Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 20, 1968, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press saturday july 20, 1968 world Bank tries bold plan in Indonesia by Robert s. Elegant Hong Kong special tons Robert s. Mcna Mara now president of the world Bank is embarked on an Experiment in the arts of peace hardly less perilous than the still inconclusive Experiment in counter guerrilla warfare he con ducted As . Secretary of defence. The subject of the new Experiment is Indonesia the most populous 110 million the furthest reaching and the richest natural resources value incalculable nation of Southeast Asia. Where others primarily it must be noted because of a wholly irrational indonesian government which has now been deposed or. Mcna Mara and the world Bank Are trying again to bring order out of economic chaos. Their program is both Low keyed and by All nor m a 1 standards realistic. They enjoy the advantage of the indonesian government s having agreed to accept and presumably heed the advice of the first permanent Mission the world Bank has Ever stationed abroad. Moreover that government is the first in the country s history willing to acknowledge its manifold problems. The _ Enterprise is How Ever not. Without its danger. Although expectations Are cautiously restrained the new Effort could stimulate the exact reverse of the goal it seeks. Indonesians Are prone to feel that the United s tates having decided to play a major role they themselves can relax. Large debts we Points out one of America s leading scholars on Indonesia be committing ourselves once More to an Enterprise whose final scope can no More be foreseen than its adding interest to the Experiment is the fact that Indonesia is in effect bankrupt. Formal bankruptcy has been avoided because its creditors Are necessarily tolerant and be is no procedure for declaring a nation bankrupt. Nonetheless outstanding International debts of about billion not balanced by assets certainly qualify in Donesia for the bankrupt s club. Fortunately most of its creditors have deferred payment for at least four years while some have actually extended fresh credits. To Complete the picture of fiscal chaos against a background of human suf Fering it is Only necessary to note that the Cost of living went up times during the decade from late 1957 to late 1967. Official indonesian publications note with justified Pride that the rate of inflation that is the Speed at which the Cost of living was going up not the actual increase itself fell from 635 per cent in 1966, when the new government took Over to 120 per cent in 1967. If they can keep the rate of increase Down to 4.5 per cent monthly this year indonesian economists will be Well satisfied. Confronting a situation it would be charitable to Call economic Ana re h y or. Mcnamara is adopting a radically different approach from what he toward the Vietnam War. Instead of massive infusions of men and wealth the new Mcnamara doctrine Calls for selective injections of Small quantities of specialists and credits into critical areas of the indonesian Economy. V the Bank s initial appropriation is just. Million to begin restoring the intricate dutch built irrigation system which once placed the Island of Java among the world s chief producers of Rice. Improved strains and fertilizer factories will gradually Back up the Effort to produce ample supplies of the Rice which is also a prime Symbol of political stability. Under the direction of Bernard r. Bell a senior economist with extensive experience in India the Bank s Mission will Render advice on every aspect of Indonesia s economic regeneration. The Bank has been Given enthusiastic assurances in both Public and private that the indonesian government will regularly Call upon and follow its advice. That Assurance was not officially a condition of granting the million which is almost certainly the precursor of additional Loans but it was certainly a major inducement. The Bank is hanging its Hopes upon two prominent new features on the indonesian political and psycho logical landscape. An impressive though hardly Large body of highly trained professional economists is available within and without the government. Besides the indonesians Are for the first time since the orgy of conspicuous expenditure under former president Sukarno in a mood to take outside advice. They have Little Choice if they Are to achieve their twin purposes creating Prosperity in a land which should never have known deprivation and making that land a significant Force in world affairs. Guerrilla tactics the indonesians further enjoy Freedom from the primeval superstition institutionalized in formal Reli Gion which makes effective modernization of India All but impossible in this Cen Tury. Their equable climate abundantly fecund soil and plethora of unexploited natural resources Are immense advantages. The Mcnamara approach to the problem resembles guerrilla tactics rather than the massive conventional strategy he employed in Vietnam. By attacking the Points in the Economy which Are most vulnerable that is most susceptible to rapid amelioration the world Bank Hopes to shatter the bases of economic Dis Tress. Expensive Rice imports to support an increasingly Urban population particularly in Jakarta the capital have Long been a major Drain. If j a v a Cari produce enough Rice to feed itself the government will at once have surmounted a towering economic obstacle and revived popular Confidence. If the people see that their own efforts intelligently stimulated by the government can yield l significantly increased Rice crops they could begin to feel that nothing is impossible to complementary to the Rice program though still formulated Only in general terms is the re creation of a transportation s is t e m which All but collapsed under president Sukarno. Regenerating inter Island shipping to bind the Odd islands is High on the list As is restoration