Daily Bruin

Proposition 187 not motivated by racism

Editor:

This letter addresses a couple of the more annoying items
contained in Dawn Mabalon’s Viewpoint article (Oct. 5, "Asian
Americans should oppose Prop. 187). First, I would like to discuss
her characterization of the United States as a "racist capitalist
society." The U.S. is not a "racist society." Though racism may
exist in various, unfortunate undercurrents of our mainstream
society, it does not ­ as Mabalon suggests ­ define
it.

Also, her implicitly derogatory usage of the word "capitalist"
seems to forget the fact that the FREE MARKET economic system has
brought a better life to more people than any other economic system
in the entire history of human existence! After all, the poorest
fifth of the population of nearly any free market industrialized
nation you wish to choose is still far better off than the entire
population of any one of the present or former communist
nations.

Secondly, I wanted to say that I agree with Mabalon in that
immigration has been an important ­ and indeed vital ­
part of American history. This nation was founded on immigration
and its tremendous success was fueled by the dreams and
determination of the millions of immigrants it has received over
the years.

No, immigration is a wonderful thing and immigrants ­ LEGAL
immigrants ­ should be respected and welcomed. My concern and
Proposition 187’s focus is not with these wonderful people. Rather
it is the ILLEGAL immigration that is a problem and the focus of
Proposition 187, and I must say that I am tired of Mabalon and
other commentators in Viewpoint conveniently omitting the word
"illegal" from their discussions of illegal immigration!

In closing, I would like to applaud James Lebakken’s article in
the same issue (Oct. 5, "Government not responsible for charity,
uphold moral consciousness on your own"), which is a more
intelligent, logical or reasonable article that I’ve seen from a
Viewpoint columnist.

Matt Keuneke

Senior

Aerospace Engineering

Yes on 186: health security for all, forever

Editor:

What will the passage of California’s Proposition 186 mean for
you? Passage of California’s Health Security Act would ensure
health coverage for every Californian forever.

As a UCLA student, member of the faculty or staff, you most
likely have access to health coverage and to the finest medical
care available at the UCLA Medical Center. When you graduate or
find employment elsewhere, it won’t be that easy.

During the national health care debate, Americans highlighted
the existence of health care benefits as a major consideration when
looking for a job or deciding to change jobs. In an attempt to keep
their profits up, insurance companies seek to discontinue health
coverage for those who use it frequently. Thus, if you have a
"pre-existing condition," they will not pay for any treatment of
that condition once you change medical coverage. For those
Californians experiencing medical conditions, they must consider
whether to lose coverage and face higher premiums, or to stay in
their current job at their current level of health coverage. This
is called "job lock," and you can imagine that it does not bode
well for the economy when people are not able to follow their best
interests in the job market because they are literally strapped for
health care.

Proposition 186 will make health coverage a non-issue because
all Californians will have health security from cradle to grave.
The opponents say the government will provide health care. In fact,
Proposition 186, the California Health Security Act, is a single
payer system where traditional doctor/patient relationships are
maintained, the government only pays the bills. Choice is conserved
under this plan, unlike today where health maintenance
organizations (HMOs) continually interfere in doctor/patient
relationships and limit our choices in health care providers.

The plan will be paid for by a 2.5 percent income tax, replacing
any premiums and co-payments you currently pay; while your employer
will pay a 4.4 ­ 8.9 percent in payroll tax (a significant
reduction in many cases). In addition, a $1 per pack cigarette tax
will be imposed.

Currently, as the cost of health care coverage dispenses with 14
percent of our Gross National Product; Californians experience job
lock and ordinary infectious diseases proliferate because of a lack
of basic medical care. The time has come for California to lead the
nation once again in positive change. Now that the national health
care debate is tabled, Californians must vote yes on Proposition
186. A strong message from a state as powerful as California that
Americans are ready for real improvement will go a long way in
sending a message to our national leadership. Vote yes on
Proposition 186, health security for all Californians forever.

