A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament, a worldwide pheno

 to keep the grass mowed at a vacation home in another state . There is too much

 of the familiar upper middle class drudgery in Tuesday 's indictments to provok

e a natural sympathy for a congressman accused of having converted these domesti

cities to federal public works projects . And , of course , jurors whose existen

ce spares them these trials whose daughters run off with the local drug dealer ,

 who haven't a lawn and whose houses defy renovation can't be expected to stretc

h their natural disposition to liberality to include the forgiveness of such nov

el ways of achieving the comforts they have been denied . I 'd sooner be Sen. Bo

b Packwood trying to explain how I had annoyed so many women so repeatedly witho

ut ever gaining a reputation as the Senate 's greatest lover but rather as its m

ost often rejected one . When Phil Gramm needed a house built he can now smugly 

say he went not to the Treasury but to a savings and loan operator . Even Al D' 

Amato can now boast to colleagues that all his dirty linen is safely stored in t

he closets where the Senate Ethics Committee keeps the secret testimony that led

 it to conclude that he ran his office in what even his fellow senators found to

 be a rather disgusted way . It is there , mocking D' Amato 's detractors who 'd

 like to pore over its imagined enormities , not being paraded in a manner that 

reduces public perception of the knaveries of Congress to lawn mowing . The powe

rs of the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee are such that when he falls ,

 it is like the crashing of a mighty oak . And until now , most of the public un

derstood little more than that Chairman Rostenkowski 's legal problems had somet

hing vaguely to do with vouchers and postage stamps which brought to mind an alm

ighty congressman being tormented for 29-cent transgressions . Now it has been r

educed to terms both more vast and more mundane . One of Rostenkowski 's predece

ssors as ways and means chairman , Wilbur Mills , fell from power because of a m

idnight frolic in the Tidal Basin with an Argentine show girl . It 's hard to sa

y which one showed more class . But surely , as we presume for the moment his to

tal innocence , we must admire the defiance of Rostenkowski to such sweeping cha

rges and to the power the government has in its corner . `` I will , '' he said 

, `` present a compelling case to the jury . '' Either we are going to hear a ta

le of prosecutorial folly that will curl our hair even Al D' Amato 's hair or we

 are going to be treated to the whimpering excuses of a powerful man who didn't 

, in the end , understand power . What 's most curious , I guess , even appallin

g and depressing , is that the indictment of one Chicago politician is so widely

 thought to stand between the sick people of this nation and the comprehensive ,

 universal , affordable health care which any humane society would give them . E

xplain this first and I 'll explain to you why Dan is Snow White .

 PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti Port-au-Prince is facing a health care crisis of immense

 proportions , with two out of three children suffering from malnutrition and me

dical professionals predicting the statistics will get worse as the country 's p

olitical standoff continues . `` This is a place that is on the path to destruct

ion , '' said Richard Arseneault , director of the Ship of Peter , a converted o

ceangoing yacht used as a makeshift clinic in Carrefour , on the southern outski

rts of the capital . Compared with rural sections of the country , Port-au-Princ

e and its environs have suffered a greater deterioration in health standards sin

ce the 1991 coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , medical workers say 