of rail and Road transport. The world Bank s approach is at first glance remarkably realistic expectations Are remark ably moderate. As one senior official put it if we begin to see Small results in a few years Well be very pleased. No fundamental Progress can be expected before the passage of at least 10 nonetheless a certain scepticism is expressed by both candid indonesians and the foreign specialists who know Indonesia Best. As or. Mcnamara discovered elsewhere it is one thing to apply a highly rational and painstakingly calculated strategy to a Complex human problem russian whalers Are Saviours of Gibraltar by Gill Foster Gibraltar special Oens there is an astonishing Boom on main Street Gibraltar ail the More Welcome because Franco s persistent claims to sovereignty of the great British Rock fortress guard ing the Western Gateway to the Mediterranean is driving Down the tourist Trade. The russians Are the Saviours of main Street sailors male and female with the russian whaling fleets calling at the Rock on their Way Home from the Antarctic with their pockets bulging with their wages. Big earnings six or seven whalers at a time drop Anchor in the Bay and upwards of russians pour into this outpost of a visit lasts about two Days and in that russians spend anything Between and a head. They have spent As much As a single Day and the next. And since the visits average one per month Gibraltar is now earning about million a year in roubles. To a territory just Over two Square Miles in area and the Home of Only is big Money. Gibraltar s annual budget is Only to see the r s i a n s abroad in main Street you would think you were in a soviet port for the Gibran tartans never slow to exp Loit a profitable have taught themselves enough russian to joke with the sailors and hand out sales receipts in cyrillic script. They have Hung up pictures of the russian astronauts from Yuri Gar Garin Onward and these line the shop Walls with formal portraits of com rades Kosy Gin and Bretz Nev and Hammer and sickle emblems. One shop has called itself a Popa after a russian ship. Everybody is Happy Over the Boom the traders the government of Gibraltar and not least the russians who find in main Street bazaars and shops a wide Range of goods which Are evidently less readily Avail Able in the soviet Union. Favorite purchases Are watches Selling at. Each 25c Ball Point pens below knee length summer dresses retailing at around arid imitation suede jackets at another favorite which British and american tourists will not touch at any Price Are hand Woven carpets in Gar ish colors depicting roman tic scenes like Landseer s Stag at Bay. All purchases Are wrapped i n Brown paper parcels and taken aboard ship. Back in Russia it is understood the sailors re sell their goods at a modest profit to state trading organizations which exp Lains their willingness v to buy up anything and every thing in main Street provided the Price is right it usually is. F vote of thanks on a two Day visit that brought to main Street shop keepers the government decided such profitable visitors deserved an official vote of thanks. Contact was made with the Captain of the Fleet s factory ship who agreed to talk with representatives of Gibraltar s tourist office. The outcome of the talks Well lubricated by Vodka was a pop music concert on Board the factory ship v for All sailors in the Fleet. For nearly five hours performing on an improvised platform the Gibran tarian pop group the Sil ver belted out such charming capitalistic num Bers As All you need is love she loves you and one the Leader of the i who is the son of a main Street trader trans lated into russian for his audience a beat version of Money is the Root of All evil. I and quite another thing to produce the predicted results. The world Bank could be repeating the fundamental error which lies behind America s Viet Nam policy and indeed America s entire asian pol icy. No total assessment of either Indonesia s capabilities or the outside world s Basic interests in Indonesia can have been made i the Short preparatory period preceding this crash pro Gram. There is moreover no guarantee that the indonesians will take what or. Mcnamara himself characterized As the hard and sometimes unpopular Deci Sions that need to be made if development is to proceed it is again one thing to invite an advisory Mission and quite another to Swallow the bitter Medicine it prescribes. The limited scope of the initial commitment and the Low level of immediate expectation Are encouraging. But the initial commit ment to Vietnam was also limited while the ultimate goal was As ambitious As. It is in Indonesia. Once More the United states through the world Bank this time is edging toward a major responsibility in Asia. Since no one can predict the outcome one can do no More than Hope that it will not finally prove to be. Brain More Complex to a billion computers by Harry Nelson los Angeles special tons glimmers of answers to 1 o n g a o ought questions about brain functions Are beginning to appear on the research scene. These questions involve among other la nations for memory intelligence and mental illness. Until recently even scientists who Are the most determined to explain intellectual processes by phys ical Means have been forced by Lack of information about brain physiology to Fae. Of their goal. Nobody is ready yet to claim discovery of Mechan isms explaining these fun. Tons but some scientists see the Hope As being brighter and the Day closer. Strangely enough the new Hope arises from interpretations of rapidly accumulating information demonstrating that the brain is infinitely More Complex than even brain researchers previously had speculated. Enough parts but far from being Dis heartened b y the Over whelming complexity some scientists believe these new found orders of complexity How make possible an explanation on purely physio logical grounds of Man s most exquisite intellectual