Kelly Barnes

UCLA ’90 graduate

Karen Flint

Graduate student

Monetary burdens come in many forms

Editor:

As a UCLA graduate and Extension student I noticed Wednesday,
Oct. 5 that the "No on 187" folks have spoken in the form of
graffiti written all over campus, and in illegally posted flyers.
One question: you’re so worried about the monetary burden placed on
California should 187 pass, where do you think the clean-up funds
to repair your vandalism will come from?

Secondly, Proposition 187 is against ILLEGAL immigrants, not
immigrants as John Du incorrectly stated in his viewpoint, "Take
charge of ‘Save Our State’: educate, organize, demonstrate." If a
person desires government services, why can’t they simply apply for
a green card and become legal U.S. immigrants? I have no savings
account or medical insurance yet I have accumulated more than
$3,500 in medical bills recently. Where do I go? How many foreign
governments would pay this for me if I was not a legal resident of
their country?

Jim Lehmann

UCLA Extension student

B.A., Design ’88

Bruins’ commitment to grade schoolers spelled AEP

By May Lui

Wanted: a patient, open-minded person to be a tutor, mentor and
friend to students from grades one through six every Saturday from
10 a.m. to noon at Chinatown’s Castelar Elementary School. The
experiences are priceless and the rewards are immeasurable.
Commitment is a must.

As one of the oldest and largest community service organizations
at UCLA, the Asian Education Project (AEP) has expanded from a mere
10 tutors to more than 150 tutors in its 26 years of existence.
Although the majority of tutors are from UCLA, AEP also includes
tutors from USC, Cal State L.A. and Occidental College.

Tutors volunteer two hours of their time each Saturday to
teaching students math and English skills as well as lessons on
other cultures, the environment and the uses of the public
library.

At the same time, AEP tries to foster an environment in which
big brother/big sister relationships can develop. The project’s
organizers hope that not only each tutee, but each tutor who
commits to this project, will in turn gain something they deem
worthwhile from the program.

The project itself is situated in Chinatown where a majority of
residents are Asian and a much smaller percentage are Latinos.
According to the 1990 United States Census, 1,365 immigrants
entered and settled in Chinatown between 1985 and 1986. Between
1987 and 1990, that number doubled. A third of the families were
below the poverty level, half of the families were on public
assistance and half of the children from those families spoke
English as their second language.

As a refuge for many immigrants entering the United States, it
is also an area where crime, poverty and different cultures and
ideas sometimes clash. The economic and social backgrounds of the
students vary. Many are from war-torn countries and some have dealt
with hardships that would seem unimaginable for any child to bear.
Upon arriving to the United States, these students must not only
learn a new language but must learn a new way of life. The Asian
Education Project makes the process a little easier to bear.

Running a community service project like AEP, though, is not
without its drawbacks. Due to the organization’s ever-increasing
size, many things must be considered, such as tutor commitment and
funding. The realities of these issues make it difficult to
accomplish some of the goals AEP has set, but as long as there is a
need for community service, AEP will try its best to meet those
needs.

Tutors must be sensitive and understanding to meet the special
needs of their tutees. When a child develops a rapport with a
tutor, his or her relationship becomes a stable force overriding
language, cultural and/or economic barriers.

But when a tutor fails to show up every Saturday or takes his or
her role lightly, a child suffers because of it. As a result, they
often feel rejected or neglected because they must once again learn
to place their trust in someone new. Altered routines and new
tutors confuse children and often cause unnecessary anxieties and
tears. But once a tutor establishes a bond with a tutee, they can
then figure out the student’s strengths and weaknesses and thus aid
them in overcoming any problems or deficiencies.

One fourth-grade girl involved in our program had difficulty
reading at her level. Why? It was not due to a lack of ability on
her part, but because she did not even know the sounds of the
alphabet. Nevertheless, her teachers passed her into the next grade
without her having achieved a satisfactory level of academic
proficiency.

Because of the one-on-one tutoring she received at AEP, she can
now read at her level. Similarly, many students are being cheated
out of a solid education because of budget cuts and large classroom
sizes. One way to combat this is through programs like AEP that
supplement the classroom.

