Viking_Yearbook_91

Photo by Deborah Hallick Photo by Tom Boyd above: An anti-war protester cheers on marchers as they tum off of S.W. Broadway. below: Students watch war news the day of the first Allied attack on Bahgdad• • News/Middle East PSU community affected by war in Middle East B efore the Iraqi invasion of August 2, 1990 most PSU students had never heard of the tiny Persian Gulf emirate of Kuwait. However in the days, weeks and months that followed, events in the Middle East began to effect the lives of more and more members of the PSU community. PSU's nearly 140 international students from the Middle East were the most immediately ef– fected. A few students were in Kuwait at the time and their fate is not known. Adel Bunashi , an accounting major from Kuwait, was stranded in the United Arab Emirates while flying home to Kuwait. He eventually was able to return to Portland for fall term, but by winter term he and hundreds of other Kuwaiti students in the Unit– ed States were in the war zone to assist multi-na– tional forces as translators. Other Middle East Students had to deal with the side-effects of the economic sanctions against Iraq. Some had scholarship funds frozen or terminated . Middle East currencies were de– valued, and millions became refugees. PSU Presi– dent Judith Ramaley moved quickly to aid the students with deferred rent and tuition, and oth– er assistance. By the time war actually broke out on Jan. 16 nearly 30 PSU student reservists were called up to active duty. Many others had relatives and friends called up. People expressed their concern for loved ones in different ways. Joyce C lark, mu– sic office coordinator, organized a group called Mothers United for Peace, and traveled with a delegation to Washington, D.C., and met with Northwest lawmakers urging them to vote against the war resolution. The day war broke out 15,000 people, many of them students, protested in Pioneer Courthouse Square. Another group sprung up called "Support O ur Soldiers and Sailors". They showed their support by attending support rallies, sending letters and packages to the troops, and sponsoring forums. Hundreds of PSU students participated in various kinds of forums and "teach-ins" leading up to and after the outbreak of war. PSU Middle East professors Grant Farr, John Damis and Jon Mandaville became regulars in the local news media. Mazen Malik, a graduate student in ecw nomics and a native of Jordan, received a tele– phoned death threat shortly after discussing the Palestinian issue on a local radio show. Mazen blamed the FBI for fanning the fires of anti-Arab hostility by announcing that they were randomly interviewing Arab-Americans. It was a difficult time for everyone. Students with loved ones in the Middle East found it par– ticularly difficult to concentrate on their studies. They weren't alone. All of America and most of the world spent many moments glued to the tele– vision awaiting the latest developments in the Middle East. • • • Bill Keenan