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CNN Newsroom

NEWSROOM for July 17, 2001

Aired July 17, 2001 - 04:30   ET

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.

THIS IS A RUSH TRANSCRIPT. THIS COPY MAY NOT BE IN ITS FINAL FORM AND MAY BE UPDATED.
ANNOUNCER: Seen in classrooms the world over, this is CNN NEWSROOM.

TOM HAYNES, CO-HOST: Hello, everyone, and welcome to CNN NEWSROOM. I'm Tom Haynes.

SHELLEY WALCOTT, CO-HOST: And I'm Shelley Walcott.

We've got plenty ahead. Here's a quick preview.

HAYNES: Could there be a change in the U.S. policy on immigration from Mexico? Find out in "Today's Top Story." Plus, we'll bring you up to date on the changing of the guard on the International Olympic Committee.

WALCOTT: Following that, "Health Desk" focuses on a new cybertreatment for drug dependence. For some, the first of 12 steps is the click of the mouse.

HAYNES: Up next in "Worldview," we journey to South Africa to explore an educational and cultural transformation.

WALCOTT: And finally, we get a little touchy feely in "Chronicle."

HAYNES: But first, today, in the midst of a United States tour, Mexican President Vicente Fox is promoting equal rights for Mexicans living in the United States. An estimated three million Mexicans are living illegally in the U.S., many of them are in border areas. Under a proposal being considered by President Bush, they could be granted legal residency in the U.S. Now an amnesty program would have to be approved by Congress, and Major Garrett has more on the proposal and its possible implications.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MAJOR GARRETT, CNN WHITE HOUSE CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): A trial balloon on immigration and a potential collision between the Bush White House and conservative Republicans.

At issue is a proposal from senior U.S. and Mexican officials to grant legal status to an estimated three million illegal Mexican immigrants who work and pay taxes in the U.S. Most are farm workers and service employees. It's only one suggestion in a report on U.S.- Mexican immigration issues Mr. Bush will receive this week.

But Mexico's president, Vicente Fox, has lobbied Mr. Bush aggressively. Mr. Fox is touring the U.S. and welcomed Monday any movement to liberalize U.S. laws.

VICENTE FOX, PRESIDENT OF MEXICO: What is best for my nation in this consideration, the more and more rights that we obtain for our Mexican nationals in the United States.

GARRETT: Both countries are aiming for a new immigration policy by early September when Mr. Fox arrives for the first state visit of the Bush presidency. Even so, administration officials shied away from the politically charged word "amnesty."

RICHARD BOUCHER, STATE DEPARTMENT SPOKESMAN: I would not describe the focus of the program as being some kind of Ollie-Ollie income free amnesty.

GARRETT: Politically, the stakes are high all around. Amnesty or something very much like it might win over some Mexican-American voters. Mr. Bush won only a third of the seven million Mexican- American votes in the last election. But amnesty could cost him support among law and order conservatives.

DAN STEIN, THE FEDERATION FOR AMERICAN IMMIGRATION REFORM: People crashing the borders, breaking the law, getting ahead of the line, telling the guy who plays by the rules and waits patiently that he's a sucker.

GARRETT: There are still more twists. Unions, which had once feared immigration would drive down wages, are now eager to sign up legalized Mexican workers.

ANDREW STERN, SERVICE EMPLOYEES INTERNATIONAL UNION: We have such a booming economy right now. What we've seen is that hardworking tax paying immigrants make such a contribution to our society and to our economy, I think we should see this as a great opportunity for the future.

GARRETT (on camera): Last year, congressional Republicans killed President Clinton's efforts to liberalize U.S. immigration laws. The question for Mr. Bush and his Republican congressional allies is do they want to go to war and if so, who wins?

Major Garrett, CNN, the White House.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Both sides of the U.S.-Mexican border are closely watching the issue of whether Mexicans living in the U.S. illegally should be granted amnesty. It is a topic surrounded by controversy in Washington and across the nation and is likely to be subjected to weeks of review before reaching Congress.

Anne McDermott has more now on the arguments for and against legalizing the illegals. (BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

ANNE MCDERMOTT, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): You have to be pretty desperate to come to the U.S. this way, illegally, but come they do, no matter how scared they get. But surely, after living and working here for years, the fear begins to fade -- doesn't it?

JULIO, "ILLEGAL" IMMIGRANT: I'm very, very scared. Sometimes I can't even got to sleep at night.

MCDERMOTT: Julio would love to be legal. He and others like him say, they just want the chance to work hard, to take care of their families.

