Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - January 22, 1990, Winnipeg, Manitoba Winnipeg free press january focus mayor keeps grip on voters Washington the Day before mayor Marion Barry was arrested in a downtown hotel room on suspicion of smoking crack he announced approaching Victory in the War against drug trafficking and its associated the War on crime and violence is succeeding and were quite he told on that whose population is roughly equivalent to racked up its 28th Mur Der of these murders occurred during 90 nearly All in which the survivors were alive Only due to poor by the morning after his the murder list was at rising quickly enough to Challenge the shooting death toll of the 1989 murder total was he was just As optimistic the pre Vious when he delivered what he called his state of the District message to a carefully selected crowd of he painted a glowing picture of continuous economic and social Progress since he was elected mayor in in both barrys statements reflected his desire to win a fourth term this until his he had a very Good Chance of winning even depending on How his Case a reelection bid by him cannot be ruled lurid private life the reasons Why have something to do with the evolution of the poli tics of race in the United despite his erratic governing rec his habit of speaking before thinking and his lurid private Barry has retained an almost mys tical hold on the political affections of this cites Black Barry has great political they have been Good enough to hold until an undeclared Challenge to his mayoralty from Jesse the electrifying pub Lic speaker and persistent campaigner for the democratic party presidential they have David Macdonald Washington editor been Good enough to keep at Bay a Challenge by a would be Republican a Black former washing ton police chief of High Washington Peculiar status As a Federal with what is called Home under the supervision of the gives it special administrative it would be a Tough Challenge for anyone to Frozen finances since the District is not part of a Barry has to carry out an Odd mix of functions that usually would be the responsibility of separate county and state decisions of his Council can be overruled by Congress and by the Congress decides How much Money it will contribute to District finances and has Frozen the level for four the frequent Calls for statehood which would give the District Powers similar to those of the Manitoba have been resisted by republicans in con Gress because the inevitable result would be the addition of two demo cratic senators and some new democratic members of the House of even in landslide Republican presidential election the District always votes overwhelmingly for the democratic Barry began his mayoral career in 1978 by doing holding a masters degree in he had been on his Way to a doctorate when he gave it up to practise civil rights his reputation in civil rights and statehood struggles gave him his political base in the in his first he made Washington a Black managed Edu Washington mayor Marion Barry right faces drug but that May not Stop reelection bid rated Blacks filled All top positions and ran the City Barry used his motivational skills to persuade Blacks at All Levels of his govern ment to Deal politely and pleasantly with the City services in he did a Good Job of creating a climate in which business and the Federal government cooperated to improve decaying parts of the City he got on Well with financiers and businessmen and used these contacts to raise the Money and create employment opportunities that gave Hope to Resi dents of the poor especially those that had been devastated by the 1968 then neglected by the Nixon in those he was popular with Whites and Blacks of All eco nomic his support is substantially among Blacks at mod est economic his problem seems to be that he ran out of administrative steam in the Early he loaded the bureaucracy with new employees and paid Many of them higher wages than can be earned doing identical jobs for the Federal gov the City has just Over peo voters and District despite All those ambulance service is widely perceived As dangerously the court system is prisons Are Public hospitals often have to refuse infant mortality is High and several Black residential neighbourhoods Echo to gunfire at any hour of the Day or move to suburbs rising combined with fall ing have driven Middle class Blacks and Whites out to the Maryland and Virginia the deep potholes and a repaired broken Bridge Walls to be seen All Over Washington Are but the most obvious sign of civic administrative despite what some contemptuous Republican congressmen Washington problems have nothing to do with the unread Ness of Blacks to run their own Black managers did an outstanding Job when they had competent Leader ship from that managerial class now joins Black businessmen and Black professionals in being barrys most severe and detailed albeit it in among Les educated and less successful Blacks and in an articulate group of Black How Barry can do no that is his continuing Power the preachers and social activists speak constantly of a White conspiracy to denigrate and de stroy