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The Daily PRINCETONIAN 8 Editorials/Opinions Shapiro's statement Reporting in South Africa: Writing A new openness with a sense desperation and hope President Shapiro's detailed response to the nine demands of a By KANTHAN PILLAY '91 presented at Wednesday's sit-in is move in the right direc- in a often been unre- When South African Consul John Davies told a thetized stupor, I heard myself responding tion for a president who has perceived as university audience recently that his government voice that sounded much too normal to be my own. sponsive and abrasive. allowed a free press, citing the fact that nearly all "Hi Abu. I told you we'd be meeting sometime Shapiro's three-page statement which appears today in The newspapers are critical of the Botha regime, it was soon. You guys have to getme out ofhere. I'm sup- Daily Princetonian seems to represent an attempt to connect difficultfor me to restrain myself. Many people posed to be swimming this weekend..." and communicate with a larger sector of the community associate freedom of the press with the ability to It was six weeks later that I saw him again. As I before his meeting with protest leaders tomorrow. express an opinion, and Consul Davies like his lay propped up in bed with traction pins and pul- But it is imperative that Shapiro's statement in no way government is quick to take advantage—ofthis. leys, he wandered over to my bedside, dressed in usurp the function of tomorrow's meeting or substitute for Journalists—have a different picture. We know that one of those badly-fitting hospital robes. "I didn't much-needed dialogue between students and administrators. any fool can have an opinion, but a wiseperson will get to go swimming yet," Itold him. If bis statement is to be more than a symbolic or cosmetic substantiate her opinion with fact And itis by deny- "Neither didI," he said. "I'm apatient hereright gesture, Shapiro must remain true to his words and approach ing us our right to substantiate our opinions with now." discussions with an open mind. He must acknowledge and facts that the South African government has effec- We spoke only briefly of the small kidney stone consider all student input, rather than dismissing views that tively reduced us to a group oframbling fools. Case that was bothering him before launching into an differ from those he offered today. in point: What conclusion would you draw from this animated discussion on the State of the Nation. To address a wider community, Shapiro necessarily had to bitofinformation? Overa month in the crowded public ward of Coro- employ an impersonal form and tone inhis statement. Several "I hate the police," Mary Makhubane said as she nation with a short-wave radio as my only real straight answers are the result of such a formal manner: cradled her son's head in herlap. source of information had left me starving, and I Shapiro concretely addresses such issues as the administra- Not much. The sentence could merely be the ram- greedily lapped up every scrap, every tidbit relating for paying speaker security costs and the blings of a disgruntled whore, but what ifI were to to the worldof politics outside. tion's responsibility add- He smiled as the newsreader announced that to a to the Board of Trustees. proposal elect student Twelve-year-old Sipho had been shot Albertina Sisulu had been of the formal style also room to beat in the back named as one But Shapiro's gives him by a police officer and died some ten minutes later. organisation's three presidents. Mrs. Sisulu, as wife to a around the bush. His roundabout response particularly Backed by this bit of knowledge, Mrs. Makhu- of the imprisoned secretary-general of the banned important and symbolic issue the demand that he hold bane's "ramblings" suddenly take on substance. African National Congress, had been silenced for weekly office hours avoids offering— a definitive solution to When the gov- many years by a pressing problem.—This demand, which goes to the very ernment denies the state. heart of Shapiro's perceived inaccessibility, requires a more us the right to 'And it is by denying us our right to sub- The law pro- concrete response. report the atroci- stantiate our opinions with that the hibiting her Although ah impersonal manner is the only way to address ties perpetrated facts from appearing the larger university population, it is this very tone that in part by their security South African government has effectively in public places sparked the student protest. Tomorrow's meeting will be an forces in our reduced us to a group oframblingfools.