MONDAY, FEBRUARY 8, 2016 ANALYSIS THE LEADING INDEPENDENT DAILY IN THE ARABIAN GULF ESTABLISHED 1961 Founder and Publisher YOUSUF S. AL-ALYAN Editor-in-Chief ABD AL-RAHMAN AL-ALYAN EDITORIAL : 24833199-24833358-24833432 ADVERTISING : 24835616/7 FAX : 24835620/1 CIRCULATION : 24833199 Extn. 163 ACCOUNTS : 24835619 COMMERCIAL : 24835618 P.O.Box 1301 Safat,13014 Kuwait. E MAIL :[email protected] Website: www.kuwaittimes.net Focus Illusion built on aid heralds hope, hunger By Ed Stoddard and Mabvuto Banda s she walks along a dirt road in central Malawi, Louise Abale carries her precious maize wrapped in a brightly Acolored cloth and balanced on her head. Because of drought in Malawi and across southern Africa the grain has doubled in price in the space of a year, and now costs around 200 kwacha ($0.28) a kilo. Like many, Abale is struggling to pay for maize, a staple of the diet, and says her own - stunted - crop will not be ready for harvest for two months. “It’s too expensive, I have almost no money,” she said. In all 2.8 million people in Malawi, or 17 percent of the population, now face hunger, according to the United Nations World Food Programme (WFP). Drought and floods have hit the maize crop, exposing the fragility of gains which How Donald Trump took on the NFL had seen Malawi’s rates of malnutrition slashed in the past two decades. That progress was partly rooted in a fertilizer grant for small-scale farmers. But now the government, By Jeff Horwitz under way. Hiring away the NFL’s top coach was never subject of heated debate decades later. An eventual from the Seahawks during the team’s 1983 playoffs, starved of donor funds following a graft scandal over two a serious possibility, those involved at the time said. study by consulting firm McKinsey and a poll of the guaranteeing that the raid would be the talk of NFL years ago, can ill afford such payments and says it must scale onald Trump was known in New York by 1984 But Trump stoked talk of a deal for weeks, “not think- league’s fans both suggested that the USFL should pregame shows. down the program. as a flashy newcomer to Manhattan real estate. ing Shula would ever accept it,” said Gary Croke, the stay in the spring. Had the league kept its head down When the New York Giants got into a public con- Ironically, policies aimed at ensuring basic food security DBut football, not business, was what drew 60 Generals’ assistant head of public relations. and built up its spring operations, “it would’ve have tract dispute with star Lawrence Taylor, Trump wired are partly to blame for a cycle of rural poverty and aid young women to the Trump Tower in early January of Such sports-page dramas were good for the had staying power,” Croke said. $1 million into the linebacker’s bank account and dependency in this land-locked African nation, leaving the that year. The women had come to audition for the team’s ticket sales, which surged after Trump bought Former owners such as Tatham and Steve Ehrhart, signed Taylor to play with the Generals in 1988 - five population vulnerable to climate shocks, economists say. Brig-A-Dears, the cheerleading squad of the New the team. But many in the Generals’ front office who was also the USFL’s general counsel, disagreed, years off. The Giants had to pay Trump to nullify that “There is no doubt that the fertilizer subsidy was only feasible Jersey Generals, part of the upstart United States became convinced that Trump’s interest in publicity citing the collapse of teams in major markets such as contract just weeks later. “They gave me a million dol- due to donor support,” said Ed Hobey, an analyst at Africa Risk Football League. Trump had recently bought the did not always align with the team’s interest. Around Los Angeles and Chicago. “We couldn’t make it work lars and hated me ever after,” Trump recalls gleefully. Consulting. “At best, it was unsustainable without continued team. Judged by a panel that included Andy Warhol, the time of the Shula play, Trump began talking up financially or break through the power of the NFL and “The Giants went nuts when I signed him - it was donor support, at worst, it was an illusion built on aid.” gossip columnist Cindy Adams and other celebrities, moving the team to Manhattan - anathema to the baseball,” Ehrhart said. Trump came to the league huge publicity.” Launched in 2005, the Farm Input Subsidy Programme the event was a splashy media affair. But organizer New Jersey residents who were the team’s fan base. “I already convinced of that conclusion. While one con- (FISP) provides