JULIO: Because we're not hurting anybody. I'm not hurting anybody.

MCDERMOTT: While this man says, he is.

GLENN SPENCER, ANTI-IMMIGRATION ACTIVIST: We're importing poverty on a massive scale, and we're going to be taxed out of existence to pay for the welfare and benefits for these people to which they will be entitled once we legalize them. It's going to be the greatest catastrophe this country this country's ever seen.

MCDERMOTT: Glenn Spencer of Los Angeles has been speaking out against illegal immigration for years now, on radio, and on the net, and he says what's happening now, is no less than an invasion of our country. And a country without borders, says Spencer, is no longer a sovereign nation.

ALICE CALLAGHAN, IMMIGRANT RIGHTS ACTIVIST: The reality is, we do have an open border, anyone who wants to come can and does come.

MCDERMOTT: That's Alice Callaghan, who runs a center for the children of illegal and legal immigrants. She says California, along with many other regions of the country, might go under, without newly arrived immigrants to pick the crops, work the restaurants and even clean the houses.

Besides, say others, enforcement against undocumented workers is lax, so they are here, and they aren't going away, not if they can help it.

JULIO: I'd like to see if my dream will come true.

MCDERMOTT: Anne McDermott, CNN, Los Angeles.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: It's an Olympic passing of the torch, but this handoff has nothing to do with head-to-head competition. The International Olympic Committee has a new president. His name is Jacques Rogge, a Belgian surgeon. He was elected in a landslide victory Monday. Rogge, who speaks five languages, defeated four other candidates in a secret ballot to succeed Juan Antonio Samaranch. He officially takes office on July 20 -- that's this Friday. Rogge says he's ready to get to work.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JACQUES ROGGE, NEW IOC PRESIDENT: This is not the fulfilling of a dream. This is a responsibility I wanted to take, I'm going to take it, but I don't refer to it as being a dream.

(END VIDEO CLIP)

WALCOTT: Rogge follows in the footsteps of Juan Antonio Samaranch, a leader whose tenure was filled with accomplishments and controversy.

Jason Dasey reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JUAN ANTONIO SAMARANCH, IOC PRESIDENT: The Games of the 29th Olympiad in 2008 are awarded to the city of Beijing.

(CROWD CHEERING)

JASON DASEY, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): Juan Antonio Samaranch was called the most powerful sports figure in the world and it was a fitting title. Sports and power were common themes in his life.

Born to an influential aristocratic family, his love for sports and his business savvy eventually led him to the top of Spain's power structure. In 1966, Samaranch became a member of the International Olympic Committee and was also named Spain's national sports minister by the fascist dictator, General Francisco Franco.

The IOC had just $230,000 in cash reserves when Samaranch was elected president in 1980. Under his leadership, the organization began making billion-dollar deals for broadcasting rights, turning over $3 billion from 1992 to '96. And Samaranch himself has even said, without money, sports would grind to a halt in all countries.

ROGGE: When Juan Antonio Samaranch was elected 20 years ago, the IOC had no money, was struggling with the hypocrisy of (UNINTELLIGIBLE) There were no women. The Summer and the Winter Games were organized in the same year which was very difficult for the IOC. He changed all that. He had the vision that the IOC had to be more modern. The legacy he's given me is a very great one.

SAMARANCH: The situation of the International Olympic Committee is excellent. As Rogge said, you cannot compare International Olympic Committee of today of 21 years ago when I was first elected here in Moscow.

DASEY: Perhaps Samaranch's finest moment was the '92 Games when the athletes of the world came to his hometown, Barcelona. But Samaranch's tremendous influence was also in the spotlight during his darkest period as head of the IOC. Olympic officials had been accused of taking lucrative bribes with particular focus on awarding the 2002 Winter Games, which went to Salt Lake City, Utah. But Samaranch met the accusations head-on and spearheaded reforms against corruption.

ANITA DEFRANTZ, IOC VICE PRESIDENT: You are a real leader who defended this institution with dignity no matter how aggressive the attacks against your person.

DASEY: The Olympic motto is higher, stronger, faster, and indeed, Juan Antonio Samaranch will be remembered for taking the Olympics to unprecedented heights and leaves the world of sports with a powerful legacy.

I'm Jason Dasey.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: A federal judge has thrown out 4 of 15 felony charges in the Olympic bribery case. It's the first setback for the U.S. Justice Department's prosecution of Salt Lake City's bid leaders. Those leaders were accused of using questionable practices to convince the IOC to bring the Games to Utah.

