gam@amdahl.UUCP (G A Moffett) (06/06/85)
In The Wall Street Journal of June 4, 1985, page 29, is a commentary,
"Please Do Not Feed the Vultures," about how disinvestment is not
likely to help the apartheid situation in South Africa.
I will not summarize the article here but I would be interested in hearing
from others who've read the article.
--
Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,sun}!amdahl!gamshor@sphinx.UChicago.UUCP (Melinda Shore) (06/08/85)
[] On a related note, I am looking for references to printed material stating that the people of South Africa want American companies out. Thanks -- -- Melinda Shore University of Chicago Computation Center uucp: ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!shor Bitnet: shor%sphinx@uchicago.bitnet
chrisa@azure.UUCP (Chris Andersen) (06/09/85)
> In The Wall Street Journal of June 4, 1985, page 29, is a commentary, > "Please Do Not Feed the Vultures," about how disinvestment is not > likely to help the apartheid situation in South Africa. > > I will not summarize the article here but I would be interested in hearing > from others who've read the article. > -- > Gordon A. Moffett ...!{ihnp4,cbosgd,sun}!amdahl!gam This is not so much in reply to Gordon's posting as it is a means by which I can start my own posting. I am among those that consider divestment to be a bad method of persuading South Africa to change its racial policies. I agree that it would probably hurt worst those it was meant to help (namely, the blacks). However, I recently came to terms with this argument when I heard a quote from Desmond Tutu. Paraphrasing, he criticized those who are against divestment because of the effects it would have on black South Africans. He pointed out that the black leaders of South Africa were perfectly well aware of the effect divestment would have on them, but they still called on the west to do it anyway. Why? Because they are willing to suffer in the short term to make things better in the future. So even though I believe it will hurt them, if the blacks of South Africa are willing to take that chance, I can throw my support behind it. Chris Andersen
cramer@kontron.UUCP (Clayton Cramer) (06/14/85)
> [] > On a related note, I am looking for references to printed material stating > that the people of South Africa want American companies out. > > Thanks -- > -- > Melinda Shore > University of Chicago Computation Center > > uucp: ..!ihnp4!gargoyle!sphinx!shor > Bitnet: shor%sphinx@uchicago.bitnet I can't give you any printed references but I can tell you about two people I have talked to in reference to this subject. The first was a black South African artist who told me that American companies had made things better for blacks because they were so greedy that they would hire people based on ability --- they couldn't afford to discriminate. The second person I talked to was an American missionary working in Southwest Africa (or Nambibia, or whatever you want to call it). While he had to be careful what he said while he was there (to avoid being thrown out of the country), he indicated that his perception was that American companies didn't have the "old boy network" approach that South African companies did, and tended to hire based on ability, not on race, putting South African companies at a competitive disadvantage. This, after all, is the original reason that the South African government instituted apartheid by law --- social pressure alone wasn't enough.