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A Weekly Digest ' , of African Affairs mm 1 , 1 v. U.S.-AFRICA ,,, Jumping The Gun , -IANJ When Com modore Willem N. du Plessis, the military and naval attache at the South African embassy, said his good-byes to Washington after the U.S. government ordered him home in ;I979, no one really ex pected to see turn back in the capital two years later But three, weeks ago, du' Plessis, now an admiral, and Lt. Geri. P.W. van " der Westhuizen, chief of staff for intelligence in the South African Defense Force, became the first high-ranking military of ficers from . Pretoria to visit the U.S." since 1974. The expulsions of, du Plessis and another at tache two years ago came at a low point in American relations with the white government. But the change in administrations has raised hopes in South African officialdom that a major shift in American policy is forthcoming. Whether it was this hope that led to the recent visit is not yet known. Visa , applications for du Plessis, van der Westhuizen, two other of ficers, and a foreign, ministry official were sub mitted to the American Embassy in Pretoria on March 3, the State Depart ment says. None were identified as military per sonnel, and upon inquiry from the embassy, the Department of Foreign Affairs identified all five as department employees. On February 26, the State Department says, retired U.S. Air Force Brigadier General Robert, C. Richardson III asked, on behalf of the conser-' vative American Security Council for a determina tion on whether the,U.S.. would issue visas to senidr South Afr lean, military ntfrsonnel ' ith ' attend an ASC "internal briefing' and seminar on the situa-j tion in southern Africa."; The department says its reply noted that such visits! are not permitted under; long-standing practices, but that policy toward South Africa is now under; review. , ! "The department was in: the process of reviewing' the question of high-level visits by South African) military of fleers when wei discovered that these ofr fleers had already entered the United States," a' spokesman said. Further inquiry revealed that the officers werej preparing to. leave ther., country. "They had com-, pleted their program," anf" ASC official says, "and were already booked on a departing flight." He says the four spent one day in New York, a day and a half at ASC headquarters in Virginia, and two more days in Washington. . Shortly after their departure, the.. Washington Star reported that the administration was giving serious con sideration to inviting South African Prime Minister P.W. Botha to Washington for an official visit after the , South African elections in April. And earlier in the week, a delegation from the South African-recognized ad ministration in Namibia visited Washington lobby ing for a change in the U.S. approach to the con tentious issue. American supporters are also trying to arrange Washington visits for Lucas Mangope, president of the South African declared Republic of Bophuthatswana, and Jonas Savimbi, leader of the UNITA guerrilla movement fighting against the Angolan government. With the struggle over the direction of ad ministration policy inten sifvino it is Unclear whether the South African !;overnment advanced its nterests by sending the four military officers. Several African presidents, Including Zim- current chairman of the : Organization of African Unity, have warned in re cent weeks that a visible ' pro-South Africa shift could have far-reaching effects on U.S. relations ' with the rest of Africa, r The administration has indicated some sensitivity to these concerns by its quick denial of the Botha invitation ' report and its refusal to officially receive the Namibian delegation. But various comments by officials, including Presi dent Ronald Reagan's statements on South Africa in his interview with Walter Cronkite, in dicate that significant changes in the tone and substance of policy are in ;the works. PRETORIA'S Counter-Insurgency Plan South Africa's version of the war was recently presented to Johannesburg-based foreign journalists on a tour of the 'operational zones' in northern Namibia, where they talk ed to South African' military officers and visited the bases of several 'ethnic battalions.' Julie Frederikse' notebook: NORTHERN NAMIBIA