Opinion: In today’s pages: Mugabe, MOCA, and meds
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The editorial board today says no to nuclear power no matter what Gov. Schwarzenegger thinks, laments the long backlog that legal residents face when applying for citizenship, and explores what to do after the heparin fiasco:
After various scandals involving Chinese products -- pet food, toys, seafood -- many Americans already avoid products labeled ‘Made in China.’ But hospital patients have no way of knowing where a widely used pharmaceutical was manufactured or where its ingredients came from. They don’t put such information on IV bags, as though stroke victims are in a position to check anyway.It took a long line of regulatory failures and legal loopholes for a contaminated drug to reach U.S. hospitals.... Legislation in the House Energy and Commerce Committee would help, though it would not solve all the shortcomings.
Modern Art Notes editor Tyler Green reminds Angelenos not to forget about MOCA as they embrace the Grand Avenue project. Columnist Jonah Goldberg says America was talking about race long before Barack Obama’s speech. Memoirist Peter Godwin says that Zimbabwe’s Robert Mugabe has led his country to ruin:
I was one of those who gladly dismissed Rhodesia and became Zimbabwean. Upon the firm economic infrastructure he had inherited, Robert Mugabe, our first black leader, built a health and educational system that was the envy of Africa. Zimbabwe became the continent’s most literate country, with its highest per capita income. Zimbabwe easily fed itself and had plenty left over to export to its famine-prone neighbors.... Fast forward to today, and the country is unrecognizable.
Readers react to Gov. Schwarzenegger’s dismissal of Clint Eastwood and Bobby Shriver from a state commission. Laguna Niguel’s Kurt Page says, ‘At least the governor defends his action with insight and wisdom when he says that the toll road ‘has to go through somewhere’.... Brilliant stuff.’
*Photo of Robert Mugabe courtesy Bishop Asare EPA