Winnipeg Free Press

Winnipeg Free Press (Newspaper) - July 13, 1997, Winnipeg, Manitoba S ii in i it in it of or pm to by Sutula i Roe pros Winnipeg july 13. 1997forum editor. Brian Aile i o 7-7044editorialthreatens North Korea last week marked the end of tile official three year period of mourning for the dead North korean dictator rim la Sung. It did not however Mark the end of lamentation in that unhappy country. The tears that flow today Are not for rim. The True sorrow of North Korea was never Over the death of this strange and brutal Man. The great and glorious Leader As he liked to be called and was always referred to by North koreans a except perhaps when they dared to whisper among themselves a was either quite mad or simply evil. The latter seems most Likely. Often called a communist he was in fact a monster who turned North Korea into a personal fiefdom of unsurpassed oppression. The tears that flow today Are for the living those who must endure his legacy of misery and death. North Korea is a closed society which under rim la Sung and his son Kim Jong la shut out the world As completely As any nation has Ever been Able to do. Even so we have been Able to catch an occasional glimpse of the horror of that legacy As it is lived under the younger Kim the dear Leader and great successor As he is fondly called by his toadies. These Days those glimpses Are of the emaciated faces and skeletal bodies of starving children. For the last two years North Korea has been in the grip of a famine that the United nations world food program fears will become a one of the biggest humanitarian disasters of our tens of thousands of North koreans have already died. As always the children Are the most vulnerable. News reports describe Little ones so weak that they no longer have the strength even to eat. The combined threats of starvation cholera and miscarriage induced by malnutrition have raised the spectre of the death of an entire generation of North koreans. Last week a Small measure of help arrived from Manitoba. A group of Relief workers from the Canadian food grains Bank the mennonite Central committee and 13 Church groups Are distributing 13,500 metric tonnes of Canadian wheat in North Korea. This is not much in the context of what is needed but it is still More than nothing and similar humanitarian efforts in other places will help to alleviate the suffering. Much More is needed. The hunger of North Korea has not had the Impact on the International imagination that similar catastrophes in places such As Ethiopia have had. More images on More television screens would help to remedy that but the obsessive secrecy and paranoia of the North korean government make that difficult to achieve. It is also the nature of the government that complicates an International government level Relief Effort such As the one that saved ethiopians. Potential donor nations Are reluctant to do anything to prop up the odious regime in Pyongyang. Those same qualms existed with Ethiopia under the bloody dictatorship of Mengistu Haile Miriam but Media coverage of the horrors of that famine so infected Public opinion in the West that governments were forced to act. The same should not have to occur before help is Given to the people of North Korea. The famine in North Korea is no Normal famine. It has been made More severe by bad weather and bad Luck but it has More in common with the ukrainian famine of the 1930s, which was deliberately induced by Stalin As an instrument of genocide and most in common with the famine in China that resulted from government policies implemented in the great leap Forward of the 1950s. The chief contributing cause of the korean catastrophe is the greater disaster of North Korea itself the policies spawned by the twisted ideology of a malignant government Over the last decades. The nature of the regime in fact could serve As an incentive to Aid rather than a Barrier. It is known that North Korea has a War policy that foresees the ruin of South Korea and the destruction of at least parts of Japan. Hwang Jang Yop a High ranking politburo member who defected earlier this year has warned that the likelihood a already Strong a of rim Jong los implementing that policy is made stronger by the devastation that the famine is creating in his nation. Since the great successors mental stability is even More questionable than the great and glorious leaders was there is a practical incentive for the world to Deal with the famine quickly. That should not be needed. The people of the Western nations need no other reason than their common humanity with the people of North Korea to offer what help they can. The governments that represent them should need no More reason than that either but if they do they can find it in the truth that those who stand by and do nothing in the face of such horror become accomplices in it. Nato expansion filled with intrigue Jap i iwas crude but it was True. An open radio Mike caught Canadian prime minister Jean Chretien at the North Atlantic treaty organization Summit in Madrid denouncing the Way that . Domestic politics distorted the Choice of new members. President Clinton afford More than three sex communist countries to join