AN "The deeper source of the im mense power of any in ' surgency," commandant Dirk Du Toit told me, "lies within the masses of the people." Du Toit hap pened to be a white South African, but he might as well have been an American, analyzing the Asian guerrilla war ten years ago; or a Frenchman on the Algerian insurgen cy of twenty years back. Du Toit assured me that South Africa would not make the same mistakes as those other countries, and 'elc4d ine,, Jaboutftthe i . -Suth African army civic aciiori program talking of showing slides on Thursday to local Africans "to increase their, knowledge of the Bible," and organizing sewing classes for the women, -' But 'civic action,' a new catch-phrase for an old counter-insurgency techni que, has a questionable track record, whether it be termed 'psychological warfare' or the 'battle for the hearts and minds.' Du Toit admitted that civic action had not yet suc ceeded in defeating any African insurgency, but he claimed the record world wide was five out of ten in the last fifty years won by the counter-insurgency forces. Colonel Leon ' Maartens, responsible for the 32 Battalion that is alleged to be conducting regular operations in Angola, frankly em phasized military rather than psychological factors in his strategy. "If you allow the terrorists to keep on coming into your area, .defeating them would take you thirty to eighty years," he contended. But "if you knock him where he is, you can do it in ten to fifteen years." Maartens .denied the specific allegations against sang a - the 32 Battalion, but. African regarding recruitment, he said that to him any white officer was just a white of ficer. "If he's a Rhodesian he doesn't tell me, I wouldn't know, because I don't ask him." One such officer I met was Major Errol Mann, a South African by birth who served for ten years in the Rhodesian army and said he enjoyed soldiering. He commands one of the new 'ethnic battalions,' officered by whites, but consisting of specific ethnic groups in each unit one application of the 'apartheid' principle, which exalts separation of different ethnic groups and races. The fact that these different ethnic groups are then asked to fight together against a common enemy makes for some incongruous ideological symbols, as in the song I heard one unit singing "We are fighting for our colors, for. our colors, our colors, black and white." One of the most publicized battalions is the 'Bushman Battalion' (so termed though 'Bushman" is today regarded as a derogatory word for the people more correctly referred.to as the San). These people, who inhabit southern Angola, Namibia and Botswana, have been recruited into the South African army in increasing numbers, arousing a recent protest letter by some 63 an thropologists vwho have worked with 4 these and ; other traditionally S tfiTPtfg: t he r cr-:'-peoples. .,.. The anthropologists say the army has exploited the poverty and disruption of the San. Lieutenant Ben Wolff put the matter in different terms, telling reporters, "If they weren't in the army, there'd be nothing else for them to do;" Wolff, one of the few whites to have mastered the language of this group of San, says their recruit ment into the army has enabled them to use their traditional tracking skills and indeed could prove the salvation of the group. The insignia badge of the battalion, Wolff explain ed, includes "a little white church, which means white leadership amongst the black Bushmen, and a white circle for Western influence on the Bushmen." In such paternalism lies the inherent contradiction of the military's counter insurgency role. It was also apparent when Com mandant ' Charles Hochapfel introduced his Kavango battalion to us, telling us that the Kavango "as a nation are, very musical: they sing .spon taneously, ancHweexploit this." When the batallion popular . South tune, the com mandant gave a very rough translation. Ob viously quite unknown to him, the Zulu work song; they chose had , been adopted as a black! freedom song, much as1 spirituals were taken up by ' American . civil rights ac tivists. A minor point, perhaps, but one that would un-, doubtedly interest General ' Charles Lloyd, J commander-in-chief of the South African forces in Namibia, who told us, "We can actually destroy our military enemy, but this is