6DIT0RlflL The hottest iss>ie on campus at present is

the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Wilson's proposed restructuring of the university. Widespread student and staff criticism of the proposals must have come as a shock to the Vice-Chanccllor, who seems to have expected acceptance of his proposals with minimal fuss.

Professor Wilson, may be surprised tlul many of the university's 18,000 siudents would like a say in the structuring of their institution. His comment that the university senate would not be inlcresled in what students think implies a rigid authoritarian­ism among the university's rulers.

If this is the case, student response to the restructuring should not be directed to the V.C. alone. All those in positions of power at the univcrsily should be made aware of student views. Studenis have too httle control over tlieir lives as it is, and now is the time to demand a say in the the university's future.

The student's union is in a good position to evaluate and prcsenl proposals related to the restructuring. It has the services of fulltime Educalion Resource Officer, Lyn Taylor. While many students may be drowning in the semester system, Ly has the time and resources lo coordinale studenl input and ensure a more democratic university.

***

Another issue on campus is the possible irradiation of staff and students in the Veterinary Science Faculty. While Semper would not dispute the merits of radon treatment in medical care, it seems to have been carried out in the faculty with an almost criminal disregard for the dangers involved.

COflTOTS VICE-CHANCELLOR'S PROPOSALS SLAMMED The V.C.'s proposals to restructure the university has been criticised by students and staff

5

PREPARING FOR THE NEXT WAR 7 American Xenophobia isa threat to the world

ON THE OTHER HAND 9 Left hander Kjaz Perry laments the sufferings of fellow left-handers

ANIMAL LIBERATION 13 Anne Jones asks — "What is a happy chook?"

VIETNAMESE IN AUSTRALIA 14 How are they coping with Australian prejudice?

TO HELL WITH MORALITY 17 Philosopher Ian Hinckfuss argues we should scrap morality

HOW TO SURVIVE THE MEN IN BLUE 19 Advice from solicitor Noel Nunan on dealing with the police

ARE TOP 40'S HYPED? 21 Are the Top 40 charts rigged by the record companies?

CARTOON 28 Guru Matt Mawson's paths to enlightenment

SEMPER is a non profit political and cultural magazine based at the University of Queensland.

EDITOR: Tim Low NEWS EDITOR: Kjaz Perry LAYOUT•txl COVER: Matt Mawson SECRETARY: Jenni Bird TYPESETTING: Marie Blanch PRINTERS: Mirror Newspapers Ltd., 367-373 Brunswick St., Valley

DISTRIBUTORS: Gordon and Gotch Pty Ltd.. Brisbane. ADVERTISING REP: Kevin Pennant, phone 371 2568 PRODUCTION ASSISTANCE: Ralph Summy

Semper Magazine welcomes contributions and letters, but does not aiJume any reiponiibility for unsolicited manuscrips, photo-arephsandilluttrationi.

Semper is copyright, St, Lucia, Queentland, 1980. Non prift pub-

licatnns may reprint ertictet and graphics provided Semper and the authors are duty acknowledged. The exceptkins are creative writing and copyrighted graphics whicli may not be reproduced without written penniuton of the authors.

Address all anquiriel to: Semper Magazine University of Qld Union St. Lucia. Qld. 4067. ph.371 1611 or 371 2568

Amnesty International is a human rights organisation which campaigns for the release of political prisoners and for the abolition of torture and the death penalty.

Security forces surrounded the National University in the capital San Salvador on 17 March and arrested some 200 students, iijcluding Miguel Alberto VELADO and his brother. Since the coup of 15 October 1979 wliich overtlu-ew President Carlos Humberto Romero, Al has continued to receive allegations of illegal detention and torture by the security forces in El Salvador. Arrests, disappearances and murder of suspected members of the op­position appear to have intensified since the beginning of the year,

Al has expressed concern to the United States government about reports of stepped-up American aid to El Salvador's internal security forces, including military advisors, coinciding with the campaign of repression.

Please write air letters to the address below, urging the release of all those arrested for non-violent exercise of their right to freedom of expression and association. In particular, request clarifi­cation of the situation of Miguel Alberto Velado and his brother.

We suggest UA participants do not act after ApriM, 1980.

Capitan Oswaldo Marinco, Presidente, Conseco Permanente de las

Fuerzas Armadas (COPEFA), Segiuida Brigada d 'Ar tiller ia, Cuartel San Carlos, San Sahador,

El Salvador.

len fts CRITIQUE OF FEMINISTS

While 1 can appreciate the sentiments expressed by Erica Schwarz ("Women Harassed on Campus", Semper, March 13, 1980), 1 must protest at the fact that such militant sentiments are often moti­vated by a self-defeating essentially misanthropic feminist ideology, which is an inverted form of fascism.

The feminist ideology is essentially misanthropic, wliich, In fact, results in the type of paranoid be­haviour exemplified by some women being too sex­ually self-conscious to use the student refectory. This is because feminists don't realise that, in relation to the procreative act, man and woman are dilectical opposites, which means that sexual conflict is absolute, while sexual unity is rela­tive; thus, there never will be a non-sexist Utopia in which, say, the phenome­non of rape will not at least be latently present.

Why it can be said that the feminist are inverted fascists is because they objectively support the social sanctity of the capi­talist commodity and the social efficacy of the Christian chastity fetish. The main way of preventing rape would be to concen­trate on making sex a free commodity, and this

would entail the decriminal-isation of rape to the ex­tent that the sexual dimen­sion of any physical assault on women has no legal sig­nificance (especially since the relatively severe penal­ties for rape often result -in the murder of victims). But, of course, in relation to such legal decriminalisation of sex crimes, the social influence of the Christian chastity fetish needs to be generally eradicated, so that we can sexually express ourselves without the stigtna of sexual taboos.

Apart from the fact that feminists apparently strong­ly oppose any notion of the decriminalisation of sex crimes (and they even ad­vocate that aUeged rapists do not have the benefit of what is considered the normal means of legal de­fence), we see that they are just as vocal in their opposition to what is called pornography as any right-wing religious fundamental­ists. We get the same old scientifically invalid argu­ment concerning pornography from the feminists, as if there never had been sex aimes before the existence of modern-day pornography. But the fact is that pornography is just another form of sex education, and the feminists - like the fascists - in their own interests want to try to stop us from thinking for ourselves on the basis of perceived facts. To be a

logically consistent feminist, I would think it was nec­essary to be a lesbian (so that in a feminist Utopia men will only be useful as breeding studs), and so it is only natural that feminists do not Uke any public expression of male sexuality (apart from homo­sexuality), as it represents an ideological threat.

Morever we see today that women are, relatively speaking, in a worse social position than before the feminists became a sig­nificant political factor;and this is basically due to the dynamic exigencies of the bourgeois capitalist economy. Thus we see that married working women are being made the scapegoat for mass youth unemploy­ment, in coiyunction with the fact that women are considered to be anti-social if they do not raise a family, and so help create mass consumer demand. Probably the most socially significant image of women in sodety today is the "Playboy" •*prick-up girl", who rep­resents the fact that all most women will have to trade upon in times of mass unemployment will be their bodies, either by means of­the more blatant forms of prostitution, or the more subtle forms of sexual in­timidation at work, or the covert prostitution of the bourgeois family. Therefore, women generally need to reject the undialectical fem­

inist notion that the struggle for the social liberation of women does not need to be politically integrated into the struggle of the non-bourgeois masses generally for social liberation, which basically entails that women do not necessarily put their own interests as sexual beings first.

-LEONARD AMOS

AFGHANISTAN

In the article on Af­ghanistan (Semper, 3/4/80), Glen Barclay suggested Ihal Russia's main motivation for invasion was thai of Islarnic unrest and was es­sentially humanitarian. I should like to challenge both these views.

When Hafizullah Amin took over in March 1979, he made a statement indicating that Afghanistan would appeal to the whole world, including the USA and China, to help in its great battle to overcome feudalism. This provoked antagonism from fun-da inental ists who saw the r^ime as bemg secular and modernistic.

What is more important is that the leadership change from Tarakki to Amin rep­resented a shift from total Soviet control to a more neutral or independent stance. This develop­ment has a precedent;

Soviet leaders retaliated to Czechoslovakia under Dubrek by a massive in­vasion of the country. So it was with Afghanistan.

The other major factor is that the Soviet move was directely into one of the major strategic areas of the world - the Middle East oilfields. They have thrust a further 250 miles closer to the Persian Gulf, and are now within 300 miles of the Straits of Hoemuz, the choke-point through which the bulk of the world's oil supply must niove. Their invasion of Afghanistan puts them adjacent to Iran, and South Yemen and the old British port of Aden have been under Soviet control for quite a whtle.'<

It would do the free world well to remember that Lenin stressed that the ultimate aim of Communism is world domination. Under the guise of "liberation" posturing, the USSR, via its proxies Cuba, East Germany and North Vietnam have suc­ceeded in seizing the massive land mass of Viet­nam, Laos and Cambodia, and Angola and Ethiopia. Were the USSR to seize control of the oil route, the West would be para­lysed.

No doubt the fear of a moslem uprising in the USSR was a factor, but that would be dealt with by the usual slaughter and

persecution with which the Soviet deal with any opposi­tion. One only has to listen to the Russian dissidents to understan what Communism is in practice. The famed British "Soviet­ologist" Robert Conquest has said that the total cost of Soviet Communism is 35-45 milUon Uves.

With such an appalUng record of human rights violations against its own people, is it possible that they can be inspired by "humanitarian concern" as G. Barclay beUeves? Furthermore, the Soviets have said openly that they "will not leave until the bloody job" of suppressing rebellion is over. And the ABC's "Report from Asia" stated that 100 men and boys were shot by Soviet soldiers and pushed into a mass grave, some still writhing. Is this an example of Russia's "benevolence"?

It is not being alarmist to say that the free world is in a precarious position. Russia has cleverly used "detente" in order to be­come superior to USA where before "detente" they were vastly inferior. President Carter blindly pursues "Salt" treaties while Russia contmuaUy pours out armaments.

One wonders where the sense is in clamouring to get to the Olympic Games.

-DONNA UCEY

UniV^RSITV.

RADIATION FEARS AT UNIVERSITY

Radiation treatment conducted at the Queensland University's Veterinary Science Department may have contaminated students and researchers. Semper learned last week. One researcher is so concerned he fears he may suffer leukemia or other cancers later in life.

The fears have arisen from radon treat­ment used to treat lameness in horses. The process involves strapping the radon to the horses' limbs for periods of about 24 hours.

As the treatment results in escape of potentially harmful radiation, it should be performed away from public areas. Yet until two months ago, horses were undergoing treatment in the Department's central stables, adjacent to the busy student canteen, surrounded by busy thoroughfares, and only metres from the room of tutor Steve Brown.

Steve, like other staff involved in radiation research, wears a badge to monitor radiation exposure. Checks of radiation levels in the badges arc made regularly by the Health Department. An acceptable level of radiation is five to ten (m.Rem.), about the same as that emitted by a television set. Yet when Steve's badge was checked in July last year, it registered an incredible 300 (m.Rem.).

At the time, Steve was unaware of the radiation treatment going on next door, and was advised to be more careful with his own research involving radioactive iodine. It was not untU his badge had registered several excessive levels that he discovered the probable source of contamination.

The University Radiation Officer Dr. Robertson was called in to investigate. He told Semper that the high readmg had resulted from Steve hanging his coat one night in his office with the badge attached,

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near the wall which separates his room from the stables.

Apparently the radon was being kepi just behind tliat wall in the stables office, and had passed through the wooden wall to register a liigh count on Sieve's badge. Dr. Robertson explained tliat distance was a vital factor with radon, i.e. that danger increased with closer proximity to the radon.

Steve said he was not happy with the conclusions of Dr. Robertsons's enquiry (the report of which was not shown to him), lie said that during the period of high readings he had sometimes been in his room all night, because of the need to feed koalas he was studying. As his room is very small, he and the koalas could have received almost as much radiation as his coat. Dr. Robertson could not have taken this into account, he said, as no-one knew of his presence in the room at night.

Steve was concerned enough to have a blood test taken to detect any chromo­somal breakages, which are one of the firsl signs of liigh level radiation contamination. He was relieved to find no breakages had occurred. But he may slill suffer long term effects, as radiation-induced cancer may take ten to thirty years to appear.

Steve was also displeased that a copy of Dr. Robertson's report had never been sent to him, although it must have been completed about six months ago. He seemed surprised when Semper approached him about the report, and said tliis was because he had been unaware of its existence.

Radiation treatment is now carried out in the horse stables on the ground fioor of west block, away from the canteen and Sieve Brown's room, ll was moved there two months ago, after Dr. Malcolm Roberts, who is in charge of radon treatment, went overseas on sabbatical leave.

His replacement. Dr. Ken Jacobs, moved the treatment, and told Semper "1 hate the stuff being around in a clinical area where people are walking." He said he had no idea why the treatment was previously carried out in such a public place.

Dr. Jacobs praised the compulsory

wearing of badges by radiation workers, and said the fact that Steve was alerted of a high badge reading was evidence of the effectiveness ofthe system.

Yet it seems that only staff members involved in their own radiation research are issued wiih badges. If Sieve's room had been occupied by sonie olher researcher not working with radiation, then the contamina­tion would never have been recorded.

The Veterinary Science Faculty has plans to move all clinical work, including radon treatment, lo the University farm at Moggill.

takes it lightly unless they're silly." In view of these comments why was

Steve Brown not told of the treatments taking place behind the wooden wall of his room? Steve was amazed when told by Semper that as many as 30 horses were treated each year. He said he would willing­ly liave vacated his room during treatments, had he been told of their times.

And if the treatment in the central stables was safe, as the Sub-Dean and other members of the faculty liave claimed, why was it moved when Dr. Jacobs took over.

Central Stabler of the Veterinary Science Department where radon treatment was carried out until 2 months ago. The canteen is in the building at left. Tutor Steve Brown's room is arrowed.

The decision appears to be a sound one, although some Vet. Science studenis would argue il is long overdue, in view of the dangers of radon.

Dr. Jacobs said he did not think it was worthwhile to transfer the therapy at this stage. The inconveniences of travelling to and from tlie farm would outweight tlie minimal risks involved, he said.

*** Although the chances of further ac­

cidental irradiation now seem remote, there are still questions to be asked.

All of the slaff members consulted emphasised the precautions that must be taken when administering radon, including lead aprons and gloves and the need for radon not in use to be kept in a lead box. Professor Rex, Sub-Dean of the Vet. Science faculty said he had been working with radon for twenty years and commented, "I think no-one who uses radon

His comments suggest the fomier locality may have posed a health threat even to passers-by. Wliat of Steve Brown confined in a small adjacent room?

It is alarming that the radon treatment has escaped media attention for so long. Semper only heard about Steve's liigh radiation levels from a concerned friend of a Vet. Science student.

Several Vet. Science staff members and students said they were concerned by the treatment, but most of their comments were 'off the record'. Tliis was obviously because of concern over their future in the faculty. Even Steve Brown was reluctant to talk about the subject, as he did nol wish to engender ill-feeling among staff.

ll is a chilling thought that comment on a possible health hazard could be stifled by the need of staff and students lo stay on good terms with their department.

-SHELLY DEMPSEY TIM LOW

WOMEN & LABOUR CONFERENCE 17-19 May 1980

University of Melbourne

SEMPER RETRACTS In Semper of March 15, 1978,

an article headed "Name of the Game" appeared on page 28. Il made refer­ence to a Mr. Christopher Douglas Lansdell, a journalist and political roundsman with the Telegraph Newspaper.

Mr. Lansdell has taken the article to impute that he was not a fit person to hold .such a position and that he would not report news accurately or impartially. Semper assures Mr. Lansdell that any such imputations were not Intended and hereby withdraws them. Semper apologises to Mr. Uinsdell for any embarass-ment or inconvenience which may have been caused to liim.

AUSTRALIA - ISRAEL COME CLOSER

Danny Weizman, age 27, has recently arrived from Israel to take up work for one year in Australia as a ficldworkcr for the Australasian Union of Jewish Students.

Danny is a Bachelor of Social Work from Haifa University. His role in Australia will consolidate the Jewish Student Movements in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne and making available a convenient and direct facility for the student population generally lo learn about Israel and lo visit there.

Danny will be on Uni. of Qld. campus every Tuesday, between 10am and 2pm in Common Room No. 3 of the Relax Block. General Information on Israel, tours and kibbutz application forms will be avail­able.

SEMPER

.cons6RVRTDn;

The other Victims of War The loss of life during wars is not always Umited to hutnan populations.

Wildlife Is often massacred as well. The wars in Indochina led to the deaths of many elephants and may have caused the extinction of the kouprey, a species of wild cattle restricted to the plains of Kampuchea.

In Africa the overthrow of Idi Amin led to a massacre of elephants and other big game animals. Karl van Orsdol of Cambridge University reports on the slaughter at Rwenzori National Park in Uganda.

ll will be many years before Uganda's game stocks recover from the lawless rule of Idi Amin and the slaughter of thousands of animals by the liberation forces which over­threw him.

From March 1977 until August 1979, 1 was studying lions in the Rwenzori National Park in south-western Uganda. I witnessed, in the months following Amin's defeat, the wholesale massacre of wildlife in the park. Some 14,000 animals, mainly hippo, antelope, elephant and buffalo, were killed by soldiers working in conjunction with Ugandan civilians during this time.

The slaughter was not without precedent

for the wildlife. Desperate to obtain valuable items to sell laler in Zaire or Suda, Amin's troops set oul daily to machine-gun elephant herds for ivory. Rhinoceros'wcrc also a target, ancl il is now teared lliat the rare northern white rhino is extinct in Kabalcga. The soldiers occupied the three lodges in Kabalcga, stole everything of value, set the buildings on fire, and killed a number of park staff.

The Tanzanian-liackcd opposition forces arrived in the Rwenzori Park in April of 1979, and they too began to shoot, at first, small numbers of animals for food. But this killing soon escalated and the animals, especially hippo, were in fact being killed

For eight years before the war Amin's army for profit, or in some cases for pleasure carried oul systematic ivory poaching in Uganda's national parks. In the Kabalcga Falls Park, for example, Amin's soldiers killed some 12,000 elephants, out of a total population of 14,000, between 1978 and 1976. In the Rwenzori Park, elephant numbers dropped from 2,700 to around 700 over the same period.

In 1978 and 1979, as the remnants of Amin's army retreated through the national parks, pursued by the Tanzanian and Ugandan opposition forces, there was havoc

With hippo meat fetching 20 sliillings per kilo and an adult hippo yielding some 800 kilos of meal, the profil on each carcass was around 15,000 sliillings (S1950).

Not all the killing, however, was for commercial gain. Many animals not eaten by the local people and with no economic value, like the watcrbuck, were also killed - presumably for fun. Reports came in that even lions had been killed by machine gun and hand grenade.

In the chaotic months after the fall,of

Kampala in lale April 1979, I would estimate that aboul 30 per cent ofthe park's 46,000 large mammals were killed. Tlie dead included some 6,000 hippo, 5,000 antelope, 2,000 buffalo and perhaps 50 lion.

Once this slaughter was pubUcised, the worldwide outcry attracted the attention of the Ugandan and Tanzanian authorities. Reports from Uganda now indicate a vast improvement, following President Nyerere's speech at a public rally in Tanzania last October; Rwenzori has been free of military poachers since then.

In Kapalega, Tanzanian soldiers and park wardens are mounting joint patrols to protect v/hat animals are lefi. The new Ugandan government has enlisted the

support of international wildlife organisations in a reconstruction drive.