As a community service organization, AEP depends on funds
allocated by the Community Activities Commission, grants and
fundraisers. With a combined tutor-tutee population of more than
300, the resources AEP receives barely cover the costs of vans and
buses to transport tutors, pay for quarterly field trips and
duplicate worksheets and other materials.

With our own radically reduced budget, even essential needs are
sometimes left unmet. Supplies such as new workbooks, crayons,
pencils and construction paper must be rationed and shared amongst
many while extras are rare.

This year, AEP must run an even larger program on half the
amount of monetary resources it was allotted last year. Although
our project is growing, we do not have the funds to facilitate it.
Sadly, to accommodate the changes in our organization, we must turn
away tutees who really need help. As a result, the program’s
outreach is left stunted and not everyone who needs the program can
benefit from it.

Volunteering time and energy to a project like AEP can be very
rewarding, but the rewards are not always tangible or easily
attained. The self-fulfillment comes slowly but assuredly from
watching a tutee grow and learn or open up and smile. The
satisfaction comes from knowing that through your commitment and
efforts, you have made a difference in someone’s life.

For more information, contact AEP at (310) 825-2417. Saturday
tutoring begins Oct. 15.

Lui, a junior history student, is one of the directors of the
Asian Education Project.

Dismal anniversary greetings go out to World Bank

By Jacquie Calnan

The 50th anniversary of the founding of the World Bank and
International Monetary Fund (IMF) is not a golden one.

These international agencies are supported by U.S. tax dollars,
and yet few taxpayers realize that policies of the Bank and the
Fund are not only harming the environment and the poor of
developing countries, but American workers as well.

A new report by the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS) and the 50
Years Is Enough Campaign reveals that the policies of the World
Bank and IMF are responsible for the loss of over 20,000 American
jobs a year.

The World Bank and IMF frequently impose free market economic
policies called "structural adjustment programs" on indebted
countries as a condition for receiving aid. These programs can
include cuts in social spending in areas such as health and
education, the elimination of price supports and imposition of wage
controls, currency devaluation and trade liberalization. These
conditions cut the purchasing power of consumers while making U.S
imports more expensive.

Of the 54 countries that received major World Bank and IMF
policy-based loans in the 1980s, 33 reduced their imports of U.S.
goods and cost American jobs, according to the IPS-50 Years Is
Enough study.

So not only have structural adjustment programs bred illiteracy,
malnutrition, disintegration of economies, environmental
degradation and death in Africa, Latin America and Southeast Asia
­ they have also dealt a blow to the U.S. labor force.

This is one of the "boomerang effects" in which the heavy debt
burden of poor countries hits Americans. There are others. Global
warming has intensified because of accelerated harvesting of rain
forests for timber as countries seek ways to earn hard currency for
their debt payments. Cocaine traffic has increased as growing coca
becomes one of the very few options for survival of peasants in
Columbia, Bolivia and Peru, while governments seeking dollars look
the other way. The ranks of those seeking to emigrate to the United
States and other rich countries swell as thousands seek to escape
the dire economic conditions by the structural adjustment programs
in their countries.

The irony is that poor countries have actually provided the rich
countries with much more money in debt payments than the rich
countries have given to the poor countries in aid.

The World Bank continues to fund large, flashy mega-projects
such as roads, dams and power plants that have devastating social
and environmental consequences, including the forced displacement
of millions of people. This type of lending does more to line the
pockets of the elite than fill the stomachs of the poor.

The World Bank and IMF have wandered far from their original
mandates and have taken upon themselves vast powers which they are
unwilling to give up. Today they are massive, bloated institutions
operating in secret and paying little regard to the impact of their
programs on the poor of the countries they are supposed to be
helping. These multilateral institutions are untouchable by
national laws and claim to operate outside the realm of
international laws.

It is time for profound change in the World Bank and IMF. They
need to be smaller, decentralized, democratically run and based on
the principles of openness and accountability. Poverty reduction
and ecological sustainability should become the centerpiece of
their operations at every level.

