The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, July 9, 1990 Page: 1 of 8
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SINCE 1916
The
VOLUME 78, NO.1
RICE'S INTERNATIONAL STUDENT NEWSPAPER
MONDAY, JULY 9, 1990
Visiting student journalists from 7 countries discuss summit
THE SUMMIT SEVEN
Note: For its coverage of the 1990
Economic Summit, the Thresher has
gathered student journalists from
throughout the United States and
around the world. "The Summit
Seven," which includes perspectives
from student journalists from each of
the G-7 countries, will be a regular
feature in f/t<? Thresher summit issues
published this week.
Great Britain
Handshakes are no longer news.
Back in the mid-1980s when Reagan
and Gorbachev began talking, Brit-
ain watched eagerly for signs of a
Cold War thaw: every nuance of lan-
guage was analyzed, every smile
discussed. Each new handshake
helped us breathe a little easier.
Good news had been hard to come
by.
But now summits are old hat Just
in the last fortnight we have had the
Economic Community in Dublin and
NATO in London: more photo-op-
portunities, friendly words, bland
communiques. Gorbachev and
Mandela have passed through.
Peace and friendship are rather
taken for granted these days.
So no offence to Houston, but 55
out of 56 million Brits are probably
very indifferent to the G7 summit
Vital discussions are taking place,
behind closed doors. Handshakes in
themselves are no longer news.
—Jonathan Marshall, Oxford
University
Rice's Fondren Library before...
iPssil
and after
Rice shows its face (lift) to world
By Lorie List
Rice University
Rice University students who
have spent the past few years of
their lives familiarizing them-
selves with the intricacies of the
campus would have a hard time
finding their way around now
without a specially designed
summit directory.
Many of the changes are obvi-
ous: new flower beds, added side-
walks, doorway plaques reading
Federal Republic of Germany,
posts and ropes sectioning off areas,
and brightly colored flags flying eve-
rywhere. The more subtle changes,
however, such as fresh coats of paint,
a small white bench where there was
none before, or a slighUy altered
entrance could make one question
his or her memory as to exactly what
is different
Employees, volunteers and those
simply caught in the crossfire have
worked for the past several months
to make sure that not even the small-
est details have been overlooked in
transforming Rice University into a
temporary world stage.
Since January 26, when Rice
was designated as the location of
the summit meeting, Rice offi-
cials, student volunteers, the
State Department and many
other organizations have worked
together to make necessary lo-
gistical changes across campus
as well as aesthetic changes
deemed necessary to create the
appropriate atmosphere for an
event bringing together the G7
world leaders.
Vice President of Student Af-
fairs Ronald Stebbings called
SEE RXE, PAGE 4
Japan
Because Japan has the greatest
economic power in the world, ex-
cepting perhaps the United States,
the world naturally expects Japan to
play her part in world economic af-
fairs. But Japan has not yet met the
expectations of the world.
Many Japanese think it is neces-
sary to aid Eastern Europe, but for
Japan, it is more necessary to sup-
port Third World countries in Africa
and Asia. Only Japan represents
Asia at the Economic Summit, and
this is one important position for
Japan to represent
On the other hand, it goes with-
out saying that one of the important
purposes of the economic summits
has been to involve Japan in the ac-
tivities of the United States and the
European countries. There has been
a wall separating Japan from the
others at the economic summits.
Sooner or later, Japan should make
SEE SEVEN, PAGE 5
NATO leaders set mood
for Economic Summit
By Randy L. Udavcak
Carnegie Mellon University
The two-day NATO summit in
London last week helped set the
stage for this week's Economic Sum-
mit of Industrialized Nations, as both
summits center around the theme of
responding to the demands of a new
Europe.
Of particular importance is the
question of assistance to the Soviet
Union. While the allied nations
pledged their desire to assist Soviet
leader Mikhail Gorbachev's efforts
at reform, they have so far avoided di-
rect economic assistance—due in
large part to objections raised by the
United States and the United King-
dom.
Both President Bush and British
Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher
have raised doubts about the useful-
ness of grants to the U.S.S.R., citing
what they feel is a need for major
reforms in the Soviet economy prior
to any investment of foreign capital.
The rationale employed in this
portion of the NATO discussion is
analogous to discussion surround-
ing the new Latin American aid pro-
posal recently unveiled by President
Bush. Under the new third world
plan, eligible nations must enact
"strong programs for reform" to re-
ceive economic assistance. Both aid
to the Soviets and to Latin America
are likely to be discussed further in
the economic summit negotiations.
The issue of Soviet economic-
assistance comes out of the much
larger theme of redefined relations
between the U.S.S.K. and the West,
which has placed NATO at a histori
cal crossroad. The member nations
of the 41-year-old organization
agreed that NATO must adapt its
structure to better address different
military and political needs in the
wake of the changes taking place in
Eastern Europe.
"NATO must become an institu-
tion where Europ>eans, Canadians,
and Americans work together not
only for the common defense, but to
build new partnerships with all the
nations of Europe," read the pro-
posal, which further stressed the
desire among the members of NATO
to reach a formal policy of non-ag
gression with the Warsaw Pact na-
tions by means of a "joint-declaration
in which we solemnly state that we
are no longer adversaries."
7 nations may open
purses to change world
By Stephanie Hirsch
Swarthmore College
and Amy Keener
Rice University
The seven leaders assembled for
this week's economic summit will
debate aid packages for Eastern bloc
countries in response to democrati-
zation of the Eastern Europ>ean na-
tions, economists predict
Many commentators hope, that
the leaders will negotiate reductions
of trade barriers and review environ-
mental issues at this 16th Economic
Summit of Industrialized Nations,
although some suspect that the
summit will produce few tangible
results.
Following precedent set at last
year's summit in Paris, the leaders
may extend economic assistance to
communist countries who have
taken steps toward democratization.
Last year the leaders supported
Poland and Hungary's democratiza-
tion with financial assistance. This
year rapid political changes in East
ern Europe have produced addi-
tional requests for aid, forcing the
industrialized nations to decide how
to allocate funds to support these
nations.
The leaders will also consider
reducing agricultural trade barriers,
which have been discussed in the
Uruguay Round of General Agree-
ment on Tariffs and Trade (GATT)
talks. A decrease in trade regulations
would allow Latin American coun-
tries that depend on exporting agri-
cultural goods to compete more effi-
SEE TRADE. PAGE 6
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Moeller, Kurt & Yates, Jay. The Rice Thresher (Houston, Tex.), Vol. 78, No. 1, Ed. 1 Monday, July 9, 1990, newspaper, July 9, 1990; Houston, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth245754/m1/1/: accessed July 16, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Rice University Woodson Research Center.