HAYNES: If you have ever taken a health class you've probably studied the effects of drug use, but do you know what it means to be chemically dependent? Well, chemical dependence is considered a disease. It's marked by a psychological and sometimes physical need to use alcohol or other drugs -- a need that doesn't go away even when using the drugs causes negative consequences. Dependency is influenced by genetics, psychosocial and environmental factors. It's often progressive and sometimes even fatal.

Now, 15 million people in the U.S. abuse drugs or alcohol but only 1 million of them are getting treatment. Most of them don't or won't use traditional therapy programs. Enter the Internet and a Web site backed by a former drug czar that hopes to bridge the treatment gap.

Marsha Walton has more.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

MARSHA WALTON, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): EGetGoing.com offers a drug and alcohol abuse program that's available online to anyone, anywhere. It's a traditional treatment program morphed into an Internet rehab clinic. Participants enroll in a 12-week online program that emulates real world group therapy. Clients log on and are able to see, hear, and talk to a real-time counselor.

BARRY KARLIN, CEO, EGERGOING.COM: What treatment is about is a fully audio, video interactive process. There are 10 people who are talking to one another live on the Internet along with a profession counselor. They can all hear each other using voice technology, but they cannot see one another because of anonymity reasons, but they can see the counselor.

WALTON: The Internet-based therapy groups meet for an hour twice a week. EGetGoing's rehab program is designed to complement and overcome the barriers of traditional treatment in two ways, either as an alternative for those who can't afford or access traditional therapy, or as a long-term supplement to traditional treatment. EGetGoing costs half as much as conventional outpatient therapy.

Launched in March, eGetGoing uses a number of visual aids like slides and life-like dramatizations that use actors to portray addicts in therapy.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: And it's really hard for me to sit here and tell you.

WALTON: Former drug Czar General Barry McCaffrey recently joined eGetGoing as a principle adviser. While he was director of the White House Office of Drug Control Policy, he advocated the role of technology in the treatment of addiction.

BARRY MCCAFFREY, PRINCIPAL ADVISER, EGETGOING.COM: This is the first time I've seen a follow-on component using the Internet as a delivery vehicle that will allow someone who's been in treatment for a month to go back to their family, back to their workplace and then continue with the same therapeutic group. It's magic.

WALTON: McCaffrey says because the treatment is online, patients remain completely anonymous. They can schedule sessions round the clock and make up those they may have missed. Many participants log on from their home computers, so the stigma of being treated for drug or alcohol abuse is often eliminated.

Some therapists say the Internet's distance makes it harder for counselors to monitor patients' behavior, to see if they're still drinking or using, for instance.

DR. LISA MELMAN, COLUMBIA PRESBYTERIAN HOSPITAL: I don't think that online therapy will ever substitute for face-to-face, in person treatment.

WALTON: But others say that some abusers, especially women and young people, may be more willing to use the Web for therapy than traditional treatment. About 50 people have enrolled in the program so far, and according to eGetGoing, the initial results are very encouraging.

Marsha Walton, CNN.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

WALCOTT: In "Worldview" today, we hear from CNN Johannesburg bureau chief Charlayne Hunter-Gault. While she's reporting on South Africa, she's also reflecting on the civil rights movement. She was at the forefront of that cause for she was the first black woman ever admitted to the University of Georgia. We look back at that experience as we examine strides being made in South Africa.

South Africa lies on the southern tip of the African continent. The country is rich in natural resources and is the most highly industrialized country in Africa. Despite South Africa's resources and beautiful landscape, it has been troubled by violence and isolated by other countries because of its racial policies.

South Africa was the last African country to be ruled by a white minority. From the late 1940s until the early 1990s, the white-run government enforced a policy of segregation called apartheid. It denied voting privileges and other rights to the black majority. South Africa finally extended voting rights to all races in 1993 and the following year, South Africa's white leaders handed over power to the country's first multiracial government. Seven years later, observers say South Africa has come a long way.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

CHARLAYNE HUNTER-GAULT, CNN CORRESPONDENT: If ever there was an institution that resembled the University of Georgia and its historic racial legacy, it was this one, Rau Afrikaans University, founded almost 35 years ago solely to educate Afrikaans-speaking white students, no doubt to take their place alongside the Afrikaaner ruling class of the country's racially segregated society.

Known as apartheid, it relegated blacks to segregated, separate and woefully unequal places, including in higher education.