nato because of the Way that american legislators a sell their a you want me to vote on nato a he asked pretending to be a . Senator. A then you have to build me a Bridge in my constituency a he said to belgian prime minister Jean Luc Dehaene. He added that a in your country and my country All the politicians would be in jail if they behaved like that. A laughing Dehaene replied that the reason Only Poland the czech Republic and Hungary were invited to join nato at this time was because there were Large polish czech and hungarian immigrant communities in the United states. And that is How business is really conducted at the solemn conclave of those who Rule us. The Madrid Summit was one More demonstration that nato is an Alliance of one superpower and fifteen smaller countries. If three new members is All Clinton can get through the . Senate then three new members it will be. All this should not disguise the fact that something very important is happening in Europe. Two years from now the alliances Eastern frontiers will be close to where the Eastern Borders of the Central Powers a Germany and the Austro hungarian Empire a ran in 1914. What has been re created in Madrid is Central Europe. For half a Century after 1945, when the Yalta pact divided Europe Down the Middle there was Only Western Europe the . Zone of influence and Eastern Europe the soviet zone. The other lost distinction that is now visible is the profound Gulf Between Central Europe and the Balkans. France Canada Italy and six other countries backed the admission of Slovenia and Romania As Well As the chosen three but nobody suggested bringing in Serbia or Albania or Bulgaria. The Balkans is a different world where tyranny gun Rule and ethnic violence Are endemic. The White houses political judgment is that opposition to nato expansion in the . Elite circles is building fast. Just two weeks ago 46 sex senators and other senior members of the . Foreign policy establishment wrote Gwynne Dyer Clinton an open letter warning that nato enlargement would undermine the democrats who Rule Russia. And that is the real question. Will nato expansion really make the russians do something we will All regret russians have to take a stand against expansion which brings nato forces 500 Kilometres closer to their Border. A the first lesson of diplomacy is that you done to allow tanks to move towards you a said Gregor Zavlinsky co Leader of the Yablokov group a even if the tanks Are dressed up in Pink with dancing girls on but it is largely a symbolic Issue since no serious person thinks nato is planning to attack Russia. And it has been solved for the moment by mostly symbolic Means. At an american russian Summit in Paris on May 27, russian president Boris Yeltsin grudgingly accepted natos expansion in return for a rus Sia nato permanent joint Council that meets every month russian membership in the group of seven major industrialized countries and a better Deal on conventional Force limits in Europe. But Why risk annoying the russians at All when nobody believes that Moscow wants to or could attack westwards anyway perhaps it is a mistake but it does have two huge hidden advantages. The nato guarantee frees Moscow a former Warsaw pact satellites from the need to form destabilizing secret alliances to contain possible russian military pressures in the future. And it forces them to Settle their own quarrels to be eligible for membership. Nato whose existing members Are All pledged to defend any nato ally that is attacked does not want new members to bring Border disputes in with them. The result is that candidates Are being forced to Settle last september for example Long standing rivals Romania and Hungary signed a pact ending their Border disputes and guaranteeing the rights of romanians hungarian minority. A similar dispute about Borders and minorities Between Hungary and Slovakia was settled last year. Wynne Dyer is a London based Independent journalist. His column appears sundays. What was said the following editorial appeared in the Chicago Tribune on july 10 during three decades of almost constant bloodletting Carrto Odia has become a metaphor for Savage cruelty and horrendous carnage. Now that grim haunted graveyard of a country is rapidly sliding toward a new civil War that could mean More years of grief and terror. There May yet be time to Avert this terrible tragedy but Only if the outside world reacts immediately and forcefully. Hun sen one of cambodians two feuding prime ministers has staged a coup do eat that forced his rival Prince Norodom ran Aridth to flee the country. Troops Loyal to Hun sen then launched a sweeping manhunt against Rana Riddhi a chief supporters at least two of whom were slain and others arrested. The Prince s backers Are threatening to set up an alternative regime in cambodians second City and wage armed resistance against Hun sen. Of Cambodia splits anew into two warring Camps the country will find itself in the same dreadful situation that inflicted so much agony for More than a decade before the United nations brokered a peace agreement and cobbled together the fractious coalition government in 1993. The outside world has spent More than $2 billion to