North Carolina Newspapers

i:1 W M ,., "i iafWi ' I mfi n n-r A Weekly Digest, of African Affairs ; in I SAT . f EBURARY 7, 1981 THECAROU i TIMES -1J Recommendations On Minority Business Shared With New Reagan Administration U.S.AFRICA Reagan African Team Takes Shape ' WASHINGTON, DC AN J The membership of the Senate Africa subcom mittee has been settled, and in the House, a chair- man is expected to be ' Selected this week. Also expected is the formal nomination of the ; new assistant secretary of state for Africa, who will be Georgetown University professor Chester Crocker. Mrs. Nancy Landon Kassebaum (R-Kansas) will head the Senate panel, joined by Republicans Jesse Helms (NC), S.I. Hayakawaf (Calif.), and Charles Mathias (Md). Mrs . Kassebaum, who was elected in 1978 and is the daughter of 1936 Republican presidential ; candidate Alf Landon, became A member of the ' Foreign Relations Com mittee in January. She has ' no Africa experience. Paul Tsongas from Massachusetts, who was on the subcommittee when George McGovern was the chair, is the ranking Democrat, along with John Glenn (Ohio) and newly-elected Christopher Dodd (Conn.). Phil Christenson is the new subcommittee staff director, and Alison Rosenberg ' is the Africa specialist on the full com mittee staff. Christenson has been associate director of the U.S.South Africa Leadership Exchange Pro gram, a private organiza tion promoting visits by prominent individuals from both countries. Previously he was deputy manager for sub-Saharan Africa in the Commerce Department. ; Rosenberg has bet a a member1 of the ataffof v $&atiat CharleiPerfirtth. new Foreign t Relations. Committeechair. " ' The House subcommit tee chair, will likely be either Dan Mica (Fia.), Michael Barnes (Md.), or Howard Wolpe (Mich.). All were elected in 1978, but by a toss-of-the-coin Mica has seniority. Only Wolpe has served on the subcommittee, previously , , chaired by Stephen Solarz, who chose to become head of the Asian and Pacific Affairs subcommittee. Another former subcom mittee member, William Gray (Pa.), has moved from Foreign Affairs to the Appropriations Com mittee. At the State Depart ment, Secretary Alexander Haig said last week he had ; decided on all but two of some thirty nominations required to fill top staff positions. Crocker's selec tion appears secure, in spite of reports his is one of several appointments! opposed by a group of right-wing Senate Republicans led by Helms, who want to see more con servatives chosen. Haig: told a news conference he foresaw no problems win ning Senate confirmation for all his nominees. Crocker, has been using the assistant secretary's office vacated on In uaguration ' Day by Richard Moose, who has joined the New York in vestment firm: Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb. Of the four deputy assistant secretary posts in the Africa Bureau, two in cumbents are expected to stay on for now - Lan npn Walker, currently the acting assistant secretary, and Hal Horan, who was the Africa specialist on the National Security Council staff iri the Ford ad ministration. Another key area in the department for Africa policy-making has been the Policy Planning Staff. , Ms. Elain Morton, who covers north and central Africa, and Ms. Marianne Spiegel, southern Africa specialist, have both re mained at their jobs. But changes there seem likely too. Alan Keyes, a black foreign service officer described by his colleagues as conservative and Republican,' has been transferred from the southern African office of the ' Africa Bureau to Policy Planning, where his primary responsibility is southern Africa. Dennis Ross, a Middle East and North Africa expert, has also.come to Policy Plann ing from the Defense Department with Paul D. Wolfowitz, Haig's choice to direct the Policy Plann ing staff. Both will pro bably take a major part in the inter-departmental policy reviews Haig has ordered. The State Department is slated to chair these study groups, and Policy Planning is to have the major coordina tion role. Changes in personnel will apparently extend to ambassadorships as well. Two Carter appointees have already been told to pack up and return home, friends of the two report. They are Walter Carr ington, formerly the ex ecutive vice president of the African-American In-, stitute, who has been U.S. ambassador to Senegal for four months, and Am bassador to Mali Anne Holloway, who was on Andrew Young's Congres sional staff and directed his State Department of fice when he was UN am bassador. Reagan is expected to name a new ambassador to South Africa, replacing William Edmundson. And Stephen Low in Nigeria, who played an active role in the Rhodesia negotia tions, may also be replaced. SIERRA LEONE Stevens' Critics Threatened By Press Curbs FREETOWN AN The Tablet, Sierra Leone's on- ' reverent , style of political satire has become the lone source of public criticism of President Siaka Stevens' one-party government, is now in volved in a struggle over its right to continue publishing. - In the months following its hosting of the Organization of African Unity (OAU) summit con ference last June, the Stevens government has apparently begun a cam paign intended to force the Tablet to modify its editorial content or else shut down completely. Heavy pressure on the Tablet has appeared over the last four months in the form of a new Press Law and Press Review Board, a state-run apparatus for registering newspapers, and a two-count federal indictment against Tablet editor Pious Foray, which charges libelous reporting stemming from a recent series of articles on government corruption. "It's f