. That 's because the metropolitan area has relied on jobs for survival , while 

in the countryside people live largely off the land . Since the coup , more than

 100,000 residents of Port-au-Prince have lost their jobs , cutting off almost 1

 million people from their principal sources of income . In January , 66 percent

 of the children surveyed at health facilities in the Port-au-Prince area were m

alnourished , according to the United States Agency for International Developmen

t . That is a nine point leap over January 1993 , and 11 points higher than the 

comparable rate for the northwest region , historically considered the most dest

itute section of the country . A doctor at a clinic in the Cite Soleil ghetto of

 the capital said she has become all too familiar with the `` visage de petit vi

eux , '' the child with the expression of an old person . The dermatologist , wh

o asked that her name not be used , spoke as she examined 10-month-old Wilnise X

avier , whose ears were raw from a severe case of scabies and who showed signs o

f malnutrition , like dozens of others in the waiting room outside . The U.N. em

bargo against Haiti clearly bears some of the blame for the worsening health pro

file of the capital . Scores of businesses have shuttered because of the trade b

an . There is not enough fuel to pump drinking water . But social-service worker

s cite other factors : Rampant corruption and mismanagement , which has led to s

lowdowns in the deliveries of goods from the port , international aid workers ha

ve said . Shipments of food and medicine often sit for months on the docks , and

 some small health organizations have said they cannot afford huge fees that are

 demanded . Repression of the past 2 years , which has sent tens of thousands of

 Haitians into hiding or onto wooden boats heading for Florida . Families and wh

ole communities have been disrupted , and experts say they have noted an increas

e in the number of single-parent households in the capital . `` The people of Ha

iti have to fight two battles , the battle against repression and the battle aga

inst the embargo , and it 's time the international community does what it has t

o do to end both of them , '' said Dr. Reginald Boulos , director of the Centers

 for Development and Health , which operates medical and educational programs in

 Cite Soleil . Ermine Noblette , 37 , said she remembers better times . She talk

s as if speaking of the distant past , but in fact she is referring to three yea

rs ago , when prices were stable and she could afford to feed her children . `` 

Two of my children have fever and colds , and something is wrong with the baby b

ecause she hasn't been eating ( from my breast ) , '' said Noblette , mother of 

five . Noblette was interviewed early Thursday morning as she lined up outside t

he Ship of Peter , which serves as a health center for Carrefour , an impoverish

ed community of about 400,000 . The clinic sees 2,000 patients a month and is ru

n by Arseneault , a Catholic lay missionary from Quebec who lives on the vessel 

. Functioning on a bare-bones budget with financial assistance from the Canadian

 Embassy , Arseneault said he is supposed to earn $ 50 a month but since October

 , has been using that money to pay other clinic expenses , such as salaries . T

he medical needs of the community around him are daunting . Every day he and the

 14 Haitians working with him deal with dozens of cases of child malnutrition . 

They see tuberculosis , malaria and typhoid . Most of Arseneault 's prayers woul

d be answered if he had food to give his clients , who pay a dollar a visit . A 

smallish man with the wispy , white beard of a leprechaun , he said he recently 

developed anemia because of his own poor diet . `` In the case of TB , it 's not

 enough just to give them injections , '' Arseneault said . `` They have to eat 

well also . Once we were receiving biscuits from international organizations , a

nd we were able to give them biscuits three times a day . But we haven't gotten 

them in a while . '' At the Ship of Peter , as well as at the nearby Seventh Day

 Adventist Hospital pediatric clinic , the scarcity of infant milk for malnouris

hed babies is perhaps the most critical problem . A can of soy-based formula tha

t lasts three days costs about $ 3 . `` Sometimes you just have to reach into yo

ur pocket and give them the money for the milk , or their babies will die , '' s

aid Dr. Ghislaine Jean-Baptiste , director of pediatrics at the Adventist clinic

 . But even if the mother is given a can of milk , she will probably take it and

 divide it up among her other hungry children , meaning the malnourished infant 

will remain sick , Jean-Baptiste said . One of the few success stories in the wa

r against sickness and malnutrition in the capital has been the Centers for Deve

lopment and Health . As head of the Centers , Boulos oversees a string of job-tr

aining projects , health clinics and feeding centers in Cite Soleil . He applies

 U.S.-acquired management techniques to his programs and , not incidentally , ha

s been one of Haiti 's notable recipients of grants from USAID . ( Begin optiona

l trim ) Because of his ties to the United States , he has been criticized as an

 elitist who is out of touch with the community that he serves . In his defense 

, Boulos mentioned among other things to his `` mental stimulation '' program th

at has lifted formerly malnourished children to a level where they can learn and

 play like other youngsters . He pointed to a group of them dressed in bright ch

eckered clothing , as they sat in a classroom . `` These are all children who th

ree or four years ago were at the brink of d ying , '' said Boulos . `` Today th

ey can talk to you or sing to you as all normal babies do . '' Twenty miles away

 in Carrefour , Arseneault was decidedly more pessimistic . His `` health agent 

, '' Joseph Beaudelaire , sometimes bloodies his feet walking through nearby com

munities , as he visits patients to counsel them on hygiene . He would like to b

uy or rent a motor scooter for Beaudelaire but he does not have the money . `` I

t is hard , '' Beaudelaire said . `` I was about to go into one house this week 

and I heard a scream . It was a child who was crying from hunger . '' ( End opti

onal trim ) Arseneault says he sees the worst of Haiti from his boat , bodies , 

shot and dumped on the shores nearby . `` Where are you , Lord ? I sometimes ask

 , '' Arseneault said , acknowledging that Haiti often tests his faith in the po

wer of good over evil .

