ustxtxb_obs_1999_11_12_50_00020-00000_000.pdf

But the Perpetual President has a number of good reasons for being impolite. When he came to power in 1990, he had an economic agenda pretty well mapped out by the International Monetary Fund the usual “stabilization” package: public sector layoffs, sale of government assets, opening protected markets, soliciting foreign investment, etc. So Fujimori stabilized with help and Economic Support Funds from the United States. Unfortunately this required suspending civil rights and dissolving the Congress that wouldn’t let him run a second time for President. Now, as his chance for a third term approaches, he has one last I.M.F. agreement to see through. Which is why it is a pretty safe bet that he will be running again in 2000. Although he won’t let us know until December, we can already guess. He’s less subtle than Hillary Clinton. When three Constitutional Court judges protested another term for Fujimori, they found themselves unconstitutionally dismissed. Now that is rude. So it looks as if Fujimori will be with us until 2005, no matter what the etiquette and the law books say. We can probably expect him to be logging many frequent flier miles between Lima and the U.S. for his various consultations and investments. He ought to switch to Continental Airlines, though. They were interested in buying AeroPeru under the new privatization program until they noticed it was bankrupt. Then they withdrew. Too bad. They’re the airline with that lovely President’s Club at D.F.W. 111 Gabriela Bocagrande observes Latin American Affairs from her office in Washington, D.C., but spends more time than she would like on American Airlines. “Radio,” from page 13 Putten, both of Berkeley. Moran \(who is also on the reconciliation all sides support. But van Putten was strongly opposed by the Berkeley group because of her close association with Chadwick and her suspected collaboration in the lockout. In a tactical compromise, the nominations were bound together and the candidates were eventually elected as a duo. But not without some fireworks. When the board rejected a proposal to allow Berkeley city council member Kriss Worthington to speak against Van Putten’s nomination, the crowd objected loudly and Chadwick had the cops evict the audience, some of whom chanted briefly in protest as they left the hall. Afterward, hotel security announced that there would be no further public access not even to the ritual “public comment” session traditionally held at the close of all Pacifica board meetings. Scheduled for Sunday morning, the public session was a central reason many people had traveled so far: for brief permission to speak directly to those determining the future of Pacifica. Under that shadow, about 100 people gathered for a teach-in Saturday downtown, called together by the Committee for People’s Radio. It’s only a couple of miles east from the Doubletree to the much funkier Unitarian Church, but especially to Houstonians ; the board’s choice for its venue said volumes about the distance Pacifica had traveled from its community roots. Speakers recounted the history of the KPFA lockout, defended the Berkeley station’s record on diversity and community issues, and speculated on the reasons that the Pacifica foundation leadership has for several years steadily pushed the network toward corporate governance and mainstream programming, with its most restrictive current model at KPFT. The majority of this crowd was local, and there was palpable frustration at the direction the station has taken under Garland Ganter, whose only radio standards appear to be Arbitron ratings and fundraising. Several speakers complained that Ganter allows only the most minimal discussion of pressing community issues and virtually no publicity for community organizing. A few former programmers among the audience contributed their memories. In particular, Rosalind Holt, who formerly hosted a 20 THE TEXAS OBSERVER black music program, said she had been terrorized at the station by phoned-in threats of violence, and despite her pleas station manIn the old days, someone noted, KPFT would have called this meeting. And in a backwards way, it had the gathering had been generated by accumulated years of KPFT neglect of Houston community action, needing only the spark of Canter’s craven collaboration in the lockout at KPFK. The next morning, after overnight and last-minute negotiations with hotel security bolstered by Tomas Moran’s steadfast refusal to accept his board appointment at a closed meeting the board finally surrendered its allotted one hour for direct communications from the community. In staccato three-minute bursts, the same arguments, awkward and eloquent alike, were brought before the board with quick and stern correction from Berry if anyone lingered too long in attacking Chadwick or Ganter. There was some support for the board, including a KPFT music programmer who insisted that “Houston is not Berkeley” and that it’s too much to expect conservative Houstonians to listen to radical “preaching to the choir.” He did not say how long the church doors might remain closed. Mark Wilde, of the Houston Committee for People’s Radio, ironically congratulated the board for its success in “marginalizing” its opponents, and read a statement from Jim Hightower asking the board to step aside in favor of the FAIR reconciliation slate. Partly in response to Berry’s repeated warnings against personal attacks \(she would close the meeting with a condescending lecture in for Human Rights, denounced the “slanders” from Pacifica management, and its reiterated implication that its opponents were promoting violence. Then he told the board it would be remembered for one thing: “acting as a catalyst for a movement for democracy, not just at Pacifica, but in all media. And beyond the media, a movement for democracy in all the institutions, all across the country.” Local station host Ganter ritually closed the pop-off session, congratulating himself and his station for bringing many more listeners to “Pacifica Network News” and “Democracy Now!” By then it was abundantly clear that his bosses at Pacifica believe very much in “Democracy Now!” As to democracy at Pacifica: not now, and maybe not ever. M.K. NOVEMBER 12, 1999