(voice-over): Now, seven years after apartheid ended with a black-led government taking over, two of the finalists in this Rau tradition, the Rag Queen Festival, are black, as are many of the participants. They and close to 8,000 other black students are here, 42 percent of the total, along with Indians - one a finalist in the festival and so-called coloreds. Most the beneficiaries of law passed three years ago compelling higher education institutions to provide measures for the redress of past inequities forbidding such institutions to unfairly discriminate in any way - unapologetic affirmative action aimed at what is known here not as desegregation, but transformation.

Given my own experience of being a first, I sought out a student who had been among the first admitted to Rau. I was led to Brenda Radebe. Admitted in 1991, even before apartheid ended, but only to attend night classes. It wasn't a mob she had to face, it was language -- Afrikaans.

BRENDA RADEBE, LECTURER: So all the lectures would be in Afrikaans, and we're totally lost, no acknowledgment as well to say, you know, if you like, you can contribute in English or whatever.

HUNTER-GAULT: With the help of some sympathetic Afrikaaner students, Radebe got through it and went on to earn her master's degree in clinical psychology. In 1997, she returned to Rau, this time hired as a lecturer.

RADEBE: The process, like she says, of looking at options.

HUNTER-GAULT: One consequence of transformation, students can elect to take their classes in Afrikaans or in English. Black and English-speaking students tend to choose classes taught by English speakers. Afrikaaner students by and large stick to the classes taught in Afrikaans.

UNIDENTIFIED LECTURER: Scientists usually work within a theological framework.

HUNTER-GAULT: Since the higher education act calling for transformation came into being, Rau has recruited some of South Africa's best black academics, like Sevid Mashego, a zoology professor and former head of one of the country's historically disadvantaged, or all black, African universities. This is a class for honors students. For most, their first black professor.

GORDON O'BRIEN, HONORS STUDENT: It's new to us, I must say. It is. We're all developing. We're changing. It's a difference. But no, I haven't come across anyone specifically that has had any problems with any black professors, not at all.

HUNTER-GAULT: Despite their acceptance, the few black professors here worry about another legacy of apartheid.

CONNIE MOLOI, SENIOR LECTURER: When you look at the kinds of degrees that they are doing, they are not the key degrees. For instance, you don't find any black students in degrees such as engineering, in the sciences. You find the greatest percentage doing arts, visual arts, and in our case, most of them are in education.

HUNTER-GAULT: Blacks are continuing to follow traditional career fields established during apartheid when they were limited by law as to what fields they could pursue. Moreover, most black students enter university after attending schools still suffering from the inequities of apartheid.

SEVID MASHEGO, PROFESSOR: I'm also a product of, you know, of a black township. I grew up in Soweto. The schools are definitely not equipped at all. When I was studying mathematics and physical science and so on at a school where there were no laboratories whatsoever. Everything had to be done theoretically by studying the books.

HUNTER-GAULT: Rau has established a special high school near its campus to help disadvantaged students overcome that legacy. The school's headmaster says its success, a 100 percent pass rate and the government's emphasis on affirmative action at every level of society, has led to private sector scholarships, a kind of down payment on well-trained future black employees.

When I saw this ritual during freshman orientation week at Rau, my mind went back to less innocent freshman week rituals at the University of Georgia, especially among the Greek letter organizations, one of which used to proudly display the confederate flag, a symbol of the old South and slavery.

Symbols of the old confederacy could still be seen flying around the campus this year amid much controversy. I talked with some black students here at Rau who complained about its rituals, not so demeaning as foreign and uncomfortable. No problem for Phatudi Mogashwa, who accepts not only Afrikaans, but the Afrikaaner nickname the upperclassmen gave him, Ketting Uk (ph), chain eye. Remembering that the black student protests against being taught in Afrikaans in 1976 was a defining moment in the black liberation struggle, I asked Mogashwa, whose native language is northern Sutu, what had changed.

PHATUDI MOGASHWA, STUDENT: Well, basically, like it's a rumination and it's actually quite cool because they, I sometimes teach in my language, you know? They catch the envy and it's awesome because it's changed dramatically because, you know, it's amazing, actually. I feel at home with them here.

CAREL CRONJE, STUDENT: We don't see color anymore. We like all students.

HUNTER-GAULT: But some students complained about the appearance of subtle forms of discrimination, especially in the assigning of spaces to black students in the residences, echoes of the discrimination I faced at the University of Georgia when I was placed in a two-room suite on a floor with no other students.

SHARON NKOMO, FORMER RAU STUDENT: I think it's much easier for white people to get in than for black people to do so because no matter when you go, when you go talk to them, usually, normally you have to go there all the time to remind them, to ask them if there's any openings and all that. You find that, you know, your name isn't moving. They keep on telling you you're number 23. You stay there, you know? You're not moving.