 When Boston 's Pioneer Group looked to establish a mutual fund in Eastern Europ

e , Poland was the logical choice . With 40 million people , it was the biggest 

nation . There were no grisly ethnic feuds within its borders . And Poles had mo

ney to invest : Pioneer estimated $ 10 billion in `` under-the-mattress '' savin

gs alone , much of it from U.S. relatives . When Pioneer looked for a fund manag

er , the choice was equally clear . Alicja Malecka was raised in the southern Po

lish town of Czestochowa known for its Black Madonna of miracles and educated in

 Warsaw and New York. . She had just begun a U.S. Treasury assignment in Poland 

. `` She had done international operations and international banking , '' said W

illiam H. Smith , president of the Pioneering Services subsidiary of Pioneer , w

ho laid the groundwork for the First Polish Trust Fund in mid-1992 . `` She was 

at the time on loan to the Polish Ministry to set up its first government bond s

ystem . And she was a Pole . '' Malecka took the job , and for just under two ye

ars has run Poland 's first , and so far its only , mutual fund . She has built 

the fund 's $ 100,000 seed money to nearly $ 1 billion in assets , and attracted

 about 500,000 Poles with a return last year alone of nearly 200 percent . It wa

s a decision that put Malecka smack in the economic swirl of a country she meant

 to leave for good in 1969 . It has given her professional challenges she once c

onsidered `` unthinkable . '' And this is just the beginning . Malecka 's next c

hallenges include a $ 75 million investment fund for Poland , and mutual funds f

or other , yet-unannounced Eastern European countries . `` I find it all unbelie

vably flabbergasting , '' Malecka said in a recent interview . `` It 's the only

 word I can come up with . '' Malecka had returned reluctantly to Poland . She s

aid she had no fascination for revisiting her roots . She had left the Central S

chool of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw four years into a five-year program ,

 she said , `` completely disenchanted with the realities and absence of opportu

nities in Poland at the time . '' But 20 years later , world events turned that 

assessment on its head . The fall of communism brought down the central economie

s of Eastern Europe . Capitalism rushed into Poland , following a pattern common

 to the newly converted economies . Rampant optimism brought inflation to match 

, reaching almost 300 percent in 1989 . Legislation has since reined that in to 

an expected 23 percent this year while the government worked to convert the mass

ive , state-owned businesses to private firms . Some Poles even started up priva

te businesses of their own . But the practical difficulties of this phase led to

 rising unemployment and falling living standards , according to Derek Brzezinsk

i , a senior consultant with the U.S. accounting firm Ernst & Young in Warsaw . 

Still , the Polish economy grew as fast or faster than any in Europe , according

 to Wlodzimierz Chodzko , commercial adviser in New York for the Polish Embassy 

. And one bright spot has been the Warsaw Stock Exchange , which stretched from 

its original five companies in 1991 to 24 as of last month . Its runup of 700 pe

rcent made it the world 's most successful market last year . Then the market sp

uttered around New Year 's , and crashed from March to April . Such dramatic gyr

ations are not unusual for new , small markets . But suddenly all those Pioneer 

ads about safety in diversification caught the Poles ' eyes : While the market f

ell 52 percent , Malecka 's fund with 10 percent overseas investments , and the 

rest spread among various Polish stocks and government bonds dropped only 6 perc

ent . `` Let 's just say we were considerably outperforming the market , '' Male

cka said . That explains why about half of her 500,000 investors have signed on 

since mid-December , she said , paying a 5.5 percent sales commission . And that

 's why Polish securities regulators welcomed Pioneer 's plans for a mutual fund

 , Chodzko said . `` They bring accumulated knowledge in something that reaches 

segments of investors who are not eager for such speculative profits as the stoc

k market , '' he said . By now , other funds reportedly are in the pipeline ther

e , and the government plans to privatize about 350 more companies this summer .

 ( Optional add end ) The expansion is important , experts say , partly because 

regulations prohibit Poles from investing overseas . Also , the tiny stock marke

t has such severely limited investment choices and in the process such inflated 

prices that Pioneer chose not even to offer a Polish mutual fund to U.S. investo

rs , Smith said . In fact , none are now sold in the United States , said Willia

m McBride , international editor for Lipper Analytical Services , which tracks t

he mutual fund industry . American investors ' best options now , McBride said ,

 are to invest in European funds that include Poland , or in companies now doing

 business in Poland . As for Pioneer 's work within Poland , McBride described t

he firm as well prepared , partly through its earlier sales within Germany . And

 he called its balanced fund approach mixing stocks with bonds a good one in an 

emerging economy , as evidenced by its strong performance through the recent mar

ket crash . Malecka said her new challenge for the fund will be to play Warsaw '

s more mature market . `` We 'll have to look to selecting stocks rather than ju

st running with the market , '' she said . `` It means more sophisticated analys

is and more time spent in managing . ''