processes. We now have Hope that there Are enough parts to account for things As com plex As an appreciation of says or. Arnold b. Scheibel of the brain res Earch Institute at the University of California at los. It s still commonplace to hear the brain compared with a computer. For parts of the analogy is accurate enough but As a whole Organ the human brain is so Complex that a billion computers of the most advanced design could not equal its capacities. Twenty five years ago the idea was that each nerve cell is a kind of switch which is either on or off. This was the basis for thinking of the brain As a kind of computer the parts of which were either operate ing or not operating depend ing on whether the individual was awake or asleep. But in recent years the work of numerous brain r e be a r c h e r s has made archaic the Assumption that each cell is either asleep or awake As determined by whether it is transmitting an impulse to another cell. Today it is known that the most sophisticated cells in the brain May put out the least information although they Are silently receiving a input cells. Their Job is to boil Down a lot into a Small but important output. Part of the revised View Point of brain cell function has come from the work of or. Scheibel and his wife Mila. Both of them Are who have to euro Anatomy to seek answers to puzzling problems about behaviour. One of their interests has been studying the patterns formed by nerve cells in different parts of the brain. They have been especially concerned with parts of nerve cells called dendrites. Dendrites Are the branches that spread out from one end of a nerve cell. The Dendrite is the Structure that forms part of the connection called a synapse with another nerve cell making possible the transmission of impulses from one cell to another. One of the important contributions to understand ing the brain made by the Scheibel has involved the very tiny structures called spines which exist in incredible numbers on dendrites. Using a special staining method called the Golgi technique the Scheibel been Able to make marvellously intricate maps of dendrites and Dendrite spine of nerve cells from the brains of cats. The Golgi technique is one of the few methods capable of making dendrites and spines visible with the Aid of a Microscope. Other stain ing methods used by the brain researchers do i o t reveal e s e important structures. Different patterns about the same time the Scheibel were studying the Anatomy of a nerve cell other researchers were learning that All dendrites do not put out the same kind of electrical pattern. It has gradually become Clear says or. Scheibel that just As different nerve cells have different functions depending on their location in the brain Dif Ferent dendrites of a single cell have different functions. More amazingly it is now Clear that afferent Sites on a single Dendrite also have different functions. But the True complexity begins to become mind staggering when it is realized that tens of thousands of spines exist on the dendrites and they too May have individual functions. Enormous capacity in one part of the brain which is particularly Rich in dendrites the a single nerve cell carries about spines which May make As Many As contacts with other cells. The cerebellum is Esti mated to have As Many As 10 million cells of this Type called up Akinje each with spines. But these figures take into account Only the cerebellum. The total brain including cerebrum and brain Stem is generally estimated to have several billion cells. So the possibilities for modulation of information by a single nerve cell is now known to be beyond imagination. The Scheibel speculate that the number of Dendrite spines possessed by an individual May Bear some relation to his level of intelligence. It is also pos sible the spines May be building blocks involved in memory storage. Memory traces the spine is the Only Structure we can identify in the brain which exists in sufficient numbers to be involved in the synthesis of billions of memory traces. But this is Only a or. Scheibel said. The Urcla investigators drawings of nerve cell complexes show that the Char Acter and appearance of Dendrite spines vary in different parts of the brain. Perhaps More import i tartly the spines also May vary in Quantity and density from individual to individual. The Scheibel e x p 1 o r a tons of the various regions of the brain have emphasized structural reasons for the uniqueness of every human being. As would be expected cell Structure. Number of Dendrite spines for example is different in the Cere Brum than in the brain Stem. But More surprising perhaps is the finding that great differences exist in some cases in cells in the same part of the brain. Most people consider the cerebral cortex the thinking part of the brain to be the most delicate and complicated because of its High order function. But figuratively speaking the cells in the cortex resemble rows of boxes each of which is almost identical to the next. The individuality is most pronounced in parts of the brain Stem where in or. Seh Eibes words each cell its own crankiness each one is an although the brain Stem is probably the oldest part of the brain from the stand Point of evolutionary development it is also according to the Scheibel the area of the brain most involved with another High order human function decision making. Weighs input the cortex makes it pos sible to predict compare and determine whether something is or is not familiar. But elements in the brain Stem enable the brain to sort out and weigh the level of importance of information coining from a great Many sources. One reason the Scheibel turned to euro Anatomy was the find an explanation for psychotic behaviour particularly hallucinations. New findings from scientists working on the Bio chemistry of the brain have shown that the brain Stem May play a key role in psychotic disease. The Scheibel Hope