But even with outside help, Uganda's once magnificent wildlife will need years lo recover. For some ofthe larger mammals, rebuilding the population is a very slow process. Elephants do not even begin to breed before they are about 15 years old, and have a gestation period of 22 months. Tlie hippo can be up to eight years old before it begins breeding, and its gestation period is eight months.

In any case, a positive government conservation policy and a good deal of inler­national suppori will be necessary if Uganda's wildlife is to recover from the depradalions of the past nine months.

X

Forest Habitats Diminisiiing Beware if you have to consult an

atlas printed as recently as the early 1970s: parts of It are hopelessly out of date. Much of the green areas representing tropical forests in places like Borneo or the Malagasy Republic should now be coloured brown. Tropical forests are steadily being destroyed leaving in their place scrub, worn-out soils and bare rock.

Along with the plant and animal life that is disappearing are also the people of the forests who have lived there for thousands of years. When they go they take with them into oblivion their unrivalled knowledge of the forest world.

The pygmies of central Africa, the "tribals" of India, the Amerindians fiom Amazonia, the negrito tribes of southeast Asia are all facing extinction. There is little understanding of the large areas of undis­turbed forest tliat these tribes need in order to survive. Some forest peoples live a nomadic existence, roaming the forest lo gather food, fishing the rivers and hunting for wild game. To ask a hunter-gatherer to adapt to a more settled way of life is like givmg a city-dweller a bow and arrow, dumping him in the forest, and expecting liim to survive.

The dividing line is sometimes blurred between the forest tribesman and one of the worst culprits of deforestation, the shifting cultivator. The major difference is that the traditional forest communities know how much clearance can be done witlwut destroying the forest. The Kayopo

Amerindians of Brazil, for uistance, run a very organised system spread over a 15 year cycle. The worst kind of shifting cultivator is the recent migrant from the grasslands. The Bira tribe of Zaire are typical. To them, the jungle is an alien world full of bad spirits, hostile pygmies and animals wliich trample their crops. They hack large chunks out of the forest to grow crops like dry rice and manioc which swiftly exhaust the soil, forcing them lo move on every two or three years.

Across the tropics thousands of com­munities like the Bira are pushing back the forest. In Asia alone, some ei^t million hectares (20 million acres) of forest are taken over by shifting cultivators each year.

The tropical forest is much more than a place to live, it is also the spiritual home of

the forest tribes. Some trees are worshipped as gods for the benefits they bring. The Dayak of Indonfesia do homage to the souls of the trees they cut down. Indiscriminate clear-felling tends to make development doubly traumatic. Recently the Adivasi tribal group in northern India were stirred into open revolt when the Bihar Forest Department chopped dovwi a species they revered. Where forests are replaced by plantations of fast-growing trees, they are ofien just deserts as far as the forest people are" concerned. When the Adivasi's holy trees were replaced with plantation saplings, they tore them out of the ground.

, Governments musl realise that forests are yorth keeping intact, for their commercial exploitation as well as for the people who

live from them. If you cut down the African kasuku tree, for example, it wiU provide only some inferior timber; but if it is left standing, then the Mbuti pygmies can regularly tap its resin for sealing containers, cooking and ligliting. The forest can also be a source of herbal remedies. The Amazon Indians know about 750 plants with medi­cinal uses. Ahd there are raw materials in plenty to be gathered from the forest -perfumes, waxes, gums, dyes, rope and fibres were all originally forest products.

At the moment few countries are doing anything to preserve the forest tribes' habitat, other than payuig lip service to the rights of iheir indigenous people. Although the Philippines, for example, has legislation to proiect the ancestral lands of cultural minorities, this has not stopped the author­ities grantuig a state-owned lumber company, Cellophil Resources Corporation, a 200,000 hectare (500,000 actre) tunber concession in the homeland of the ting-guian people of Luzon. But if the forest peoples are to survive, ways must be found to exploit their expertise in gatliering the riches of the forest. One leading Indian forester is pressing for a co-operative system to be set up which will allow the tribals to exchange raw materials for the manufactured goods they need.

For too long the forest people have been regarded as worthless, prunitive societies, fodder only for anthropological doctorates and the occasional TV documentary. Their long-term survival rests whh the willingness of Third Worid governments to allow them to play their own speciaUsed role hi develop­ment.

'i^fmk

.univeRsiTV-

V.C.^ Proposals Slammed Proposals by the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Queensland, Mr. Brian Wilson, to restructure

the university have met with wide opposition. A forum held recently by the students' union attracted one of the largest crowds seen at a union forum for some years. IVIany Universtiy Staff members are also opposed to the proposals.

Opponents have criticised both the nature of the proposals and the way in which the Vice Chancellor is introducing them. The following critiques present both student and staff responses to the proposals.

T he fabric of the university will collapse within eight months if no changes take place," said the Vice

Chancellor to a meeting of social work students on 9 April. This statement is a scare tactic to justify his proposals for sweeping clianges within this University but also for trying to make the changes with mdecent liaste. Our Premier is also fond of declaring a slate of emergency to make people think that any action by his Government is justifi-,able.

After six months at the University, the V.C. made a statement lo the Senate (26.7.79) which was unashamedly im­pressionistic. Although the V.C. claims he has no blueprint for change, he suggested many sweeping clianges in his address. A copy of the address was widely circulated to the slaff and has caused confusion and uncertainty ever since.

At no time has the V.C. seen fit to set up any kmd of evaluation mechanism which could make proposals on change indepen­dent of himself. A committee was selected by the V.C. to consider hwo to implement his proposals without causing too many waves. It has clearly been a specific task-oriented cominittee to refine rather than extend debate and decision-making on change.

"The Senate would not really be interested in what 18,000 students think", the V.C. told the Social Work students. Perhaps the V.C. is projecting! He does not seem concerned that any changes should refiect what the majority of staff and students want. He seems to see his role as that of the strong man - inviting submissions on HIS proposals to be sent to HIM, to be evaulated by HIM, so that HE can determine what is good. Nobody except the V.C. has access to these sub­missions; none of the individuals or groups making submissions have the opportunity to interact with one another and the V.C.'s proposals are the only ones offered for consideration.

The V.C. says the University is in a crisis situatton but there is no concrete evidence to show his proposals wnuld remedy the situation. No-one would deny that cutbacks in funding haw had serious effects on the University, but the V.C. fails to show the correlation between funding and his proposals for change.

T he University structure is far from perfect and could do with many changes. But these should be carried

out rationally and democratically rather than in tlie atmosphere of emergency the V.C. is trying to create. He offers the "carrot" of middle management control and efficiency and the "stick" of economic necessity in an attempt to coax the Univer­sity to accept his proposals.

"I favour representative rather than participatory democracy", the V.C. told the Union Education Committee on 11 April.

Yet his proposals are neither rep­resentative nor democratic. They do not represent the views of the majority of staff and students, and the bodies to which they Iwve been submitted, (the Senate and Professorial Board) are similarly un­representative.

WHAT DOES THE V.C. PROPOSE? The V.C. proposes lo reorganise the

existing 13 faculties inlo six, seven or eight new ones; appoint a non-accountable middle management level of "super-Deans"; create a powerful Executive Committee; introduce new mechanisms for resource allocation; set up an office to raise funds for the University from private sources; set up a committee to investigate staff issues such as eariy retirement and staff evaulation; revise the methods of distributing research funds; and replace many fulltime tutors with post-graduate studenl tutors.

i t is not clear exactly what the pro­posed structure is. Tlie V.C. has said that more detailed proposals will be

presented to the Professorial Board in May. It seems, however, that the main differ­ences between the proposed structure and the one we know are as follows:

(1) The 13 faculties will be reorganised into 6-8 revised faculties. How this is to be done is not clear but the model most likely to be implemented is one based on equi-partition i.e. faculties which are roughly equal on the basis of weighted student units, staff, research costs etc.

(2) Each of the new faculties is to be headed by a permanent dean who is to be appointed rather than elected. The deans would be selected by a committee which would be top-heavy with representatives of the higher echelons of power within

the university.

(3) An Executive Committee would be set up to co-ordinate University activities and to advise the V.C. on submissions to the Senate and its committees. This is

where the new tier of middle manage­ment creeps in.

(4) The super-Deans would brmg their recommendations for resource allocation to the Executive Committee. The Deans would not be bound by the recommend-aUons of the Faculty Board on resource allocation.

(5) Below the Faculty level would be Schools. The organisation of Schools is very confusing. The term "Boards of Studies" is floatmg around here as well. Here again, is a new tier of administration headed by a sub-Dean with ill-defined responsibilities. The super-Deans would be the chairpersons of the Boards of Studies, whatever they may be.

WHAT'S WRONG WITH THE V.C.'s PROPOSALS?

T he problem with the proposals of course, is that they are the V.C.'s. It is not the role of a V.C. to present a

narrow set of proposals in this way. He should present a wide range of options and ensure that other people have the chance to do the same. A committee which is rep­resentative of staff students, and adminis-traUon should be set up to investigate the need for change. Any proposals which the committee makes should be widely

(continued next page)

A STAFF RESPONSE T he Vice-Chancellor wants to make big changes in the Internal government

of this university. Briefly, he wants to rationalise the thirteen faculties into about eight groupings that are about equal in size and have a new

kind of dean appointed (not elected) to head each grouping, on a fulltime basis and with much more power than the present elected deans. He wants himself, these new deans and a few other top figures in the hierarchy to be a new and power 'executive committee' whose decisions would be ratified by the Senate.

A number of people have weighed the in the Vice-Chancellor's proposals has proposals and seen the beginnhigs ofa strong fuelled speculation as to the need for shift towards authoritarian government Among those who are worried are the members of a subcommitlee of the Staff Association which represents aademics al this university. This subcommitlee produced a document entitled "A Staff Association Critique of the Vice-Chancellor's Proposals for Structural Change Within the University."

Though not yet ratified by a general meeting of members, this document (to be followed by counter-proposals to the V.C.'s) has already been sent to the Vice-Chancellor, and has begun to go out to staff members.

It takes a strong stand against the Vice-Chancellor's proposals. It labels his general remarks "a mixture akin to the confusion of materials that attends the birth of a planet". On the reorganisation it notes that "the lack of definition and precision

haste". This is compounded by the "indecent haste" and "lack of concern for consultation" in the committee set up by the Vice-Chancellor to poll the views of departmental heads over the vacation when most staff were absent.

The subcommittee suggests the need for a different approach: the Vice-Chancellor should set up competent working groups to look into and analyse the present situation. It says there should then be a comprehensive debate by an informed university commumty about how the uni­versity could better fulfiU it's aims of teaching and learning. This would mvolve, of course, considering the merits of alter­native proposals...

The document says that "such arguments as can be discerned" in the Vice-Chancellor's

(continued next paga)

SEMPER

.univeRSiTV. STAFF RESPONSE (continued)

remarks are either "mere assertions", "dubious inferences" from the current economic crisis or rhetorical slogans that don't stand up to analysis - like his warnings that we must avoid "the tyranny of the majority" (elections?) by appointing people of "high calibre", Whal this is and who is good at spotting it is not defined, though we may well imagine.

The subcommittee is dissatisfied with the present "pseudo-discussion". It criticises the formal of repeated meetings at which the Vice-Chancellor puts his views and merely answers questions about points of details without arguing the merits of his proposals against other proposals. It questions the adequacy of merely liaving individuals write to him their comments on his remarks. It argues that this limits the discussion in such a way that, "even though there are twenty, fifiy, a hundred meetings, the one set of opinions that survives the whole course is that of the Vice-Chauccllor". The result is an "alto­gether too comfortable, fragmentary, and even rather secretive indulgence in self-reinforcement" in whicli "the views of the Vice-Chancellor are assured an arti­ficial predominance".

The document quotes often from written statements the Vice-Cliancellor has issued to the Senate, the Professorial Board and (sonic of them at least) to the academic staff, but not to the general body of students. For example it quotes his question to the Senate:

"Can we develop a betier sense of the University within its constituent parts so that collaborative efforts in research and teaching can more easily take place and so that there can be a greater sense of unity as we relate to a relatively indifferent worid outside?"

It points out thai this apparent concern with fundamental questions of educational policy and curricular divisions is belied by the following sentence in the report. That sentence is simply about communication flow to and from his office, as though one could identify the improvement of the university's basic functioning with im­proved paths to and from Wm.

In this context it is pointed out that the

Vice-CIIhancellor makes no reference what­ever to the strong body of opinion since the early 1960s that regards the aggrandisement of the managerial role ofthe Vice-Chancellor as a mistaken response to problems of increased size. The document quotes to this effect from Lord Ashby, that doyen of British vice-chancellors. It cites also the interim report of the current university of Adelaide committee on reorganisation, which, adverting directly to the present economic clunate, nevertheless argues for a strengthening of the democralic and representative decision-making bodies within the university. Another recent document is quoted, the Federal Slaff Association body's statement on 'The Internal Government of Universilies":-

". . . govenunent within universities should be by representative bodies with a majority of elected represent­atives and the imiversity community should liave access to the deliberations of these bodies."

Anolher aspect of the argument that is backed by quoting F.A.U.S.A. policy is that executive officers like deans and depart­ment heads should be regarded as "respon­sible for their electorates, as well as res­ponsible lo the higher boards of the university". All this is in marked contrast lo the Vice-Qiancellor's views.

In fact, though the Vice-Cliancellor is contemplating perhaps the biggest change ever suggested in the tradition of this university's governance, a change away from its largely British tradition to a hierarchical American presidential model, there is virtually no coherent argument put forward in favour of it. "Rather he continues to urge non-democratic procedural claims . . . supported, if at all, by indirect and passing suasions" and "unanalysed 'illustration' of the supposed defects of 'democratisation' or 'total' democracy". He does not even ARGUE for the supposed and reiterated superiority of his authoritarian model as a means of response to contracted funding.

He just TELLS us that it is superior. Against this confused position the Staff

Association argues in detail, from both the history and theory of university education.

V.C/s PROPOSALS (continued}

debated and only then should change lake place.

The governing bodies of a university should be open, democratic and consult­ative. Heads of departments and deans of faculties should be elected and be account­able lo those over whom they have authority. Heads and deans should be executive officers only - there lo im­plement decisions of the Faculty Boards and Departmental Consultative Com­mittees.

Under the V.C.'s proposals, however, heads and deans would be appointed rather than elected and would be accountable to the higlier echelons only. They would not. be bound by decisions of the Faculty Boards and Departmental Consultative Committees and would have great powers particulariy in the area of resource allo­cation.

The academic and adminisirative enter­prises should not be separate so that a new breed of "Career-Deans" emerges.

The proposals further complicate and reinforce an aheady hierarchical structure by the introduction of a new elite in the form of the Executive Committee to consist of Deans and other super-adminis­trators.

This very powerful committee would usurp powers of the Professorial Board and the Faculty Boards. It is not the role ofthe V.C. to set up parallel committees to the detriment of the existing fornial structure.

There is a lack of substantial commit-ment lo student representative in the V.C.'s proposals. While he says he has "no hang­ups" aboul student participation, he does not suggest any means by which students can gain real, rather than token, represent­ation.

FUND RAISING The idea of an office to raise funds for

the University from private sources is very questionable, particularly if this is seen as a means of relieving the Government of its responsibilities for funding. Private funding for research has always been a controversial issue because outside bodies may attach strings to research money. Even if strings are not attached, pressures are still exerted on the University not to undertake alternate research (e.g. a department is unlikely to investigate the deleterious effects of any product of a company which is injecting large sums of money into other research efforts within the department).

While the V.C. assures us that students should not really be interested m the proposed changes and that we should trust that things will be better for us, we would like to assure him that we ARE interested in any changes that take place here and that we do NOT trust someone who has no faith in democracy. Perhaps the V.C. is modelling himself on our Premier who remarked: "It must be admitted the Government have a responsibility to protect the people against themselves."

-SOCIAL ACTION COMMITTEE U.Q.U.

that a non-democratic governance is inconsistent with, frustrative of, the aims of the university. From this stance it takes apart the Vice-Chancellor's "deepest assump­tion . . . that it is a matter of relative in­difference whether basic and important decision-making within the university is democratic or not".

Obviously, large issues arc concerned, and this document argues they should be fully discussed before an incoherent pro­posal "not supported by . . . clear prhi­ciples, arguments or evidence" determines for years to come the course of the univer­sity.

The document shows by reference to several well-documented wide-ranging and totally open debates in the recent past, that the present initiative of the Vice-Chancellor is a regrettable departure not only from the general tradition of universities but also from "the parlicuiar and immediate tradi­tion of tliis university which has fully dis­cussed its recent changes", ll calls on all the

relevant groups from the departments right through to the Senate, to initiate precisely that series of wide-ranging debates that the Vice-(3iancellor has explicitly discouraged. It urges a break with the "present dangerous apathy" that makes the changes seem in­evitable and "discussion to the contrary futile". Against the present hustle and bustle it recommends the followdng course:

"Through all its various constituencies the university community should move gradually towards the structured formation of representative opinion (whether con­sensus or principled differences emerge) on these major issues of internal government."

To conclude with an expression of personal feeUng, it seems to me that to do otherwise in the face of such an unargued and presumptuous nullity as the present set of proposals, would be to incur a lasting intellectual shame on this university.

-DAN O'NEILL (English Department)

MOTION TO ABOLISH T.E.A.S. The Liberal Party in Victoria

wants TEAS abolished and fees reintroduced to Universities, according to the Australian Union of Students.

A document released by AUS said that a meeting of the Victorian Liberal State Council on 22 and 23 March passed the following motion:

"That this state conference requests the Federal government to investigate the possibility of:

1. Reintroducing fees in all tertiary institutions;

2. Withdrawing all (this includes TEAS) current financial assistance schemes to

tertiary students; 3. Introducing a system of loans repay­

able when a Job is obtained."

A.U.S. Education Vice President Grahame McCuIloch said the motion came as no surprise.

"It's well known that certain sections of the Liberal backbench plus some influential media outlets including 'The Bulletm", and "The Austrahan".are in favour of the abolition of TEAS, the introduction of fees and the probable mtroduction of a loans scheme."

He said the resolution was part of a more generalised push to pressure the Government's into action on these matters.

a

WHERE WILL YOU WORK WHEN YOU GRADUATE?

Students fortunate enough to be graduating with a useful degree wil be given a chance to try for a job in the next couple of months. University Careers and Appointments Officer MARION WHITAKER explains how in a letter to final year students.

Will you complete your course this year? Now is the time to take action concerning the actual job you will do when you graduate. Employers have already started recruiting for 1981.

The Careers and Appointments Service has invited major employers of graduates -local, interstate and overseas - to visit the University. Don't miss out on what miglit be the ideal job for you because you didn't take the time to be interviewed right here on campus.

Each employer will be here for a few days during only ONE of the following sessions:

Monday, 26 May - Friday, 6 June' Monday, 28 July - Friday, 15 August

Examples of employers coming during the first session are Broken Hill Pty. Ltd., the State Public Service Board, Woolworths, the Treasury, the Reserve Bank, Altona Petrochemica Co. Ltd., Peat, Marwick, Mitchell and Co. (Chartered Accountants), and Tubemakers of Aust. Ltd. Details of the full programme will be available after 14 May from:

The Careers and Appointments Service, Social Sciences Annexe (located behind the Social Sciences Building). Telephone: 377 3839

Interviews are conducted by appoint­ment with the employer. Select your pre-ference(s) from the programme then tele­

phone 377 3839 to make your appoint-ment(s).