 WASHINGTON A sleek , needle-nosed jetliner carrying 300 passengers taxis out of

 Los Angeles International Airport , rolls to a hushed takeoff over the Pacific 

Ocean , then accelerates like no commercial plane in history reaching 2.4 times 

the speed of sound nearly 12 miles above the earth . The titanium airplane with 

a cockpit that looks like a video arcade pulls into Tokyo in just over four hour

s cutting six hours off the normal trip . Getting to Asia from Los Angeles is no

 more of a hassle than a hop to Chicago . Jet-lagged international travelers hav

e been anticipating such an airplane for 20 years , since Congress halted develo

pment of a first-generation supersonic jetliner and Europe produced the rival Co

ncorde an economic flop . Advances in technology have raised hopes in the Clinto

n administration that the long-standing economic and environmental problems with

 supersonic jets can be overcome if the government puts in the seed money . With

out much fanfare given the stakes , the National Aeronautics and Space Administr

ation is poised to issue a $ 1.5 billion contract in coming weeks to a consortiu

m of every major U.S. commercial airplane and jet engine company for an ambitiou

s research program leading to a supersonic jet in regular service by 2005 . NASA

 hopes Americans would dominate the effort , though it would likely include fore

ign suppliers and investors . It 's the sort of colossal industrial project that

 would require enormous investments , carry huge technical risks and raise poten

tially serious environmental concerns . Some experts claim NASA is too optimisti

c about its ability to solve the environmental concerns . And the airlines , ree

ling from financial losses , have voiced little enthusiasm for buying new planes

 , particularly ones a decade away . But there is a huge potential payoff if the

 skeptics are wrong and the plane fulfills its promise of being far more fuel-ef

ficient than the Concorde and if it can fly without fouling the atmosphere . NAS

A touts the program as the most important industrial project in the nation 's fu

ture and says it is a key to halting the erosion of American dominance of the wo

rld aircraft industry . At stake is a potential $ 200 billion in orders for 500 

to 1,000 of the supersonic aircraft that would support roughly 140,000 manufactu

ring jobs in such areas as Southern California and Seattle , said Wesley Harris 

, NASA 's aeronautics chief . `` We have growing confidence that this plane will

 be built by 2005 by either the U.S. or the Europeans , '' he said . `` Who will

 build it ? U.S. companies must be in the driver 's seat . '' The strong advocac

y reflects a changed attitude at NASA , which for years has sponsored aircraft r

esearch that often helped foreign competitors as much as Americans and often eng

aged in academic research with little commercial value . Since the Apollo moon m

issions , NASA 's commitment to aeronautics has withered . Director Dan Goldin n

ow wants to put more emphasis on helping the U.S. aircraft industry , drawing st

rong support from Congress . Last year , lawmakers gave the supersonic program $

 10 million more than the $ 187 million requested by NASA . `` We have underfund

ed aviation research and we need to make substantial investments in this area , 

'' said Rep. George Brown , D-Calif. , chairman of the House Science , Space and

 Technology Committee . `` This program is a good thing for the nation to do . '

' Under the new supersonic program , known as the High Speed Civil Transport , N

ASA will play a central role in organizing the efforts of major U.S. aerospace c

ompanies and making the key decisions in the next four years about which technol

ogies will be used . For the first time , the archrivals of the commercial aircr

aft industry will be partners under NASA 's direction : Boeing and McDonnell Dou

glas for the jet 's airframe and General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the en

gines . By pooling America 's best talents , NASA hopes to make the major breakt

hroughs needed to make a supersonic jetliner economically viable . That task alo

ne is daunting . The program to actually develop the aircraft , including the de

tailed engineering of each of millions of parts and the building of thousands of

 production tools , would require a private-sector investment of $ 15 billion mo

re than double the cost of past jetliner developments . Even if high sales volum

e defrayed the investment expense , the planes would cost $ 180 million to $ 300

 million each . ( A Boeing 747 today costs roughly $ 150 million . ) Proponents 

argue that the high price would be offset by the aircraft 's ability to make two

 trips for every one that a subsonic plane makes . As a result , fares would be 

no more than 20 percent higher than current tickets , Boeing and McDonnell Dougl

as engineers say . `` It would make this an airplane for everybody , not just hi

gh-paying passengers , '' said Bruce Bunin , McDonnell 's manager for the progra

m in Long Beach , Calif. . Keeping costs low will also require that the plane be

 highly fuel-efficient , meaning its structure must be very lightweight , engine

s highly economical and aerodynamic drag at a minimum . Because U.S. law prohibi

ts commercial planes from creating sonic booms over land , the jets would fly su

personically only over the ocean . A failing of the 100-passenger Concorde has b

een its gross inefficiency in flying subsonically , an area where the new plane 

must excel . After Congress forbid supersonic flights over land in the 1970s , t

he market for Concordes collapsed ; fewer than 30 were built . Unlike the Concor

de , the new jet would have flaps and slats that would change the shape of the w

ing depending on the plane 's speed , allowing it to fly nearly as efficiently a

s today 's jetliners . But even if the plane can do all this , it is not clear t

hat airlines will rush to buy it . U.S. airlines have collectively lost $ 12 bil

lion in four years , and their enthusiasm for costly new planes seems tepid at b

est . American Airlines spokesman Al Becker said the supersonic jet carries high

 risk and may be too specialized for the flexible fleet his company wants . `` T