The Guardian of Liberty - Nemzetőr, 1984 (7. évfolyam, 1-6. szám)

1984-01-01 / 1. szám

POLLUTION AND DRUG ADDICTION They Drink Sea-Water and Shout "Lemonade“ T he consequences of the attitude of communist rulers that the advent of socialism solves all problems are illustrated by the Czechoslovak au­thorities’ protracted reluctance to admit the exist­ence of serious environmental pollution and a disturbing tendency to drug addiction in young people. This attitude was pilloried by the Polish poet Adam Wazyk in his Poem for Adults, which ap­peared in 1955. „The dreamer Fourier“ (the 19th century Utop­ian philosopher), he wrote, „uttered the beautiful prophecy that the sea would flow with lemonade. Well, doesn’t it? They drink sea-hater. They shout ’Lemonade’! They go hack home to be secretly side." And again: „Under socialism it doesn’t hurt when you cut your finger. They cut their fingers; they felt pain. They lost faith." For those who have not yet „lost faith", if any­thing goes wrong, it must be due to the wickedness of „counter-revolutionaries". This is a legacy from the Stalin era; in November, 1936, Andrei Vyshin­sky, then Prosecutor-General, ordered that within a month all industrial accidents and output of poor quality products „be reviewed and studied with the object of exposing a counter-revolutionary and saboteur background to them." Attempts have naturally been made to overcome this legacy. At the 13th Czechoslovak Communist Party Congress in June, 1966, the leader of the economic reform, Professor Ota Sik, said: „Condi­tions must be created in which, if somebody comes up with a ... proposal which differs from the views of the leading official, his initiative shall not be . . . doomed from the outset. It is not enough to say that such initiatives are allowed and that nobody can be victimised. So far, people’s experience is different, and it is experience that counts, not words." Progress towards the conditions that Sik was trying to create was ended by the Soviet-led War­saw Pact forces’ invasion of Czechoslovakia in August, 1968; shortly after the invasion Sik him­self was described by Moscow Radio as „one of the most odious of the right-wing revisionists." The Stalin legacy is the reason why the Czech Ministry of Health in 1982 forbade the publication of the facts about drug addiction among young people. However, the aggravation of the problem and medical pressure have since forced the au­thorities to make the situation public. At the end of 1983 the youth weekly, Mlady Svet devoted four pages to the drug problem; Dr. Rubes of Prague, interviewed by the paper, criticised the authorities for failing to react to the problem in time, and called for resolute measures to isolate drug-peddlers. The government has remained silent on the problem, but even the publication of the interview with Dr. Rubes represents a great advance, although the implication is there that once the peddlers are caught and published, everything will be all right. The facts recently revealed include the revelation that about 100,000 Czechoslovaks are addicts, about 0.7 per cent of the population; some addicts are only 12 years old. Attempts to cure addicts while they are in prison are generally unsuccessful, quite apart from the deliberate misuse of drugs common in communist prisons. '■ I n North Bohemia, 24 young people died in 1982 of an overdose of drugs. Some distress­ing individual cases, too, have come to light; Mlady Svet described that of a 15-year-old girl who died as a result of sniffing solvents. Sometimes drug addiction leads, as elsewhere, to other crimes; youths have been forming gangs to burgle chemists’ shops. The problem of industrial safety has also recently been aired, in a television report of December 8, 1983. In the first half of 1983 there were about 105,000 industrial accidents; there have also been complaints of working conditions which constituted health hazards. In the Stalin era, the factory managers would simply have been tortured into making confessions of sabotage and executed, in accordance with Vyshinsky’s instructions quoted above. This has stopped, but the Stalin legacy still shows in factory inspectors’ reluctance to act resolutely to improve working conditions. They have the powers, ranging from imposing a small fine to stopping machinery; but too many of them shrink from using those powers. The authorities’ reluctance to face facts openly is however clearest on environmental pollution. The Academy of Sciences has prepared a study of the