not to say we vill destroy SWAPO, which is a political thing, in the minds of the people." General Lloyd's com ments repeat the "total war against the total onslaught" thesis of the 'South African defense I minister, General Magnus Malan, who, in turn, free ly., quotes the counter insurgency theories of the commander of the British I forces in Malaya over thir ty years ago, General Sir Gerald Templer. The ; South African generals may take heart from the fact that the much vaunted theory that guerrilla war is decided eighty per cent politically and only twenty per cent militarily was conceiv ed out of one of the world's few successful counter-insurgency cam paigns. But the war in Namibia far more closely parallels the successful guerrilla campaigns in thhe rest of southern Africa than iir"Malaya SAT.. APRIL 4. 1981 r7 .. t J, - .y - - - t" mm cwtt Finnish Visitors Get Key To City Most cities give visiting dignitaries the key to their cities, but never say what lock the key will open. Not true with Los Angeles. During a recent visit by Raimo llaskivi, the Lord Mayor of Helsinki, Finland to Los Angeles Mayor Bradley's office, llaskivi was given such a key and in answer to the age-old question, Bradley (c) came up with the lock which llaskivi opened with the key he had been given with the help of Madeleine Marks, Miss Finnair. llaskivi was in Los Angeles to announce the first direct flights between Los Angeles and Helsinki via Finnair. UPt V-P Bush Speaks At Black Press Luncheon By Larry A. Still Capital News Service WASHINGTON, D.C. Vice President George Bush joined members of the National Newspaper Publishers Association in paying tribute to two pioneer black newspaper publishers at the National Press Club here last weekend,, but he attemp ted to turn the ceremony into a political rally which flopped. Bush spoke at the en shrining of editor publishers William Monroe Trotter of the Boston Guardian and Mrs. Daisy L. Bates of the Arkansas State Press in the joint Howard University-NNPA Gallery of Distinguished Newspaper Publishers. the situational Jrotter was the militant divided bet- vfeunder. of ih Guardian sociologist W.E.B. DuBois in organizing the Niagara Movement which was the forerunner of the National Association for the Advancement of Col ored People (NAACP). Mrs. Bates was editor of the Arkansas State Press in the state capital before she became the patron and guardian of the "Little Rock Nine" black school children who desegregated Central High School under the forced protec tion of armed soldiers in 1957. Mrs. Bates received her enshrinement plaque amidst a standing ovation, but there were no relatives or former associates of the late Mr. Trotter or his family present. William O. Walker, publisher- of the Cleveland Call and presided at the ceremony. John O. Procope, publisher of the New York Amsterdam Newspaper, was introduced as the new NNPA president, who is going to bring about "a new birth of the Black Press." Procope succeeds John H. Sengstacke, president of the Chicago Daily Defender and the Sengstacke Publications, as president of the 250-member publishers association. Vice-President Bush made little note of the honorees before the pack ed Black Press Week lun cheon audience of approx imately 300 publishers, editors, newsmen and guests as he introduced aides Arthur Fletcher, chairman of his TKE CAROLINA TUtES -13 Whhe House special assis tant on, alt domestic af fair!. 't ; . Bush -urged the publishers and their sup porters to support the Reagan administration policies on budget cuts although he admitted he had opposed Reagan din' ing the campaign for the Presidency. "But, you don't really get to know a guy when you are bouncing around fighting him in the ring. Now, that I've seen him up close, he is really -A VZ-A generous," the Vice Presi dent said in describing the President's attributes and qualifications for the Black Press. ! Bush was introduced as af "former everything" a former congressman, a former ambassador, a former CIA director and a former Presidential can didate. The Republicans have a mandate from the voters now to cut the budget because "the Democrats had their chance. . . .and their old policies 6f big spending and big govern ment DID NOT WORK," the Vice President em phasized repeatedly in his speech. He appeared to be answering