on the While House The choice would be between continuing an embryo Star Wars program that may never work and breaking a fully functioning the Pentagon, hung tough. Only when AuCoin . and Rep. Bill Chappell, persuaded that the Sen. Barry Goldwater, House would rather close down the federal government than accept a bill bereft of reform did the senators give way. Nerve gas was another Dunkirk for the doves. Production funds for binary weapons were untouched. AuCoin and Rep. Thomas J. Downey. sent around to their Democratic colleagues an extremely candid memo about , what had been won and lost. They put this question: Should we have sacrificed ASAT control to gain on nerve gas, spending and procurement reform?" They answered it this way. Other issues could be revisited. The train is leaving on ASATs. The president thinks highly of them. for themselves and for what they can do for Star Wars development. He had one tested just before the Geneva summit, just to give Gorbachev a whiff of grapeshot, and he lob-- ; bied hard against the moratorium. The day the defense spending conferees first met, Dec. 12, the Pentagon sent for four ASAT weapons. They cost $20 million apiece and arms controllers were supposed to quail at the thought of squandering public funds The House has often shot down ASATs. but the Senate always put them back up. The arms control case against them is that they sharpened the danger of nuclear attack. If a nations eye in outer space is blinded, th(G threat of a first strike is immeasurably increased. The Soviets proclaimed an ASAT moratorium in 1982. The administration makes the familiar argument that they only did it because they were "ahead." AuCoin thinks that the president was planning another shot just before the second summit with Gorbachev in June That can't happen now, unless the president vetos the whole continuing resolution. Predictably, Defense Secretary Caspar Weinberger, who makes a fearful clamor when a single bullet is removed from his bulging arsenal, fulminated against the moratorium. He accused its authors of undercuta curious thought from ting arms control an administration that has never produced an agreement. "The shooters are livid," says AuCoin. That should make the rest of us reasonably cheerful in this festive but expensive season ' thing is not that we got one out of four, but that we got anything at all. And we had to shut down the government to do it. debate in the House pitted The late-nigAuCoin and Frank, who are allies, against each other. AuCoin wanted the House to vote for the conference report on the grounds that to reject it might mean the loss of the ASAT ban, which he felt was worth it all. Frank disagreed, and asked sardonically, If we have to pay this much for ASATs, how much for a nuclear freeze? Twenty billion? Outrage prevailed, and the House sent the conferees back to glare and shout at each other across the table. The Senate conferees, hawks who all think that every day should be Christmas at Weapons Is Useful Gauge of Arms Control Anti-Satell- ite From The Los Angeles Times President Reagan said after his Geneva Mikmeeting with Soviet General Senetary hail S Gorbachev that the summit should be judged nut by today's woi ds but by tomorrow s deeds The vote by Congress to shut down furweapons until ther testing of satellite-killinand unless the Soviet Union resumes tests of its own was a deed that takes the president s Were the first society in history where the worst-of- f group is children, said Sen. in a teleDaniel Patrick Moynihan, phone interview last week. ate children represent 21.5 percent of Americas future (up from 14.4 percent in 1970). Its official poverty were talking about here: families of four with incomes under $10,650. Safety net is a another phrase we seldom hear these days. The grim truth is that 1 in every 5 American children has fallen through it. Politicians have protected only those social programs such as Social Sethat affect large numbers curity pensions of voting-ag- e citizens. About 12.5 percent of the elderly now live in poverty. Thats not a pretty statistic, either, but it doesnt represent such a drastic slide from past decades as does the figure for children. point Ban on Satellite-killer- Newsday There are scenes in New York that make the London of A Christmas Carol seem like home. Scrooge might be dazzled by this Wall Street season and by the effrontery of GE's desire to gobble up RCA, but hed understand the principle fully: the rich getting richer by playing with money. g mergers build no manufacindustries, turing plants, create no high-tec- h offer America no additional jobs. Stock values increase without giving the economy any gift at all. Humbug is what it's all about. Humbug to the homeless, to the children sleeping on welfare office floors, humbug to the hungry and cold. effect? Remember the trickle-dowThe Reagan people arrived in Washington nearly five years ago with an economic theory: If they made the tax code yet more fae vorable to corporations and and inwould increase investment earners, dustry would be revitalized. The benefits of boom would "trickle down to everyone. Changes to the tax code made it the fat cats pajamas, but you dont hear about trickle down any more. Because instead of if we dare trickle down, what we see look is how low societys most fragile have fallen. members the children ABM treaty that gives the United States more protection than it does the Soviets. The ABM treaty allows both superpowers to install limited ground-basedefenses. The Soviet Union has used the terms of that treaty to build a defense network around Moscow. The United States has not. If the United States broke the ABM treaty, the Soviets would be free to expand the Moscow d defense system all over their vast country in matter of years. The United States would have nothing to match that except its dream of a space-basestill very much a system paper tiger. If the ASAT ban slows down Star Wars, so much the better. It is clearer by the day that Washington plunged into Star Wars without pausing to ponder how the Soviet Union might react or what condition the world would be in if Star Wars left a trail of broken treaties and then turned out to be an idea whose lime would never come a d - -' Orbiting Paragraphs An obscene telephone call isn't any worse than an obscene It's hard to understand why winter flicted on people is in- During the holidays you probably found all kinds of turkeys stuffing themselves |