If you wish to practice or increase your skills for the interview, the facilities of the Clareers and Appointments Service are available to you at any time. These include relevant films, brochures and specific hi­formation on individual organisations from the Careers Reference Library and the detailed booklet "Where Do I Go From Here?" which is full of practical advice.

"The Job Hunter" - the job vacancies bulletin - will be published in May and August and is also avilable free to all students.

Remember to make your enquiries between 14 and 23 May to ensure in­clusion in the interview programme. ^

h^^kM^MU^M^bJ

.0V€RS6RS

GettingReadyjMMthe Next War

It seems that America learned little from Vietnam. Militarism and patriot­ism are re-emerging with frightening implications for foreign countries which disagree with them politically. This article examines America's re-assertion Of world political dominance and offers some frightening conclusions about where American jingoism is leading.

•Part 1~ An American Nightmare

I f you were empathetic and re­sponded only to the raw passion and hysteria, then the mass

exultation was like Hate Week in "1984". But it was only America in 1980, and the U.S. ice hockey team had just beaten the Russians.

Inside the Olympic Arena, the

crowd erupted. They rose to their feet and with berserk abandonment began shouting "U.S.A.! U.S.A.! U.S.A.!"

One reporter said, "This shows the superiority of the American Way of Life" President Carter invited the team to the White House. Before the match he had visited the players and

told them: "You reflect all the ideals of our society."

Across the "American night" the nation erupted in what Time magazine described as "a spontaneous, childlike gladness. . .the nation indulged in small orgies of flag waving and anthem singing". At a supermarket where the publk announcement system blurted out news of the American victory, tlie store erupted as bags of cookies, paper towels, and anything handy was tossed into the air with uproarious cheering. One psy­chiatrist told how his patients for days

^mn

hteaiing . " i F o r a l Showdow

: | ^

In this Time cover, shadowy Iranian mobs have committed the cardirwl sin against 'The American Way' - they have set old Glory itself alight. In the background are various anti-American slogans: - America - Nest of Vipers; America -The Mother of Corruption; and the classic KILL THE AMERICAN DOGS. To the American audience for whom this cover is designed this conveys the image that those who oppose the American Way are violent, unreasonable, sacriltgious craziesi

SEMPER

Anli-Afncriccin Mob intch'..r,'(

The U.S. monopoly media presents people who oppose the 'American Way' as mindless fanatics. The Iranians have simply said to America: Stop supporting war criminals.

afterwards reported tears welling up in their eyes when they thought of those American boys.

The match was reported in the American press at considerable length and with vitriolic bigotry. Time magazine almost equalled Marty Feldman's great satire of the one eyed British sportscaster calling an England-Germany soccer match. ("With machine like precision, the German forward line goosestep up the field"). Time wrote: "When the Soviets returned from inter­mission, they came out playing as if they had intimations of Siberia."

A terrible passion is sweeping America. And it's not just hatred of Russia. Four months before, the same blind rage was directed at Iranians! hanians living in America were subjected to death threats, assault, arson and other fonms of harassment.

On the 3rd December, 1979, Time maga­zine published the views of three 'ordinary' Americans on Iranians.

"Willand Hedrick, owner of a con­struction company in St. Louis, has a simple solution for dealing with the Iranians: 'We ought to shoot the sons of bitches'. Says Bob Bntbaker. a wheat farmer in westem Kansas: 'I'm beginning to think that we should either seize their oilfields or destroy them if we can.' Frank McVey, a New York truck driver, would not even wait to see what happens to the hostages. Says he: 'We might as well write off the liostages; they're going to be killed no matter what we do. We shoukl bomb the hell out of that country so it will be a long time be­fore anyone else tries the same thing."

Just what the Iranians were trying was never made very clear. The Americans had

just given shelter to the Shall who was regarded by the Iranians as a War Crimmal. By allowing the Sliali in, the Americans signalled to the Iranians that they supported War Criminals. The Iranians were asking for the whole world: Stop supporting murderers and war criminals.

Consider the historical experience of the Iranian people. In 1953, a brief experiment with democracy and independence was ter­minated by a CIA sponsored coup. The CIA

(conttnuad next pma)

OV^RS€RS (continued from previous page)

was worried that the nationalistic govern­ment was about to nationalise the oilfields. The regime miposed by the CIA became one of the terror centres of the world, Martin Ennals, Secretary General of Amnesty Inter­national, noted that Iran under the Shah had the ". . .highest rate of death penalties in the world, no valid system of civilian courts and a history of torture which is beyond belief. No country in the world has a worse record in human rights than Iran." (Quoted in Reza Baraheni, "Persia Today: No Magic Carpet Rides" Matchbox (Amnesty Inter­national) Fall 1976). There was an estimated 100,000 political prisoners of the Shah alt subjected to the brutalities of SAVAK.

SAVAK, the Iranian secret police noted for its sadism and frequent use of torture was set up by the CIA in 1957, and the military who ran it from its inception received "special" training at the marine base in Quantico Virginia, and received orienlation programs at CIA headquarters in Langley.

The Iranian secret police received generous training and support from the U.S. which also deluged its Iranian client with arms. When the Iranian people rose in an astonishing and unexpected demon­stration of opposition to the Shah, they were gunned down with these weapons.

The U.S. had other "weapons' it trained on the Iranian Revolution. Throughout the course of events in Iran 'the Free Press' constantly portrayed the Shah as a great 'liberalizer'.

The 'saddest aspect of developments in Iran' according to the liberal NEW REPUBLIC was that the Shah was 'not repressive enough'. William A. Dorman and Hisan Omad, in a review of press coverage, noted "We have been unable to find a single example of a news or feature story in the mainstream American Press that uses the label 'dictator' to describe the Shah".

Iranians who opposed the Shah were portrayed (visually and verbally) as "fire eating", "demagogic", "streaked with irrationality".

Part 2 America Will Never Be Destroyed

"America is the strongest and most prosperous nation in Earth", Nately informed him with lofty fervour ard dignity. "And the American fighting man is second to none." "Exactly", ap-eed the old man pleasantly, with a hint of taunting amusement. "Italy on the other hand is one of the least prosperous nations on Earth. And the Italian fighting man is probably second to all And that's exactly why my country is doing so poorly . . . Yes, / am quite certain that Italy will survive this war and still be in existence long after your country has been destroyed."

Nately could scarcely bdieve his ears. He had never heard such shocking blasphemies before, and he wonder^ with instinctive logic why G-men did not appear to lock the tmitorous old man up. "America is not going to be destroyed!" he shouted passion­ately.

JOSEPH HELLER, Catch 22

You've gotta remember, we're Australians, we're used to being a fifth rate power that no-one really cares

about. It's hard for us to realise what it's like to be an American, raised with the certainty that God is on your side and that your country is the centre of the worid, "the greatest power on Earth".

Ralph Summy, one of the editors of

Social Alternatives, was brought up in America and experienced both cultures. "I can remember when I was really young, my father telling me that America had never lost a war. Al the time I was really proud of that. Of course, it isn't really true. We certainly didn't win the war of 1812, and the Korean war was at best a draw, but it's one of the myths Americans have about themselves." . The self unage of America as the mightiest power on Earth, is personified in the comic book character, Superman, a caped crusader with "powers far beyond those of mortal men who came to Earth to fight for Truth, Justice, and the American Way". Forever menaced by super-vilUans hell-bent on his destruction, forever fighting evil maniacs who plan to destroy the worid. Superman is . . . Hubris avoiding Nemesis. (Hubris is just a town in Texas; Nemesis is the first chapter of the American Bible).

There were other myths, Ralph Summy said. Americans were conduced of the innate superiority of their own way of life. For this reason they felt impelled to impose it on other people. To Americans, the only people who objected to the American Way of Life were people like the Vietnamese, whose minds were poisoned by Communism, or the Iranians who were all fanatics.

(During the Iranian crisis. Time explain­ed away the Iranians as victims of "An Ideology of Martyrdom").

Ralph Summy points out that Australians

RE-OPENING

CfNTROL WOMEN'S PREGNANCY

ADVISORY AND ABORTION REFERRAL CENTRE

Focal Point Arcade " B " 249 Brunswick Street, Fortitude Valley. 4006. Ph: (07) 521444

MON. 4-8pm WED.4«pm SAT. 9-12 noon

Alternative Handbook

Surveys of 1st and 2nd year subjects begin in the 1 0 ^ week of semester.

This is your chance to have a say about your subjects, lecturers, tutors, woridoad, practicals, etc. Fill out the forms whett they are hatKled around in lecturesl

Helpers are needed. If you're willing to help in any way, call to the Education Resource office in the Unton Building soon.

If you have suggestrans about which subjects should be surveyed, let us know.

As feathers fly, the American Eagle (the symbol of American Imperialism) flees skyward, shielding its more vital regions with the good ol' Stars and Stripes Forever. Against this background, NEWSWEEK asks the question dearest to the hearts of the sabre rattling set: "Has America lost its Clout?" With a few minor alterations (le. re­placing the eagle with Superman) this would make an admirable cover for a Superman comic.

don't understand America. In view of the importance both major poliUcal parties attach to the American Alliance, this is dangerous. Because of the American Alliance, Australia welcomed the massacre of the communists in Indonesia in 1965, and supported the armed takeover of East Timor. Dissident forces are simmering in bidonesia. Students, the Moslems, anti-Javanese separatists, and some Christians are disillusioned with the brutality, corruption and economic efficiency of the government. The vengeance of a revived left in our nearest neighbour may be directed at Australia. Like the Americans in Iran we may wonder at the reservoir ofhatred directed at us.

There are worse scenarios. As the right wing dictatorships of the Phillipines and Indonesia face even greater internal op­position, Australia may be involved in a war to protect American investment in those countries.

***

America had always seen itself as The New World, pure, innocent, untouched by the sordid inequities of the Old

World. That dichotomy is brilliantly ex­ploited in one of the key scenes of Joseph Heller's great novel of the Second Worid War, "Catch 22". Nately, the 19 year old airman debates with the degenerate 107 year old Italian brothel-keeper. The important thing, the old Italian says, is not wummg wars, it's knowmg how to lose them. Nately is shocked by this: he says America is the greatest country on Earth; America vnll never lose a war! Never? the Italian says. Rome fell, Ptersia fell, how long docs Nately

8

thmk America will last??

"A millhn years?" persisted the jeering old man with keen sadistic zest. "A half mOlhn? The frog is almost five hundred million years oki. Could you really say with much cer­tainty that Ama-ica, with aU its strength and prosperity, with its fighting man that is second to none, and with its standard of living that is the highest in the world, will last as tongas,.. the frog?" Nately wanted to smash his leering face.

Catch 22 by JOSEPH HELLER

All roads lead us back to the crune of the century, to General Westmoreland's killing machine, to the Vietnam War, when the mightiest power on earth systematically set about 'saving' the countries of Indochina by pounding them to dust. As a resujt of the U.S. War, over two million Vietnamese died, over three million were wounded, 180,000 Vietnamese were dis­abled and 900,000 children were orphaned.

John Rlgcr described a visit to Vietnam in the New Statesman 15/9/78: "Much of North Vietnam is a moonscape from which visible signs of life - houses, factories, schools, hospitals, pagodas, churches —have been obliterated. In some forests there are no longer birds and animals; and there are loriy drivers who do not respond to the hootii^ of a horn because they are deaf from the incessant sound of bombs." He describes napalm that "conttaues to smoulder under the skin tissues through

(oontinued page 101

f ;nv.nj

On the Other Hand KJAZPERRY

People have always been intolerant of minority groups. Oppression due to a person's colour, race, religion or whatever have led to vocal pressure groups lobbying for acceptance. Yet one of society's largest minority groups is almost totally ignored. Who cares about left handed people?

Left handed people have historically been re­garded as mferior, and even dangerous. From earliest tunes most humans

have had a preference for the use of the right hand. Li many primitive cultures left handed people have been thought of as devil possessed. Tliis fear led to many left handers being ostracised as bad influences, or deified as possessors of magic powers and witchcraft.

Most greetings and salutations are made with the right hand, and to be offered the left hand was an unspoken msult. Even today, the right hand is naturally extended m a liandshake, and the left handed person> often feels a brief confusion before offering a weaker, right handed shake.

Morganastic marriages were know as "left handed marriage". Left handed marriage was the joining of a man of high rank and a woman of low rank. The woman retained her low status throughout life and none of the couple's children had any claim on the father's possessions. In fact the wife had no claim on her husband's property other than the Morgangeba, the morning gift given to the wife by the husband on the moming after the consummation of marriage.

To insult a person by "damning with fault praise" is called a left handed com­pliment, hi swearing an oath the use of the left hand was not considered bindmg. Even today, when swearing in a court of law, one raises the right hand or places it on the bible. While today, most people think of left as the opposite of right, its derivation is from the Mglo-Saxon 'lef meaning weak, thus the left hand is regarded as the weaker hand.

In French the word 'droit' means right. From this comes the word adroit, meaning dexterous, or manually skilled. This again shows people's natural preference for the use of the right hand. The opposite of 'droit' is 'gauche'. Gauche is not a good thing to be called, meaning awkward, tacky, and lacking in class.

Dexterous is of Latin origm. 'Dexter' is Latin for right hand. It's opposite 'sulister', meaning left handed, is even more un­pleasant than gauche.

When one sets out to do a job, one puts one's "right foot forward". To start with the left foot is considered bad luck. Theatre tradition says it is best to step from the ri^t foot when 'going on stage in order to have the audienc^ with you during your per­formance.

In our right hand oriented society the posi-tion'>of honour is on the right hand. Clirist sits on the right hand of God and

is supposed to be the most favoured person in heaven. The angel Satan, on the other hand, sat on the left hand of God. His pride, and quest for power led to his fall to the more familiar environs he is said to mhabit

today. The chief assistance of an important

person is always called the "right hand man". The assistant is regarded as the hiost effective and trustworthy, and is in­dispensable as a right hand. In more dangerous times the swordsman on the right of Ills superior could best defend his master.

These attacks on left handers are unfair, and usually unwarranted. Left handed people are not partkularly different from anyone else.

The reason behind a preference for the left lies in the brain. Where in right handers

the left hand side of the brain is the more dommant, left handed have dominance in the right brain hemisphere. The right hemi­sphere is generally regarded as the area governing creative or artistic endeavours, and it is possible that this has something to do with the attitude towards it by right handers.

In fact, two of the world's greatest artists, Leo nd aro Da Vinci and Michaelangelo were both left handed. In fact Leonardo was able to perfect a means of writing backwards so as to make his notes unreadable by anyone else, unless they were refiected in a mirror. This protected his work from the pryuig eyes ofthe inquisitors

Who had sought to convict him of heresy a number of times. Leonardo was shunned by some of his friends as gliouUst, and devil possessed because of his fascination with the human body, and particularly the sketching and dissecting of corpses.

A number of more modern entertainers were also lefthanders, including Harpo Marx, Cole Porter, Judy Garland, Charlie

Chaplin and Betty Grable. Similariy, Paul McCiirtney, Jimmy Connors, Rex Hanison, Danny Kaye and Gerald Ford are "south­paws". Southpaw is a baseball term for left handed players, the most famous surely being Babe Ruth.

Horatio Nelson was also a left hander, though he is a ruig-in. He had been right lianded, but he lost an arm in battle and had to change liis preference out of necessity.

Probably the most notorious left handed person in history was Jack the Ripper, who executed his murders with surreal precision.

From that list it is obvious that left handers can be just as talented, go ahead, or murderous as anyone else, but few people realise the difficulty left handed people have to put up with in the course of everyday living. It isn't that bemg left handed is a major handicap, but there are a number of small annoyances which have to be faced every day.

Writing is the first major difficulty that the left handed child must overcome. Though the practice is not as widespread as a few years ago, parents and teachers still prefer that a child develop the use of the right rather than the left hand. This co-ertion begms when a child is very small. Reaching and grabbing are the earUest skills a child masters, and a child who shows a preference for the left hand may find a parent pushing things towards the right hand in an effort to encourage its use. Parents try to get the child to feed itself with a spoon held in the right hand.

At schools it was common practice to force all children to write with the right hand. Left handed children would some­tunes have their hands tied behmd their backs to enforce right handedness. It is now accepted by educationalists that this behaviour can cause a child major psy­chological problems, including slow learning abilily, and in extreme cases, mentfl dis­turbance, and regressive behaviour like bed-wetting. The policy of forced righthanded-ness is no longer universally practiced, but some teachers still encourage this be-Imviour.

Left handed children often find it dif­ficult to master manual skills because what they are doing is at variance with their class mates, and they find it difficult to translate observed action into mirror unages for their own purposes. Teachers tend to spend less tune, or give up on left handers, so their writing is often poor and untidy. These children are further handicapped as they

(oontinued next poge)

SEMPER >

.0V€RS6flS.

Getting Ready for the Next War (continued from page 8)

the lifetime of the victims"; cities such as Vuih, bombed so heavily that not even the foundations of buildings remain.

It's not just the Italians; the Greeks would have some words for Nately, too. Hubris is not a town m Texas; Nemesis is not the first chapter of the American Bible. In Greek tregedy. Hubris, an over­whelmuig pride or arrogance, was the sin to which the great and powerful were most susceptible. Hubris was always punished by Nemesis, the Goddess of retribution and revenge, the personification of the resent­ment aroused in people by unpunished evil deeds.

The brutal and arrogant attempt to impose the American Way on Indochina by the greatest display of mechanised terror ever unleashed, led to the American defeat. As Richard Dudman of the St. Louis Post Despatch wrote after spending 40 days as a prisoner of the Communists: "The bombing and the shooting were radicalising the people of Cambodia and turning the countryside into a massive, dedicated and effective rural base. American shells and bombs are proving to the Cambodians beyond doubt that the United States is waging unprovoked colonialist war against the people of Cambodia."

The Vietnam War has been digested by the American political system with hardly a trace. Essentially the same people manage national affaus, and possess virtually ex­clusive access to the mass media; the critics of the war lapsed, or were forced into silence. The media did not allow the vast accumulation of details about Vietnam to disturb the myth of the essential U.S.

benevolence. Watergate, Chile, the reve­lations about the CIA, the whole pattern of frequent displacement of democratic govern­ments, the extensive and growing use of

The American publk: is entitled, indeed obligated, to explore how good impulses came to be tmnsmuted into bad policies. For we cannot afford to cast out all remembrance of that impulse. For the fundamental lesson of Viet­nam is not that we as a nation are intrinsically bad, but rather that we are capable of error, and on a gigantic

"To Americans tlie only people who oppose the American Ml ay are people like the Vietnamese, whose minds have been poisoned by communism or the Iranians who are all fanatics."

torture in the U.S. sphere (imprisonment, death squads and mysterious disappear­ances").

The dominant interpretation of America's involvement in Vietnam can be summed up in this quote from the Washington Post: (1975)

"For in much of the actual conduct of the war Vietmm policy over the years was wrong and misgukled, even tragic, it cannot be denied that some part of the policy purpose of that policy was right and defensible. Specifically it was right to hope tliat the people of South Vietnam would be able to decode their own form of government and social order.

On the Other Hand. • • • A

tend to position theh hand over written work, instead of beneath and after written words, which is what right handed children do. Consequently, their writing is not only untidy but smudged and grubby as well. No matter how academically talented such a child is, the scruffiness or illegibility of their handwrituig will be a plague to them for the rest of school life. Since the system gives kudos for presentation as much as knowledge, a left handed child could be marked under the level of his/ her true worth. It does not take long for the chUd to begin to believe what the teacher says, and lose some ot all faith in his/her own abilities.