obvious," says Foray, "that we're under pressure all the time." In addition to the federal in dictment placed against the Tablet and its editor, former Finance Minster Francis Minah's wife is pressing, a civil libel suit against the maverick newspaper. Established four years ago, one year before the passage of a constitutional referendum that made Sierra Leone a one-party state under 'the aegis of President Siaka Stevens' All People's Congress (APQ, the Tablet has earned a reputation among many Sierra Leo neans as an , institution seeking to expose govern ment mismanagement and corruption. The majority of the Tablet's usual four to six page format generally consists Of articles depic ting the economic hard ships being faced by the common Sierra Leone citizen. The newspaper's crjticism of the govern ment usually concerns the size of the burcacracy, mismanagement, or alleg ed corruption, themes that are dealt with in front- 5 age editorials or umorous unattributed, satires. Editor Foray, however, i is quick to point out that the. Tablet is not an op position newspaper in a strict sense. Foray, who used to work for the defunct People newspaper of the banned Sierra Leone People's Party (SLPP) four years ago, asserts that the Tablet, as an independent newspaper, "is a forum for national public discus-, sion." "The Tablet is part and parcel of the national development process," says Foray, a graduate of Freetown's Fourah Bay College.. "We came to contribute in our own way to the quality and scope of mass communication." The Tablet is the only one of five regularly published Sierra Leonean papers that is neither con trolled by the government or the APC. It has been the constant target of threats and attacks by pro government and pro-APC groups over the last three years. Two years ago, APC party stalwarts threatened to burn the of fices of the Tablet's former printer, and most recently, the paper's of fices were stormed and a press operator beaten by thugs shortly after the beginning of the OAU summit last June. Foray, however, does not directly attribute these overt threats and attacks to the government or to President Siaka Stevens. Perceiving government coercion to be more sub tle, such as in the case of the new Press Law, Foray explains that "there are 100 ways he President Stevens could make things more difficult for us." Despite the pressure brouaht to bear1 both airea ana inajreci ine- - catmnoaajion going TlahM ttttttioW tmrmUtA th i TnMat t. last yeaf'i Costing Of the asserts, "has OAU summit because ot its high ($230 million) cost to the poor west African nation. "We are openly critical of the hosting of the OAU as being not the most advisable thing to do," says Foray. . Ironically, however, Foray admits the interna tional publicity that ac companied the annual African summit may have temporarily, eased govern ment constraints on the paper. "It could very well nave," states Foray, "but 'we were pretty determined anyway to tell it like it is." Recent targets of Tablet reporting include the na tional ministries and in dividual government ministers, particularly those who possess "large personal wealth and are living extravagantly." 'Telling it like it is may become extremely difficult for the Tablet sduring this year. The newly-instituted Press Law and Press Review Board are going to entail considerable finanial, and possibly, editorial costs for the paper if it is to remain legally-sanctioned. Under the Press Law: each paper must appeal for legal registration by the government in order to continue publishing, must post $2,000 during the in itial registration year and $1,000 for each additional year. And although the Tablet has recently in creased its circulation out side of Freetown, Foray admits that his paper may have some difficulty in raising the money for registration in this economically-depressed nation. Although one of five Freetown-based, regularly-published newspapers, inclduing the government-controlled Daily Mail, Press, Flash, and the APC-run We Yone (a Creole term meaning 'ours'), the twice-weekly Tablet is the only paper not dependent in some form on govern ment funding or subjected to censorship. " Already, according to Foray, the Tablet has been forced to expand its usual four to six-page format to eight pages to i include more space for advertising in an attempt to raise more money for registra-, tion costs. Consequently, some news articles and satires have been cut. ji'There is a policy of ae on, to stay. Advertising will in crease." The paper also appears to be shifting its reporting .sights to the promising new discoveries of off shore oil and gold. Foray and his fellow editors are cautiously optimistic that government efforts to ex ploit the gold and oil will trigger an economic boom. The two-count federal indictment against Foray and the Tablet stems from a series of articles repor ting alleged money smug gling across the Liberian border involving govern ment officials and their families. One Tablet arti- r ANational Advisory Committee on Minority Enterprise Development has made specific recomendations for im proving federal govern ment policies, procedures, program;, in support of minority business. Although the advisory committee was established during the administratis of President Jimmy Carter by Department of Com merce Secretary Philip Klutznick, the .commit tee's report has been shared with the Reagan Transition team and the new Secetary of Com merce, Malcom Baldridge. Former Secretary Klutz nick passed the report on to Secretary Baldride and expressed hope that he would agree to continue the efforts initiated by the