Such reforms will come only through sustained public pressure
and a refusal to continue funding the World Bank and IMF with
American tax dollars until new standards are met. Congress has made
a start by imposing conditions of reform on the release of some of
its 1995 budget appropriations for the Bank and the Fund. This
financial tourniquet must be tightened until the hemorrhaging of
dollars into programs which hurt us all is stopped.

Americans need to tell Congress and the Administration that "50
Years Is Enough!" To request an information packet containing
suggested messages to Congress and the Administration, position
papers, action ideas and/or other resources, contact the 50 Year Is
Enough Campaign at (202) 463-2265 or write to the Campaign at Suite
300, 1025 Vermont Avenue, N.W., Washington, D.C. 20005.

Calnan is media director of the U.S. 50 Years Is Enough
campaign, a coalition of more than 100 citizen groups working to
bring substantial reform to the World Bank and IMF.

Attention Prop. 187 backers: whites get scapegoated too

By David Russell Collins

I am writing in response to Dawn Mabalon’s article ("Asian
Americans should oppose Prop. 187," Oct. 5), and before I begin
this article on Proposition 187, you should be advised of an
interesting thing about me: I am white. If you feel compelled to
throw this paper away now because you are afraid the white majority
is about to throw another confusing line of hypocritical bull feces
at you, then I invite you to do so. Having said that …

I am not opposed to Mabalon’s opinions about the quality of
Proposition 187. As a matter of fact, the only reason I registered
to vote is to help vote down the proposition. What I am opposed to
is her scapegoating whites as the bill’s backers.

The truth is that the people responsible for Proposition 187
have only one universal thing in common, and it’s not race. No, the
only thing that Proposition 187 backers have in common is the fact
that they all face re-election following an economic recession
which has hit California especially hard. Their most obvious way to
gain re-election following this crisis is to find a scapegoat, and
this time around the easiest target has been the illegal
immigrant.

In a manner similar to the politicians who use immigrants as a
scapegoat against which to rally voters and gain re-election,
Mabalon uses the white race as a scapegoat to incite people into
action. Actually, she achieves her results in roughly the same way
politicians do, by treating the scapegoated group as a large mass
of identical beings with identical ambitions and abilities. For
instance, while politicians spread myths about illegal immigrants
being uneducated, lazy and living off welfare which should be used
for honest Americans down on their luck, Mabalon fuels the myth
that the white majority adopts a purist philosophy and is afraid of
all people of color who might stain their pure genes.

Ironically, both of these myths are remediable by the same mean.
The only step that we as U.S. citizens need to take is to look at
other ethnic groups (and our own) as a collection of individuals.
If all whites are viewed as one large oppressing majority, it is
very easy to hate us and to blame us for this flawed proposition.
This attitude, however, is self-defeating in that it fosters racial
division, which can only lead to more propositions along the same
lines as 187. Similarly, Proposition 187 is very easy to vote for
if immigrants are viewed as leeches on the welfare system. However,
when one begins to view either whites or the immigrating population
as a collection of individuals, both views are extremely difficult
to justify.

As a final note, in my opinion, both the politicians and Mabalon
have one other similarity in their arguments ­ their outdated
information, thinking and opinions. Mabalon continually pulls
examples from history to strengthen her argument. However, the
majority of her examples come from the turn of the century, and all
but one example fall before 1935. Actually, every date given in
Mabalon’s article is before 1967. The world has changed since 1967
and the fact that no complaint was issued about any event following
1968 is testament to that fact.

Of course, this is not to say that the past is meaningless;
after all, as historians are fond of saying, history does repeat
itself. But history is not a circle, but rather an advancing spiral
which moves steadily forward and backward while all the while
advancing slowly. In my opinion, Proposition 187 and Mabalon’s
column are simply movements in the backward portion of this spiral.
So let us all help advance the spiral of history by voting against
Proposition 187 and by thinking twice when we read columns such as
the one written by Mabalon.

Collins is an undeclared first-year student.