Barry in order to keep Blacks in their the Washington Post is described As a Keystone of the despite the fact that it backed his Early mayoral its crime is to publish information about barrys missteps and about the dozen or so senior City officials close to him who have been indicted and jailed or fined for offences concerned with the running of the the most notorious advocate of the conspiracy theory is Louis far a Black moslem he made an astonishing speech last year in which he suggested that the White Power usually called the meaning Federal was responsible for the drug traffic and shoot Ings in Washington Black he said the government had put the drugs and the guns into the hands of Blacks so As to destroy an entire generation of Young he said the government had introduced cancer to Blacks through the Guise of a polio prevention Campaign in the Early the government had worked to keep Blacks to keep educated ones out of High positions to move them Back to the Era of these bearing no relation to often Drew applause from his audience of Black Federal government they Are accepted As literal truth among Many City Blacks lower Down the educational and economic they partly explain Why Barry has remained politically popular no mat Ter what he has said or done or failed to do in recent Washington could again be Well it could win its War on drugs and could Cut Down the Ca sual Street murder it could attract Back Black and White mid dle class tax it could provide an example of prosperous efficiency that might shame Congress into granting these things will not happen As Long As Barry remains his failures As a political Leader Are less dramatic but More important than his personal the District of Columbia will continue its administrative decline until he is replaced by new and credible Black political Ontario groups push for right to set up private universities Toronto discouraged by the Quality of education offered by Ontario universe a 12person group of business people recently announced plans to Start their own privately funded University North of with 100 acres of land donated by a local businessman 25 Miles North of the All the group needs is a some teachers and Stu and a significant change in the Ontario degree granting act currently restricts the authority to Grant degrees to publicly funded it was passed to prevent flyby night primarily from the moving into the prov Ince to sell degrees to people who otherwise might have trouble spell Bruce Mcdougall in Ontario ing their the act was passed in although provincial policy had restricted the formation of new universities since the province is now reviewing this the 1990s have brought new pressures to says Viv a professor of history and chairman of the Ontario Council of University for one society is More ethnically and in Many other were also experiencing a Lack of and this is leading to a decline in the Quality of at the same people have Strong ideological views about state run and private Nelles says several organizations would like the Law changed so that they could Grant Mamon ides for an Ortho Dox jewish currently offers courses leading to a Bachelor of Judaic redeemer operated by the lutheran offers a bachelors degree in Christian 1 both would like to Confer a full fledged Bachelor of arts based on courses taught from a perspective other than secular another which Calls itself the Gwilli Bury foundation for the advancement of pos secondary education in York wants similar its promoters include Bette a former progressive conservative minister of education in the As Well As Donald Cousens and William la both experienced politicians in the with their Well honed political the group has managed to attract More attention to its project than the Stephenson says that her groups of which she is currently acting will devote itself to excellence and that it will pay for itself through endowments and reasonable tuition the demands for University education continue to but the funds available from government to support universities and some alternative is needed to support University she opponents to the project say Ontario Doest need privately funded Claude president of the association of colleges and universities of says that Lack of Money should not prevent a person from attending a nor would the creation of an elitist University relieve the financial Bur Den on existing publicly funded in there is also some question about the size of endowment necessary to support a firs class in the privately funded universities such As and Yale enjoy enormous for has a Finan Cial Cushion of accumulated Over the last three centuries from alumni and other private even with this vast larger than the Gross Domestic product of Harvard still has to charge its students a tuition fee of apiece to plus another for room and the provinces current education Sean has emphasized that a private University can not Grant degrees in he has also remarked on the financial implications of the Many of our now Public institutions were for decades he they became Public in significant because with the very Best Many of the organizations could not carry the Load Cambodia plan is a great