home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- GRAPEVINE, Page 15
-
-
- By JANICE CASTRO
-
- Feeding the Enemy
-
- Half the estimated $100 million worth of BOSNIAN RELIEF
- SHIPMENTS sent to Sarajevo this year have been seized by
- Serbian troops. U.N. officials have allowed the thefts to take
- place. Heavily armed Serbian forces surrounding Sarajevo airport
- skim a large share of every relief shipment as a form of
- safe-passage payment, carefully selecting all the meat,
- telephone gear, fire-fighting equipment as well as the newsprint
- being donated for an independent paper.
-
- Why Annie Can't Fight
-
- President Bush has thrown up his hands after reading the
- report from his PRESIDENTIAL COMMISSION ON WOMEN IN THE
- MILITARY, and may reverse its ban on women in combat cockpits
- before sending the recommendations on to Congress. After a
- yearlong, $4 million study, the 15-member commission came up
- with several odd objections to women serving in combat. First of
- all, the report argues, women might be taken as prisoners of
- war. Servicewomen, who are asking for assignments in which they
- could be killed, have already said they are willing to risk
- imprisonment. The commission also insisted that if both parents
- in a family are in the service, one should be forced to quit.
- Guess which one?
-
- The Pentagon's Porsche
-
- Some folks say the B-2 STEALTH BOMBER is worth its weight
- in gold, but that's not true: it is now worth three times that,
- thanks to defense cutbacks. The Air Force says the aircraft
- cost $44.4 billion to develop. The Pentagon originally planned
- to build about 130 but has scaled its orders back to 20, or a
- cool $2.2 billion apiece. And costs may rise, since the Air
- Force is having trouble getting the much vaunted Stealth
- radar-evading technology to work properly.
-
- There Goes the Neighborhood
-
- Bill Clinton may have enjoyed his vacation at the
- Bloodworth-Thomason's beach house in SUMMERLAND, California,
- but some wealthy neighbors are sneering about "our tax dollars
- at play." Huffed one neighbor: "Have you seen the Porta Potties
- along Padaro Lane?" Others carp that on the $200,000 salary
- Clinton will earn as President, he is not rich enough to buy a
- house in the area. Ronald Reagan, of course, lived up the road,
- but at least he wasn't a Democrat. Sighed a jaded millionaire as
- Clinton departed: "We survived Carter, and we'll survive him."
-
- Ho Chi Minh Capitalism
-
- American companies are eager to do business in VIETNAM.
- Citibank, Philip Morris, Mobil, General Electric and
- Caterpillar are said to be lobbying for an end to the U.S.
- economic embargo. Coca-Cola and Kodak are already well known
- there, thanks to black-market sales. Last month the Backer Spiel
- vogel Bates advertising agency, one of the world's largest,
- hosted a marketing conference in Ho Chi Minh City. Said Carl
- Spielvogel, chairman of the firm: "We believe there is an
- enormous potential there, and in Indochina generally. We intend
- to be pioneers in this market."
-
-
-