Opinion
Lawrence Journal-World l LJWorld.com l Monday, December 5, 2016
EDITORIALS
Extra safe K-10 The addition of signage reminding drivers of traffic flow is a better solution than installing a light.
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he Kansas Department of Transportation is right to add signage and traffic control measures at the intersection of the South Lawrence Trafficway and Kasold Drive. As configured, the intersection is “right-on, right-off” only. A barrier of vertical poles prevents drivers from using Kasold to cross the trafficway from Kansas Highway 10. Local officials have lobbied KDOT to install a traffic signal at the intersection, arguing that without the light, motorists would try to steer around the barrier and cross the trafficway at Kasold. There was a three-vehicle accident Nov. 22 at the intersection that sent five people to local hospitals. A report from the Kansas Highway Patrol showed that the crash was caused when a Lawrence motorist was struck by oncoming traffic while trying to cross K-10. The wreck renewed calls for increased safety measures, including a traffic signal. KDOT has rejected the traffic signal requests based on expense and long-term plans for the trafficway. That’s a justifiable approach. It’s not unreasonable to expect motorists to be able to follow the rules of the intersection as configured. But it is proactive for KDOT to take measures to promote greater awareness among motorists that all traffic maneuvers crossing the highway’s center line are prohibited. KDOT spokeswoman Kimberly Qualls said the measures will include 12 new permanent signs on the SLT and Kasold informing motorists that only right turns onto or off the highway are permitted. KDOT also plans to extend the solid-line pavement markings along the intersection’s acceleration and deceleration lanes by 100 feet and place delineator poles along those lane boundaries to channel motorists onto and off the highway. The changes are expected to be in place within the month. As a temporary measure, electronic message boards were placed on the roadways last week. KDOT officials met with city and county officials last week to discuss the changes. All were in agreement that the changes will improve safety at the intersection. A traffic signal isn’t needed at Kasold and the South Lawrence Trafficway, but KDOT is to be commended for adding extra safety measures.
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From the Lawrence Daily Journal-World for Dec. 5, 1916: l “The question of a years shorter school day, thoroughly ago threshed out at several meetIN 1916 ings of the board last year, was sprung again before a Lawrence board of education meeting last night by a large group of interested parents…. The chief point of the argument was that the children need more time in the open air while the sun is shining. Mrs. J. B. Whelan, who represented the opposition to a shorter day, pointed out that some children who attend the schools and who would be affected by a shorter day would return to homes where ventilation is poor and other conditions far from ideal. The decision of the board was deferred to a future meeting.” l “Dr. James Naismith, head of the University department of physical training, was chairman of a meeting of forty basketball officials and coaches at Kansas City last night. Dr. Naismith originated the game which now is played in practically all parts of the world.” l “Washington. – President Wilson delivered his opening address to Congress today ... some suffrage invaders in the gallery dropped over the rail a banner which they had smuggled into the room in a handbag. It was yellow, the suffrage color, and bore in bold letters the inscription: ‘Mr. President what will you do for Woman’s suffrage?’ A page quickly snatched the banner from its place. The President looked up, but continued his reading without hesitation.” — Reprinted with permission from local writer Sarah St. John. To see more, go online to www.facebook.com/DailyLawrenceHistory.
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Cuba’s economic future not bright Now that Fidel Castro is gone and the leaders of Canada, Mexico and other countries have made fools of themselves by praising the alleged accomplishments of a dictator who destroyed his country’s economy and executed thousands of people, it’s time to take a look at Cuba’s future. It doesn’t look good.
Andres Oppenheimer aoppenheimer@miamiherald.com
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Most economists now agree that Raúl Castro faces a perfect storm of bad news that will make it difficult for Cuba’s economy to get back on its feet.”
In theory, things should get better. President Raúl Castro, 86, has proved to be more pragmatic than his older brother. He could have an easier time implementing the much-needed economic reforms that he announced at the VI Congress of the Communist Party in 2011 and that he vowed to speed up at the VII Congress earlier this year. Raúl Castro’s small steps toward a Vietnam-styled, state-run form of capitalism were slowed down because of resistance from Fidel, who remained a powerful figure behind the throne. Without Fidel, the hard-line “Fidelistas” would have less power to stop the reforms, the theory went. But most economists now agree that Raúl Castro faces a perfect storm of bad news that will make it difficult for Cuba’s economy to get back on its feet.