Left handed children are often more

(continued from

previous page)

untidy than right handed children because of their inability to handle manual tasks. Physical difficulty can give way to psy­chological mability to keep a room tidy, or keep homework in order. Smce domestic science or technical training are still com­pulsory for most children, left handed children may find they score low marks because of manual difficulty. Home Craft teachers tend to "give up" on children who are trying to learn to knit, sew or crochet "back handed".

Similarly, technical drawuig, wood and metal work teachers may despair of teachmg a left hander to cope with the right handed tools of trade. These children are often called difficuU, or stubborn.

Save Moreton Island The State Govern­ment wants to hand Moreton Island to tlie sandminers (guess where the profits go? . . . America? - right first time).

Help Save Moreton Island. Join the Moreton Island Protection Commitlee ($2 for students):

Box 238 GPO Brisbane. Phone: 221 0188.

Environment

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179 Aim Si

scale. This is Jhe spirit in which the post mortem on Vietnam now ought to go forward; not just the absence of recriminatbn, but also the presence of insight and honesty is necessary to bind up the nation's wounds."

Ji »ust what pohcies that the Americans implemented in Vietnam were right and defensible? Were they right and

defensible in 1954? The year of the Geneva agreement was signed, an agreement that stated that no foreign bases were to be built on Vietnamese soil; that no military aid should be sent to Vietnam, America did not sign that accord, but she signed a

separate statement saying that she would abide by the sphit of the accord. Ahnost immediately she put Diem in power in South Vietnam, supplied him with military aid and built miUtary bases in South Vietnam.

The Geneva Conference resolved that Vietnam should be temporarily divided into North and South pending nationwide elections in July 1956. Diem and his American backers sabotaged his elections. As President Eisenhower said in his memoirs, he "never talked or corresponded with anyone knowledgeable in Indochincse affairs who did not agree that in any elections while the fighting was on, possibly 80 per cent of the population would have voted for Ho Chi Mmh as their leader."

Helping the people of Indochina decide their own form of government and social order takes some very strange forms mdeed.

In theff book "The Washington Coniiection and Third Worid Fascism", Noam Chomsky and Edward S. Herman ar­gues with devastating logic and masses of documentatMH that the purpose of U.S. global policy is to make the world safe for exploitation by U.S. coiporate interests. This has required and continues to require the installation and support of brutal ndlitary/poUce dictatorships throughout the Third WorW. It also requfa-es an apok)getic ideology which portrays this as being in the h^hest interests of democracy and human r^hts.

In its 1974 Report on Torture, Amnesty International noted that torture 'Which "for the last two or three hundred years had been no more than a historical curiosity had suddenly developed a life of its own and become a social cancer". The same report states that the use of torture

(continued page 12)

disruptive, or even remedial, and are marked down accordingly. Even on the sports field a left handed throw or catch is sometimes regarded as wrong, and many schools do not keep catcher's gloves and the like for left handers.

Unless 3 child has a resilient nature, understanding parents, or aware teachers left handedness can become a very real disadvantage to a child. It is very likely that a timid, or pressured child could fail scholastically for the want of the use of the right hand.

Big Business runs on the principle of catering to the broadest, lowest com­mon denominator of people. In this way profit

on producing goods by making only a certain number of standard types and sixes, and hopuig (or isnisting) that consumers fit into their standardised measures. Any­one who cannot fit simply does without. The rationale is that most people will be able to use the product, and anyone who does not is too costly to bother with.

Unfortunately, those in the too costly basket include left handed people. Large manufacturers produce right handed im­plements by the million, but no left handed equivalents.

Left handed people commonly have dif­ficulty using manually operated kitchen implements, especially can openers, vegetable peelers, and even spoons. The sunple manual can opener requires a strong right arm to turn the handle which controls the cutting edge. A left hander may liave to cross arms to use it effectively. Peelers have the blade positioned for right handed use, and lefties find it almost impossible to use peelers at all. Similarly, scissors are made in a bewildering array of styles and sizes, yet a pair of left handed scissors is neariy impossible to buy. The finger holes in

scissors mean that left handers almost have to use them upside down. Even fountain pen nibs favour righl handed use.

While manual can openers for right handers can be bought for less than a dollar ahnost anywhere, a left handed one is almost impossible to buy in Australia. When it can be bought it is from a specialist shop, it is usually imported from Germany, and it costs well over ten dollars. Not only that, but it is large, heavy, complicated, and not really distinguishable as a can opener at all. lift handers have commented that* they feel as though they are crippled when they look at the hardware which is meant to sub­stitute for simple right handed gadgetry.

As far as the author knows there is no­where for left handers to shop in Queensland. The only store available is the Left Hand Shop, at the Rocks in Sydney. It is small, trendy, and expensive. It does serve a very real need for lefties, who would otherwise have to put up with the uncomfortable compromises they become

used to, but really, the concept of an ex­pensive left hand shop is stupid. It cannot be such a' difficult thing to produce left handed versions of products, and have them freely and commonly available at retail outlets.

Meanwhile, those one m nme of the population who are left handed will just have to put up with society's right handed prejudice and struggle on as best they can. And for those who doubt that left handed prejudice still exists need only look as far as the 1976 edition of the Concise Oxford Dictionary. Under the heading lefthanded it says:—

left-ha'nded a. I. Having left hand more serviceable than right, usmg it by pre­ference; awkward, clumsy; ambiguous, double-edged, of doubtful sincerity or validity, (esp. of compliment, also occas. of marriage)

10

n^uus.

COALITION CHAOS The coalition government is in uproar over the proposed abortion legis­

lation. After attempts to push the Bill through parliament without debate. Liberal backbenchers have forced Cabinet to think again before allowing the Bill to come before the House. KJAZ PERRY reports on the beginnings of another coalition rift which could, at last, see a change in government policies.

Queenslanders have become used to legislation being pushed tiuough the House without regard for public opinion, or even allowing public comment. Beginning with the sireet march Icgislation, on lo the police act and the abortion legislation the Bjelke-Petersen governnient has moved further and further away from the wishes of its constituents.

Now il appears the Premier has lost the support of his own government members, liberals like Angus Innes and Rosemary Kyburz have been voicing criticism for months, and are now crossing the fioor to vote againsi the government. The problem blew up out of the Liberal policy of guaran­teeing a free vote to parliamentarians on all issues. The Premier has sought to overrule Dberal policy, and has al lasl come wilhin a hair's breadth of breaking down the coalition. As Mr. Hinze said himself, il does not take too many Liberals to cross the fioor before the governmeni is out of office.

Rosemary Kyburz has branded the Abortion Legislation "fascist", called the Premier a "hypocrite", feels Hinze has not a "ghost of a chance" of winning Deputy Leader, believes that after the next election "the Country Party will not be the senior party", and took the unprecedented step of releasing a document to the press before tabling it in parliament. She also called the Premier a "fascist dictator".

Meanwliile, Mr. Katter of the Nationals has announced the idea he has for a political party to "mop up" all those people who cannot bring themselves to vote for the ALP (or, presumably, the governnient) and for the Uni. students. The aims, aspirations, or terms of membership of such a party are

"unclear, and pretty unimaginable. The events of Wednesday 16th were

outlined by Mrs. Kyburz in an emotional press conference, and on several television programmes. According to Ms. Kyburz there was discussion in the joint parties room about the Anti-Abortion Bill, and several Liberals objected. According to Ms. Kyburz, the issue of a conscience vole was,raised and the Premier said that llial was fine at any other time, but he expected everyone should vote with the governmeni because "I'm sure my boys will". Mr. Bob Bishop got into argument with Mr. Russ

Hinze, and is reported to have called him a slob. Mr. Hinze launched himself at Mr. Bishop, leaving the hapless Ms. Kyburz in imminent danger of being crushed by Mr. Hinze' unquestioned bulk. (Later that evening the amazing Mr. Hinze said he was not out to attack Bishop, but wanted to be a peacemaker. He said "The young lady is an actress").

iiad no intention of disciplining his maverick members, since a free vote on all issues was parly policy. Over the past week eight Uberal backbenchers have crossed the floor lo vote with the Opposition attempting to delay a number of bills including one concerning controversial Gold Coast Water­ways re-development, an issue close to the hearl of Mr. Hinze.

< •>

"Mr. Hinze launched himself at Mr. Bishop, leaving the hapless Ms. Kyburz in imminent danger of being crushed by Mr. Hinze' unquestioned bulk. "

Much shaken by the incident Ms. Kyburz left ihe room, and later told the waiting press that the government was in danger. She had come into conflict with Health Minister Knox earlier, for Knox' comments aboul provisions for jail, and liis assertion that there was no clause relating to termination because of the mothers attempts at suicide, Ms. Kyburz said she thoughl Knox could not read, because what he said was contradicted by the expressed words ofthe act.

In a press conference the Premier was visibly angry about the coalition conflict and went as far as to say that he no longer considered dissenting backbenchers to be members of the government. He said he had spoken to Dr. Edwards, Liberal leader, and expected loyalty.

Dr. Edwards told the press laler that he

Whal is surprising is that the Liberals, and indeed anyone who has been interested, has known that the legislation prohibiting' abortions has been pending for months. It is dangerous in that it takes abortion from the Health area, and moves it solidly into the criminal code. Protests, news stories, pickets and campaigns have gone unnoticed, up until the eve of the bills passing and only now, perhaps too late, have the Liberals decided that the public has a right to know what is in il, and the righl lo comment.

The bill provides only two reasons for abortion. Danger which could lead to death if the pregnancy continues, and manifestly suicidal behaviour by the expectant woman. No other reasons, even rape or incest, are permissable. Anyone supplying, or assisting

in the procurement of an abortion will receive a fourteen year jail sentence with hard labour. The woman herslf can be subject lo seven years hard labour and any­one providing a woman with means to abort herself can get tiiree years. The Bill also allows doctors medical records to be examined by police. Patients no longer have privacy.

The government originally had a clause preventing pregnant women travelling inter­state to seek abortion. However, Ms. Kyburz pointed out that tliis was not only the ultimate in fascism, but unconstitutional. One wonders whether the tick gates were to be fitted with on the spot pregnancy testers.

The idea of keeping all pregnant women under virtual house arrest, and constant surveillance lest they try to sneak out the stale to terminate a pregnancy must be marvelled at for its sheer draconial gall.

All sorts of implications arise from the proposed restrictions. One wonders whether pregnancy will be considered sub­versive enough to qualify for a special branch file. Since Queenslanders tend to adhere to the populate or perish idea such amendments are truly mindboggluig.

Pro abortion campaigners have been fighting the bill for neariy a year now, and know how hopeless it feels to fight a government which seems so uniformly at variance with the population on civil liberties matters. Meanwliile the Green­slopes Clinic is continuing to operate. In exchange for totaUy banning abortion in this state the government is offering absolutely free abortions to those who qualify. Since Queensland already has a free hospital scheme, the government's genorisity, and cynicism is breathtaking.

There is very little hope this Bill will not be passed, though it may be delayed, or watered down for a while. About the best that can be said for the situation is the Ubs look like Ihey might, just, be prepared to do something in the future to shake up the coalition. Maybe.

-KJAZ PERRY

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SEMPER 11

_OV6RS6RS_

Getting Ready for the Next War (continued from page 10)

as a government sanctioned, Stalinist fvactice had ceased in Eastern Europe. "With a few exceptions . . . no reports on the use of torture in Eastern Europe have been reaching the outside world in the last decade." It appears as largely a Free World phenomenon. Amnesty also notes that in Latin America, the high in­cidence of political assassuiation over­shadows the use of torture.

According to Chomdcy's analysis of the semantics of terror, there are three types of terror recognised by the Western Press:

(1) Benign Terror where no one really cares much anyway; hidonesia's genocide in East Timor is a good example of this.

(2) Constructree Terror where terror is perceived as good, because it serves Westem interests. The massacre of 500,000 people who were accused of being com-murusts in bidonesia in 1965 is an example of this. Australian Prune Minister Harold Holt was reported by the New York Times as saying: "With 500,000 to 1,000,000 communist sympathisers knocked off, I think it's safe to say a re-orientation has taken place."

(3) Nefarious Terror where terror is used by an enemy state. Cambodia is an ex­ample of this: the general principle followed by the Western Press in reporting atrocities

in Cambodia seemed to be to think of a number and then multiply it by two.

In their second book. After The Cataclysm: Postwar Indochina and the Reconstruction of ImperiaUst Ideology, Chomsky and Herman devote 160 pages and over 400 footnotes to the reporting of Cambodian events in the Western Press. They checked sources, read nearly every report, and generally did the kind of work Western journalists know isn't necessary when you're reportuig cases of nefarious terror and are supposed to come up with atrocities anyway. Chomsky and Herman found that the Western press used faked photographs, liighly dubious quotations, and the most doubtful evidence to paint their picture of "auto-genocide" in Cambodia. Francois Ponchaud, the main Western academic source on the Khmer Rouge, is revealed as an unscrupulous cad. They conclude:

"77K west Ims always assigned all the tribulations and suffering of Mochina to Communism, while causing a fair bit of the trouble. TTie problems encountered in reconstructing Vietnam after the war have occasioned a kind of gloating delight in the U.S. media. Cambodia was a particular

target of abuse. In fact it became virtually a matter of dogma in the West that the regirne was the incarna-twn of evil with no redeeming qualities and that the handful of fanatics who had taken over the country were systematically starving and massacring the populathn. How the "nine men at the centre" were able to achieve this feat and why they chose to pursue this strange course of "autogenocUe" were questions that were rarely pursued. Any scrap of evidence that wouki contribute to the desired image was seized upon (and regularly amplified) no matter how tmreliable the source. Furthermore there was substantial fabricathn of evidence."

A similar bias marks the reporting of refugees: the massive fUght from U.S. backed terror goes unnoticed; an estimated half million from Uruguay; perhaps 700,000 from Bolivia; 16,000 in one month (September 1978) from Somoza's terror; a quarter of a miUion driven from their homes m West Asia by Israeli troops.

Instead the media focuses attention on Indochina where the refugee problem can be ascribed to communist terrorism (glossing over the destruction of Indochina by U.S. firepower). The problems of reconslmcting Indochina after the U.S. war are ignored; no attempt is made to put the problem in historical context.

BENIGN TERROR

How tbe U.S. media treats the violence ofaU^.dientstate.

General policy is to ignore them. This picture from NEWSWEEK Dec. 3 1979 is one of the few articles to appear on Timor. A recent census has put the population of East Timor at 522,000. This is 130,000 fewer than the previous census. Most of the 130,000 have either been killed by the Indonesians or died of starvation. Relief workers report that another 300,000 are in a bad to critical state.

Compare this silence with the flood of articles on Cambodia, where the famine can be attributed to 'commimist terror'.

Note too the difference in the language. The heading for the Timor article is the neutml 'Another Land of Famine'. The same week, TIME canied an article on Cambodia. The highly emotive heading is 'Pol Pot's lifeless Zombies.'

The same is true of the sub-headings. Again East Timor is described neutrally: 'deliberate neglect'. Cambodia merits the emotive 'drastic bminwashing'.

In the Timor article, no refugees are interviewed: instead we are treatai to the views of Indonesian officials who blame the starvation on Fretlin and insist that the figures are inflated, any way.. In the Cambodian article, the only people quoted are refugees and the wildest stories are printed as fact.

The TIME correspondents, quite seriously, recount a story about the Khmer Rouge dashing a child to the grotmd, ripping it open, removing the Uver and then frying it and eating it. They are puzzled that when they tell this story to other refugees, they are laughed at! The refugees, they conclude, have been brutalised.

Stripped of the editorial sermonising, the photos speak for themselves. The pictures from Timor are more shocking: given our govemment's support for Indonesia's policies, we are more respon­sible for the tmgedy. We do nothing. It is our sensibilities that are brutalised by titi media bias.

^

ANOTHER LAND OfFAMINg

John Ftirtu & Son\ Lt<l Sydm

Starving children in East Timor: A counlry 'deliberately neelected'by Indonesia?

f>olPofs Zombies Brcniwashed refugees from a brutal regime

Mimr Roue* «oidhMrt « M I CWHUM wlw followed thtm «cr««t bordw •Sufferittg the effects of drastic brainwashing, combined with physical hardship and fear.

For example, after the American Revolution, American loyalists' property was seized; in some areas the common prac-tk;e was to tar and feather Tories, 100,000 ioyalists fled abroad (out of a population of two millran). There were "boat people" too; the largest fleet ever seen m Amerka, 170 ships top heavy with soldiers and refugees set sail in March, "the most tem­pestuous month of the year on the American coast" (After the Cataclysm, page 45).

The 'boat people' are used to reinforce the myth of communist viUany and "Free Worid" benevolence.

Por the past five years we have been subjected to a concerted campaign, by the multinational companies, by

the David Rockerfellers, by the Military Industrial Complex, by the CIA, in short by Conservative America, to rebuild the Cold War.

The Em phe of Terror trembles: the Shah and Somoza have fallen; Marcos is shaky; Central America "has become un­stable"; Nemesis dogs the footsteps of Hubris. Pressure is building up towards the next war.

The key phrase the Conservatives use is, "America has overcome the Vietnam syndrome": they mean America is getting ready to intervener militarily again.

The myth of American Benevolence has been reconstructed with that most cynical of deceptions - Carter's Human Rights PoUcy. (Only victuns East of the Elbe need apply). The world's worst offender of Human Rights condemns Vietnam and Iran. Amongst the client states it is business as usual. Chomsky and Herman explain:

"Arms sales, gifts and training pro-gmms continue virtually unchanged, in 1977-78 to the Philippines, South Korea, Thailand and Indonesia, coun­tries with established records of serbus human rights violathns; ard the cuts to other gross violators on the U.S. taxpayers' dole have only involved small amotmts, they have also been compromise by continuitig deliveries based on unexpended credits from the past and the sancthning of private sides."

The continuing tragedy of Indochina (caused largely by the U.S. war) is milked for propaganda lessons on The Iniquities of Cbmmunism (read opposition to U.S. business interests).

Some lessons have been learned from Vietnam as General Maxwell Taylor ex­plains:

"We shotdd never let another Vietnam style sittiation arise again We were too kite in recognising the extent of the subverswe threat. We appreciate now that every young emerging country must be constantly on the alert watdiing for those symptoms whkh if allowed to develop unrestmined may grow to a disastrous situatk)n like that which occurred in Vietmm. We\e learnt the need for a strong police force and a strong police in­telligence organisation to recognise the emergence of an incipient sub­versive situatton."

In line with this policy America has been building up a rapid deployment force: the aim being that once intelligence has indicated 'a subversive tlueat' exists, America vnll have the capability of moving up to 10,000 troops into the country within somethuig like 7 days.

The Australian Government has been asked to provide troops for this rapid deployment force. So far the answer has been 'No', but for how long this will remain so is questionable.

->IOHN JIGGINS

12 1 . • H .:

.F6RTUR6-The relationship between humans and

other animals has been a subject of philosophy since people began philosophising. One of the earliest statements of position was the bible.

"Every moving thing that liveth shall be meat for you; even as the green herb have I given you all things" - Genesis 9:3

The bible gives people leave to use animals and makes a clear distinction between humans and anbnals.

In the other breedmg ground of Western thought. Ancient Greece, there were two factions. Pythagoras seems to have been the origmal Animal Libber, largely because he believed that in animals dwelled the souls of dead men. He was a vegetarian and be­lieved animals should be treated with respect.

