Amerikai Magyar Szó, 1986. január-június (40. évfolyam, 1-26. szám)
1986-02-20 / 8. szám
12. AMERIKAI MAGYAR SZÓ Thursday, Feb. 20. 1986. A visit to Nicaragua I spent ten days in Nicaragua at the beginning of January and would like to share some of the experiences and a few thoughts about the trip. 1 am very active in a New York City group called the Committee for Non-Intervention in Central America, which raises funds for humanitarian and material aid to the people in El Salvador, Nicaragua, Guatemala, etc., and educates our community about the issues in that part of the world. I wanted to see Nicaragua for myself, and joined a small group led by a friend from Cleveland who is a photographer. The trip was arranged through the Nicaraguan cultural workers association. I have to start with the rather extraordinary story of what happened to us en route. We took TACA the Salvadorén airline from Miami to Managua, with stops in a number of Central American capitals. (Aeronica, the Nicaraguan airline, is barred from landing in the United States as a result of the Reagan Administration embargo.) We landed in San Salvador, the capital of El Salvador, at about 5:30 PM, and were, unexpectedly, told to change planes. The 120 passengers waited and then were told the second plane had engine trouble and there would be a delay. At 9:00 PM we were informed that the plane couldn't be fixed (some of us had figured that out because the engine was taken apart and the pieces were lying on the airfield) and we would be taken to the San Salvador Sheraton for the night. An hour later we boarded three buses and headed for the hotel. About fifteen minutes from the airport, the buses were pulled off the road by the Salvadoran Army. Soldiers with rifles, sub-machine guns and a couple of larger machine guns guarded the buses. Helicopters flew overhead. Occasionally shots rang out. No explanation was given as to why we were being held. (The passengers included Canadians, two groups and a number of individual travellers from the U.S., Nicaraguans, Costa Ricans, etc., going to various countries.) We were held for two hours. It was very frightening, because many of the soldiers were young, heavily armed and there didn't seem to be anyone in charge who knew anything. (Some of us also were aware that it was the same road and same area where the four American, nuns had been dragged off the road and later murdered by Salvadoran death squads.) Eventually, a "jefe" (chief) came and the buses were permitted to continue to the hotel. TACA airline representatives apologized profusely when arrived at the Sheraton at 2:00 AM, explaining that we were mistaken for peace marchers. There were roadblocks all over El Salvador to prevent that international religious group from entering this so-called democracy which U.S. dollars support. . The next morning we flew to Managua, a half hour flight thak took us to a country light years different from El Salvador. • ' '-------. -------------- ^ — - -------—-------=-----^---------------------------------- -- ■.------------;----------------------------;---------------------------------------------------------:----------------------------- ' ' KATI GOLDMAN ON THE ALTAR OF PATRIOTISM BY: MILA AND BERTRAM STILLER It has happened at last. The death of seven astronauts on live TV. Why should highly skilled, motivated individuals like teacher Christa McAuliffe, be pushed into sacrificing their lives on manned space- missions? Isn't it time for U.S. citizens to question the government about these matters? As a minimum, we should insist that astronauts be professionals, who face the risks knowledgeably. Waving the flag for First Congressmen, Teachers, Newspapermen, etc., is not for an ethically- commited society such as we would like to believe we are. One of us having been involved in experiments on spacecraft since 1966, including Gemini, Skylab and Space Shuttle, we can state unequivocally, that these experiments could have been done sooner, and just as well, if not better, had they been launched on unmanned, recoverable spacecraft. Scientists from many disciplines have been telling NASA for years, that their experiments did not need astronaut assistance. Most scientific experiments, even space telescopes, can be automated and launched on rockets, so that no astronauts are needed. Just consider the remarkable results obtained from the mission of Voyager 2, to explore the outer planets, in whose launch and travel, no astronauts were used. If some presently-built scientific facilities, such as Space Telescope, can only be launched by the Space Shuttle, it is because the scientific community has been forced to plan, design and request funding for large-scale experiments needed by NASA's desire to justify the Space Shuttle program. Tragically, NASA top officials have been more guided by the political fall-out from space research than by scientific and engineering advances. Thus, we have no planetary probes following Voyager 2, since no astronauts are involved. We had only a minimal opportunity to study Halley's Comet with ICE, because no funds could be spared for an unmanned spacecraft launch. Planetary science and astrophysical research in space by U.S. scientists, has almost come to a halt due to the NASA The contrast between the two countries is startling. Although Nicaragua is at war, defending itself from attacks by the Contras, is no visible military presence in the capital, Managua, and all of us felt very safe during the entire visit. We learned a great deal, although certainly no one is an expert about a country in ten days. Nicaragua is small, about 3 million people, and very poor, as are most Latin American countries. They are even poorer because the former dictator, Somoza, who was overthrown in 1979, literally stole millions of dollars from the Nicaraguan treasury before he left for Miami. I knew that before I went there, but saw the results of that disgraceful dictatorship first hand. Managua suffered a major earthquake in 1972. International aid, millions of dollars flowed in to the government to help requirement that experiments be large enough to be launched by Space Shuttle. This has led to the design of large multi-experiment facilities, in turn leading to large-scale funding, forced cooperation between groups, large lead-times, etc., as well as delays due to cargo manifesting, and program problems. We know that whatever may sound as a pessimistic or "defeatist" attitude in the face of failure is severely condemned in our society. It is easy to resist a change of direction on this basis and thus perpetuate past errors. We are not suggesting that the space program be scrapped. We are saying that it should continue along lines that comply with scientific, rather than political considerations. We understand that automated probes or satellites cannot give us the thrill of "being there", that a human voice from space, the view of a man stepping cn the moon or floating in space, can give us. This satisfies the drive to step beyond our earthly limits, that is such an important part of our lore. But, this is an age where technological advances have made possible a variety of alternatives to traditional exploration. Even conceding that explorations through robots are not as exhilarating as human endeavors, we ought to consider these alternatives for two reasons. One is that highly skilled, intelligent human beings are a great irreplaceable resource that should not be squandered in giving us an emotional high, by being brave and going up in smoke cn the altar of patriotism. The other one is that our social and political structures are lagging far behind our technological advances. This may turn out to be a tragic gap, unless we set our priorities straight, and we recognize that human skills and material resources should be carefully managed and directed towards giving future generations and adequate education rather than space trips. Mila and Bertram Stiller astrophysicists are readers and esteemed friends of our paper. repair the devastation. They never used the money to rebuild the city; Somoza put the millions in his personal U.S. bank accounts and today you can still see the damaged buildings, streets, etc., just as they were then. We went to visit the Children's Hospital. There, too, a doctor explained to us that in the Somoza years enough funds had been donated by a number of nations to build three children's hospitals. That money was also stolen and no hospital was built until 1981, two years after the revolution. Our country was directly responsible for maintaining Somoza in power, and it is the left-overs of his national guard that forms the base of the Contras who are trying to overthrow the Sandinista government, with the help of U.S. dollars. To be continued
