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sZsM gifigitaka1401.” The Green Party Shortly after Governor George W. Bush referred to the Greeks as the Grecians, his advisors started home-schooling him on foreign policy, bringing in old foreign policy hands like George Schultz and young Turks like Condoleeza Rice. Bush is still a bit tenta tive going so far as to criticize Clinton, but not so far as to suggest what sound policy in Yugoslavia might be. Would Bush, for example, use ground troops in Kosovo? “That’s dependent upon the military advisers that would be advising me,” Bush said. Where does such equivocating come from? Who, exactly, has had Bush’s ear lately? One clue lies in the unusually high volume of asparagus sold at Austin’s Whole Foods Market in early May. Shortly before being named U.N. envoy on Kosovo, former Swedish Prime Minister Carl Bildt was spotted there, in the company of Karl Rove, Bush’s top advisor. They were shopping for vegetables. Bildt and several other Scandinavian types were following Rove through the aisles of Whole Foods, the upscale grocery where Austinites spend as much on food as Sweden does on national health care. They were carrying asparagus to the checkout line huge farmwor ker arm loads of asparagus, enough as paragus for several really generous asparagus dinners. “We only get asparagus like this in Spain,” Bildt said to the checker, who seemed startled to see three men carrying such a bounty. The appointment books of the White House on Colorado Street confirm that Bush hosted Bildt \(who served from 1995-1997 as the U.N.’s man in Bosniaernor’s Yugoslavia critique did peak for a few days after Bildt’s asparagus ‘binge. “The objectives are to return the Kosovars to their home, to remove the Serbs from Kosovo, and to have a settlement that will yield autonomy,” Bush said. But by mid May, the Governor was back to circular pronouncements about “the military advisers that would be advising me.” And perhaps waiting for Maggie Thatcher. After all, it was Maggie who \(in into war with Iraq: “This is not the time to go wobbly on us, Mr. President,” the Iron Maiden told him. Like a well-cooked spear of asparagus, The Leader of the Free World must stand firm. + .2, 4%1; t 2.t.l ‘..44t0.1D22.,k’ Creeping Wal-Martism Am s legions of today’s college students make time for comunity service, newspapers have taken to saying that ampus activism isn’t dead, it’s just less political. Natu rally this all depends on what you mean by “political.” Among the many thousands of undergraduates who volunteer in schools are the members of Students In Free Enterprise, an international organization with more than 600 campus chapters, underwritten by a whole slew of companies like Wal-Mart, Valvoline, and Rubbermaid. Founded in 1975 by a Texas attorney named Sonny Davis \(with funding from Southwestern Life a chance to “tackle issues like illiteracy and the undereducated work force, the dangers of deficit spending and the consequences of excessive government regulation.” In practice this means, “We teach free enterprise, from kindergarten on up,” said Vicki West of Southwest Texas State University, in a very businesslike phone interview. West is one of two faculty advisers to the S.I.F.E. program at Southwest Texas the other is Business School Associate Dean Jim Bell both of whom have been named Sam M. Walton Free Enterprise Fellows for their efforts. In April, the Southwest Texas team won the S.I.F.E. regional THE TEXAS OBSERVER 7 championship in Fort Worth, taking top honors for such programs as “our award-winning cupcake factory project,” said West. “It’s for fourth through sixth grades we go into schools and teach children how to develop a market survey; we teach them to form a little company, and issue stock certificates, form committees, choose a president of sales, president of finance….” The cupcake factory project was originally developed some twenty years ago, and refined by the 63-person Southwest Texas team, said West. The chapter’s other endeavors include “consulting projects” and a coloring book, called “Seeds to Success.” Though clearly not one to linger over an interview, West rattled off some statistics for Left Field: the Southwest Texas S.I.F.E. chapter has reached 2,235 students in eighteen cities with its K through third grade outreach programs, 2,721 students in seventy-four cities with its fourth through eighth grade programs, and 573 students in four cities “and Korea” with its high school programs. Over the past year, the chapter “started to realize its potential,” according to a fact sheet later faxed by West’s office. Yet “to become and remain internationally competitive at a top level, SWT SIFE must have dedicated leaders and adequate financial resources,” it continued, pleading for funds. Because even free-market boosters can use a little boosting now and then. +