Opportunity for in by Jonathan Power special to the free press London we must hold our the unbelievable May the United nations is on the threshold of doing what has never been done in the history of Mankind governing one country in the name of All the other countries of the last week in Paris the five Perma nent members of the uns Security Council the the soviet France and Britain considered an australian proposal for ending what has been the most degrading and horrendously sordid conflict since the nazis were Defeated in Europe the War in the killing Fields of shelved Are the earlier attempts to form an interim coalition constituted by the Long time the vietnamese and soviet supported regime of Hun the chinese and thai backed Khmer the hereditary Prince Norodom Sihanouk the smaller Force of former prime minister son Sana the probability now is that they will All stand a Unap pointed governor or adminis Trator will take Over the reins of the peace will be kept by a in military Contin elections will be held and May the test Man the in Force will stay on for a reasonable period after to make sure that his writ is allowed to a change that is cause for shaking the head in wonder is upon us the Prospect of a new age of world the in has an Opportunity to live and breathe and work As never these were the last Public reflections on the in by Ronald Reagan in the old a baiter was prepared to admit that he could hardly believe what he saw As the soviet Union sought to do what the West has asked of it for 40 years to make the in the repository of All International disputes where they could be solved by collective the Way the big Powers worked closely together to broker a peaceful Resolution of the Iran Iraq War had deeply impressed the moves now afoot to end the cambodian conflict Are even More remarkable Steps Forward in developing a common International the peace settlement in the process of being negotiated can Only work if the big five have a single minded clarity of if they together Are determined to make a Compromise it will be 75 per cent of the the remaining portion and the Day to Day effectiveness of the peace arrangements will depend on the Wisdom of the governor they choose to appoint and the sophistication of the peacekeeping forces he peacekeeping evolved in the 1950s out of the impasse in the in Over the interpretation and implementation of chapter 7 of the charter which envisioned International Mili tary action against this in fact is what the in did in it voted for the to Lead a combined Force of ethiopians and 15 other nations to repel North Korea invasion of the but it was Only possible because on the crucial Day of the vote the soviet Union was boycotting the Security Council to pro test the wests refusal to countenance Pek Ings occupying chivas since then in police in order to win at least passive soviet have had to depend on what is essential nonviolent peacekeeping soldiers who carry minimal defensive arms which they Only use As a last resort if it has worked tremendously Well in keeping armies particularly when the protagonists were look ing for a face saving device for extricating themselves from an impossible even the superpowers have resorted to this device when they both found themselves supporting clients who were on a collision course As in the Middle East War of today the peacekeeping formula is work ing Well on the Ira Iraq in Namibia and in a number of difficult Corners of the Middle could be More com the beginning stages might go reasonably no one should be deceived by the protagonists Are going to be pressured heavily by their respective a but once the election returns Are doubt less giving the Khmer Rouge a crushing is it Likely they will quietly melt into the background to fight and Slaughter is the Only language this murderously wicked and genocidal movement with or without chinese and thai the in May Well find it has no alternative but to be Tough and there will be blood on the the governor appointed by the in is going to have to be a person of exceptional strength and the appointee needs to be someone Independent of the big Powers and preferably this is the time to bring in the former army general and presi Dent of Olusegun Many Peoples Choice to be the next Secretary Gen eral of the tested in Able in he booked no nonsense during Biafra War of succession in Nigeria and he led his country away from military Rule Back to democratic while remark ably patient and persistent by in the end he give the Khmer Rouge time of Day if they broke their Side of the he is a Man of legendary is the unas a body that uses the big stick to enforce peace in the world an idea whose time has come will we be like Ronald Reagan still shaking our Heads with wonder when the going gets Tough the cambodian peace negotiations Are still in process the big five resume their collective discussion in new York in a months maybe they will fall apart and the War will go but if they do succeed what will be a major step for Cambodia is going to be a great leap Forward for doonesbury by Garry Trudeau not at All a ski Buppa that but who hwj5 to hear about no Bohr Effiom esd Isa 6abor 0 0 10ucancomz Pom show ;