HUNTER-GAULT: The university says there's no such intent but acknowledges it may have failed to communicate that. Black students say communication could be improved if they could talk to people in authority who look like them.

DELANI MABASO, STUDENT: If you have a complaint and you feel that white people are doing this to you, the last person you'd want - the last thing you'd want to do is to go to a white person and tell them, no, you're doing this to me.

HUNTER-GAULT: It may be a comfort factor, but students on this campus do tend to gravitate toward their own ethnic groups. Despite the problems, the recently retired head of the university says he's proud of what Rau has been able to achieve.

J.C. VAN DER WALT, FORMER RAU RECTOR: I must really say to you that it's been a miracle. I've never experienced in the 35 years that I've been here and especially in the last 10 years any resistance to the concept that we had to transform to become a fully South African university.

HUNTER-GAULT: In many ways, Rau's transformation, though not complete, has been less eventful than at some other institutions in the country. And while there has been the odd racial incident here and there and the continuing calls for blackening or Africanizing institutions of higher learning, there's been nothing like the massive resistance experienced in Georgia and other states in the deep South. (on camera): A few weeks ago, I looked at the statistics on the admission of black students to the University of Georgia 40 years after I walked through its doors. Only six percent of the 34,000 students are black, and the university is being sued by whites to end the use of race as a factor in admissions. Even though South Africa's children of apartheid won their freedom some 33 years after the children of American segregation, and even though South Africa has a long way to go towards full transformation, it has come a long way and much faster.

Charlayne Hunter-Gault, CNN, Johannesburg.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Imagine waiting in line for a hug -- not just any hug, but one that some people say actually heals. Well this is a story of an Indian guru who's been traveling the U.S. spreading her message of love by dispensing hugs and who better to get one than CNN's Jeanne Moos.

(BEGIN VIDEOTAPE)

JEANNE MOOS, CNN CORRESPONDENT (voice-over): How many hugs do you average per day? One or two? There's nothing average about this woman's hugs.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It was like being inside of a cloud.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It felt like a bolt of electricity through my head.

MOOS: Her followers call her Amma, meaning mother, and she's winding up a 10-city U.S. hugging tour, hugs of pure bliss and hugs of consolation. She plants kisses, and hands out chocolate kisses wrapped in petals. Amma has hugged for 22 hours straight.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Oh, my God, she just sits there. And she never gets up. And when we go out and get coffee or tea or we go to the bathroom eight times and she's still sitting there.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: I've never even seen her yawn.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She's a fountain of love.

MOOS: In India Amma is treated like a saint. People flock to see her.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She hugs 3,000 people in one hour. She hugs them. MOOS: Amma even hugs while giving interviews.

The mood was mystical at this Columbia University auditorium.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: It really isn't something that one can explain. MOOS: Amma was greeted with the traditional Indian foot washing then made her way through the crowd to the stage where she commenced hugging. Followers kept count, but this is no attempt to break a Guiness record.

Some folks break down, touched by Amma's spirituality.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Sometimes when your heart opens, the tears come. MOOS: The sick come to be cured.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I just went blind.

UNIDENTIFIED MALE: She went blind two months ago.

MOOS: Amma makes no promises. She welcomes all religions, her hugs are free.

(on camera): Do you remember your first hug?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: I'll never forget it.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: Are you going to have a hug?

MOOS: I don't know.

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: You have to.

MOOS: OK.

It's me.

(voice-over): Amma whispers while she hugs, repeating for instance, my daughter, my daughter. And though my world didn't rock, it was a hug to remember.

(on camera): Thank you.

(voice-over): I left lipstick on her sari, breaking one of hugging guidelines, tissue off excess makeup. There are CD's and key chains and even Amma dolls for sale, expensive ones, but the proceeds go to hospitals and orphanages in India.

How does Amma's hug stack up against a regular mom's?

UNIDENTIFIED FEMALE: A hundred percent better.

MOOS (on camera): Wow, a hundred percent better.

(voice-over): Like the sign says, please do not hug Amma, let her hug you, and they do.

Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.

(END VIDEOTAPE)

HAYNES: Well, let me give you a big hug.

WALCOTT: Oh, Tom.

(LAUGHTER)

HAYNES: Are we cheesy or what?

WALCOTT: Nope.

HAYNES: We need to be taken right off the air, OK.

(LAUGHTER)

HAYNES: That's CNN NEWSROOM for Tuesday.

WALCOTT: We'll see you back here tomorrow.

Bye-bye.

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