“Cuba suffers today its worst economic crisis since the nineties,” says economist Carmelo Mesa Lago, a professor emeritus of the University of Pittsburgh who is one of the world’s leading analysts of the Cuban economy. “The projections are that the economy will stagnate or decline in 2016, and that the situation will worsen in 2017.” First, Venezuela’s subsidized oil shipments to Cuba, which kept the island’s economy alive in recent years, fell by about 40 percent during the first six months this year, according to a Reuters news agency report. Venezuela’s economy is in a shambles because of the decline in world oil prices and disastrous economic policies, and its oil subsidies to Cuba are likely to continue falling, experts say. Second, Cuba’s exports of medical services — a kind of modern-day slave trade through which the Cuban regime sends tens of thousands of physicians to Venezuela, Brazil and Angola and pockets the bulk of their salaries — may be endangered. Venezuela has a hard time paying for these services, and Brazil’s new center-right govern-
ment may not renew these government-to-government contracts. Third, Cuba’s production of nickel and sugar is depressed because of low commodity prices and the destruction of the country’s industries over the past 60 years. And, thanks to Fidel Castro’s revolution, Cuba today imports more than 70 percent of its food. Fourth, tourism — the island’s biggest hope since President Barack Obama’s opening to Cuba in 2014 — may decline if U.S. President-elect Donald Trump follows through with his Nov. 28 threat to “terminate” Obama’s deal with the island. The return of U.S. airlines and cruise ships filled with American tourists to Cuba over the past year had helped drive up foreign tourism. “The most optimistic forecast for Cuba is that after a few decades of struggle and reorientation, it will end up at the income level of the Dominican Republic,” wrote George Mason University economics professor Tyler Cowen in the Miami Herald. He added that while the World Bank estimates Cuba’s GDP at $6,000 per cap-
Marine code provides lesson Every year, when he was commandant of the Marine Corps between 1995 and 1999, Gen. Charles Krulak and his wife would spend the week before Christmas baking hundreds of cookies, which they wrapped in small packages. At 4 a.m. on Christmas Day, Gen. Krulak would begin driving himself to every Marine guard post in the nearby WashingtonMaryland-Virginia area and deliver a package of cookies to each Marine whose turn it was to be pulling guard on Christmas Day. At Quantico, one of his stops, Krulak went to the command center and gave cookies to the young lance corporal on duty. The general asked the enlisted Marine who the officer of the day was. The lance corporal answered, “Sir, it’s Brig. Gen. Mattis,’’ to which (as the commandant told Dr. Albert Pierce of the United States Naval Academy), Krulak replied, ‘’No, no, no. I know who Gen. Mattis is. I mean, who’s the officer of the day today, Christmas Day?’’ The young Marine was undoubtedly relieved when Gen. Mattis, in a duty uniform and with his sword, appeared. When questioned by Krulak, he simply explained that the young officer who was scheduled to have duty on Christmas Day had a wife and family and so he, Gen. Mattis, took his place, convinced that it was better for a young father and husband to spend Christmas with his family. Quick quiz: Can any of us name a prominent CEO,
Mark Shields
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Is there anyone who does not agree that ours would be a more humane and more just country and national community if the princes of Wall Street and the royalty of Washington accepted that officers eat last?”
university president or U.S. senator about whom a similar story — of decency and thoughtfulness toward those beneath him in rank — can be told? One of the reasons that a lot of people, including many former Marines, are both relieved and pleased with President-elect Donald J. Trump’s selection of this general to be secretary of defense is that James Mattis personifies the Marine Corps rule “Officers eat last.’’ The Marine officer does not eat until everyone subordinate to him — all the lance corporals and privates — has first been fed. Marines honor the principle that loyalty goes both down and up the chain of command. Is there anyone who does not
agree that ours would be a more humane and more just country and national community if the princes of Wall Street and the royalty of Washington accepted that officers eat last? I have met Gen. Mattis, though I do not pretend to know him. But those whom I know who have served with him overwhelmingly salute his character, his intellect and his independence. He does not fawn on or flatter the powerful. He has never been an apple-polisher or anybody’s sycophant. After candidate Trump, during the campaign, advocated banning all Muslims from even entering the United States, Gen. Mattis was characteristically blunt: ‘’This kind of thing is causing us great damage right now, and it’s sending shock waves through this international system.’’ With the enormously respected Marine Gen. Joseph Dunford continuing as the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and with Gen. Mattis as secretary of defense, the Marines, the smallest of our military forces, with just 182,000 on active duty, stand to have — to the resentment of the Army, the Navy and the Air Force — greater influence in the making and enforcing of our American foreign and defense policies than at any other time. And given the high quality of Gens. Mattis and Dunford, that should be welcome news for America and for the world. Mark Shields is a columnist for Creators Syndicate.
ita, that measure is based on an unrealistic exchange rate. Cuba’s real GDP is more likely not much higher than Nicaragua’s $2,000 per capita, he said. “Had Cuba not had a communist revolution is 1959, it could have been one of the most successful Latin American economies,” Cowen wrote. My opinion: Instead of praising a dictator who didn’t have the courage to compete in a free election in nearly six decades, the leaders of Mexico, Canada and other countries should have cited Cuba’s revolution as an example of a failed economic model, which is going from bad to worse. If Trump plays his cards well — a big if — he will leave Cuba alone and not do anything that will give the Cuban dictatorship an excuse to roll back its timid reforms. Raúl Castro is scheduled to step down in early 2018, and his successors may have to concede what the vast majority of Cubans have already concluded: that communism is the longest — and bloodiest — road between capitalism and capitalism. — Andres Oppenheimer is a columnist for the Miami Herald.
TODAY IN HISTORY On Dec. 5, 1791, composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna, Austria, at age 35. l In 1782, the eighth president of the United States, Martin Van Buren, was born in Kinderhook, New York; he was the first chief executive to be born after American independence. l In 1933, national Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment. l In 1945, five U.S. Navy torpedo bombers mysteriously disappeared after taking off from Fort Lauderdale, Fla., on a training mission with the loss of all 14 crew members; “The Lost Squadron” contributed to the legend of the Bermuda Triangle. l In 1955, the American Federation of Labor and the Congress of Industrial Organizations merged to form the AFL-CIO under its first president, George Meany. l In 1994, Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades. l In 2013, Nelson Mandela, the anti-apartheid leader who became South Africa’s first black president, died at age 95.
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