* had prevented opportunity for Shapiro to prove that the spirit of openness townships, our her from work- reflected by his statement can carry over into his association reports are ing in any pub- with a smaller group of students. denied any validity; our opinions become mere lie hospital as a nurse her profession. Questions ramblings. of political disagreement— had not been on Dr. Yet we write: for many of us, writing is a cathar- Asvat's mind when he employed Mrs. Sisulu in his Daily sis, and we pour our hearts into our words, hoping Soweto practice. The PRINCETONIAN someone willfeel ouranguish. He left the hospital soon after that August in Dr. Abu Asvat diedthree weeks ago. I wrote outof 1983, fully recovered from the treatment for his John K. Young '90,Chairman a sense of desperation; the article, printed below, was kidney stone. I followed some weeks later with Pavan Heard '90, Business Manager aimed at no one in particular. Like moat black jour- plaster-encased leg and bruised ego back into the 1990SENIOR NEWS BOARD nalists in my country, I simply hope someone stops newsroom. and listens. In the years that followed up to the present, as Managing Editors: Dr. Craig S. Palosky '90 Douglas J.Widmann '90 • the situation in the townships worsened, Living in South Africa has a numbing effect on a Asvat's role became even more important. The fre- A. Maniatis '90 Editorial Chairman: Gregory human being. One soon becomes almost unaware quency of victims of tear-gas inhalation and gun- EditorialEditor: Heather A. Hirschfeld '90 of the daily cycle of violence, destruction, and shots increased. There were new forms of trauma Sports Editors: death. Reports of children being mowed down by rubber bullets that lolled, internal injuries from Rob C. McNamara '90 DavidL. Sternberg '90 gunfire wash away, before one's eyes they are torture— during incarceration, and more. Senior News Editor: Avery S. Miller '90 numbers, statistics. Getting acclimated to—trauma is Dr. Abu-Baker Asvat died last week. OnFriday, Features Editor: Karen W. Kramer '90 a very human way of insuring that we do not go two men entered his surgery in Soweto asking for Arts Editor: Bruce Searby '90 insane. Yet in spite of this numbness, some events treatment Mrs. Sisulu entered their names into the are so startling their sheersenselessness that name, Photography Editor: Spencer W. Blasdale '90 in they register, and one of the men signed his while can awaken even the mosthardened of hearts from the other affixed his thumbprint, saying he could Graphics Editor: Scott W. Fulmer '90 that stupor. not write. When they were admitted into the The first time I saw Asvat was through a haze of surgery, one of the men drew a firearm. Dr. Asvat STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS red-and-purple fog as I struggled to retain con- was shot twice through the heart The menfled Callan Dominique '92 Greg Marshall '92 sciousness while being wheeled through the casual- Dr. Asvat's murder was clearly an assassination, EdwardLee '90 Kevin White '90 ty ward of Johannesburg's Coronation Hospital. yet it would be pointless to ask "why" or "who." White coats and anonymous about not NIGHT EDITORS: Farrell Morse —Morris Copaken McCabe voices whipped The men who killed him were professionals me in dizzying slow motion. And then, through the killers would never have signed their Lamberg Hirschfeld Borowski Richardson practiced — — — — haze, a face appeared, smiled. A hand appeared, names and left their thumbprint, let alone kill in — — — and clasped mine. front ofa witness and leave the witnessunharmed "Hello Kanthan," the voice said. "I'm Abu The apartheid system's brutality twists and con- Asvat" torts the most innocent of human beings to the I'd met him before, though never in person. As a extent that many people would pick up a gun and black political journalist in South Africa, my fire it at an unknown person in exchange for a pal- beat like that of many ofmy colleagues was try sum that would ensure their existence for anoth- never—as clearly defined as those of our —more- er week while the real killers will tuck away their famous international counterparts. And it had been wallets and go about their work with nothing pre- while researching emergency medical facilities sent to ever link them to theircrime. available to victims of police brutality in the town- There is no justice that we may call for. No trial, ship that I had come across the name of this prison sentence, execution will ever make up for strangely anonymous hero ofSoweto. the sheer waste of human potential, for in killing Dr. Asvat was chairman of the Health Secretariat Dr. Asvat, they have also murdered countless of theAzanian People's Organization, a body formed others whowill no longer have him to depend on to to carry on the ideas first proposed by Steve Biko save their lives.
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