tragedy

Letters To The Editor

Elephant tragedy

Madam, Read Ed Rampell’s report on an ele phant tragedy in Honolulu (PIM, Oct., 1994). The blame for this tragedy belongs to the persons in charge of the elephant; owner, trainer and keeper.The treatment of many elephants in circuses and other captivities is very, very cruel.

Circus elephants are “trained” with sharpened sticks, electric prods, brutal beatings, etc., until the animal “gives in” and performs stupid tricks to amuse the public. Keeping wild animals in cages or chained is outright criminal, because those animals are kept under perma nent stress. The circus is a relic of a bar baric age, an anachronism.

Many years ago a zoo elephant in Honolulu was killed by “officials”. The animal had endured many years of bru tal torture by its keeper. To name just one brutality: the keeper burned holes through the elephant’s skin - all over its body. After years of torture the day final ly came when the elephant killed its keeper.

In both Hawaiian elephant tragedies, the “beasts” were the two-legged keeper/trainers.

In this day and age all animals must be treated humanely. Animals feel pain just like people do.

And last, but not least, all 50 US states have animal cruelty laws, Hawaii includ ed ... we hope the Hawaiian Humane Society will “go” after the circus.

Inge Mathiesen, (Member of several US Humane Societies, S.PC.A.s, Defenders of Wildlife and Greenpeace.), Montana, USA

Astronaut award

Madam, I would like to nominate Roman Grynberg as one of the candidates for the “Pacific Astronauts Medal of the Year Award” for his article Aid, Aids and Per diems (PIM, December, 1994).

The award, nicknamed “Lord of Hypocrisy”, is the highest honour for his courageous coverage of the UNDP aid conference and what took place after wards in Manila recently.

The merits for his nomination are for: never accepting per diems while work ing for the Forum Secretariat, never being an “astronaut” in his time in the Pacific, having his salary at the Forum Secretariat taxed while the others’ were not, refusing to accept the per diem given to him by UNDP at the Manila conference.

Last, but not least, for being so success

ful in achieving exactly the opposite of what he really wants to teach us Pacific people - thou shalt not be an astronaut!

Pene Lefale, Auckland, New Zealand

Racism at the university

Madam, I commend this journal on its coverage of racism at the University of the South Pacific, concern about which I have myself expressed to the Vice Chancellor and which, because it is real, must be addressed at the level of policy, not per ception. As a former lecturer in the School of Humanities, I am particularly touched by Mr Kabutaulaka’s candour and courage, even if our analyses do not altogether coincide.

Your coverage of racism is an advance on the strange kind of phobic evasive ness on this topic at an academic insti tution dedicated to furthering the needs of a multiracial population.

And yet, despite its merit, your coverage is too much of a piece with a dominant selective trend whenever this important topic is broached. In the process you introduce distortions. Whatever may be

your intention, and granted that the immediate impetus behind your cover age is student unrest, your exclusive focus on the students conveys the sug gestion that the problem is confined to them.

If, to use one of your criteria, self-segre gation among students at mealtimes is part of the problem, then you ought to take a look at what happens at the fac ulty dining hall. I assure you the fre quent all-white groupings are among the most potent pedagogical practices propagating racist ideology on campus.

So the students, if they are at fault, can point to an exemplary source of inspira tion. I invite your anonymous senior lec turer to ponder on this.

Let me identify another shortcoming of your coverage. Focused as your discus sion is on student relations, it is further limited through concentration on some students. Are you unaware, for instance, that participation by Indian students in such activities as the open-air segment of Pacific Week celebrations is minimal and low-key, that it is greeted by sneers by a section of the audience?

It is too fashionable at the university to observe a silence on this score. As long as this silence remains unbroken, the university functions as one of the most psychologically effective forums for the teaching of hypocrisy. Participation in the culture of such an institution can hardly be in the best moral and best educational interests of those who will fill leadership roles.

One objection, often voiced in some quarters, to free and full discussion at the university is that certain issues are “sensitive”, and that race is one of them.

I have not encountered any obstruction from my students whenever I intro duced topics with a bearing on race and culture. The majority of students show tolerance, awareness of one another’s

rights and obligations, including their

right to differ, and usually enjoy the interchange of ideas. What is more, I have found many of them to be critical ly inclined, even more so than they are generally given credit for.

If race is a sensitive issue but this sensi tivity is not to be located primarily in the orientation of the students, perhaps we need to look elsewhere; possibly at

the political temperature maintained in the setting where the university’s main campus is situated. What is it about the ethos of this milieu that renders race a sensitive subject, to virtually prescribe it to the region of taboo?

If it is true the situation outside the uni versity constrains its internal function ing, then clearly, the major political actors have a role to play in defusing it.

They owe it to the young people of their country and their region.

To sum up, racism is not a trivial affair and cannot be abolished by half mea sures. Its forms and levels feed off one another, giving it an extraordinary abili ty to survive. To single out the students is a bit like scapegoating them; a little like excising the periphery of a malig nant growth while ignoring its capacity for regeneration. Its elimination must become the focus of a comprehensive policy, enlisting the support of those within the university and those without.

In this task all must be involved because, ultimately, all stand to gain.

Madan Gopal, Toronto, Ontario, Canada

Letters to the Editor must include the writer’s full name, address and telephone number.

All letters may be edited for purposes of clarity and space.

Letters should be addressed to: The Editor, Pacific Islands Monthly, PO Box 1167, Suva, Fiji or to Fax: (679) 303-809