heavy Congres sional Black Caucus criticism of Reagan ad ministration budget cut proposals only two days after Rep. Walter E. Fauntroy (D-DC), the new CBC chairman, spoke Rigorously before prac tically the same audience at the National Press Club in downtown Washington. Although Fauntroy received several standing ovations, the Vice Presi dent was only greeted with standing applause at the beginning and the end of his talk and polite silence throughout. Bush did not follow the customary practice of answering questions for the Press, but left immediately before the end of the pro gram. "Mr. Trotter would not have remained silent today when the Vice President made his remarks," said Dr. Michael Winston, director of the Moorland- ween ethnic cninese and Malays. And, whatever the outcome in Namibia, for South Africa still another counter insurgency war on and within its own borders may yet be fought. and joined with historian- Washington campaign . post newspaper and committee,, and The Rev. oPnrrW renter NNPA ' board clian nlmduSnPawlft I Disappointment If you have disability insurance and expect to receive benefits equal to your full salary when you are disabled, you may be disappointed, says the Health Insurance Institute. Generally, these policies are, in tended to pay no more than 60 per cent of a person's gross income. However, for the person who pur chases his own policy, this income is tax-free. The individual purchaser can also determine the length of the waiting period at the onset of an , illness ' before benefits begin ; from a week to six months or more. The longer the waiting period, the lower the premium. However, when disability results from an accident, there usually is no waiting period for the benefits. In Apartments And Condos: Fire Safety Is Everybody's Business Tragic fire in apartment or condominium buildingi art lmoit a daily occurrence acron the country. On might have been caused by a careleitly 'discarded cig arette; another might have resulted from faulty electrical wiring. Whatever the case, fires kill an estimated 12,000 Americans and damage over $2.5 billion in property each year. Much of this tragic loss happens in apartments and condominiums. And most of the deaths and damage could be prevented if proper fire precautions were followed. "Fir many; many years, 99.9 percent of the causes of fires have been known," says Pat Genovese, fire pro tection specialist attheCNA Insurance Companies in Chicago and a former assis tant fire chief. "These axe smoking and matches, Improper use of electricity and appliances, accumulation of rubbish, heating and cook ing equipment, and improper use and storage of flammable materials. "But all too often for Because of the multi occupancy nature of apart ments and condominiums, it's especially important for all the residents to do their part in keeping the entire babwe'S Robert Mugabe, ? dwellers, fire safety is an Mozambique's Samora 'out of sight, out of mind' Machel, ' and Sierra I situation - until , fire strikes Leone's Siaka Stevens, the : aomeone dose." building fire-safe, Genovese stresses. He offers these basic tips for fire prevention :. 1 Try to buy flammable liquids (e.g. paint thinner, cleaning fluids) only in needed quantities, Store these liquids in tightly sealed con tainers. Never keep them in common storage rooms. Never bring motor cycle, minibike or gasoline into an apartment or con dominium. Store these items preferably in a garage. Keep any rags that have paint, paint thinner or other flammable liquids in a tightly closed metal container. Keep halls and stair ways clear of bicycles, boots, baby carriages, sleds, grocery carts and the like. Use a metal container such as a coffee can for trash from ashtrays. Never empty ashtrays into wastebaskets. Be sure electrical out lets aren't overloaded. Never run extension cords or elec trical wires under rugs or carpeting. Don't smoke in bed. Follow maintenance re quirements especially lub rication for washers, dryers and other major appliances. Keep an eye on lit candles. Candles should be kept in proper holders and extinguished if you go to another room. Never operate a wood burning fireplace without the spark screen in place. Make certain the damper is open" before lighting. Install smoke detectors near bedroom and rec room areas. Keep a