ustxtxb_obs_1989_12_29_50_00019-00000_000.pdf

can do with $1,500 for a coffee pot to put in an airplane? Or $500 for toilet seats and I’m talking military aircraft, $500 for a toilet seat in a military aircraft? What could be done with just $500 in Haiti in immunizing children? .. . I have introduced legislation to create an international health corps. I was spurred to introduce this legislation primarily because I have spent a lot of time in Cuba, which is why I raise the issue of Cuba. I’ve spent a lot of time in Israel. I’ve spent time in many countries in the world, and particularly in the Third World. And I find that we have been outdistanced in a lot of ways by countries like Cuba. It has very few resources, but in Nicaragua, we hear of the horror of how the Cubans have trained Sandinistas and so forth, and so on, through the military, but they also send teachers and health personnel, many of them. In Ethiopia, I remember in 1978, 1979, I can’t recall the time exactly, maybe even before that, Cubans sent about 300 doctors to Ethiopia. That matched equally the number of doctors that were already in-country in Ethiopia for a population of 42 million people. I thought that was an incredible overture. And the long-term effect of that is that the people who do not necessarily care about the soldiers, who are supposedly helping them to protect their borders along the Ogaden region, certainly remember the doctors who were caring for them, and thus the Cubans have done an invaluable service to their foreign policy relationship, their diplomatic relationship, with Ethiopia. I care more about the goal of helping suffering people, but also in trying to sell my colleagues on things like this, we have to be also practical and self-centered to some extent. So as a result of that I have determined that where we are to wage war is in the field with health care professionals, for the purpose of serving the interests ultimately of the people in those countries, who are suffering, but also achieving political goals . . . but we should be helping people to survive through health measures.” “Chairman Leland. Well, the usual reference that is brought up in discussing matters concerning the existing hunger crisis not only in this country, but in the world, is that worldwide 40,000 people a day die of malnutrition. If there was an earthquake in Guatemala tomorrow, and 40,000 people were to die, it would make the headlines everywhere. People would flock to the support of the people of Guatemala. The fact of the matter is that 40,000 people die every day. It is abominable. How we translate that into political terms, I don’t know. How do we get it to the American people that they need to lean on their members of Congress, their state senators and representatives? More importantly, how do they encourage the President to change his attitude on these problems? I don’t know. Congressman [Leon] Panetta and I were flying in from Washington last night and talking about sensitizing the administration. We discussed how great an event Hands Across America was. In fact, Congressman Panetta classified it as a pep rally more than anything else a joining of all Americans in the fight to end hunger. Through this event between $30 and $50 million was raised. Yet, this is just a drop in the bucket when you consider the need. The events that have taken place in the past, and those which will take place in the future, are a dramatization of this need. In my estimation, this need must be translated into political terms. Our federal and state governments must provide the resources to allow the poor people in this country access to decent, nutritious food. We are at loggerheads in the Congress. The yeoman’s effort on the part of Congressman Panetta to improve benefits under the Food Stamp Program has been exem CARLOS F. TRUAN STATE SENATOR DISTRICT 20 CONGRATULATIONS TO THE TEXAS OBSERVER “As a member of both the Dirty Thirty in the Texas House of Representatives and the Killer Bees in the Senate, I have come to rely on the Texas Observer to share with its readers a perspective on Texas Government and Politics not found in the daily newspapers.” KEEP UP THE GOOD WORK THE TEXAS OBSERVER 19