that a clarification of the anatomic Structure of the Neive cells in various parts of the brain and an understanding of circuits that carry information will provide Basic information for new treatments of mental illness. Although the number of circuits must run into the billions some of them Are repeated hundreds of thou Sands of times thus eliminating the need to Trace each one. The scientists Hope that their efforts eventually will Lead to an identification of. Those which Are significant. U.s., russian subs play hide and seek by Ted sell Washington special tons loss of the nuclear powered . Submarine scor Pion eight weeks ago has disclosed that Day by Day Amer ican and russian submarines Are a deadly game of underwater tag. So far As is known the loss of the scorpion be tween May 21, when the last sent a radio message and May 27, when she was to have arrived in Norfolk Virginia was not caused by the deep depth tag. But it is known that in the e Lour Days Between the time the. Scorpion with her Crew of left the Mediterranean and then radioed an estimated arrival time the attack submarine was diverted to Check out a soviet submarine trailing an american Polaris missile submarine. The Mission was routine. The scorpion accomplished it then returned to its course for the United states travelling submerged at 18 knots and observing radio silence. She was never heard from again. But the scorpion s course change emphasized one. Of. The big Power realities of a nuclear armed world. Just As russian surface ships observe american naval Man oeuvres and Shadow . Car Rier task forces so do soviet submarines attempt to follow . Nuclear missile submarines to the undersea stations from which the Polaris subs would in time of War launch rockets against Russia. So far the contest has been unequal. Russian submarines used to Date have been slower than the Polaris subs. They Are also noisier which has made the detection Job simpler. But . Naval officers Are concerned about the new generation of nuclear powered so Viet submarines which faster and deeper. To protect the Polaris sub. Marines which Are big vessels with 16 misses and displacing As much tonnage As a second world War Cruiser american attack submarines have been diverted to screen subs and Decoy their soviet underwater shadows. For Russia the game is in deadly Earnest. While the soviet Union knows the location of America s fixed intercontinental ballistic missile bases and has its own missiles targeted on those bases the underwater stations from which Polaris missiles Are computed to strike russian installations remain a mystery More or less. The computer memories which direct the Polaris mis Siles Are adjusted for several potential firing Sites. Getting memory in each missile is adjusted As the submarine moves from one to another of several potential firing stations. But As a matter of survival the russians presumably would like to know the co ordinates of each firing station. In an attempt to learn these positions russian trawlers work the oceans with sophisticated equipment sound and radar to track . Submarines. And soviet submarines from time to time lie outside the Polaris submarine installations and attempt to follow the missile bearing ves Sels on their Long underwater patrols. The major installations Are at holy Loch Scotland Rota Spain and Guam Island. From them u a. Polaris submarines slip silently to sea for their patrols which average 60 Days. During patrol the submarines make no radio transmissions or Emit any other signal that would provide a clue to their position. Because the patrol bases Are known russian submarines As Well As surface trawlers equipped with complicated electronics equipment can take up station and observe arrivals and departure of Polaris subs. Russian submarines go one step further than this and try to follow the . Subs. To foil this manoeuvre american attack submarines which Are sub marines designed for anti submarine warfare instead of ballistic missile bombardment work outside the Polaris bases As needed. When soviet subs try to Shadow the Polaris vessels attack submarines slash in to divert the russians attention. Because the american attack submarines Are fast they can provide a Quick confusion mov ing in and out of the Wake of the Polaris submarine in what naval officers Call a scissors manoeuvre. Sound detection systems can be confused so that the soviet submarine is not certain which track is that of the. Missile submarine and which is that of the Decoy. The manoeuvres Call for intricate underwater Seaman ship. Just As surface vessels during naval manoeuvres have come close to collision so have the submarines. One . Submarine was in the repair Yard at Rota Spain Early this year for repairs which were reported by sailors to have occurred in the course of a Decoy manoeuvre involving a soviet submarine. The . Navy primly refuses to confirm the incident or even that a submarine under went repairs at Rota. We do not discuss operational aspects of our nuclear one Navy officer said. The undersea War goes in general unreported and Uii pro tested even when incidents occur. It is too important for both Russia and the United states to disclose where and when confrontation has occurred. The underwater game has a parallel in other situations As when in 1965 the destroyer Newell fired on a soviet Freigh Ter off Vietnam the Newell was on patrol to guard against seaborne infiltration of arms and men into South Vietnam. The russian freighter was part of the communist Fleet taking supplies into. Haiphong. The incident occurred on the High seas where the rights of innocent passage without harassment. Are a major ele ment of american naval policy. The Newell fired to halt the ship yet the incident went unreported and so far As is known unprotected by the soviet Union. Speaking of the incident under questioning one . Defence official candidly the big boys play the game differently than the Little ;