advisory committee. Serving as chairman of the Advisory Committee on Minority Enterprise Development was Nathan T. Garrett, chairman of the board and chief ex ecutive officer of Garrett Sullivan and Company, one of the largest black owned CPA firms in the country, with offices in Durham, Raleigh, GrqVboro, Charlotte, N. C, Washington, D. C, Tampa, Florida, and Detroit, Michigan. Garrett said there were 25 active members who served on the advisory committee: 15 blacks, six Hispanics, two Orientals, and two non-minority per sons. He also indicated that the group was politically bi-partisan. "Small businesses run cle, appearing as a front page opinion piece, was based largely on police claims to have apprehend ed a woman identifying herself as Mrs. Minah and displaying a Sierra Leo nean diplomatic passport. The real Mrs. Minah, however, was out of the I Report Presented Nathan T. .Garrett, chairman of the National Advisory Committee on Minority Enterprise Development, presents a report on recomen dations from a committee to former Depart ment of Commerce Secretary Phillip Klutznick. In a letter to newly appointed Commerce Secretary Mafcom Baldridge, Klutznich shared a copy of the report and urged that the initiatives of the advisory group to strerrgnton the federal government's support for minority business enterprise be continued. by minorities and non minorities alike are vital to our economy," Garrett said. "They provide more jobs than big business and contribute heavily to the Gross National Product and international trade. Minority small businesses have special problems. Access to markets, equity capital, and management skills for minority businesses have been dif ficult, historically and currently because of racism. We need im mediate, and the most ef fective, programs, policies, and procedures of assistance from govern ment and big business in order to overcome these special problems and to improve our opportunities and expand our capacity for success." The report included the following reccomenda-Uonsl Leyetagmg alleged incident. " "Authority that congressional authority be given to SBA The Tablet subsequent ly published a partial retraction concerning the identity of the apprehend ed woman, but Mrs. Minah filed her charges with the government, two civil libel charges against the Tablet. She also un successfully pressed for a court, injunction pro hibiting the further publication of the paper. Regardless of the final' outcome of the case, which is now in court, the charges of libel do not ap pear to improve the Tablet's chances of winn ing certification from the government-controlled Press Review Board. to everage against federal funds invested in Minority Enterprise Small Business Investment Companies. Definition of Minority Business Enterprise (MBE) In light of a great deal of confusion in the minority business com munity and throughout the government as a result of the various and differ ing definitions of an MBE, that the Secretary of Commerce take the in itiative in gaining a con sensus throughout the federal establishment as to an acceptable definition of an MBE. International Trade Aministration In order to increase minority participation in the international marketplace, programs in itiated by ITA to assist minority enterprise should be supported. Minority Business development Agency (MBDA) Although major MBDA emphasis is now being placed on ventures of larger scale, high technology oriented firms and those in high growth industries, MBDA should be in a position to refer minority business enter prise, which require assistance, to other sources of assistance, if they do not qualify for MBDA assistance. National Minority Suplier Development Council (NMSDO . ! WHlj the Jfttmg that, ' many corporate members" of the Council are using it for its public relations value, rather than for its intended purpose, the committee recomended in creased representation of minority business on the Council's Executive Board, establishment of a design mechanism for evaluating and motivating corporate members, and a system for monitoring and documenting procedures to gain data on MBE ex periences with NMSDC members. I: the area of priority issues for future reports, the advisory committee reccom mended that steps be taken to insure that minorities are included in ownership of cable televi sion properties; that MBDA policies and pro grams be assessed to deter mine if agency is being adequately funded, that an evaluation be made MBDA and SBA to deter mine if the minority com munity is receiving the maximum benefit from, them and any adjustments and realignments which should be made to im prove their performance. ' The committee also in dicated that if minority enterprise is to grow and prosper, creative means must be developed to pro vide meaningful equity financing, and greater utilization of minority brokerage houses is strongly advised for large transactions. Garrett said he hoped he and the 25-member committee would have an carly . . opportunity to ""'discus the report and its reccommendations with Commerce Secetary Baldridge. Helps Shrink Swelling Of Hemorrhoidal Tissues caused by Inflammation Doctors have found a medica tion that in many cases eives prompt, temporary relief for noun from pain and burning itch in hemorrhoidal tissues, then helps shrink swelling of these tissues caused by inflammation. The name: Preparation H. No prescription is needed. Prerv ration H. Ointment and su positories. Use only as direct- vounG mars shop this is 9t (W SWEATERS All styles-over 500 to choose from Turtle necks. 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