UL-Iisted fire extinguisher in the kitchen. Install it on a wall or inside a cabinet door for easy access. Don't forget to test its effectiveness according to manufacturer's directions. r STATEMENT QF CONDITION NORTH CAROLINA MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY A MESSAGE FROM THE PRESIDENT In 1 980, North Carolina Mutual continued to make significant gain despite the effects of inflation. During the first year of the 80s, the company also continued to build a solid base for increased efficiency and growth in operations throughout the remainder of the decade and beyond., Our assets continued to increase, premium income increased, and net investment in come and total income also continued to climb. These significant operating statistics, compared to 1979, are summarized below: 1980 1979 ( IN MILLIONS ) $190.9 $184.8 10.6 10.2 73.1 69.2 $5,680.2 $6,128.9 Acquisitions remain as one of the keys to the company's growth and in 1980 NCM purchased American Capital Life Insurance Company of Washington, D.C. and the home service business of North American Insurance Company in Virginia and North Carolina. We are continuing to explore investment opportunities in the communications industry, and in 1980 we started a mass marketing program using direct mail. The future continues to look bright for North Carolina Mutual despite the momentary disruptions caused by an unstable economy. We are confident that in the years ahead North Carolina Mutual will remain a viable economic force in the communities we serve. We are equally certain that this institution will remain worthy of the trust and confi dence placed in us by our policyholders and employees. Assets at year-end Net investment income Total income Insurance in force President ASSETS Cash DECEMBER 31, 1980 Prepared from the Annual Statement filed with the NORTH CAROLINA State Insurance Department LIABILITIES 3.617.332 Bonds U. S., Canadian and Other Government.... $20,889,169 Slate and Municipal 8,468.758 Railroad 2,523,436 Public Utility. U.S. sai Canada 40.839.714 Industrial ana' Miscellaneous 39,245,169 Stocks Preferred..:. t 1.212,223 Common. 4,003.801 Mortgage Loans Conventional $26,537,484 Insured ar Guaranteed... 8,065.438 Real Estate PreperoesforCompany Use $5,808,191 . Other Properties 1,793,949 Statutory Policy Reserves Policy Claim Liabilities.- Dividends to Policyowners- Other Policy Liakiitiet. 111,964,244 5.218,024 34,602.822 Interest, Rents, and Premiums Paid in Ad Taxes and Accvred Expease. Employee Benefit I Mandatory Security Valuatiea Reserve.. Group Coatinoeacy I Other Liibaities- TOTAL LIABILITIES .$130,871,781 21J54.85S 4.68U00 6.563 832.837 2.51 1.384 652.734 , W62.517 .112JM 682.383 J173.1S8.I25 Policy Loans. Investment Income Due and Accrued.-. Premiums la Course of Collection- -. Cash Value-Policies on Officers Other Assets TOTAL ASSETS . 7.602.140 4.363.255 2.S34.432 18,301,186 482.328 v12444 $190.933,107 C0NTIN6ENCY RESERVE AND SURPLUS Reserve for CoatintMcy $ 8,276,282 Asset Fluctuation Reserve-. 2,500.801 -UneoigMd Surplus- H.OCT.egt 17.778,212 TOTAL LIABILITIES ANO SURPLUS . $118,133,187 WaXICeYIMdfy 881 President BOARD OF DIRECTORS W.J.KENNEDY III Chairman of the Board President Chief Executive Officer Durham, North Carolina N. H. BENNETT JR. Durham, North Carolina W. O. BRYSON JR. Baltimore, Maryland W. A. CLEMENT, CLU Durham, North Carolina BERT COLLINS Vic President r Controller Durham, North Carolina HENRY E. FRYE Greensboro, North Carolina NATHAN T. GARRETT Ourham, North Carolina MRS. LOUISE K. LAWSON Chicago, Illinois MACEO A. SLOAN. CLU Executive Vice President Chief Operating Officer Durham, North CaroNna C. D. WATTS. M. D. ; Senior Vice President Medical Director ' Ourham. North Carolina ELMER YOUNG JR. Philadelphia, Ponrttyrvania HONORARY - J.W.GOOOLOE t Durham. North Carolina W. J. KENNEDY JR. . Ourham. North Carolina ALFRED M.PELH AM Detroit. Michigan . ASA T. SPAULDING SR. Durham, North Carolina ''C C. SPAULDING JR. Durham. North Caroline A. E. SPEARS SR. ' Chariotte, North Carolina MRS. V.G. TURNER . ' Durham, North Carolina A. W.WILLIAMS ' Chicago, Ulinoie tfcTpaaiiiicsr mssmv 1 fi-'ryii:-.iwaj
The Carolina Times (Durham, N.C.)
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April 4, 1981, edition 1
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