ETS! encourages comments, feedback, tips, corrections, and info! Please keep them as concise as possible so we can print as many different voices as possible: ETS!, P.O. Box 85541, Seattle WA 98145, or e-mail ets@scn.org.

[A note to our e-mail subscribers: when you send us e-mail responding to something that you've read in Eat the State!, please don't include a copy of the whole issue of Eat the State! in your reply. This happens on e-mail programs provided by certain Internet Service Providers--particularly America Online--when you simply hit the "Reply" button. Please take the time to type out ets@scn.org" in a new message to us--it's not a long address, and we're getting really tired of having our in-box over-stuffed with multiple return copies of ETS!--Maria]

Ozone Low?

"Right on" to most of your 12/23 article, but you might double check the reporting of "ozone" in Vancouver. Ozone at ground level is an irritant/toxin, and is often reported in air pollution data by local media. Stratospheric ozone is helpful in filtering UV. Are you sure they are reporting the latter in BC?

Mike Wagenbach, Seattle

M.T. replies: You're right, Mike. My source mentioned the ozone hole extending over Vancouver, but when I double-checked with Environment Canada (http://www.ec.gc.ca), which keeps data on the Arctic ozone hole, I found that Vancouver is actually fine as far as stratospheric ozone levels go. It's Toronto and Montreal that are in real trouble, especially during the months of January and February.

Yes, but No

Although I am happy to see an article on Zimbabwe in this zine, I am disappointed by the content. The author's main points, that poverty continues to be the major cause of disease and social stress, that the greed of Mugabe's leadership is draining resources and optimism, and that SAPs are causing great suffering to those that can least afford it, are points well-taken and widely espoused. However, throwing in comments such as "In Zimbabwe, people warn that speaking out against the government may lead to one's disappearance," is so vague and unsubstantiated that it throws the entire piece into doubt. I can think of a number of political leaders in ZANU and ZAPU who were almost certainly assassinated by the main guard of ZANU in the early 1980's, but if random disappearances of activists have occurred, this would be news to me and in need of documentation and serious discussion, not thrown in as an "aside."

I have no doubt that we should re-conceptualize the etiology of AIDS in a way that shows poverty as a primary cause. I also know that widespread AIDS testing is not common outside of Harare. But the studies that have included Elisa and Western Blot testing on a vulnerable population, pregnant women, have shown upwards of 30% seropositivity for HIV in Zimbabwe. From my experiences living in Zimbabwe, I would say there is a great deal of denial, resistance, and fear about the pandemic. Westerners who talk about the myth of AIDS fan the embers of a wishful thinking that helps no one.

Let me end with one minor point, the idea that people rarely eat vegetables in Zimbabwe is wholly inaccurate. Leafy greens and sadza are the staples of the local diet, as are tomatoes and onions. Meat is certainly the rarity. This is true in rural areas and in the city. I know this from working on a longitudinal study on nutrition in various land tenure systems. The representations here are well-intentioned, but lazy, and I think serve to reinforce generalized, normative views of Africa that don't really broaden our understandings.

Hilary McQuie, Seattle

M.T. replies: We printed the article because it covered views that aren't "normative" in the mainstream press. Also, nowhere in the article does Dr. Ruhland deny the existence of AIDS; we wouldn't have printed it if it did.

Gays in Africa

ETS!,

In "AIDS, Loans, and Africa," Dr. John Ruhland discusses the total corruption of the government of Zimbabwe and its exploitation of AIDS to evoke sympathy and to deflect criticism of the regime. President Mugabe, in addition to his blatant embezzlement, has further deflected the issue by scapegoating gay and lesbian Zimbabweans, claiming that they are "less than human," do not deserve to exist, and are directly responsible for the prevalence of AIDS in his country. His vilification of such a small minority in his country--that couldn't possibly be responsible for the AIDS problem, even if EVERY case were real--is unconscionable.

While protesters have followed him as he jets about the globe spending his looted millions, he is welcomed with open arms in almost every country. Indonesia, South Korea, Malaysia, etc. have exploded or collapsed under the weight of corrupt regimes and intrusive policies from international lending institutions (and of course only the "little people" suffer). How much longer will we have to see IMF and World Bank supported kleptocrats take food out of the mouths of their starving people?

Matthew Brown, Brooklyn, NY

Fans at the Times

I'm a big fan of Eat the State! and of your writing, especially your recent piece on PacMed.

