Letters to the Editor

Flawed Marxist reasoning pervaded drug editorial

To the Daily:

The Daily's editorial "Where Capitalism Fails," (2/9/00) offers an overly-simplified version of the pharmaceutical patents issue. While it is true that shortening the length of a patent drives down prices by the emergence of generic brands, it also stifles innovation. By offering long term patents, drug companies have economic incentive to invest in costly research and development projects, developing better, more effective medications.

It is very much the same as copyrights for intellectual and artistic property, where pirated material (books, films, music, etc.) decreases the authors' revenues, and that equates to loss of incentives and an overall decline in product quality. We may balk at $80 textbooks, but that is because scholarship is a costly undertaking that involves many people. If we started buying pirated textbooks en masse, scholarship would become less lucrative and the quality of its product would go down.

What the Daily seems to be suggesting is that equality is better than quality. That it is more important that everyone have their "fair share" than it is for there to be the highest quality of product available and that is a patently Marxist notion. Without incentive, nations falter and crumble, just look at what happened to Soviet Russia.

Charlie Tompkins

LSA junior

Hezbollah members are terrorists, not 'valient Maqui'

To the Daily:

It seems once again the Israel bashers are out in force, distorting facts to justify their hatred. I speak of course of Will Youmans' recent Viewpoint ("Israel should observe international law," 2/11/00). Although Youmans never bothers to mention the background, Israel does not occupy a nine mile stretch of Southern Lebanon for the sake of occupation. It does so to ensure the safety of its northern residential communities from cross-border raids and missile attacks. Consistently and repeatedly, Israel has offered to withdraw from Lebanon - on the condition that Hezbollah dissolve and Lebanon proper assume responsibility for safeguarding the border. Both parties (Hezbollah and Lebanon) have always rejected those offers, with Hezbollah vowing to continue the fight until Israel ceases to exist.

Yet, rather than report (or at least mention) the facts, Youmans instead repeats the tired, disgusting anti-Israel rhetoric about how Israelis are like Nazis and Hezbollah terrorists (I use that word because they frequently attack civilian targets in Northern Israel) are valient Maqui.

Interestingly, although Youmans critiques Israel's occupation of nine miles of Lebanese territory, he ignores the "other" occupation of Lebanon. Specifically, the tens of thousands of Syrian troops who essentially pull the strings of Lebanon's puppet government. Why does Youmans take issue with Israel's control of a small portion of Lebanon (where they rule, mind you, with large support among the indigenous Christian population, who fear Lebanese reunification), but ignore the much greater, more serious occupation - the one directed by an Alawite thug in Damascus.

My guess: Because the truth doesn't always mesh with the Israel haters' agendas. Besides, it's much easier to compare Israelis to Nazis, trivializing the Holocaust.

Jacob Oslick

LSA senior

Angell Hall 'caution' tape has got to go

To the Daily:

The burdensome shear of post-Groundhog winter has set its discouraging weight upon the University community. Student faces (formerly bright and affected with Abercrombian confidence) have turned sour, their optimism replaced by exam worries, GSI hassles and the plank-walking anxiety of what-am-I-going-to-do-after-April. Streets are sopped with the ashen slush of salt and snow, the basketball team founders helplessly and even the corporate bagel stores seem somehow bereft of their usual doughy cheerfulness.

I write in the midst of this discouraging seasonal hardship to appeal to the staff and students of the University to rise (in collective umbrage) against what I perceive to be a spirit-draining sight on our campus: The bright yellow "caution" tape on the Angell Hall stairs.

Must we drape our most august and noble University building with the tacky decoration of a homicide investigation? Is there no more attractive way to discourage student slip-and-fall litigation? Can't we take more pride during the winter months in our aesthetic appearances?

Anyone who's followed the controversy over the stadium's yellow halo knows the emotional cost of loud ugly color schemes on our favorite campus landmarks. Let's not continue to make the same sort of mistake with our beautiful Angell Hall. Prospective students, alumni and the family of staff, faculty and students should be grateful to see this maudlin "caution" tape disappear. Let's make it happen together!

Nicholas Harp

Rackham student