The more influential movement in Greek philosophy began with Plato and his student Aristotle. Aristotle believed that animals exist for the use of humans. Tliis belief formed the basis of the relationship between humans and other animals in Western society.

The attitude of people to animals did not improve for centuries and at times became decidedly worse. The Romans derived great pleasure from watching animals tear each other apart.

Theologians gave little consideration to the rights of animals for centuries. Even the original hippy St. Francis of Assissi, had no problem reconciling his love of animals with eating them. St. Francis loved all the worid, even rocks. It was a glorious gift from God to people.

Anunal rights reached an all time low in the time of Descartes. He believed that anunals were automata or machines and tliat they were incapable of any feelings. In his time vivissection became common, with its practitioners absolved fiom guilt by Descarte's theories. Cries of pain from animals were merely meclianical reactions, not true suffering.

But enlightenment came to a certain extent, when philosophers like David Hume began advocating "gentle usage" of anunals. With intellectual progress came practical reactions. In 1800 a bill was introduced to the House of Commons in England to prevent the sport of bull-baiting. It failed, but the movement had begun.

Anunals were beginning to achieve their rights, but it wasn't until Darwin published die Descent of Man that the great gulf perceived between humans' and anunals was closed.

hi modern times the plight of animals has worsened to some extent because of advances in science and population growth. Huge numbers of animals are used in laboratory experiments; and the rearing of animals for food has become factory farming.

Contemporary philosophers have become concerned with our treatment of other animals. A movement to improve the lot of anunals found focus with Peter Singer's book 'Animal Liberation, A New Ethics for our Treatment of Ammais'.

In his book Smger presents strong and emotional arguments for supporting equal rights for animals. He gives detailed des-.criptions of the treatment of anunals on farms and in laboratories. He advocates the end of speciesism, a term he coins for prejudice in favour of one's own species. He argues strongly for vegetarianism, wliich he believes is basic to improvement in the plight of animals. And that Animal Libera­tion should take precedence to other issues.

"It is true that there are many prob­lems in the workl deserving our time arui energy. Famine, poverty, racism, war. Women's Liberation, inflation and unempbyment, the environmetit ~ all are major issues, and who can say which is the most important? . . , We have been trying to prevent these things for years, and now we have to ^mit that we really don't

SEMPER

•HAfr

ANIMAL" LI5ERATI0N

In the light of recent statements from the Cattlemen's Union on the dangers of Animal Liberation, ANNE JONES investigated the move­ment and poses the question "What is a happy chook?"

know how to do it. By comparison, the reduction of the suffering of non-human animals at the hands of humans will be relatively easy, once human beings set themselves to do it."

Robert Elliot from the Department of PhUosophy at the University of Queensland, said tliat Smger's basic premise was tliat humans should stop the suffering tliat animals have to endure m our treatment of them. Mr. Elliot explained that Singer is a Utilitarian, and so has a tendency to see the issues concerned with the Hberation of non-humans as clear cut. Singer believes tliat humans should stop eating meat and use 'other methods' for experimentation.

Mr. Elliot agreed that while the ex­perimentation on animals could be reduced considerably, it would be difficult to stop the practice altogether without effecting

the level of research. Mr. Elliot said that it is important to examine our treatment of animals in terms of justice, to assess the rightness and wrongness of our actions.

One of the most ridiculous aspects of human attitudes towards animals is the in­consistency. In the United States a series of experiments by the Department of Defence which began in 1961, used beagles td" test the effects of radiation. Tliis caused an enormous public outcry, forcing the experimenters to switch to rats. The public is very sensitive to the culling of baby seals and yet millions of foxes, minks, rabbits etc. are slaughtered every year for the clothing industry.

Mr. Elliot said that one of the most in­teresting by-products of the Animal Liberation movement was the mtroduction of Applied Philosophy courses In univer­

sities all over the world. Courses are being established where students examine prac­tical issues in the terms of pliilosopliical morality.

Arthur Preston, who works with the Animal Behaviour Unit, at the University of Queensland, is engaged in the design of cages for battery hens. He said he was concerned for the welfare of anunals but that we should exploit them. He said it was extremely difficult to assess the feelings of animals: whether they were liappier in a caged or uncaged state. And posed the eternal question: "What is a happy chook?"

Mr. Preston said he was also irrUated by public hypocrisy and inconsistency. With current public reaction to the export of live horses, people are reacting hysterically not because these animals are being transported m outrageous conditions, but because they are being exported as food.

Despite inconsistencies; and disagree­ment on the level of commitment necessary, if one examines the plight of animals it is clear sometiiing has to be done. On 28 November, 1979, Animal Liberation began in Queensland.

Jacki Batzloff, the secretary of Animal Liberation outlined the course of action being taken by tliat group in Queensland. The main concern at present is hi the area of intensive farming. The first projecl is chooks. Animal Liberation is trying to stop the use of batteries for chickens, where thousands of laying hens are kept in small cages in sheds. Instead they want systems of enclosures that hold around 160 hens allowed to roam around with a shelter shed for their use. They are approaching the Department of Primary Industries, and hope to meet with representatives of the poultry industry.

When that battle is resolved on to pigs. Of course there is a little dabbling in other issues like transportation of live animals and support for the Beauty Without Cruelty movement.

Ms. Batzloff was one of the founders of the Liberation movement in Queens­land. Membership is about 170 people, growing. One of the aims of Animal Liberation is to affiliate with groups of similar interest to form an effective political lobby.

Ms. Batzloff stressed tliat the group was trying to achieve its aims tiuough discussion not militancy.

"Animal Liberation is nol Miss Piggy burning her bra".

The Animal Liberation movement is gaining ground, but not all its adherents take their conuiiitment to the extreme of vegetarianism. Although many people give up eating meat and using animal products for moral reasons.

Heather Graliani from the Vegetarian, Vegan and Natural Health Society of Queensland said that although there were no figure available on the number of people that refrain from eating meat, she felt the number was growing. The motivation of people changing to vegetarianism, she said, was a mixture of moral and health reasons.

Ms. Graham said that people were not meant to eat meal, tliat the body is not designed to cope with meat digestively. She said tliat when animals are to be. slaughtered they sense it, and produce adrenalin wliich is poisonous to humans.

***

So Animal Liberation has joined die ranks of the other movements that strive to make tliis world better. Pick up an Animal Liberation badge to wear in ro­tation with all the others. Although one might sneer at tliis movement, speciesism is rife in our society, and should be elimin­ated or at least reduced.

-ANNE JONES

13

Australias' Hidden Courts The liberty of tens of thousands of Australians is determined behind closed

doors in hidden courts. These courts hold session without advocates, without strict rules of evidence, without the appearance of the party involved, and often beyond public scmtiny.

Hidden courts arc of two kinds: formal and informal. The ideal type of a formal hidden court is the Parole Board. Silting in secret, the members of the board decide when prisoners are to be released. In Queensland, the Board has discretion over 50% of the term being served, and sometimes over much larger fractions of the prison sentence. In this respect its power is at least equal to that of tlie sentencing judge.

It is a curious irony that considerable money, expertise and energy is often vested in swaying the sentence of the judge, but little is done (or can be done) to sway the decision of an equaUy powerful sentencing authority - the Parole Board. Further, there is no adversary system within the Board. Neither the prisoner nor his legal represent­ative has right of appearance.

The rationale of the Board lies in the belief that what is being dispensed is mercy, not justice. But this is not so. There is evi­dence to indicate thai judges take inlo account prevailing parole practices in passing their sentences. An unpublished study undertaken by the Western Australian parole authorities has found that sentences imposed for break and enter offences increased by 37.8% after parole was introduced. The nett effect was to increase the actual amount of prison time served. (Ruialdi, Parole in Australia (A.N.V., 1974) p. 251).

The Superintendent of a prison in Queensland also operates in the manner ofa

hidden court. Under Section 32 of the Qld. Prisons Act, the Superintendence may hear, determine and impose penalty in various matters, including such offences as "making groundless compalints" (Regulation 257), More serious matters concerning prisoners are determined by the Visiting Justice whose court is not open to the public {Prisons Act, section 33 (8)).

Other formal hidden courts include the Social Security Appeals Tribunal, the Aboriginal Courts on Queensland Reserves, and the Mental Health Review Tribunal. They all share, in varying degrees, the fol­lowing characteristics:

1. the court is closed to the public; 2. the court does not allow the appear­

ance of a person's legal representative (and sometimes the appearance of the affected party itself);

3. there is no effective adversary system;

4. reasons for the court's decision are not given;

5. there are no formal rules of evidence. Informal hidden courts are even more

secreted from public awareness. For example, officers of the Department of Children's Services in Queensland make decisions about how long children are to remain in institutions; where they are to be placed on their release; whether a particular child is to be put into a foster-home or an institution, etc. For a boy or girl already in care and coming up for a court appear­ance, the Children's Court is an irrelevancy. The real decision about whether he or she

is to be put back into a children's home is made in the "hidden court" of depart­mental process. It is often a wholly arbitrary decision by a Child Care Officer or ad­ministrator. Almost invariably the child is not consulted in thai decision-making pro­cess. Almost invariably the child has no advocate to speak on his behalf in that "hidden court".

Informal "hidden courts" operate in the prisons in the granting of "remissions" which is regarded as a privil^e rather than a right. Up to a third of one's sentence may De aetermmed by the prison autiiorities with little accountability to their decision. Initial decisions about when a person is "ready" to come out of a mental hospital are similarly made in an informal "hidden court" in Queensland. This is subject to appeal.

All persons with literacy, healtii or educational problems are placed at a dis­advantage in dealing with the "hidden courts". Aboriginal people particularly are affected as they constitute some 30%, of the population of the prisons and child welfare institutions.

This article is reprinted from 'SUBJECT OR CITIZEN', a coUection of papers and addresses given at the Fifth National Con­vention on Civil Liberties (Brisbane, July 1977). Edited by M. McPherson and J. Riggs, the publication includes essays on civil liberties, police powers, racism, abortion and mental health. The price is S5, and orders and enquiries should be addressed to: Queensland Council for Civil Liberties, P.O. Box 43, St. Lucia 4067.

The solution to the problems posed by the "hidden courts" is not to make them like our inherited English courts: rather it is to make theh structure more equitable and to develop a new species of advocate able to assist clients ui negotiating the decision­making which affects theu- lives. University courses in social-work/law would help, and would afford a welcome balance to the. commerce-law push with which Australian law schools have been so fascinated.

- Matt Foley

SUBURBAN PRIVACY

Visitors must come to the front door . . . blinds and curtains should be drawn on bedroom windows , . . family activities in the backyard are not meant to be seen by neighbours . . . visiting salesmen should not be invited past the front door.

These are the house rules for the average Australian, according to CSIRO researcher Rick Finighan who has carried out a study of privacy in suburbia.

Mr. Finighan, of CSIRO's Division of Building Research in Melbourne, believes that the study shows clearly that Australians feel that privacy is of considerable importance to the individual.

In his survey of four Melbourne suburbs, Mr. Finighan found that"most of the home­owners regarded their home as being "off stage" - a place where the individual re­laxes and casts off some of the roles he plays in the community.

"Tills is reinforced by closed doors, shut gates, and opaque curtains across windows," Mr. Fmighansaid.

"Other methods of maintaining privacy included lUtle or no contact with neigh­bours, planting trees and shrubs, dogs which barked or even attacked strangers, and ap­prehension about being seen in the back yard," he added.

During the survey, 200 homes were jtudicd in the Melbourne suburbs of Glen Waverley, Noble Park, Malvern East and Balwyn North.

Almosi everyone questioned complained about some aspect of the design of their homes, mostly expressing dissatisfaction with the size oi service areas.

"About one third of individuals had already made some alteration lo their iiomes, and others were plaiming lo make changes including the construction o{ play

rooms, rumpus rooms or family leisure areas," Mr. Finighan said.

Other occupants said that, while they did not like high fences and walls, many had conslriKicd them to prevent people looking in from the street, or to restrict visibility from the neighbours.

Mr. Finighan, a sociologist, said the survey revealed that while the need for privacy was wtal to most of the residents in the survey, tlie methods for which this privacy was obtained sometimes meant that occupants became lonely in their homes.

He added lliat the problem of providing for privacy was only now being faced by the building industry and the community.

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TO HELL WITH AAORALITY

The present day decline in moral values is alarming many church leaders and educationalists. But to philosopher IAN HINCKFUSS, it is a welcome step. He sees morality as an obstruction to happiness, and hopes for a time when churches are abolished and everyone is amoral. In this article he presents the case for scrapping morality, and argues for rational solutions to conflict.

Conflict is not always distasteful to people. Competition is enjoyed by sadists and ego-maniacs who win most of the time, as well as by masochists who do not. Even ordinary people enjoy a tussle now and then. But conflict can often be annoying. When people are pulling against one another, neither may get anywhere. If they co-operate both may get what they want quickly. Conflict can be frustrating when it comes to satisfymg desire.

However, conflicts can be resolved without satisfaction. A duel may end a conflict, but leave one person dead and the other maimed for life. Both parties could liave enjoyed life more if the conflict liad been left unresolved. So the question is not whether or not conflicts can be resolved more readily using morality, but whether the use of morality leads to optunai satisfaction of the disputing parties. My claim is that morality does not do so.

For moral considerations to be useful in solving a dispute, all parties must agree on what their moral values and obligations are. Or, failing agreement on moral values, they must have a common moral leadership — magistrate, priest, parent, school-teacher, or poUtical leader - whose authority they are wiUing to accept. Where these conditions are lackiiig, the dispute may develop into mutual denigiations and by disputants feeling morally justified in resorting to sanctions of piiysical violence or even death. In this way a moral agent lias an increased, not a lessened, motive for treathig his op­ponent like a dangerous anunal. The desire to punish or seek retribution accom­panied by moral indignation adds to any original desire to resolve the conflict quickly, if necessary by force.

Of course there is no guarantee that moral agents in conflict will choose the same moral leadcrsliip or share the same moral ideals. Hence we have the situation in Northern Ireland (unresolved after about four hundred years of violent conflict), the sUuation m Lebanon (unresolved after about eight hundred years of conflict between Christian and Moslem - infidel and iieathen), the Palestinian Arabs versus the Zionists, the Vietnamese versus the Khmer and the Chinese, all the wars of religion, all the bloodletting of the two world wars - the list goes on.

Thmk of any one of these conflicts and of how die situation would have been if, by a miracle, moral tiiought could have been eradicated from the minds of all the agents involved. I, for one, cannot conceive of how the conflicts would have proceeded. There would have been no sense of duty.

SEMPER

no sense of loyalty, no patriotism, no feeling moraily obhged to fi^t for a cause, no sense that the people one was trying to kill or subjugate were less worthy of survival or freedom than oneself or anyone else.

I do not deny there could be war without morality. But it would be difficull without moral propaganda to get a whole nation determined to attack, plunder, slaughter and subjugate anotiier group of people. Co-operation has a pleasant sound to it. But people can co-operate to do many thmgs which disgust or endanger others. In cases of moral disagreement morality tends to increase the conflict.

Let us turn now to tiie less bellicose situation in wliich the contenders agree on their moral values or agree to abide by the moral rulings of the moral elite whom they both respect. Let us assume they are both moral agents who want above all to do whatever is right. Then the conflict may be quickly and amicably resolved. But will it be resolved in a way that maximises satis­faction?

Just because morality can in some cases quickly resolve conflict does not mean the resolution leads to optimal satisfaction. Indeed a moral arbitrator may rule that both sides have a morai obligation to fight it out. It was not very long ago that men in Europe felt morally obliged to defend their honour by duelling. Even in this century. Hitler's bellicose morality led to conflict between races. But even where the moral elite are opposed to conflict, theh rulings will pro­bably displease one and often both sides leaving the parties with only the artificial satisfaction of doing what they believe is right.

WHAT IS THE ALTERNATIVE?

Morality inhibits the rational solution of conflict because its artificial nature puts an irrational random element into the decision making process. If this is so and il the claims made above are true, do we not need an alternative to morality?

This question reminds one of the person who suggests to the man who is liit ting his mouth with a brick that he stops. 'What is the alternative?' the masochist asks, as if stopping were not enough - as if something else were required.

Choosing to make social decisions without reference to moraUty is not like choosing to eat an apple rather than a peck of dirt. It is more like just doing without the peck of dirt.

Doing without morality is not a positive cure for all the stresses, strains and con­flicts within society; it is just doing without something that is likely to cause more stress and strain than it alleviates. Deciding to work towards a society with a minimum of conflict and a maximum of satisfaction is another decision.

Using morality as a device withm the resolution of conflicts is like usmg a brick as a toothpick. If you want to be rid of the fibre between your teeth and you do not want broken teeth, then throw the brick away, and think of how best you can rid yourself of the fibre without it.

Likewise if you want to minimise conflict and you do not want widespread denigration, guilt complexes, elitism, authoritarianism, economic inequality, insecurity and war, then tlirow morality away and think how best you can resolve conflict without it.

RATIONAL RESOLUTION OF CONFLICT

The rational resolution of conflicts involves the co-operation of the parties involved in:

a. sorting out any conceptual confusions between tittm relevant to the conflict,

b. finding out the facts of the case relevant to the conflict, and

c. if it is still necessary, devismg ways of solving their mutual problem.

The object of reqiUrements (a) and (b) is to eliminate the possiblity of a dispute continuing when there is no conflict of mterests, but merely a belief that there is. Perhaps over seventy-give per cent of dis-puates are artificial in this way. Step (c) relates to the work to be done when the detective work and conceptual analysis have made it clear tliat a real conflict of interests is at hand.

I do not argue that if everyone forgot morah'ty, all conflicts would be resolved in an amicable, rational maimer. There are pasaons besides moral feeUngs which can engender uratwnality in group decision makmg. In particular, there is the fear of losing something for which one feels a need - food, clothing, shelter, security, ^o-satisfaction, the company of other people, loving and being loved in retiu'n.

Let us turn to (a). The object of this requirement is to ensure that the dis­putants are not at cross-purposes. For example, some woman who styles herself as an anti-socialist may believe herself to be in dispute with another who thuiks of herself as a socialist. During discussion it turns out tliat what the first woman means by 'socialism* is the bureaucratic control of the means of production, distribution and exchange; whereas the second means the democratic control of the means of production, distribution and exciiange. Both turn out to be in favour of the latter and opposed to the former.

Requirement (b) means the disputants will co-operate in fmding out the facts relevant to the dispute. Someone may believe falsely that an act of which they disapprove has or will be committed by some other person. The simple act of asking what has or will be done usually sets fears at rest. However, the facts might not be revealed so easily. People may be dishonest about their behaviour if they fear the resulting conflict will be competitive or result in vrithdrawal of affection, moral denigration or imprisonment. Insecurity begets distwnesty.

The approach should be made as a friend, not as a potential enemy bristling with accusation, moral indignation or threats.

(continued next paga)

17

TO HELL WITH MORALITY (continued from previous pagol

Mazafcr Slicrif has stressed the counter-productiveness of casting blame in conflict situations. He says:

As a solutbn to inlergroup conflict the assessment of bbme is never more tlmn a first step. Without mutual agreement on this step, the query "who's to bkme?" invariable leads to a vicious circle of recritnimtions tliat ititensify conflict.

