European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - November 23, 1991, Darmstadt, Hesse William Safire saturday november 23, 1991 the stars and stripes b Page 13 commentary nations dizzy trying to Cope with zigzags the great reshuffle is under Way in the lives of nations. The Era of political dissolution is overlapping the age of economic reassembly. Political imperialism is on the Wane. Russia is spinning off its losing acquisitions Yugoslavia is breaking up Blo Odily Czechoslovakia amicably the Quebe cers May part from canadians and scots quit brits. At the same time economic unionism is waxing. In Asia the flying tigers of Trade Are sitting Down with the old Lions in North America the canadians and mexicans Are coming. To see themselves As co americans and in Europe you can hardly hear the rumble of political disintegration for the screeching of economic amalgamation. Here is a Quick Way to encapsulate the great reshuffle politics is digging while economics is tagging. The digging is Good with the breakup of empires the end of statist communism and the breaking of forced contracts binding different cultures we Are getting More personal Freedom and a greater sense of the control of National destiny. Smaller Namons each speaking one language and proud of its special character Are More responsive than Cen trally controlled monoliths provided new majorities respect minority rights. The tagging provided it is limited to the Extension of economic Freedom is Good too. Free Trade zones with tariffs no longer hindering Trade should expand business horizons increasing jobs and raising the Standard of living. The three great trading communities America Europe the far East will a if Good sense prevails a agree to compete fairly with the world s capitalist socks held up by the Happy Garter of Price elasticity. Then Why in the midst of the greatest Forward thrust in two centuries of world history All the grim faces and sour looks because in the digging away from Empire there is concern about healthy nationalism s flip Side of ethnic repression and local War. And in the tagging toward regional confederation there is worry about getting free Trade confused with imperialism under a new Banner. As economic bureaucrats overreach political sovereignty will be reasserted in the end a common language and set of values forges a nations identity and determines its decisions. The tug of peace Between those two forces a digging to political Freedom tagging to economic interdependence a will shape the politics of the run up to the millennium. Neither need totally win but in the end the yearning for political Freedom will dominate the desire for economic Security. C the now York times James j. Kilpatric knew speedup process masks same old Fra encouraging news comes from the food and drug administration where commissioner David a. Kessler last week announced several Steps to Speed up the processing of new drug applications. The bad news is that Kessler still evidences not the foggiest notion of what individual Freedom in a free country is All about. It now takes anywhere from three to 10 years for a drug manufacturer to get his product approved by the Fra. Mind you this is three to 10 years after the research has been done and the product has been developed. Economists at Tufts University after an intensive study estimated that on average it costs $231 million to get a drug to Market. Thanks in substantial part to vice president Dan Quayle snagging and pushing the Fra will now farm out some of its own elaborate testing to private and University laboratories. This will not be done on drugs intended to treat life threatening diseases such As aids cystic fibrosis Parkinson a disease and alzheimer a disease. The Experiment in privatization will be confined to drugs for headaches allergies and the like. Even so this will free the of Day a own people to accelerate the examination of such drugs As taurine which apparently has great Benefit to some victims of alzheimer a. My Only reservation a it is not a Large reservation a is that Many universities arc Beholden to the drug companies for Large contributions. The possibilities for conflicts of interest Are self evident but the potential conflicts Are probably More apparent than real. Kessler and his super cautious colleagues do not grasp the uniqueness of Humankind. They Are agreeable to speeding things up which implies less demanding Field tests of certain products. They will go along with a a fast track to authorize doctors to prescribe a promising new drug that appears to have few Adverse Side effects. Additional tests of effectiveness could he done after the drug is on the Market. But then says the commissioner procedures to remove a a ineffective drugs must also be streamlined. He told the new York times Quot there Are going to be cases where we will allow things on the Market that we think will work and after accepting further evidence Lake off the Hority Stoity this is the same old Fra. Sick people May have Access Only to what the commissioner will allow. A new product must be withdrawn from the Market under threat of serious penalties if these Post Market tests find the drug a a ineffective for whom we patients Are different human beings. The drug that works for one patient May not work at All for another. T his is the Way the world is. C a Versal Pioss Syndicate Cynthia Tucker it s hard to sell abstinence in this age of sex some of you Are annoyed or even angry that magic Johnson has vowed to preach to America especially to its youth about Quot Safe you a prefer that he advocate abstinence. Should America s adolescents be encouraged to refrain from sexual activity until they Are older of course they should. Will they heed the advice Many will not. We must teach them Safe sex to keep them from dying. Johnson should know. The courageous athlete whose nickname a magic reverberated through the stunning news conference he held to Tell the world that he has contracted the virus that causes aids assumed that heterosexuals who shun drug use were Safe from his. He now knows How wrong he was. Of course Johnson would not have contracted the virus if he had abstained from All sexual activity. In fact it seems Clear from his own confessions that Johnson had a sex life Lar More adventurous than most of us can imagine. His sexual practices As a Bachelor might even be fairly characterized As excessive. But his personal life was he no Means unprecedented for a celebrity of his stature. America attaches a certain allure to sexuality and a cachet As Well to celebrities such As Johnson. It Surprise anyone when the undercurrents catch up to each other to produce sexual excess. 1 think we All know the popular culture reflects an attitude of admiration for heterosexual men who claim numerous sexual exploits. When a male Rock Star stands on stage rips off his shirt grabs his Crotch and grates his Pelvis what is he suggesting that s not just the latest in hip choreography. Its a mating dance. Teen agers hear us Tell them to a just say but they hear also the louder messages we Send them through television music magazines and movies. Throughout the mass Media a Haze of Glamour envelops sexuality. Scantily Clad Young women with perfect bodies so 11 everything from cars to liquor to cigarettes. Soap operas vie to outdo each other with convoluted plots highlighting casual sex. The music marketed to teens is full of sexually suggestive lyrics sometimes not even so much suggestive As graphic. The prime time to shows oriented toward adolescents including by Vurly Hilts pm 210 and jog a Houser m.d., feature adolescent sexual activity. We should t be shocked then when we learn that teen agers Are now sexually Active More and More frequently at younger and younger Ages. A 1988 study conducted by the Federal centers for disease control in Atlanta shows that sexual activity among teen age girls is rising at the fastest rate in two decades despite the dangers of sexually transmitted disease. Today s 15-year-old girls Are five times As Likely to he sexually Active As their counterparts a generation ago according to the cd study. More than half of adolescent females 15 or older reported having had premarital sex almost double the Rale in the same age group that reported sexual activity in iy70. Among 15-year-Olds alone one fourth reported having had sex in the last year. The Good news is that the cd has also found that teens who Are taught about aids Are much less Likely to he sexually promiscuous. If we wish to save our children then we must Leach them hat unprotected sex can kill them. We should he delighted magic Johnson is telling them that. 1 news a