pacify and democratize Cambodia but Hun sends coup could essentially wipe out All the gains achieved by that costly investment. The United states and other nations must move fast to keep that from happening. Cambodia is dependent for its survival on outside Aid which gives the donor nations heavy leverage if they determine to defuse the latest crisis. Ran Aridth s supporters say they Are willing to sit Down at the peace table with their opponents. In the next few Days Strong pressure must be brought to convince Hun sen that he should negotiate a by freezing All International assistance and postponing plans to admit Cambodia to the association of South East asian nations. In truth both ran Aridth and Hun sen Are seriously flawed figures and Cambodia would be a lot better off without either of them in charge. For now though a new arrangement Between the two a achieved by wrenching Arm twisting if that a what it takes a is the Best Hope for peace and stability. Glorious moments at Folk festival e very Folk festival has what a been dubbed a the the Days leading up to the festival Are spent poring Over the program circling what Are sure to be the highlights. Out comes the ground Sheet festival chair and Funky Feather earrings. The cd player is filled with Erie Bogle Patti Larkin and Connie Kaldor. Sunscreen and Mosquito Spray Are stockpiled. Short of a sustained torrential downpour the weather is of Little concern. The festivals lure supersedes such superficial worries. Finally the big Day arrives and the trek begins. Having negotiated traffic parking lot and ticket queues buying a steaming Latte is top priority. While waiting in line the scents of fresh Cut grass simmering Curry and deep Fried elephant ears blend on the Breeze. Coffee in hand you Settle in at one of the stages and sink into the music. Clouds tip toe overhead. The baby on the next Blanket murmurs in her sleep. It is always the same and yet different too. The moment sneaks up when you least expect it transforming the Day. The first Folk festival i attended was in Owen sound ont. Almost 20 years ago. I went with a Carload of friends not sure what to expect. With just one stage it was tiny compared to the Birds Hill extravaganza. But from the moment Stan Rogers lumbered onto that stage and strummed the first strains of a fort five years i was hooked. His All encompassing voice carried me away. By the time stars blanketed the evening concert the spell was cast. Sweet smoke wafted Over the crowd but i did no to need to inhale. Summer would never again be Complete without a sojourn at the nearest Folk festival. Five months after moving to Winnipeg in the Winter of 1983,1 woke up to the shocking news that Rogers had died in a fiery air plane crash in Cincinnati. Grieving Over his death i went to my first Winnipeg Folk festival a few weeks later. It was like a three Day memorial service. Shaken performers poured out their hearts sharing memories of the gifted folksinger. Invoking his spirit has become a tradition at every festival since then. The Cycle of years has spawned changes in festival culture. About a decade ago the music became noticeably less political. While old timers like Bete Seeger still brought the crowd to their feet with protest songs the focus Ruth Teichroeb shifted away from that genre. Aging baby Boomers were More preoccupied with keeping the nuclear family afloat than the threat of nuclear War. For Many the personal was no longer political. Another year the usually Strong feminist lineup vanished from the program. I wandered around like a fish out of water trying to find that missing element. It turned out to be a temporary oversight by festival organizers. The next summer the women stent was revived and my moment happened during an a Cappella chorus at that stage. In the Early Days no one under 30 went to Folk festivals. Thirty years later the original converts bring their kids and their Grandad to what has become a family reunion. Old friendships Are renewed at festival time. New ones Spring up from the Fertile Earth of music and mirth. Corporate lawyers Don tattered overalls and relive More idealistic Days. Flowing skirts and beads replace suits. Comfort wins out Over style from braided head to Birke stocked foot. Of course there Are years when hip waders have been the footwear of Choice. Once the site had to be layered with Bales of Hay to hold Back the oozing mud. At least once every festival the heavens open and dump buckets of rain. Celebrants Scurry for cover or Brave it out a and then search for the Rainbow which almost always rises above the Trees. I knew my life had changed forever when i spent most of the morning last year chasing my year old son. He delighted in grabbing sunglasses shoes or anything else within reach from the endless Supply of ground level adults. By afternoon i was exhausted and Grumpy. He had refused to Nap. I stood rocking him in my arms hoping head fall asleep. And then the voice of the folksinger Melanie Rose up from a nearby stage wrapping us in a song of Hope for the future. As tears filled my eyes i Felt my Little ones body relax against mine. Juhe moment had come after All. Ruth Teichroeb covers social affairs for the free press ;