Afier the relevant and intended bc-luiviour of all concerned has been estab­lished, the dispute may hinge on the ex­pected consequences. I'or example, grazier Joe is worried by plans of grazier Dan to build a dam on Dan's property. The area is arid and Joe fears the dam will mean less water for his stock. But Dan has done his homework. He has consulted with experts and has figures to prove the water supply to Joe's property will not be affected. Joe rests assured.

But if there remains a dispute what can be done? The first point is Ihat in mosl conflicts of desire, the desires in conflicts arc secondary. That is, the objects of desire (e.g. the dam) are not wanted for their own sake, but because they satisfiy a deeper desire. Conflicting secondary desires may not mean tliat there is inconsistency between desires al a deeper level. Thus grazier Dan did not relish the idea of building a dam for its own sake. Building a dam is a lot of expense and trouble. He wants the dam so he can reliably water his slock and save money. Grazier Joe has the

same motivations in wanting the dam not buik.

The way to solve their problems it to satisfy their common fundamental desire (water for their stock), other than via the secondary desires (dam, no dam) which brought them into conflict.

Competitive resolution of conflicts results in at most one winner. Co-operative resolu­tion usually results in everybody being satisfled.

h is not only through fear of moral denigration that morality can Inhibit rational solution of conflicts. If one party in a dispute can convince the other .that their aims are contrary lo a moral principle, then the dispute is resolved at the expense of one of the disputant's satisfaction. If the two parties have different moral intuitions about which moral principle overrides which in the given situation, then there can be an outbreak of morai denigration which can only exacerbate the conflict. Tliis is the standard situation which prevails with respect fo industrial, political and inlernational disputes. Donald Nightingale sums up the matter:

When a conflict situation is defined in temis of absolutistic values or in terms of ideological principles, parties have little room to manoeuvre. Beliefs about human rights, moral precepts and uieology cannot be sacrified piecemeal to an opponent. There is an "all-or-nothing" quality to such con­flict situations which makes resolution difficult.

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MORALITY AND THE FAILURE OF RATIONAL CONFLICT RESOLUTION

People may be irrational ui solving their conflicts for a variety of reasons including, as we have seen, moral considerations. The failure may come about in two ways. Firstly, one or both of the disputants may not co-opcratc in solving the problem. Secondly, even with co-operation from all concerned, a conflict of fundamental interests may remain.

Now some people may think if is an abuse of morality to use if in conflicls unless all else fails. That is where morality comes inlo ifs own, the claim would be. One could morally enjoin others to solve conflicts rationally, and could use morality if all else failed.

Let us first examme the moral injunction to try solving conflicts rationally. As I have argued, resolving conflicts rationally entails solving them withoui regard to morality.

So we are being morally enjoined to forget about morals in conflicts. The position, if not inconsistent, is rather strange.

A similar situalion occurs using morality where conflict remains at a fundamental level afier rational means have failed. If the morals invoked then have any substance, why should they not be invoked at any stage of the proceedings? And if there are times when wc should nol invoke them, why should anyone believe that there are times when they should be invoked?

ALTRUISM

It is a logical truth that one wants to satisfy one's own desires. But it is a matter of psychological fact whether those desires include the satisfying desires of someone else, that is, whether one is altruistic. Altruism Is not so much a matter of sym­pathy, of automatically be affected by the feelings of others - though of course that helps. Empathy, the ability to understand what the other person is likely to want,

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Ian Hinckfuss is a lecturer in the Depart­ment of Philosphy at the University of Queensland. This article is an edited versbn of Chapter 3 ofa book he hopes to publish soon, "To Hell With Morality".

Ian describes himself as 'pretty anar­chistic' and hopes the book will further society's trend towards amorality. He wants society to operate in a less elitist, . autltoritarmn and aggressive manner, atyd sees the Family Law Courts as an example of this taking place.

even where one does not sympathise with those wants, is more like what is required. Though if one is not particularly em-pathetic, one can always ask. But altruism is wanted for the rational resolution of conflicts particulariy where rational methods lead to a stalemate. Cases of stalemate in society would, 1 believe, be rare. Neverthe­less they would be a nuisance if altruism was nol present to ensure that conflicting parlies came to the mosl satisfying decision.

Note how very differently altruism would operate compared with the in­tuition of moral obligations. Altruism would tend to optimise satisfaction. Moral intuition could lead lo almost any result al all. Nor does it make sense to ask people to be altruistic, let alone morally enjoin Ihem to be altruistic. People are either al­truistic or they are not. It makes sense lo ask someone to stand up or to say that they have a moral obligation to stand up. But it does not make sense to ask them to be taller or to say Ihey have a moral obligation to be taller. Likewise it does not make sense to ask someone to have some desire or other or to say that they have a moral ob­ligation to have that desire.

How then, can we get people to be altruistic if not by asking them to be so or by moralising at Ihem? If psychologists such as Maslow are to be believed, then what one must do is ensure people are fed, clothed, housed and made fo feel secure. Perhaps Maslow's theories need elucidation

and development and there is a need for more research in this area. If we want our socieiy to be rid of unnecessary conflict, this is the area in which we should put our intellectual efforts, rather than waste our time chasing mirages in the deserts of normative ethics.

For those who are sceptical about the possibility of increasing altruism in society m this way, there is a more self-regarding mechanism which encourages altruism. Everyone soon learns the advantages of receiving co-operation from others. But such co-operation is unlikely from those who do not trust us - from tiiose who believe we may behave in ways which are detrimental to their interests. Such people will want to distance themselves from us -to put themselves in a position where .our actions are less Ukely to have an effect upon them. If we wish to reverse this tendency, it is necessary for us to become trustworthy in the eyes of as many people as possible - to be thought of as people who are likely to act m the interest of others.

It is this mechanism, rather than moral •injunctions, which encourages us to abide by our promises and contracts, to be open and honest in our dealings with others and to be predictable and co-operative in our own behaviour. There is no reason to believe the same mechanism would not allow us to resolve conflicts rationally withoui appeal to morality, if we were given the opportunity to do so. D

Acknowledgements:

The techniques of rational conflict resolution described here are akin to the techniques used by Gary Malinas, Nicholas Syorenyi-Reischl and myself among others, for the resolution of conflicts arising out of the detention of the South-Vietnamese ambassador to Australia by students in the relaxation block at the University of Qld in 1970. Whilst advertising our efforts in that regard we met the late Dr. Joan Tully of the Department of Agriculture at the University of Qld who had been using and teacliing for many years similar techniques which she called 'Change Modelling'. How­ever, I do not wish to hold Gary, Nick or Joan responsible for the anarchistic and amoral overtones of the present paper, and of course any errors are my oivnl' '

18

How to Survive the Men in Blue

In the light of the controversy surrounding the current amendments to the Police Act it is perhaps an opportune time to look at some existing police powers and extract some advice for the future.

In April 1977 an amazing document was tabled in the Qld. Parliament in the form of the Report of the Criminal Law Inquiry. The Report was written by Supreme Court Judge Lucas, ex-police superintendent Don Becker, and barrister Des Sturgess. It in­cluded an extraordinary catalogue of in­stances of police abuses of power and found that 'verballing' (concocting confessions) and 'giving of presents' (planting of in­criminating material like a gun or drugs) were widespread practices witiiin the Qld. police force.

This reflects the experience of every practising crinunal lawyer in Queensland and is only amazing in tiiat a Bjelke-Petersen inspired Inquiry publicly revealed the extent police do abuse their existing powers.

Naturally the Report was shelved and in keeping with the precedent set by the police bat toning of a female sludent in 1976, no investigations of individual incidents cited in tiie Report were carried oul, and named bashers and verballers have since been promoted.

THE RIGHT TO SILENCE IS FUNDAMENTAL

In a court of law no adverse inference can be drawn from a failure by the suspect to articulate any reason for the conduct in question or explanation of his/her where­abouts. It is always wise to give your name and address when requested by police though they have the power to request this mformation only under some Acts (e.g. Traffic Act, Liquor Act and Health Act).

Only in a small number of cases is il advisable to talk to police. For example, where police Iiave evidence that property in your possession is stolen. If you give an innocent or reasonable explanation -especially if the price you paid for it was not unduly below its value - you may nol be charged or at least you have laid the found­ation of your defence on the spot.

Incidents of police brutality appear to be rife in Brisbane, particularly involving street marchers, homosexuals and others whose beliefs differ from the government's. University Legal Aid Solicitor NOEL NUNAN offers the following advice on how to survive an Interview with the men in blue.

Otherwise say somclhing like this:

"I'm not guilty of the offence and I am quite prepared to icU you the whole story, but I am upset now and I want a lawyer's assistance so I can make sure that what I say is not in any misrepresented OIKI tliat I give the whole story. Please get me a kwyer "

The police should Ihen co-opcratc and indeed some do, but a more familiar rcs­ponse is along the lines of the following example:

/ can hit you all night without leaving bruises, you dead c. . t, tint's my job, I've never left a bruise yet. If you don't write a fucking state­ment, I'm goiitg to punch your teeth so far down your tlvoat, you'll have to shove a tootlibrush up your arse to clean them. Alright smart arse, if you want to phy it this way you can, we'll write a statement for you if you like. Who do you thmk the magis-trate's going to believe when we get up there in court and tell a bullshit story and you try to get up and tell

a differetu story? YOU'K had it now mate, mushrooms for supply, we'll say you reckoned you were going to sell them to the kids at the Toowong High School, or better still, the Brisbane Grammar School.

This charming approach was used by a well known Qld CIB detective wliile inter­viewing a sludeni on a drug charge last year. It illustrates the physical and some of psychological tactics regularly used by police to extraci a signed confession-

Othcr favourite tactics from the police repertoire are more subtle and rely on the fear of the unknown.

Play good guy - bad guy A particularly conniving trick used to

ingratiate the friendly cop into your con­fidence and convince you that it's best to cooperate with him.

Threaten fo charge a friend if YOU do not admit guilt

This is a clever psychological ploy which appeal lo one's sense of heroic self-sacrifice. Don't succumb as they arc invariably bluffing.

Tlneaten to by another charge if you don't confess

The usual threat here is "possession of property suspected of being stolen" like a marked beer glass or roadworks lamp. This is answered simply ui a rented house by pointed out they were present in the house when you moved in.

IVomise to go easy on you or put in a good woik to the Judge

Promises such as these are total hes. Even tiiough you might flunk a conviction h inevitable the law is highly technical and the onus of proof beyond a reasonable doubt is strict so police try hard to establish your 'intention' to commit the olTence by getting a statement, preferably signed.

Oearly a police interview prior to being cliargcd is not a pleasant experience. For many people cMyblishing innocence is just not worth several hours of virtual physical and psychologic;)! terror. (To-operate and sign on the dolled line for the sake of your physical and mcr.iai health.

Bul for thcs'." made of stronger stuff holding oul is well worth the effort when later defending the charge(s) in court.

You may ewn be ludiy enough to sustain a visible bruise or injury. If this happens register a complaint with the senior officer at the watchhouse, go imraediafely to your doctor or a hospital and insist they note full details of all pain and inguries, and finaUy have photographs tidken in both colour and black and white.

Meanwhile remember: 1. You are not obliged to go with the

police unless you have been fomially arrested and you know the charge(s)

2. If at home try to tape record the pro­ceedings.

3. You have a right to remain S1L£NT. 4. Ask to telephone a solicitor (check the

yellow pages) 5. Try not to panic or allow yourself to

be liassled. Taking conscious deep breaths helps.

6. Resisting arrest or being abusive does not help and generally results in further charges.

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SEMPER 19

- fcJTM* •"• ' '' • l l " • - — — —--— — - ^ • • "^—nri

RALLYING ROUND THE FLAG A decade or so ago, American university students were in the forefront of opposition to

conscription and involvement in Vietnam, With the Soy'iet \nya$\on of Afghanistan;, the possibility of conscription and military intervention is once again raising its ugly head, both in Australia and the United States.

The following letter, written by prominent political scientist PROFESSOR CHRISTIAN BAY of Toronto, was sent to universities across America. The tone of the letter suggests a swing to conservatism on American campuses. Most notably, debate on conscription appears to be centred, not on the merits of fighting an oil war in Iran, but about whether or not women should be conscripted.

Editor: PRESIDENT CARTER brought

some new faces to Washington, but U.S. foreign and military policies are run by the same old crowd. The folks that gave us Vietnam, and gave the Somoza dynasty to the Nicara-guans, the shah to the Iranians, Pinochet to the Chileans.

Now they are preparmg to edge us closer to Worid War III. They want their pawns to get ready; they want young people to register for a new draff,just in case.

And that is not all. President Carter has announced his readiness to use military force against "any attempts by any outside force to gain control of the Persian Gulf region". God help us all if the Ayafollah expires and feudalism falters in Iran: there are a lot of young leftists in that country, many of them pro-Soviet.

Meanwhile, those great strategic minds in Washington are now going to try to bolster General Zia's hated re^me in Pakistan with huge shipments of arms. Perhaps you wH! soon be asked to go over there and help Zia keep his people in line.

But the folks m Washington don't want you to think about that. Just rally around the flag, please. Remember the hostages, and don't ask any questions about our foreign policy. Above all, don't debate the draft; instead, debate whether women, too, should be drafted [

American presidential election years are becoming more and more dangerous for all of mankind. Macho-politics are at a premium, especially, as I.F. Stone has warned us on many occasions, when the Democrats are in power, and on the defensive against right wing Republicans.

As Mr. Waldheim apparently found out in Iran, the hostages could soon have been freed, had the Americans been willing to go along with a U.N .-sponsored tribunal to investigate the crimes of the shah and his American supporters. That was, of course, out of the question. How could the United States protect the morale of all the other oppressive client-regimes, if Washington now were to be a party to condemning the shah? As the shah himself wisely observed, such a tribunal would have far-reaching consequences.

So the stalemate continued. Even our

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military leaders conceded their impotence: the lives of the hostages could not be saved by military action. American opinion became increasingly furious; it was indeed an unprecedented violation of international law to take diplomats as hostages. But Itaiuan opinion, too, was enraged. Un­precedented or not, was this crime, without the shedding of blood, as heinous as the crimes of the shah and his American accomplices over so many years? East is East and West is West.. .

Then came the Soviet military invasion of Afghanistan, at the invitation of the shaky Soviety-supported regime. Washington's pent-up fury over the Tehran. situation could now be given free vent against the USSR. American anti-SALT sentunent could now be appeased by the new Mr. Carter, and the dream of peace, and the hopes for a de-escalating arms race, could be thrown out of the window.

The stockmarket responded favourable right away. An early end to the recession is now anticipated. Prospects for war always mean a big upswing for arit^ production, steel, autos and the many related industries.

Ironically, the first semi-official American reactions to the Soviety mvasion of Afghan­istan were almost gleeful. The Soviets were said to have gotten themselves into a Vietnam-type no-win situation of their own. But then a total ban on any further mention of Vietnam would seem to have followed, to allow President Carter to wax indignant over this unprecedented act of aggression, which all the world must now condemn.

Over the last 30 years the United States has consistently been the leader in overall arms expenditures for strategic as well as tactical arms production and deployment. The USSR with its weaker economy has had to struggle to avoid falling too far behind, and to repress dissidents harshly to preserve discipline. It has caught up with and surpassed the United States in some weapons systems, but has repeatedly, and even last year, tried to achieve de-esralating agreements. In the USSR, too, there are hawks, however, and their infiuence in the Kremlin grows whenever Soviet peace initiatives are rebuffed m Washington.

The situation prior to the invasi«n of Afghanistan was all in favour of_ the Moscow hawks. With the U.S. Senate likdy to vote down SALT II, or to ratify it only at the price of a massive new MX-system; with West European nuclear defense forces about to be escalated (and a deaf ear in NATO to a Soviet proposal to reduce their nuclear missile strength in Europe instead); and with evidence of increasing US-Chinese military collaboration; the Russians may well have become increasingly pessimistic about the prospects for peace. When the Afghan regime seemed in danger of collapsing, the hawks evidentiy won the day in Moscow.

A costiy mistake it was, I am sure, and a crime that must be condemned. But a heinous, unprecedented crime, as Mr. Carter repeatedly asserts? Not by the standards the American government has set, over the last 30 years.

If we avoid a wider war until past the presidential elections, will cooler heads come to prevail? Or will we, and more particularly you, be bogged down in another war in Asia? Or will some irresponsible jingo even find his way to one of the many nuclear triggers, and do all of us in?

Much could depend on what American students do, or fail to do, in the months and years ahead.

In the '60s, students were in the fore­front of resisting the American crime's in Indochina. President Johnson conceded that the ururest in the uiuversities had much fo do with his decision not to run again, and to seek to negotiate for peace in Vietnam.

Will the new generation of students wake up and organise a movement to resist the new draft registration before some of you will find yourselves killing and being killed, for no good reason, in Iran or Pakistan or Saudi Arabia?

Or do you prefer to debate whether or not women, too, should be drafted?

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CHART MANIPULATION AreT(x)40's''H;ped''?

Allegations of conuption in the record industiy are as old as the gramaphone. Twenty years ago, the way to make a mediocre song a hit was to bribe the disc jockey or programme manager to play the tune incessanUy. The technique was called payola.

In England recentiy, controversy raged about the way in which radio top forty cliarts were compiled. Record compam"es were found to be manipulating the charts by buying large numbers of smgles and albums at record stores which provided sales information to the radio stations. The result was a totally inaccurate picture of how the records were selUng. Songs that were not at all popular suddenly found thek way onto radio playlists. Saturation exposure led to an increase of sales and more radio airtime. It was a vicious circle.

A variation on the theme was th "hype" record bar employees by gifts of T-shirts and albums into providing false information to the radio stations.

The technique of hyping still goes on today.

Two "official" top forty charts exist in Brisbane - compiled by staff members of radio stations 4BC (who promote it as "Greg Carey's Top 40") and 41P. The other major commercial station, 4BK. also compile a "survey" — but it is not available to the public.

All three stations use the same basic method. THey select about twenty record outlets which are supposedly representative of the Bristeine market. Tlicse stores are contacted by phone every Monday and

Are record companies manipulating the top 40 charts to promote thek own records? BRETT DEBRITZ reports.

asked to provide a list of the most sold singles and albums. These are then assigned a certain number of points - m the case of singles, rangmg from forty for the record with the highest sales fo one for the least sales. (One station works the other way around), hi the case of suburban stores, however, the top angle is awarded only thirty poults by 4BK. When the results of all the stores are added up, the record with the highest number of points is that week's number one single.

It's all very efficient and, in theory, not open to abuse by the record companies.

However, the initial selection of record bars to survey is determined by the record companies themselves. 4BC music director, Ross Meldrum, said that they originally asked the record companies to provide a list of their "best" stores - that is, the ones with the highest turnovers. A spokesperson for Festival records said that he was not aware that this went on. Harry Geran from W-E.A. records said, however, tliat his com­pany had provided a radio station with a list of record stores.

"We recommended to them probably the top twenty five outiets". He said, however, that he had no idea which stores were actually selected by the station.

He seemed to be unaware that the stations ahvays used the same record shops. An employee of the first suburban record store SEMPER contacted, said that the record companies knew that store was used

by all tluee stations. "It's vital to them tliat we do that," she said. A city store em­ployee admitted quite openly that they, too, worked for all tluee radio stations.

m

The radio stations use about twenty stores in their surveys. The telephone book lists only fifty entries under the heading "Records - Retail", Given the apparent openness of the shop assistants, it would not be difficult for the less scrupulous com­panies to compile a target list for hyping operations.