subject, but its findings were so horrifying that the authorities could not bring themselves to publish it. It has reached the West by a circuitous route through the Charter 77 movement, which raises the question whether it is genuine. The answer is that no independent body could have had access to the information the document contains, feast of all a* body which has attracted official displeasure and been the victim of harassment as Charter 77 has. The main cause of the problem is the use of brown coal (lignite) coupled with the fact that geologically and climatically Czechoslovakia is peculiarly vulnerable to pollution; there are 35 tons per person of refuse which cannot be reabsorbed. Acid rain has turned much of North Bohemia into a wilderness, and attempts at reforestation with more resistant types of tree have been un­successful. About half the country’s timber is expected to be affected by the turn of the century. The effect on wild-life has also been disastrous; partridges and pheasants, for instance, are threaten­ed with extinction. In some towns, such as Prague, Brno, Hradec 12 BANGLADESH SMASHES SPY RING (Continued from page 11) taining electronic equipment witout clearing them through customs at Dhaka airport. The Bangladesh authorities have also de­plored an attack on an Afghan, Dr. Aziz Samidi, who has been working in te Dhaka Medical Research Centre since he fled from Afghan­istan shortly after the Soviet invasion. On Nov­ember 24, 1983, he reported that he had been brutally beaten outside his home by two Rus­sian-speaking Europeans who got out of cars with diplomatic licence plates. The Soviet media have reacted angrily to the expulsions. While deploring their effect on Soviet-Bangladesh relations, Moscow Radio has included veiled threats that current Bangladesh policy is „particularly dangerous for the fate of the country". At the same time the radio seems unconscious of the irony of its remark that the activities of Sviet diplo­mats in Dhaka were such that „It i* quite dif­ficult to enumerate the areas with which they were directly involved." THE GUARDIAN OF LIBERTY (NEMZETŐR) gip M—— KfL-_____________________________ Edited by the Editorial Board Verleger, Herausgeber und Inhaber TIBOR KECSKÊSI TOLLAS Journalist, Schriftsteller, München Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 GERMAN FEDERAL REPUBLIC Verantwortlicher Redak'eur (Editor): MIKLÓS VARY Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 Druck (print): DANUBIA DRUCKEREI GMBH Ferchenbachstraße 88, D-8000 München 50 AFRICA REPRESENTATIVES & SALE CAMEROON: L. T. JOHNSON, Divisional Inspectorate of Education, NKAMBE, North West Province, United Rép. of CAMEROON. EAST AFRICA: (2.-— Sh, by air) (Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania): General - Représenta’ ive : International African Literary Agents. P.O. Box 46055 NAIROBI, Kenya; NIGERIA (2.— Sh); Yemi OYENEYE, P. M. B. 101, Agege, Lagos. SIERA LEONE: (10 Le. c.; annual: 60) 1. Alusine B. Kargbo, c/o 2 Alusine St., Newsite Kissy, Freetown; SOMALIA: (2.— Sh., by air) Haji Jama Ali, P.O.B. 248, Hargeisa. MAURITIUS NALANDA Co. Ltd., 30, Bourbon Str., Port-Louis. GREAT BRITAIN ‘NEMZETŐR“, B. C. M., London S.W. 7. U. S. A. Béla H. BÁCSKÁI, P.O. Box 102, Audubon/Pa. 19407. AUSTRALIA István SERFÖZÖ, 67 Winston Drv. Doncaster, Vic. 3108. PRICES: Surface mail: 1 copy AFRICA 1.80 Sh (100 CFA), Britain 60 P, Australia, USA, Canada: $ 2.— Germany: DM 4.— Annual subscription: AFRICA Sh 10 (500 CFA), Britain 3.—£, Germany/Europe : DM 20.-(or equivalent) Australia USA, Canada: $ 10.— For air mail add 25*/* For students 50 ”/o discount Our BANK ACCOUNT: No. 2605756 Commerzbank AG. Munich, German Federal Republic. Kralové and Usti-on-Elbe, the water supply is polluted. It is threatened by radio-active pollution not only near nuclear power plants but particularly in any power plants where brown coal is used. Nevertheless the authorities devote only 0.3 per cent of the national income to protecting the environment, as against two per cent in the German Federal Republic. They continue to cry „lemonade!" and try to carry on as if everything under socialism was all right. CALL TO END DRUG ABUSE E. A. Shevardnadze, leader of the Georgian Communist Party, has appeal­ed for a campaign to eliminate drug abuse and alcoholism in Soviet Georgia. His speech to Party officials in Tbilisi, the Georgian capital, was quoted by the local official Press. JANUARY — FEBRUARY, 1984

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