I know the Times needs scrutiny, but I think your criticism of the editorial board is overbroad. You may have noticed that I wrote detailed pieces on PacMed and we run many staff-written columns that dissent from the editorials. Some of the editorials were very critical of things you thought needed criticism.

Much as we may or may not deserve your overall criticism, the ed board is not a monolith.

Anyway, I really appreciate the thoughtfulness that goes into Eat the State!, which I discovered after talking with Michelle Malkin.

O. Casey Corr, The Seattle Times

Above Ground

Yes, subway trains are punctual, safe and easy to use. But, we have lost our city. From the underground train, you cannot see the streets where every day urban activities should happen. You drop off the car, get out of the exit, and go up the stairs to the ground. Then you see some particle of the city. But Tokyo as a living space, as a whole, has been lost. It's a tragedy very few people recognize. Now they are not interested in the streets, so the streets decay physically and symbolically. The city will slowly die.

I advocate the revival of the street cars as the alternative transportation system here in Tokyo and the tight regulation against cars. I hear Dublin is planning to restore their street car system.

Koichi Edagawa, Japan

Elevate!

ETS!,

Hello again. Couldn't help commenting a bit on the material about "Sound" Transit in the last issue.

1) Re "sound" transit's plans for tunneling all over the city now that they've decided that they can't take the heat of public scrutiny (recent South Seattle community meetings).

Isn't it interesting how changeable their "plan" is when they want it to be, but when you ask them about including other more effective, affordable and efficient alternatives (i.e., monorail) they deny that's possible, effectively cite that their plan is set in stone and the "voters approved it that way" so it can't be changed.

We ran a poll shortly before the November 1997 election (when the Monorail Initiative passed with more votes than Mark Sidran received, and he ran unopposed!) and found that a majority of those polled believed that monorail WAS INCLUDED in "sound" transit's plans--we know that's not the case, however, don't we?

2) Here's a series of questions to ask "sound" transit when you next attend one of their public meetings:

a) Name one profitable light rail system in the United States today (Not even San Francisco's BART, arguably one of the most successful systems in the U.S. for quite a while, is profitable).

b) Explain how a 90 foot train is going to clear the almost 90 degree turn in the bus tunnel between Westlake and University stations when the articulated buses in there now (shorter AND bendable) barely clear the wall. If you don't believe me, ask ANY Metro tunnel bus driver (we know a few).

c) Explain how "sound" transit expects the tunnel to hold up any better than its current state under bus traffic with heavier and longer trains in the tunnel sans buses. (In case you didn't know, Metro bus drivers in the tunnel are under a standing order to drive around 10 mph or slower in the south end of the tunnel--why? Because it's beginning to collapse due to the bus use and needs to be rebuilt/restored!)

d) Explain where all the money is going to come from to dig all these new tunnels.

Kevin Orme, via e-mail

Go Bananas

ETS!,

Please call or fax Chiquita today! Say you have heard reports that Chiquita is threatening to leave Honduras in the wake of Hurricane Mitch, unless the workers give up previous gains. Ask if this is true. If Chiquita says that this is not true, ask the company to put it in writing (and send a copy to us--see contact information below). If the company says that it is true, register your displeasure that Chiquita is taking advantage of Hurricane Mitch to wrest concessions from its workers. Call or fax: Steven Warshaw, President, Chiquita Brands International, 250 E. Fifth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202, Fax: 513-784-8030, Tel: 513-784-8000.

The following information is provided by banana union leaders in Honduras:

Immediately following Hurricane Mitch, Chiquita and its Honduran union, SITRATERCO met for two weeks to agree to an Emergency Plan. Chiquita came to the table with a list of demands they said had to be met or they would leave. SITRATERCO took the list to its membership, which said no, then returned to the table and signed a slightly better agreement on December 1, 1998, which still gave major concessions. The agreement named six issues to be negotiated at a later point: 1) restructuring the work system to use fewer workers (giving each worker a parcel of land to do all jobs on, instead of one task per worker, 2) reduced benefits (e.g. cutting paid sick days), 3) introducing new technology, 4) reorganizing work for technical systems (mechanics, etc.), 5) plans for salvaging irrigation equipment, etc., from damaged fincas, and 6) postponing the 1998 contact negotiations.

Now, Chiquita wants to settle these six issues, on its terms. The company at first said it would not disclose whether it would stay and/or rehabilitate fincas until the union agrees to the company's demands. On January 13, it told the union it would abandon Honduras if the workers didn't sign the agreement within 48 hours.

The U.S./Guatemala Labor Education Project: (773) 262-6502, usglep@igc.org