Harry Geran admitted that tliis type of thing went on in the industry, but he denied that his company was involved. He did voice a few concerns about the way in which the

charts were compiled. He said that some record bars were not

as rigorous as most in compiling their charts and consequently, the information they gave was inaccurate. Some staff members suffered from "Mondayitis", others over­rated the sales figures for their own favourite songs. Some were bribed by record companies with gifts of T-shirts and albums,

Mr. Geran stressed the importance of the cliarts: "A lot of people walk into a record bar, and the first thmg they do is look at a record chart," he said. "A lot of stores don't stock records until they're played on the charts". The charts also had a large uifluence on radio playlists.

4ZZZ announcer Bill Riner said that the type of hyping that goes on in the pop industry is neither new nor unique to Brisbane. In fact, he said, if was far worse in the southern states. Most record companies viewed Brisbane as a branch office of Sydney and Melbourne which were the important markets.

He said that it was accepted in music cucles for record companies to give albums to radio stations for competition prizes. In return, the radio stations played tracks from the album.

"It's accepted that if they give thirty records away, the station will play the album. It's an old bullshit way of getting promotion," he said.

However, he said, the practice was not widespread in Brisbane.

"It's not really that corrupt in Brisbane," he said. "It's not big enough for that."

Rock 'n roll is probably one of the largest sexist phenomenom of Ihe 20th century.

Up until the mid seventies, rock munc as a serious art form, was almost the total dominion of P.W.P. (people with penises).

The "girlie" singers of the 60's, such as Jacke DeShannon and the Ronnettes, wiere always the masks of SvengalNike producers such as Phil Spector. As such none of these graups could be considered to be innovative forces within music.

The hippie-cum-flower power revolution of the late 60's did bring fortii a few female notables such as Joplin and Mama Cass, but their existence vras curtailed through flir­tations with the various pharmeceuticals inherent in the hippie culture.

The early seventies saw the emergence of grease rockers sudi as Suzte Quatro. However, her act smacked of archaic macho stances as well as being die latest puppet on the Chinichap strings.

The first real turning point cane in 1977 with the emergence of the new wave of music from London and New Yoric. In those halycon days of punk mayhem, everybody and her dog took the stage for a three chord bash.

The roal gains that were made from this period only became apparent after the death of the punk movement. However, many of the people who were placed under the punk banner for a matter of convenience, really had very littie to do with that movement's anarchic ambitions.

• • •

In 1978, we saw the emergence of one Kate Bush. Adopting the stance of a gotfiic beauty, Ms. Bush captured the collective hearts of mates and females alice.

She could not be plgeon4»led. She was a

perftinctory aspect to the whole Blondie mechanism.

WCMEN in ROCK refreshing figure who defied all previous male preconceptions of female beauty.

One must also consider the impact of Deborah Harry from Blondie. Many feminists seem to place Harry in the same category as morons <such as the Runaways, but she has been the victin of some often

CTUel circumstances. The ambisexual stance of her earlier days

was considered by some cynics to be a calculated ploy, while the sophistication of her post-"Heart of Glass" period was seen as a ritzy move uptown. However, if people looked below the surfatx of the matter, they would find that Harry is only one member of a six piece band. Her image is merely a

There are of course many other females to emerge out of the post-77 period who have created some mnovative music. One need only look at people such as Lene Lovich, Tina Weymouth, Sloussle-Sioux and Poly Styrene.

While the new wave movement pre­cipitated some significant advances for feminist Meals, the disco boom of the same time perrad also made some rather regressive steps.

Disco saw the return of music to the autocratic producer. Giorgio Moroder became the Spector of the seventies. Donna Summer was given some hip respectability and before you could say "Funky Maaan", countless faceless chanteuses sprung up out of nowhere with their sterile dance tunes.

Disco put women (and men for that matter) on the conveyor belt of mass con­sumption. Individuality and creativity counted for zildi in this supermarket of saccharin sweet strings.

Although this was a large step backvrards, it would seem that the latter seventies produced some significant advances for the cause of women involved In rock music. People such as Kate Bush, Deborah Harry and Lene Lovich et al have proved that women can sustain a living out of rode 'n roll.

However, it would be irrational to assume that all male biases could be erased from rock music while Robert Plant still stmts the stage in ridiculously tight jeans. Still the signs are there, and cock rock vyon't liveforever (I hope}.

-TONYGILSON

SEMPER 21

music

Brisbane Sin^ In the past five months, five Brisbane bands have released singles on their

own labels, heralding in a new era in the local music scene. The bands are The Riptides, Just Urbain, Fun Things, Young Identities and the Body Snatchers, with new bands. Toy Watches and Swell Guys also rumoured to have offerings out soon.

Of the above five, the Riptides smgle, Tomorrow's Tears is probably the most awaited. The release of the single marked a time when the band began to be 'accepted' by promoters and commercial radio. The new look Riptides features Andrew Teitch on lead guitar and piano, in place of Alan Reilly who left the band some tune ago. The future looks very bri^t for the boys after being on the fringe for so long.

Which is more than one can say for the Fun Things, who are to play for die last tune on April ISth, only a month after the release of theh brilliang four track smgle. Although complete with suspect titles (i.e. When the

Bu-dman Fiys/Lands and Lipstick), the songs are strong and catchy - a true indication of what tiie band is capable of, without tiie help of Iggy Pop, Radio Birdman and the New York Dolls.

Botii Just Urbain and the Young Identities have recorded follow-ups to tiieir already successful singles. Urbain's first single sold out in three weeks, which is not hard to understand when you consider they were only able to afford to press 100 copies, Their new single Everybody Loves Just Urbain will be released in two weeks time and in larger quantities. The band is re­cording an album which will be ready ui a couple of months, tentatively called Big Time In The Orient.

Fellow Shake Music label partners, Young Identifies, have just put tiie finishing touches to theh new 3-track single titled New Trends complete vwth football chants and tiie sundry. Both are a marked improvement on tiieir last efforts. Urbain even went to the trouble of obtainuig the services of a producer (who failed to f um up in the end), but produced themselves in the final mix-down.

The Toy Watches are rumoured to be seUing only fifty copies in the whole of Australia. The rest are being sent overseas to record companies and magazines. Ob­viously they are hoping for a repeat of the Saints style success, although judging on

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tiieir performances they would be better off sellmg some copies because it will be a long wait. There were plans for an album to be put out featuring most of Brisbane's new wave bands, however these were shelved due to lack of interest and money.

***

These releases have come at a time when

the local music scene looks much healthier than it has in the past. There are twice as many live entertainment venues opening to the likes of Riptides and other local bands, notably Pips Nightclub and Pinocchios in the VaUey, which is run by ex-Razar manager John Reid. Hopefully the scene will not fall apart, as has been the case in the past.

-PETER MILLER

THE CLASH: "London Calling"

This is the most important album for them as it represents a change in style and I think it has worked. The new Clash is here

This album Is a totally 'new product' from a band that has survived the heady days of Punk and k ^ t its ideals intact.

The local media's reaction has been one of acceptance (in most areas) and for the first time it will be played on commercial radio and even make the charts. What is so different about this album from the other two? Quite simply, the Clash has toned down a bit and jazzed up a lot.

Guy Stevens and the Clash went into the studio and tn a short space of time came up with nineteen songs that they all felt were worthy of release. London Calling was released as a single with their best white reggae ever Armegeddon Time on the flip. The other seventeen were put on the double album along with London Catling for the same price as a single album (roughly), so as to not lose any spontaneity and feeling. It was a good move and one that the Clash thought they would have to fight tooth and nail for.

Of the 19, there are five gems with Guns of Brixton being the classic. Written and sung by the bass guitarist Paul Simeon, it stands out as a breath of fresh air in the album. Spanish Bombs and Jimmy Jazz will stand the test of time as will Lost in the Supermarket (sung by the new 'guitar hero' oftheSO's, Mick Jones).

Now you have an indication of what the rest are like, because, unfortunately, the rest follow in the same vein, be it for better or worse. They have the same feel and texture which begins to wear after a couple of weeks, although if you're dedicated it doesn't matter.

to stay with the same vengeance, but with a' jazzy feel to it. Now that most of the barriers have been broken down, we will all hear more Of the Clash and their cohorts.

-PETER MILLER

JOHN FOXX: Metamatic (Metal Beat) John Foxx has finally emerged out of the

smoulders of Ultravox suicide with this fine solo debut.

"Metamatic" sees Foxx continuing his lyrical preoccupations with human aliena­tion, but the mayhem of Ultravox's accom­paniment has been replaced with an elect­ronic background. This synthesized backing serves as the perfect foil for Foxx's sinister scenarios. On tracks such as "Metal Beat", the twisting and turning of nuts and bolts proves to be a most effective device.

With Ultravox, Foxx's creativity was often stifled through other band members trying to assert their individual personalities on the music. This was particularly evident on their last album "Systems of Romance". However, with "Metamatic" Foxx has taken control of his own destiny and has channelled his ideas into the right areas.

The album does not descend into slow indulgent Instrumentals. It rocks at a suffi­cient pace, enabling the listener to maintain an active Interest in the music. All the tracks are of about three minutes in length and all serve to give the listener an insight into the psyche of Foxx.

There are going to be tha predictable comparisons between Foxx and hand-me-downs such as Gary Numan. But Foxx was the oriflinator of the Numan neurosis, and

it is this Bowie clone who owes a debt to Foxx.

This man has finally come of age. He has created an album that fully realises his creative goals. People need not fear the synthesized eges of "Metamatic". It is an

accurate reflection of modern pop trends and helps show that Foxx has his hand on the pulse of current musical taste.

-TONYGILSON

22

TH€Rm6.

A Mx/ern Apocalypse ANGEL CITY: by Sam Shepard, directed by David Bell, La Boite Theatre until 10 May.

"Angel City" is a vision of modern apocalypse. There are five characters on a bare stage. It is, we're told, a producer's office. Lanx, and his partner, Wheeler -the true force behind the project - have on their hands a fihn in production which tlueatens to flounder. This is why Rabbit Brown is here. Magician and artist, he is required to provide, quite Uterally, a miracle. It must be, Wheeler demands, "Not simply an act of terror but something that will drive people off the deep end. Leave them blithering in the aisles... auto-destrucfion". Obsessed by the movies, all five are striving towards some unique, dark liappening. It is their way of holding off the rising corruption in the city outside, a chaos which threatens to engulf their lives; lives.

One of the five, a drummer, is searching for a rhythm pattern glmipsed at once before. It was like another order. During the play he stumbles upon it without realising the fact; he is not to rediscover it.

The implication is that periiaps there was an alternative to the existing state of affairs: the "angel city" of the title. But if there was a possibility of esape from the present then, like the rhytlun, it is lost. These people are locked into their city of angels, but there is nothing angelic here.

On the contrary, the encroaching cor­ruption is made physically manifest: first Wheeler, then Brown undergo bestial trans­formation. For the others theh world splinters. There is an irony in the title, but it's more than that: in tliis town there is

an all-encompassing destruction at work whick cannot be halted.

Sam Shepard is a large, particularly verbal, talent. He has a special talent for explohing the resources of conunon language. His characters live through llieir words, the means by which they hold them­selves together, asserting the imperiled fact of their existence - to themselves and to us. The language is not simple; it is constantly shifting focus, mirroring the instability of the drama. Often it seems to barely restrain an underlying frenzy. When finally the collapse of the order is irreversible, Shepard's invoctive achieves a searing in­tensify.

All this, compounded by the difficulties of realizing an authentic American idiom, place great burdens on actors and director. The flavour of the American tongue is a very complex one; to capture it requires great attention to detail. It is not present here; af best there is only a generalised stage American. Tliis is a problem with much of this production. Given a rapidly changing language, what is necessary is great precision of timing and the careful grading of tension. Too often the full impact of the play is denied by a failure to fully realise the force of the detail. Bul at the heart of the problem is something larger.

This is a play in which hysteria is, at best only precariously controlled. While it may not always be fdly present, it must be felt to be at the heart of things. Here it's

not. There is a want of real intensity, both vocal and physical, in the acting. As a consequence the play fails to compel as it should: the comic moments aren't black enough, and the truly horrific moments are blunted. Yet, despite the large im­perfections tfiis is an imporlant venture.

There is some energy, enough to give us indication of the salient features of the play. Wliile the play itself is uncommonly interestmg: at its best it has a suggestive power that is at once exhilerating and deeply disturbing.

-ALPHA YAP

Sunday Night Stardan

Sunday nights will never be the same. No more boring nights at home with tele-visk>n repeating on you. In the perverse traditron of Stairway To The Stars and Young Talent Time, experimental enter­tainment comes to brighten up the weekend's end, courtesy of the Activities department of the University of Queen^nd's Student Union.

The department is busily preparing a series of "smokers". According to members of the Cambridge Footlights "smokers" are part of the British system of exposmg new talent, informal gatheririgs where anyone can get up and put on an act. Although

SEMPER

the Cambridge smokers are exclusively for comedians, Queensland Uni Sunday Mglits will be showcases for any type of perform­ance, and any level of competence the performer/s can get away with.

For the first perfonnance on Sunday May 4, 'The Fedz" (rumoured to be dis­illusioned ex-Special Branch members from Sydney trying to make it in the punk-rock scene), will make a half-hour guest appear­ance. The Union Jug Band, featuring a noted Student Union Executive, will play revamped rock 'n roll from the fifties and sixties. Other acts will include the Verandah Band and the Carl Mann Jug Band, plus several comedy acts.

The Sunday Nights will be a way for comedians, actors, musicians and other talents to gain exposure without the intimidating presence of television cameras and agitated big-time producers. Far from being merely untelevised "New Faces" type shows they will give professional and semi-professional performers the oppor­tunity fo experiment and deviate from theh well-lried-and-tested acts. And let's face it; what else can Brisbane offer it's entertainment-starved citizens on a Sunday night?

Monetary reward will not exactly be substantial but the act which the audience applauds the loudest will be invited to return the following week for REAL MONEY

and another step on the ladder to super-stardom.

So, if you have an act or want free enter­tainment with Sunday night beer*, come fo the Cement Box Theatre (Beside Schonell Theatre) on Sunday May 4 (Labour Day weekend) between 8pm-midnight, and every Sunday after tliat.

Acts that require technical assistance should be there early. If you have any enquiries direct them to Activities, next to the Creperie, or phone 371 1611, ext. 13 and 19, and ask for Lewy.

'Unlicensed club permit. Only Qld. Uni. students and guests may attend although performers need not necessarily be Uni. students.

0% LaBoiteTheatre ^^ a season of Tive W Australian plays

^ May/Octl980

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FOR DETAILS PHONE

361 1622

23

-Film THE ELECTRIC HORSEMAN: Directed by Sydney Pollack, starring Robert Redford and Jane Fonda; Forum Cinema.

This film is about the battle between corporate interest and in­dividual integrity. Sonny Steele (Robert Redford) a five-times champion rodeo cowboy, promotes a breakfast cereal, but to do this he needs to be drunk most of the time.

The corporation he works for wants to team him with another champion, a former race-horse, and to miUc this combination for all its worth.

Sonny realises the horse is on steroids to cahn him as they go through their routine together. This includes the gaudy, light-bulb studded western outfit which Sonny wears, complete with the compulsory packet of breakfast cereal.

The cash nexus is the door tliat brings this character into the worid of corporate thmking and also under its exploitative commercialism.

When the corporate executives ask him what he thinks of the race-horse, he tells them: "He is an amazing animal, but he doesn't belong in a Las Vegas parking lot". This shows Sonny's concern for the animal and he comes up with an effective solution. He mounts the horse during the show at Ceasar's Palace and rides out onto the stage and continues riding, out of Las Vegas itself. He simply disappears.

The response from the corporation is predictable. One of the reporters covering the event is Hallie Martin (Jane Fonda), who realises that if she finds out where Sonny is hiding, she will have an exclusive story.

When she does find him the inevitable happens. In spite of his brusque manners he is a sensitive, caring person and Hallie and Sonny develop a strong attraction to

each other. Steele intends fo turn Rising Star loose

in the wilderness and Hallie helps him to acliieve this aim. Together they elude the law and after a long trek across the mag­nificent grandeur of Utah, arrive at the place where Rising Star is set free.

This action is not only approved but also applauded by people, right across the country. Ironically, sales figures ofthe cereal reached an all-time high and the corporation announces dropping all charges against Sonny Steele.

This is to give Ihe bare bones of the film, without any mention of its overall ex­cellence.

This film is remarkable for its dorectness and understated simplicity. It is also remark­able for the perceptwn and precision with whkh it describes an individual character,

who is kliosyncratk; enough to resist any­one's definjtk>n.

It is not a film where the director (Sydney Pollack) has allowed the narrative to be typically American, by questioning the commercialism that the country suffers from; its essential interest lies in the fact that it succeeds in recreating life.

The Electric Horseman represents a deep concern about the quality of personal life, that presages a return to more gentle themes. It can be regarded as an indiWdual's search for a sense of distinct identity instead of hving in the false mould of the mythical cowboy, created for him by advertising.

Much of the film's expressive force' comes from its use of colour. There are changes of the overall colour of the scenes through effective blending of the many different hues, especially in the location shots.

The acting is competent throughout.

When producer Ray Stark approached Robert Redford with the story, Redford indicated his eagerness m accepting the role and when he learned who Ws leading lady would be, he became even more enthusiastic.

The role a!k)ws Redford to draw on his acting resources more than perhaps any­thing he has done until now. It proves that he has come a long way from "Barefoot in the Park".

Hallie Martm's insousiance and cool are accurately portrayed by Jane Fonda. Both characters are believable. Audiences, sophis­ticated or not, will be able to link up with them; they newl an outlet for their empathy, which they brought along with them.

This film is a simple one, effectively told. Everything about it proves that in the realm of cinematographic art, one does not need to rely upon scepticism or complexity to make a successful film.

-STEFAN LIPOVICH

TIME AFTER TIME: Balmoral and Gaythorne Cinema. Time After Time is a must for those

who are into the good old style suspense (unlike Alien etc.), as well as for those who like comedy, and even clever dialogue.

All this and an enthralling plot are the makings of an excellent movie, which amazingly enough has been grabbed up by suburban cinemas only.

The screenplay is based on a story by Kari Alexander and Steve Hayes which develops from the idea that H.G. Wells who had built a workable Time Machine, was friends with a Dr. Stevenson (alias Jack The Ripper).

After committing a number of gruesome butcher style murders, the Ripper, on the verge of being found out by the 'Bobbies', takes off with Wells' Time Machme inlo 1979, where he happily resumes his hobby.

Wells follows him in an attempt to bring

the Ripper back to 1893 and face his punishment.

Glad of an excluse to take a glunpse af what he expects to be Utopia, Wells soon finds himself disillusioned and bewildered.

His first experience of the hardened world comes when he hopes to sleep m a church one nighl, the minister says: "Sorry, we're closed now".

Wells whnesses violence and inequality among men (persons?) and as the Ripper tells him, realises he hasn't progressed for­ward but has gone back thousands of years.

Apart from these "deep" exchanges, fhere are many lighthearted moments. Can you imagine a nmeteenth century man being descended on by a crowd of delirious chanting Hare Krishnas?

Casting too plays a great part in the realism of the movie. Malcolm McDowell

stars as H.G. Wells; he is very logical, packed with action and answers, quiet and very cute.

Jack the Ripper played by David Warner has some sort of sinister magnetism about him.

And the leading lady, Mary Steenburgen is a mousy voiced Dianne Keaton act alike, but very appropriate for the role of a liberated woman ui the 1970*s, about to be reduced to the level of a 'ripped up' 1890's prostitute.