qualifying farmers - those with limited income Emily Magrish grew worried when some women who called him and said, ‘What are you doing? People are tingent of the owners had deep enough pockets to The Art of the Insult but a plot of productive land - with two coupons which can had been cut from consideration in earlier rounds trying to sell tickets here,’” said Kathy Fernandes, exec- weather several more money-losing seasons, another With much of the league exhausted and in debt, be redeemed for two 50-kg bags of fertilizer. The recipients showed up to picket outside. utive assistant to the team’s president. “He said, ‘I just group of owners was nearly bust. At one away game, Trump’s advocacy for a frontal assault on the NFL paid make a modest contribution, with the government footing “I was convinced Trump was going to fire me on off. Following the 1984 spring season, the owners most of the bill. Because the government is subsidizing the the spot,” Magrish said of the protest. “Instead, I got a voted to move the USFL to the fall in 1986, filing an production of maize - the main source of calories for many bonus. He thought I’d done it on purpose.” The October federal antitrust lawsuit against the NFL in poor households - it also bans the export of the grain. Generals have been largely forgotten, but Trump’s New York. The lawyer handling the case for the USFL, The program is credited by the government and some ownership of the USFL team was formative in his evo- combative showman Harvey Myerson, was Trump’s aid agencies with lifting maize production and cutting lution as a public figure and peerless self-publicist. pick. Moving to the fall cost the USFL its spring televi- hunger. The data appear to back that up. The United Nations With money and swagger, he led a shaky spring foot- sion contract, leaving the league without vital sup- Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) says the percent- ball league into an all-or-nothing showdown with the port. After a lame-duck spring season in 1985, the age of Malawi’s malnourished population fell to 21.8 percent NFL, building an outsized reputation in the process. USFL pinned its future on its case against the NFL. in 2012-14 from 45 percent two decades earlier. But FISP’s Now a leading Republican presidential candidate, One welcome outcome for the USFL would have role here is difficult to untangle as most of those gains were Trump has shown the same combativeness and show- been a legal settlement that brought a handful of made before 2005. Still, there is evidence of benefits, includ- manship in the campaign - and proved yet again that new teams into the NFL. If any team were to make ing indirect ones. Stunting among Malawi children - a key he will not hesitate to confront an established order. that cut, it was likely to be Trump’s, based on Generals nutrition measure - fell to 42.4 percent in 2014 from 49 per- But 30 years after the USFL’s demise, whether Trump attendance and its strong roster of players. “He had cent in 2002. killed the league or nearly saved it remains contested New York, he had the leverage,” Tatham said. But among those involved. One point of agreement: Trump himself - and his delight at getting under the Unintended Consequences “Donald was the big, crazy-spending owner, and the NFL’s skin - may have foiled prospects for a deal. Years But the program has also had unintended consequences. NFL guys were scared to death of him,” said Bill Tatham after the USFL’s failure, Croke said he asked Ralph The focus on food security, including the ban on maize Jr., who owned the USFL’s Arizona Outlaws along with Wilson, then owner of the Buffalo Bills, whether the exports, has discouraged investment in more productive his father and came to admire Trump’s tactics. “But he NFL had considered a merger. “He said, ‘We actually commercial farming methods. “Our concern with the export wasn’t the half-cocked guy his enemies try to portray thought about that, and your team was one that ban is that it limits the scope to expand production among him as.” In this March 8, 1984 file photo, Donald Trump shakes hands with Herschel interested us. But Trump pissed us off so much that more medium and large-scale farms if they are unable to Another similarity that USFL observers see to Walker in New York after agreement on a 4-year contract with the New we didn’t want him in the league,’” Croke recalled. market the surplus,” said Richard Record, World Bank Senior today: Trump set himself up to come out on top Jersey Generals USFL football team.