If you feel like seeing a movie which leaves you thinking, see Tune After Time, it beats most of the movies showing in town.

Student concessions available, even on Saturday nights.

-LYNDALL WHITE

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JK Staterrjent of Responses A DRANSFIELD YIELD: Michael Dransfield. VOYAGE INTO SOLITUDE; ed. Rodney HaU. Aust: Univ. Qld. Press, 1978 (S4.95), and THE SECOND MONTH OF SPRING: ed. Rodney Hall. Aust: Univ. of Qld. Press, 1980 (S5.95). Two others, much earh'er and collected/organised by Dransfield: THE INSPECTOR OF TIDES, and STREETS OF THE LONG VOYAGE, (both by the same press and selling at S2.50).

will have a complete collection of Dransfield's published poetry. These are end-poems; the closure to the life ofa poet.

micKacl dransfield

THIS IS NOT PUBLICITY. THIS IS A STATEMENT OF RESPONSES.

Be interested in the poet because he is a spokesman, an Australian and a voice of the New Left (whal there is of it ui AustraUa). I read Dransfield's poetry be­cause he was a contemporary of mine and wrote about the issues wluch concerned me. 1 am stunned by his work because he expresses liimself shockingly, and I learn more by being shocked.

Dransfield is sometimes very very pubhc. Sometimes he is private. After ravishmg the social side of experience he retreats into a quieter, protectively private worid of his own. He reflects upon the booty of his social forays. Much of his poetry is the product of tliat reflection: it is a public product of private observations on his own previous public interactions. I'm only stating the obvious.

The popularity of Dransfield's poetry can be attributed in part to the public nature of it. It is often a personal demonstration, a personal prosecution against a ravishing public.

1. The citizens group in categories/ officials wwes, priests, revolutionaries.

2. The citizens perform their duties/ as required/ as trained/ as usual.

"Society"/TIte Inspector of Tules

how many children starving

take the skulls down from the Christmas tree

yr opera is over chairman but the malady lingers on "services to literature"/The Second Month

ofSpring

You'll find that sort of blunt accusation throughout his work.

John Tranter in his edition The New Australian Poetry (wliich is selling for a mere $1335 - check to see if the poets are getting the royalties before you buy it -I've got a sneakmg suspicion that they don't get so much) lists Dransfield's "best" poems as: Bum's Rush; Fix; Parnassus Mad World; Memoirs of a Velvet Urinal; The City Theory; Epiderm; Minstrel; Endsight .and others. Harry Hezeltine in his Pengum anthology of Aussie poets, reckons that Epiderm and Ground Zero are worth reading. You won't find any of those poems in the volumes Voyage Into Solitude and Second Month ofSpring.

What do I reckon" about his products edited by Rodney Hall (an Australian poet and a close friend of Dransfield's)?

In Voyage Into Solittide I think he gets into a religious phase which he ex­presses in Surrexit dommus; Vespers; Notes for an inquest; The harvest is past; and PSahn. 1 was shocked most by Wme fasting; Duet (I wanted to be part of it); dear Charles; Lonely as a cloud; On hearing the first poet m spruig, and, and, and. . . .

Rodney Hall states "Voyage mto Solitude brought together poems from the years 1967-71 . . . The Second MonUi of Spring.

is quite another case. These poems belong to 1972".

The Second Month of Sprii^: I was disturbed more by these poems

because I was aware that Michael Dransfield was dying while he was writing them. That says a great deal about tliis poet's need to voice his observations. Perhaps in this collection the poems are more private, more intimate. I felt like a voyeur. The poems 1 appreciated reading were: the bible as fiction; the last two on the shore; looking for somewhere kind; horrors, the; bi shits revisited, and and and . . .

You'd probably like other products of Dransfield's life. The volumes arc worth buying - you won't be paying for tiie poetry, you can't. It will mean that you

In April, one weekend, after visiting fellow poets and friends, Rodney Hall and Robert Adamson, Dransfield was in­volved in an accident and drive off tiie road by a car. He suffered after effects: head injuries, reading difficulty/writing difficulty, for much of the time in a depressed state, and eventually emaciated. Not long after the accident, he was stabbed several limes by an unknown man. He contracted pleurisy and double pneumonia, spent several weeks in a coma, and died. Michael Dransfield died on Good Friday, 1973.

Dransfield wrote of liis own works:

Needing to speak. Just tlutt. Even if no-one listens.

Saying something to drive bagk for a second the immense silence. '

"Sonnet "/Voyage into Solitude

since my last accident april infact

I write cannot revise they also sen'e

"October elegy for lilt. "/Vie Second Month ofSpring

S'pose you don't like the shock of it all, then you can read hun as a drug poet, a metaphysical poet, a surrealist poet, a romantic poet, a , . . , others have. Ways of seeing.

THIS IS NOT PUBLICITY.

-KEVIN JOHNSON

YOUNG WRITERS 1979: ed. Barry O'Donohue (Valley Creative Arts Centre,

1980) ($3.50) POEMS FROM THE AGE: selected by R A Simpson (Melbourne: Hyland House, 1979) ($5.95)

The Umversity of Queensland has just released the second of its post­humous Michael Dransfield coUections, The Second Month of Spring. Although that volume is not included in this review, 1 feel the need to draw attention to it in relation to Barry O'Donohue's Young Writers 1979. Mr. O'Donohue, while perform­ing a very worthwhile and no doubt time consuming task, begs us excuse some of the workmanship in his selections on the grounds that the writers are o fa tender age, and cannot be expected to write as mature adults. The example of Michael Dransfield, who several contributors cite as an influence on their writing, does not appear to have rubbed off. Dransfield wrote his best, his most mature, poems when he was the age of these 'young writers' (the oldest listed in the incomplete biographical details is 25. Dransfield died at the age of 23 , three years after the pub­lication of his first book which con­tained his best known poems).

If that sounds a negative start, let me state now that it is dhected more at Mr. O'Donohue than those writers whose works he presents in these pages. While none of the writers can be hailed as a brilliant young find, some do present good work.

I fail to see, however, why Margaret Diamond should rate seven pages of poems when others, such as Andrew Leggett and Rowland Diysdale, whose poems are of a higher standard, rate only two pages. Again, I feel the blame could fall on Mr, O'Donohue's shoulders, but perhaps these writers did not care to submit more material.

Another poet who stands out for ima-^native enterprise, as well as her youth (at 12 she's the youngest represented) is Andrea Prince, who outstrips some of the older contributors in sheer inventiveness, even if she does owe a debt to Lewis Carrol.

The short story collection presents a different kmd of problem. Of the four stories included, three deal, at various levels of competence, with the problems faced by old people in retirement homes. This smacks of an exercise given these young writers, along the formula: here's a topic, see what you can do with it.

Creative writing cannot be taught this way, even though our education system seems to preclude any alternative. The results, at best, are only exercises showing

a gUmmer of hope. For these writers to fully come into theh own they must devise their own topics to write about ibr pub­lication, even if these set pieces are usefid in teachmg them to handle more difficult subjects.

The final section of the book presents us with two one-act plays, and in my opinion these make the book worth every cent of its cost. We are not, however, told anything about these two young play­wrights. Their biographies are among those which appear to have gone missing . . .

«*«

While Young Writers 1979 is a readable anthology (despite the criticisms levelled at it in tliis review), it is restricted to Queensland. We mustn't forget, though, that our writing is judged in a world outside this state as well, and in that wider fidd there are surprisingly few Queenslanders visible, although the number is grovwng.

In Poems From The Age, R.A. Sunpson collects what he feels to be the best poems published by The Age (a Melbourne news­paper for those too provincial) between the years 1967 and 1979. It is remarkable how many poems considered as classics of the time first appeared in the pages of The Age. This book, in collecting work from a wide range of writers over an ex-, tended period, is a good introduction for someone nof yet familiar vrith the scope of Australian poetry.

-CORNELIS VLEESKENS

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PERFORMING ARTS

CAIMERATA THEATRE: Casting Dates for 1980 season — "Beckett Tr io" , Sunday 27th April 2pm. Cast required: 1 male, 2 females (any age). To be directed by Wesley Walker, and play June 6-15 (two weekends). 'The Glass Menagerie", Sunday 4th May, 1.30pm. Cast required: 2 males aged between 23-30, 1 female aged between 25-30. To be directed by Gary O'Ned, and play at the Cement Box" July 22-26. "Ashes" Sunday, 25th May, 2pm. To t>e directed by Jeremy Ridgman and play July 25-August 9. For information please phone Jeremy on 38 5495 (aJi.) Al l castings to take place at the AVALON THEATRE, Sir Fred Schonell Drive, St. Lucia.

CEMENT BOX THEATRE: 2 Anti-nuclear plays by the Lunch Box Theatre on 6 & 7 May, at 1 pm, admission 50c. LA BOITE THEATRE: "Sisters" by Robin Thurston on 27, 28 8t 29 April at 5.30 and Bpm. "Angel City" by Sam Shepherd, Wed. to Sat. until 10 May "Yahoo" in the May vacation for the kids. 5-9 May and 13-17 May at 2pm. THE TN COMPANY: "The Im­portance of Being Ernest" by Oscar Wilde until 10 May. Tues. to Sat. at S.ISpm and Sat. matinees at Spm. ORANGE JUICE CO: "Oa Vine Tarzan" at the Woodward

Theatre, Kelvin Grove CAE. For further information phone 356 7066.

VISUAL ARTS YOUNG MASTERS GALLERY: In the Basement, Brisbane Arcade from 30 April to 10 May is a one-person show by Ken Gailer. 11 May to 20 May, a mixed exhibiticn of paintings by leading Australian artists. SPRING HILL GALLERY: 22 April - 27 April a one person show by Wendy Cernak at 12 Downing Street, Spring Hill. 30 April • 31 May is a mixed ex­hibition of paintings by leading Australian artists. PHILIP BACON GALLERIES; An exhibition of painting by Rodney Milgate from 24 April to 14 May, at St. John's Cathedral and Philip Bacon Galleries, 2 Arthur St., New Farm.

WORKSHOPS DOWN TO EARTH; National Workshop Gathering, 9-15 May. For details write to Box 16 Nimbin, 2484 enclosing 30c stamp. TN COMPANY THEATRE WORKSHOPS: Various work­shops available for all ages and level of experience. May vacation workshops are available for children. For further information ring Margaret Hickey, 52 7559. ALTERNATIVE MEDIA WORK­SHOP: A week of media magic from 9-16 May, featuring work­

shops on animation, video, book­binding, journalism etc. For further details write to; Media Workshops, P.O. Box 29, Bellingen, NSW 2454.

MUSIC 42ZZ JOINT EFFORT: Humans and Lemmings at University of Queensland Refectorv, St. Lucia. 9 May, 7.30pm. Admission $5 and $4, 42ZZ subscribers. Alcohol available. CAXTON STREET JAZZ CLUB: Every Sunday night at Baroona Hall, 17 Caxton Street, Petrie Terrace. Starts Spm, admission $2. BRISBANE JAZZ CLUB: Every Sunday night at the Adventurers Club, 1 Annie Street, Kangaroo Point. With the Pacific Jazz Men and singer Sue Wighton. Starts Bpm, admission $2 for members and $3 guests. Every Thursday night. Big Band music at the Adventurers Club with the BJC Big Band. Starts Spm, admission $2 members and $3 guests. BRISBANE FOLK CLUB: Every Wednesday night at the Ad­venturers Club, 1 Annie Street, Kangaroo Point. With 'The Way­farers' and guest artists. Start Spm, admission S2 members and. $3 guests. MUSICA VIVA AUSTRALIA: Tokyo String Quartet, Saturday 26 April at Mayne Hall, University of Qld, St. Lucia at S.ISpm. Schubert — Quartet in E flat major, op. 125, no. 1. Beethoven — Quartet in F minor, op. 95 "Serioso"

Debussy — Quartet in G minor, op. 10. Tickets $7.50 and $6.50; students and pensioners $3. ABC PUBLIC CONCERTS: Saturday 3 May, Brisbane City Hall. 2nd Red Sub. Orch., Spm. Conducted by Cavdarskl, with soloist Idil Birot on piano. Thursday, 8 May, Brisbane Farry Road Studio. 2nd "Invitat ion" Orch. "ABC South Bank Scries", Bpm. Conducted by Cavdarskl, with soloist Lauris Elms.

THE AUSTRALIAN OPERA: 1980 Brisbane Season, at Her Majesty's Theatre, 25 April-3 May. Two of Verdi's operas — Falstaff and La Traviata. For further details ring 221 2777. UNIVERSITY MUSIC DEPT: Student Recital Series, in the Performance Room, Music Building, 1 May, Andrew Schultz (clarinet), Phillip Gearing (piano), Wayne Brennan (violin), William Clarke (piano). Works by Poulenc, Finzi, Milhaud. 8 May, Deborah Strong (recorder), Bernard Lanskey (piano). Works by Handel, Berkeley, Liszl. For further information contact 377 2014. CAMPAIGN AGAINST NUCLEAR POWER BUSH DANCE: Bale Em Up Bush Band are performing on 10 May at

Baroona Hall, 17 Caxton Street, Petrie Terrace. Commences at 7.30pm, admission is $3 and $2 for underprivileged persons.

MEETINGS AUSTRALASIAN UNION OF JEWISH STUDENTS: Every Tuesday (10am to 2pm) Relax Block Common Room No. 3. Danny Weizman: Bachelor of Social Work from Haifa Uni. is a field worker for the Austral­asian Union of Jewish Students is in Australia for a year to promote solidarity in the Jewish students movements in Brisbane, Adelaide and Melbourne, and to make available convenient and direct facilities for students to learn about or visit Israel. General information on Israel Tours, and Kibbutz Application forms are available.

THEOSOPHICAL SOCIETY: Meetings are held at 335 Wickham Terrace, at Spm. 2 May, Modern Views of Divination to be dis­cussed by Tom Van Erp, Laurane Buchanen and Dale Caird. 9 May, Applied Theosophy discussed by Henry Maassen. 16 May, Dreams and Their Meanings featuring Dale Caird.

NATIONAL FILM THEATRE: Screenings of limited release films are given by the National Film Theatre of Australia at the Australian Government Theatrette, cnr. Creek and Ann Streets. For further details write to GPO Box 1780, Sydney 2001.

CRYSTAL CINEMA, WINDSOR: The Crystal continues its Autumn season of Memorable Double Bills. Each programme is $3.50 and S2 for students. For details of programmes ring 57 3708. GAYTHORNE CINEMA: The Gaythorne offers exceUent prices for its double bills of $3, $2 and S1 for ZZZ subxribers. For details ring 355 1474.

FAIRS

CINEMA SCHONELL: The Schonell is being over-run by Boy Scouts in May with the annual Gang Show. The only showings will be on Sunday evenings, for details ring 371 1879.

BROOKFIELD SHOW: 16, 17 and 18 May at the Brookfield Show Ground, Brookfield Road. MEDIEVAL FAYRE: Monday, 5 May at St. Francis College, Baroona Road, Milton. Admission free, come in costume. For fur­ther information contact 208 4923 or 343 2423.

The Alternative Handbook For the first time in 1979, the University of Queensland Union produced

an Alternative Handbook — a student assessment of subjects offered by the university.

What is the purpose of the Alternative Handbook? There are many purposes. Firstly, properly conducted surveys of student opinion can be a powerful force for constructive change. Students are given the opportunity to express their views about assessment procedures, workloads, lecturing methods, tutorials, practicals, relevance of subject matter etc.

Many students feel intimidated about approaching lecturers and tutors with their feelings about their subjects and the Alternative Handbook gives them the opportunity to do something other than mutter behind their hands.

Secondly, the Handbook gives staff feedback, both positive and negative, about their subjects. Many staff members appreciate this and several have asked that their subjects be included this year. Others regard the Alternative Handbook as threatening and refuse to co-operate in the surveys. Teaching is an ego-involved activity and many teachers dislike being evaluated as much as their students.

The Handbook aims to be as constructive and informative as possible. Copies of wliat is to be printed are sent to lecturers and their conunents are invited.' If they so desire, their comments are printed with their subject in the Handbook.

A third purpose of the Handbook is to help students choose their subjects. Students from 1979 were able to pass on to students such information as whether or not to buy the textbook, or to take a particular subject as a companion.

As the Union represents students, one of

SEMPER

its main concerns is tliat teaching at this university should be of a higli standard. If teaching is to improve, teachers need to know their strong and weak points. Student evaluation can be helpful, because students are in a good position to judge the class­room style of the teacher, the classroom environment, the clarity of subject or­ganisation, the fairness and relevance of assessment procedures, and, of course, to express their own evaluation of the course content. It should be kept in mind, however, that student ratings are not the whole story. Observations made by colleagues and video­tape reviews would provide a different and complementary perspective.

Alternative Handbooks are not a new idea. Some of the southern campuses have produced them for four or five years and they have been around for much longer overseas. Research on student evaluation is prolific and spans about SO years. But many staff members still have reservations about the validity of student ratings. Some lecturers claim the Alternative Handbook is notiiing more tlian a popularity contest. However, a lecturer who receives a high rating for classroom manner does not necessarily receive a high rating for organisa­tion or method of presentation. Students are discriminating and not easily fooled by the good "Showman".

* * *

Many staff are fond of citing the "Dr. Fox Effect" study by Naftulin, Ware, and Donnelly, where an actor ignorant of the subject matter, but able to teach in a

EDUCATION With LYN TAYLOR

charismatic manner, was placed in front of a group of scientists, social workers, and educators, and received liighly favourable ratings from Ws audience.

However, in the case of Dr. Fox, the teaching situation was higlily artificial and consisted of one short lecture outside the classroom situation, without the oppor­tunity for those present to use reference materials, to check the accuracy and relevance of the lecture. Students who are tauglit by someone for many weeks are not so easily fooled!

The criticism is often made that students cannot judge how good a subject was until they have been out of university for some years or until they are in later years of the course. Studies by Drucker and Remmers (1950, 1951) and later by Aleamoni and Yimer (1974) showed there was a liigh correlation between ratings of the same instructors made by students currently enrolled and graduates of several years. Graduates' judgements of excellence in teaching still appeared to be based on what they liad observed in the classroom.

Last year only "optional" first-year

subjects were surveyed. This year the surveys will be extended to cover second year subjects, both optional and com­pulsory. The 200 subjects with the highest enrolments in first and second years will be covered along with 50 extra subjects so that all departments are represented. In addition, first and second year external studenis will receive questionnaires tiuough the mail. New questionnaires have been drawn up tliis year with the help of staff members, T.E.D.I., and the Computer Centre. Lecturers have been asked to provide ten minutes from one of their lectures for the surveys to be carried out.

Surveys commence on 28 April, and will run over tlu-ee weeks. Last year about 7,000 questionnaires were completed. I hope students will take the opportunity again tliis year to make their voices heard. Some students vote with their feet by not attending lectures. Their voices will not be heard unless they are in the lecture theatres when the survevs are done.

Drucker, AJ. d Remmers. H.H. "Do alumni and students differ in their attitudes toward instructors?" Purdue University Studies in Higher Educatbn, 1950, 70, 624.

Aleomoni, LM. & Yimer, M. "Graduating senbr ratings relatbnship to colleague rating research productivity and academic rank in rating instructional effectiveness (RR 352). Urbana II, University of Illinois at Urbana - Champaign, Measurement and Research Dh>isbn of the office of Instruct-bnal Resources, 19 74.